The Center for Sales Strategy Blog

Social selling. It’s not just an industry buzzword. It’s a legitimate technique that salespeople should use to build and maintain relationships within a social network that a salesperson and their customers already trust.

I just got off the phone with Debbie. I had to pass along the story she related to me.

My friend Nancy mentioned recently that she was finding it difficult to source good candidates for a particular position she had open in her company. So she decided to ask her social network if they knew anyone who might be a good fit. (Here at The Center for Sales Strategy, we think asking your social network is a smart idea in most cases.)

Building your personal brand often begins with describing yourself. Yet this is often the hardest part for people. To say “I am this” or “I am that” can be a struggle. We can describe most everyone else, but many of us fall mute when it comes time to talk about ourselves.

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:

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:

"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.

A while back, there was an entertaining story about a tour bus in Iceland that had pulled over so passengers could inspect a volcano field. One of the passengers stepped into a nearby restroom to freshen up and change into clean clothes. Upon her return, she found the rest of the passengers frantically looking for a woman that had gone missing. She joined in the search, of course, but neither she nor the other tourists could find the lady matching the description of the person who had wandered off.