LinkedIn is inundated with connection requests that seem genuine at first, but quickly turn into the dreaded “pitch slap”. To help you up your LinkedIn outreach, we’re featuring a skilled seller who excels at creating connections. He’s a sales savant who has been recognized as a 2022 LinkedIn top voice in Sales and 2x Top Salesforce Influencer. Welcome to the show, Founder and Host of The Sales Evangelist Podcast, Founder and The Chief Sales Evangelist at The Sales Evangelist, Donald C Kelly!

Donald joins Host Tim Harris to give sellers a masterclass in creating connections. Donald shares his “connect, share, and engage” tactic, the value of community, how to make the most of LinkedIn, and how to listen to what your buyers are really saying.

Takeaways:

• As a seller, having a good community is crucial. When you have challenges, or problems you need solved, your community can be there to lend a helping hand. Being part of a strong community creates better connections, leading to more deals.
• LinkedIn is a strong sales tool, but only if you use it properly. Pitches in the dms won’t get you far, but posting quality content will. If you can post content that is helpful, and relevant to your buyer’s problems, they’ll end up reaching out to you for help.
• To make LinkedIn work for you, you need to have the right connections. Aim to have 25%-50% of your connections fit within your ICP. If you need to get to that zone, focus on sending a few connections to high quality fits, rather than making it a numbers game.
• Once you’re sharing and connecting, the last crucial strategy on LinkedIn is engaging. Be sure to interact with other peoples posts, and when your target ICPs interact with your posts, use that as an opportunity to reach out.
• As a startup, spray and pray is great if you want to keep your sales team busy, but it comes at the cost of your brand feeling “spammy”. Instead of focusing on numbers, focus on getting quality results through meaningful outreach activities.
• Good sales reps need good training, but without the proper motivation, the best training in the world won't get you anywhere. Sales leaders need to provide external motivation, and help reps discover their own internal motivators.
• The most important soft skill sellers need is listening, and knowing how to read between the lines. If a buyer tells you they need a solution installed, look for other aspects of what they are saying. By listening for those hidden cues, you can quickly learn more.

Quote of the Show:

• “I would rather my team feel engaged and feel they’re finding progress rather than feeling defeated and not seeing any results.” - Donald C Kelly

Links:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DonaldCKelly
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donaldckelly/
• Website: https://thesalesevangelist.com/
• Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sales-evangelist/id788738885

Ways to Tune In:

• Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b2b-eq/id1672326834
• Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1T2zlqNsSYATzXFPH1DquY
• Google Podcast - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mYXN0Lndpc3RpYS5jb20vY2hhbm5lbHMvajRuNnNjYmc2Ni9yc3M