I understand what your company does but it is in no way relevant to my company.

You didn’t do any pre-work to find out about my company, what we do, our pain points, and if you could really help.

So, frankly, you were lucky to get a response in the first place. (After all, we both know you don’t get a response to 95% of this type of cold outreach!)

Want to NOT get blocked?

Do some research.

Find out about my company, what we do, why we do it, what our potential gaps are.

Find connections we have in common on LinkedIn – mention them by name, not “I noticed we have connections in common” (that’s like saying “I noticed we both breathe air”)

Get a warm introduction from a common connection.

I’ll most likely not only responding, but also take a meeting if you do that.

Someone did this two weeks ago. I took the meeting and we are now working together.

Put in the effort. It makes a huge difference in your results.

But you didn’t do that because you’re not interested in networking and using LinkedIn the right way, you just want to spray and pray. No thanks.”

I could have sent this note to 20 people in the past week.

Is anyone else getting an inordinate amount of sales pitches using incorrect data via invitations to connect? I have been inundated with them lately.

So, whoever is the “social media guru” that is teaching folks to run a search and then spam the heck out of people, or who has designed tech to do it for them like this, please stop.

Thanks,
Robert Knop
Assist You Today

You’re always to lose a big deal or two. That’s sales.

I ask sales leaders to keep the big picture in mind. Even if you lose one big deal, your team will probably close more deals overall because of the time saved not in the car or on a plane. It equals a huge boost in overall productivity.

Also, look at the bottom-line instead of top-line numbers. With the decrease in travel expenditures, the bottom-line numbers will look vastly different than before.

My company, for example, has seen expenses cut by over 50% in the past two months because I’m not travelling – huge difference!

Not saying face-to-face interaction should go away – it’s still the fastest way to develop a rapport.

However, if companies invest in coaching their teams to effectively sell virtually, the boost in productivity and bottom-line impact could be immense.

This is social media, not ANTI-SOCIAL media. To be successful with social media, you have to engage with others. If you only post content, it’s like you’re on the sidewalk shouting things through a megaphone. Eventually people will tune you out, and stop engaging with your content.

Social media is about reciprocity. Engage with the content of others 5-10x as much as you post content. This will ensure you stay top-of-mind, and your biggest advocates continue to engage with your content.

After all, why did someone post content on LinkedIn? They want engagement. They want to be validated! Give it to them – especially if that content would add value to your target audience as well.

This isn’t Instagram. You don’t get 30 likes and 5 comments every time you post a selfie.

Most content on LinkedIn gets 5 likes or less and 1 comment or less. If you consistently engage with someone’s content, they will remember you! In turn, they will engage with your content, and they will be more likely to accept your invitation to connect (and a meeting request) as well.

So don’t turn LinkedIn into anti-social media, engage with others – learn, network and grow. It’s the whole reason the platform exists!

1.  To spend more time with my family
2.  To work with a variety of exciting clients
3.  To HELP people, especially non-profits.

So, I looked back over the past year. This year we were able to:

• Work with 23 clients including 3 Fortune 500s
• Help 4 non-profits make a real difference in their communities
• Set 5 start-ups companies up for success in both the short-term and the long-term
• Give away a lot knowledge that will help a lot of people via content and speaking events

And at the same time, I was able to:

• Pick my kids up from school almost every day
• Coach my sons’ soccer team (not once, but twice – including an all-star game)
• Take family vacations (plural – you can’t do that in corporateland!)

THOSE are the things that matter to me. Thus, I’m calling this year a landslide success.

Maybe you should too.

I’m not saying rest on your laurels, but I am saying to appreciate the good times – they don’t always last for long.

And most importantly, there are more important things than revenue.

When I did work out, I loved the competition of it – even if it’s competition with myself. I loved constantly trying to beat my best time or reps (and becoming frustrated when I didn’t!)

When I ran, I used to mostly run on treadmills. I preferred treadmills to outside running because 1) I have bad knees from years of high school football and wrestling, and 2) I loved the ability to be able to see exactly how you are doing before your race is over.

On a treadmill, I can see that I’m running an 8 minute mile (too slow, pick it up!), and I know when I am on pace to beat my best time way before I actually do. I liked the instant feedback, and ability to control my own destiny before the final results were in.

Gauging success  

With many companies, especially in the B2B space, the sales process is long and arduous; it may take months or even years to see the fruits of your labor.

So, how do you know you’re on track during that race?

The traditional way is to track the number of phone calls and emails you send on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. The challenge with this method is that I’ve been in this role before. If you need to make 10 phone calls a day, and you only have 9 names, that 10^th one is going to either be made up, the pizza guy or a family member.

The new way is track success along the way is through a great tool LinkedIn created called the Social Selling Index (SSI). This Index is a combination of 4 factors that typically lead to success within social selling, which focuses more on quality than quantity.

LinkedIn originally had the SSI as a component of their premium services only, but last year, they released to everyone. My current score is above. You can see your score here. Go ahead check it, I’ll wait…

Is a high SSI a guarantee of success? Of course not, but it’s worked for a whole lot of other people to date, so there are precedents in place. LinkedIn research has shown that SSI leaders:

• Are 51% more likely to hit their quota
• Create 45% more opportunities per quarter
• Get promoted 17 months sooner

How it works

The Social Selling Index measures 4 key steps to success on a 1 to 25 scale.

• Establish your professional brand
• Find the right people
• Engage with insights
• Build relationships

For detailed descriptions on each of these, you can go here – it does a great job of explaining it.

Now, I know that some of you can’t do all these things because you work in highly regulated industries. That’s okay – as a result, maybe your target number isn’t 100, maybe it’s 60. At almost all companies, you can do parts of the SSI, but definitely check with your compliance department to see what your company’s guidelines are. All-in-all, though, it’s a great way to keep track of your progress, especially before you start generating the back-end sales numbers to show to the C-suite.

But that’s not my favorite part about the SSI…

The best part

My favorite part about the SSI is the number itself. The fact that LinkedIn realized how much people love games (Candy Crush, anyone?), and how competitive sales people are. So, they made a game out of LinkedIn!! Now, you can compare yourself to others in your team, your company, and your industry. This is genius, and a big motivator for people who like to win (like myself, and about 99% of salespeople out there)!

So check it out, see where you compare to those in your network. Get frustrated that you are not higher. Do better, and oh by the way, this will all help you be a more valuable partner for your clients, and improve your bottom line. So have fun, and start tracking your Social Selling Index today!

Key takeaways

• The LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) is a valuable tool to help gauge success
• Top SSI leaders are typically more successful
• The gamification of the SSI is a strong motivator

About the author

Robert Knop is a passionate helper of people, and Founder of Assist You Today, a company dedicated to helping companies get closer to their customers, build trust and drive sales by harnessing the power of social media. He’s always happy to talk about strategy, digital and social.

If you’d like to learn how to get closer to your customers, build trust and drive sales using social media and social selling, feel free to contact Robert at 323-972-3566, or simply complete the short form below.

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