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INTRODUCTION

‘The reality is there are many decision makers out there who HATE cold‐calls and will never answer them. LinkedIn is the key to reaching them’.

I'm going to start this book with a quick story….

Not long ago I sat down with the CEO of a global multi‐million manufacturing company. As with all companies, to make money they have to spend money.

They have a whole host of suppliers and are often on the lookout for new suppliers. They need suppliers for components they use for their products, the copiers they have in their offices, the stationery they use, software, the list goes on.

The CEO of this company was often the target for salespeople trying to win their business. The majority of businesses that I've worked with, or met over my career, have one sales prospecting activity at the heart of their strategy, cold‐calling.

As you can imagine, this CEO received lots of cold calls to the reception each and every day. They were salespeople from a wide variety of companies and industries trying to sell a wide range of products and services.

UNFORTUNATELY, MOST OF THOSE SALESPEOPLE FAILED

Most of them never even managed to speak to this CEO.

Why is that, you ask?

Because this CEO NEVER answered cold calls. Ever.

It was not an approach they appreciated, and they had instructed the entire team to never connect a cold call through to them. The seriousness in the way they told me this, echoed by the response from the team, made me realise how true this was.

In all fairness this wasn't the first time I had heard a CEO, or C‐Level decision maker, say this.

Many of them are nearly impossible to reach, many of them are not a fan of an unsolicited phone call from some salesperson trying desperately to sell them something.

WHY DO YOU THINK COLD‐CALLING HAS AN AVERAGE SUCCESS RATE OF 2%?

Why do so many companies and sales teams still insist on this being the main activity for prospecting?

For a long time, this has been one of the only ways you can reach prospective customers. Until now.

BACK TO THIS STORY…

After telling me that they never, ever answer cold calls, they did admit something.

Every day, first thing in the morning between 06:00–08:00, they would spend time browsing LinkedIn, reading content, engaging with content and replying to messages. They would also spend an hour or so in the afternoon doing the same.

This is when they then told me that most of their new suppliers had come from LinkedIn.

This CEO is not alone here. There are decision makers all across the world who are more likely to talk to you and buy from you if you leverage LinkedIn correctly. They just simply prefer engaging with new salespeople and suppliers through digital and social means. They enjoy reading good content and finding good companies to work with as a result. They enjoy following key personal brands within their sector and building relationships with new suppliers from there. They enjoy researching through social media, looking at recommendations, viewing profiles to get to know salespeople and companies. This is their preference.

Whether you like it or not, whether you agree with it or not, it doesn't matter! This is the way sales is now.

For the majority of salespeople, YOUR prospects and customers are using LinkedIn, and if they're not using it now, there is a very high chance they will be using it in the very near future.

The question you need to ask yourself is…

WHY AREN'T YOU?

If you are, the next question is: Are you using it properly? Are you really using it to its full potential?

Out of all of the salespeople that I meet at companies large and small who do use LinkedIn as part of their sales strategy, most aren't using it properly or to its full potential.

Even the self‐proclaimed LinkedIn gurus or team LinkedIn experts only tend to be realising around 40–50% of its real potential.

I've worked with companies that have spent money training their teams on LinkedIn, hiring external trainers, and yet they're still barely scratching the surface.

A global company that I worked with recently said this after one of my training sessions:

‘We were generating millions in sales directly from LinkedIn; it contributed to around 70% of our total yearly sales revenue. Yet, after Daniel's training we realise we were only scratching the surface’.

This book is designed to help salespeople of all levels learn how to turn LinkedIn into a functioning sales tool. It covers everything from your LinkedIn profile and your personal brand, to searching, connecting, messaging, content and so much more.

There is only one more question you need to answer before buying and reading this book…

Are your customers on LinkedIn?

If they are, then this book will help you leverage LinkedIn to its full potential.

If they are not using LinkedIn, then perhaps LinkedIn isn't a tool that you need to use right now. The only other question you need to think about is, are they likely to use LinkedIn in the future?

LINKEDIN/SOCIAL SELLING STATISTICS

I'm going to share with you some Social Selling statistics that have been gathered from around the world to help show you just how powerful LinkedIn and social selling is, and how you can start to use it to your advantage.

Now, we all know that statistics only represent a percentage of reality; however, they provide a very unique insight into some of the common themes and trends in the industry.

1 90% of decision makers NEVER answer a cold call, but 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make purchasing decisions – LinkedIn

2 82% of prospects can be reached ‘socially’ via online networks – Inside View

3 84% of C‐level and VP‐level buyers use social media for purchasing – IDC

4 IBM increased their sales by 400% thanks to their inbound social selling programme – HubSpot

5 78% of salespeople using social media perform better than their peers – Smart Insights

6 Sales teams who embrace social experience report 18% more pipeline (volume) and 28% velocity increase – IDC

7 Salespeople leveraging social selling experience 31% higher ROI than those who stick to traditional tactics – HubSpot

8 90% of top sales professionals report that they use social selling tools – LinkedIn

9 31% of B2B professionals say that social selling allowed them to build deeper relationships with their clients – Inside View

10 Social sellers gain 57% higher ROI from social selling vs 23% using traditional (cold‐calling, call lists, etc.) – Sales for Life

11 98% of sales reps with more than 5,000 LinkedIn connections meet or surpass their quota – Sales Benchmark Index

12 77% of B2B purchasers said that they would not even speak to a salesperson until they had done their own research – LinkedIn

13 Companies with consistent social selling processes are 40% more likely to hit revenue goals than non–social sellers – Sales for Life

14 81% of buyers are more likely to engage with a strong, professional brand – LinkedIn

15 62% of employees at large companies agreed that social selling enables them to build stronger, more authentic relationships with customers and prospects – IDC

16 93% of sales executives have not received any formal training on social selling – Laine

The reality is simple: LinkedIn and social selling are a key part of sales now and the salespeople and sales teams that are using them are ahead of the curve.

This book will help you understand how to get more from LinkedIn; the key is to not only read it, but APPLY it.