As sales people, we typically have a plethora of “stuff” we want our prospects to know about our products and services – but rarely do we take the time to find out what they want to know.
I see this every single day on LinkedIn… sales people spinning their wheels, wasting precious time and burning through prospects… and they don’t even know why it isn’t working! It is most-likely because they haven’t given their prospects any reason to care about them.
Here are 3 major mistakes many sales professionals make when social selling:
The first thing your prospect reads is your headline and it says Account Manger or Business Development Professional. The last thing they want to do is have a conversation with someone who is going to try to sell them something. Your headline is a great opportunity to let your prospects know the value that you will bring them. Why you are worth having a phone call.
If you are lucky enough to get them to your summary you start with what you are passionate about…really? Or worse, you begin with how many years you have been in your industry. Although this information may help them decide if they want to ultimately hire you, it does not get them to want to talk with you now. Offer some insights or education, get them thinking about their current situation and recognizing that you have solutions that might help them. Once you have brought them value, ask for the phone call – they will be excited to take your call.
You sent them a cold message telling them all about how you help people like them. This is not the way to build relationships. Here is a better way to engage – find out what matters to them, look at content they share, influencers they follow, posts they like; then find an article related to what they care about and send that to them with a little note: As an entrepreneur in the website development industry, I thought this article LINK HERE would be of interest. I would love to hear your feedback and if you found it helpful.
Make sure you are always looking at your activity from your prospects perspective…because that is all they care about.
