The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Everyone is telling salespeople to start doing things on LinkedIn, and they’re right. But first you need to stop doing a few things. Here are three things you should stop doing on LinkedIn:

I think I’m starting to understand the value of Twitter. For the week ending November 8^th, I had 56 total views, picked up 21 new followers, and five of my tweets were favorited by people in my network. It’s a big increase, from even just one month prior. The week ending October 5^th, I had 11 total views and 12 new followers (no favorites).

We've spent a fair amount of time recently on this blog talking about your best accounts... the ones you should be spending the most time with. One way to do so, we've suggested, is to fire your crappy accounts

What a great week! There are some great gems from our writers here, and wonderful news from around the web. Read on!

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Greg Giersch asked if salespeople really needed a personal brand.

• Tuesday, Matt Sunshine asked if we were really using our sales superpowers, and reminded us exactly what sales superpowers are.

Would you rather play on a championship team or be with a team of sales champions?

Is it okay if I use the word "crappy" here? Good.

It seems the push for individuals to have a personal brand is becoming the new black. It’s the cool thing to do. The message is that everyone, including salespeople, need a brand just like a big company or a pop star. Who’s got time for that? Sure, becoming the expert, the blogger, the “thought leader” in your industry sounds like a great idea. But it also sounds like an insurmountable goal. So why bother?

Does everyone need to become a thought leader?

First, don’t let me discourage you. Many of you, let’s say 2 in 10, are already running down the Personal Brand path, and it won’t be long before you are a thought leader in your field. If you are not one of those swimming in social media enthusiasm, what can you do to compete?  

First, focus just on your LinkedIn profile. Here’s why:

What a great week! There are some great gems from our writers here, and wonderful news from around the web. Read on!

The Center for Sales Strategy Weekly Wrap-Up

• Monday, Jim Hopes asked when we'd be replaced by a computer. Sobering thought.

• Tuesday, Mike Anderson told us about the realities of prepping for a needs analysis conversation today.

"Who are you, and why should I care?" 

That simple question is at the crux of the challenge salespeople face when prospecting. The advice used to be to perfect your elevator pitch. Today we don’t meet prospects on elevators; we meet them online. And specifically, the great business-oriented platform for meeting people is LinkedIn. So what you need to perfect now is your online personal branding. That's your LinkedIn presence.

Truly professional salespeople have long known that it is foolish to squander valuable needs analysis time asking questions that could have been answered by scouring the target account’s website and other conveniently available sources. Years in business, origin of the company, number of locations—and other very fundamental information—can be easily found on most client websites. Spending any meeting time on these issues—aside from kindly acknowledging the organization’s heritage—is not only a waste of time, it can be taken as an insult by the prospect. It signals that you did not find this meeting worth diligent preparation.