I talk a lot on my blog about things you should be doing every day to get more leads and more customers using LinkedIn. I dig deep into the essentials you need to understand to be successful on LinkedIn but I have never went into detail about one of the most important concepts when it comes to LinkedIn marketing and social selling which is understanding social selling triggers.
Your prospects are doing things EVERY DAY to help you sell to them! Following a proven LinkedIn sales system will help you generate significant revenue, but paying attention to what your prospects are doing and saying can help you really amplify your results.
Social selling triggers = the incredibly valuable information your prospects are inadvertently sending you every day. And they could add up to more leads, more customer and more profits for your business.
To fully take advantage of social selling triggers you have to understand what they are and how they can impact your business. Let’s dig into those essentials, then I’ll move into the piéce de résistance – how YOU can convert those triggers events into more and better prospects into your sales funnel.
What are social selling triggers?
Social selling triggers are literally actions on social media that illuminate a potential opportunity. In other words, they’re the breadcrumbs left for you on social (in particular, LinkedIn) that either identify solid prospects who are either genuinely interested in your product or services or help to open the door to establish or enhance a relationship with someone in your target market.
Here’s a list of some social selling triggers that are available to you on LinkedIn:
- Profile views
- You receive an invitation to connect
- Someone accepts your invitation to connect
- Change to a connection’s profile (eg. new job/position, changes to photo or summary, etc)
- Noteworthy event/milestone (eg. job anniversary, birthday, etc)
- A connection is mentioned in the news
- Engagement on one of your posts or updates (eg. comment, like, share)
- Engagement on another persons posts or updates (eg. comment, like, share)
- A connection has shared a great article or published a strong Pulse post
- A connection has posted or engaged within a group post
- A connection has endorsed you for a skill (or has written a recommendation)
- Whenever someone RECOMMENDS you
- You receive an InMail or message from a shared group member
- Prompts from LinkedIn’s “People You May Know”
Remember, LinkedIn is a social network, so when connections are taking actions like the Social Selling Triggers mentioned above, they are inherently being social and providing opportunities for you to engage with them. Most LinkedIn users barely notice these social selling triggers. Or maybe they notice them, smile and move on with their cold calling. YOU are different. YOU are going to take what you learn today and start leveraging social selling triggers to help generate more revenue on LinkedIn!
Why is listening on social media important?
Traditional sales methods like cold calling focus on contacting the customer when the time is right for YOU. You’re hoping that your message is compelling enough after you’ve disrupted your prospects’ days to call them that they fall over themselves to buy from you.
Traditional cold calling is an exercise in futility. Make enough calls and you’ll get sales – that’s what we’re taught right? And to a certain degree it’s true. But with the amount and depth of information available to us today, there’s simply NO REASON to continue selling this way. Hammering prospects with cold calls and the wrong information at the wrong time (or maybe the right information at the wrong time) makes a bad first impression that may seal your fate.
Instead of reaching the most people with the information that’s important to you. Today’s most successful salespeople focus on reaching the RIGHT people with the most RELEVANT information to them at the BEST time.
Not all leads are going to be ready to buy (of course – don’t we all wish!), but paying attention to social selling triggers and reaching out to ADD VALUE can kick start your sales process, enter a warm lead into your funnel and establish trust and thought leadership with your connections.
Social listening goes beyond monitoring replies and shares (although they’re important to) to find the trends and nuances within LinkedIn (and social media) data that are essentially begging you to follow up. Capitalize on this data and you are on the path to sales superstardom. Which leads me to the part of this post you’ve all been waiting for…
How you convert social selling triggers into leads.
So, you understand why social listening is important and you’ve got your list of social selling triggers (HINT: Download your PDF Social Selling Triggers bonus sheet and hang it in your cubicle so you never miss another critical piece of LinkedIn data!) — now what?
Below is an example of a social selling trigger that happened recently on LinkedIn when I shared a blog post “How to Find Your Exact Customer Avatar on LinkedIn.” You can see that Carl, a 2nd level connection of mine, took the time to write a very detailed response. This is a perfect example of a social selling trigger that could lead to a new relationship and even a potential client or fan.
Here are 4 tips to turn social selling triggers into leads:
1. Be responsive. Waiting a week or two to thank someone for commenting on your status update and that lead could already be with your competition. Build 10 minutes into your day where you focus solely on identifying and following up on social selling triggers.
2. Take action. It’s not enough to simply be aware of social selling triggers – these are prompts to take action! When someone shares or comments on your post, thank them. Then go above and beyond to add more value. Perhaps it’s sharing another relevant link, maybe it’s answering a question or continuing the conversation. Keep adding value.
3. Don’t miss opportunities to expand your network. One of the most untapped social selling triggers in the list above is engagements from 2nd and 3rd level connections. Don’t just follow up with a ‘thank you’ on these engagements – get them into your sales funnel. These individuals have sought out and engaged with YOU – take advantage! After following up as mentioned in the previous point, send a follow up connection request thanking the person for their engagement and suggesting there’s some mutual value in connecting. (PRO TIP: I will be providing sample connection request messages and other messaging templates when in my Linked Academy course which will be launching soon.
4. ALWAYS use a LinkedIn sales system. “One and done” does not lead to a predictable source of leads or customer on LinkedIn. While you may make a positive impression with your responses, you need a system to continually nurture that lead and ultimately take the conversation offline. I’ll repeat: One-off engagements on LinkedIn are NOT ENOUGH to generate REAL revenue. I generated over $20 million in revenue through my own LinkedIn sales system. I’ve tested, refined and implemented it many times over, and it took my business and my income into an entirely different level.
If you’re tired of making endless cold calls and are serious about generating real revenue on LinkedIn, a PROVEN LinkedIn sales system is the way to do it. Don’t forget to connect with me on LinkedIn > www.linkedin.com/in/askdennisbrown
Cheers,
Dennis Brown
“Stop the madness. There’s a better way!”
LinkedIn Marketing & Social Selling Consultant, Trainer, Speaker
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