In my 27 years in the office technology industry, there have been numerous changes — from thermal-paper faxing to plain-paper faxing,

from analog to digital and, lastly, the birth of the Internet, just to name a few. These technology changes have played an integral part in how the in-dustry has evolved.

As technology continues to change, the sales process and tools we use have seen massive chang-es too. In my opinion, LinkedIn has impacted the sales profession like no other piece of technology or software.

LinkedIn was founded in 2003 as a business social net-working site for people who were into professional devel-opment and were looking for a new way of doing business. LinkedIn has evolved from a site where sales professionals could post their résumés online, to a networking and rela-tionship management site.

I was introduced to LinkedIn in 2009. Without any hesita-tion I registered and logged in to start building my profile. The light bulb in my head immediately brightened. I said to myself, “What an incredible concept. This site allows me to build out and share my story without it costing me anything.”

I spent countless hours dissecting every aspect of Linked-In. I was determined to figure out how to leverage the plat-form to be a benefit. From that point forward, my sales ca-reer took a huge leap forward. I soon found out LinkedIn was a great way to showcase and promote myself. I could share what I was all about and how I could help my clients. In essence, I was building my personal brand.

I love the personal relationship-building aspect of sales. Based on building these personal business relationships, I uncovered the secret power behind LinkedIn. I was rapidly connecting with key influencers and decision makers — the same people who were ignoring my voicemail and email mes-sages. I still used the phone and sent out emails, but my calls and emails took on a whole new meaning. These were warm calls based on relationships I was building with my LinkedIn connections. LinkedIn became my new best business friend.

Fast forward to late 2013. After more than 25 years on the

dealer side, I made a business decision to move to the direct side. I took a position with a well-known OEM in Los Angeles. This was a net-new sales posi-tion within the corporate major account team. The fact that I had a zero account base did not bother me; I knew LinkedIn was my best business friend.

During my first 90 days, I built my relationship funnel. I strongly believe in order to have a healthy sales funnel, you have to engage and commit to building up your relationship funnel. From my

relationship funnel, I started to convert these relationships into net-new meetings. These net-new meetings took on an entirely different meaning, as I already had developed the personal connections on LinkedIn.

This is where it gets crazy. Are you sitting down? I leveraged these LinkedIn relationships to bring in more than $600,000 of net-new business in conjunction with $1.25 million in sales revenue in calendar year 2014. I directly attribute 50 percent of my sales revenue to how I leveraged LinkedIn. LinkedIn became the core of my prospecting strategy and success.

LinkedIn allows us to not only share our professional ac-colades, but also learn about new opportunities, companies and the people we want to be connected with. LinkedIn pro-vides the sales professional a tool to create his (or her) own website to promote his personal brand and story.

The Changing Buying ProcessOver the past 10 to 12 years, we have seen a dramatic

transformation in the buyer’s journey. More dramatic changes have occurred in recent years. Buyers are in control of when and how they access information during the sales process. According to Sales Benchmark Index, today, the buyer is 69 percent of the way through his journey before he contacts a salesperson.

If the executive buyer is 69 percent of the way through his journey before he contacts a salesperson, then as sales profes-sionals, we must place and position ourselves in the world in which the executive buyer is now living. Adapting to social selling platforms such as LinkedIn allows sales professionals

The Power of LinkedIn How it has revolutionized my sales results

by: Larry Levine, Dealer Marketing

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to gain the attention of the new buyer in a competitive market. Social selling is the method by which salespeople identify prospects, nurture them, share relevant information and generate a sales pipeline. Again, I like to refer to this pipeline as the relationship funnel. Forrester reports that 100 percent of B2B decision-makers are on social media for business purposes.

Traditional prospecting methods of cold-calling, email and telephone have become highly ineffective. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, 90 percent of decision makers never an-swer a cold call. These methods have become turn-offs for potential buyers and executives. Today, executives are most likely to engage with salespeople who understand their role, company and industry.

Effective use of LinkedIn allows a salesperson to build his professional image, tell his story and generate awareness in the highly competitive sales environment. In many cases, LinkedIn is still being used as a résumé showcase or a self-promotion site to tout sales accolades. Why is this? In my opinion, it all starts with getting out of our comfort zones to learn new methods of engaging with business professionals. Change is difficult — especially for adults. As the executive buyer is changing, so should we as salespeople.

Creating Sales MasteryLinkedIn provides the foundation to create sales mas-

tery. With that in mind, here are three questions to consider when reviewing your current LinkedIn profile: Does my cur-rent profile establish trust? Does it build credibility? Does it eliminate risk?

Your LinkedIn page is your professional profile to the busi-ness world. Are you seen as a subject-matter expert? How are you positioning yourself as a thought leader? You are creating your personal brand via what you promote within LinkedIn, which has become the largest use of a database in the world.

How are you promoting your professional image with your LinkedIn profile? It all starts with your professional headline. This is not a position or your job title. Along with your name, your professional headline travels with you everywhere you go on LinkedIn. In every comment, every published post and every group discussion, your headline follows you. You have seconds to bring someone in who, in turn, will spend time canvassing your LinkedIn page. With 120 precious words, you have to promote value, create your call to action and compel the visitor to continue reading your profile.

How are you storytelling with your LinkedIn profile? After drawing executives in with your headline, pay close attention to the summary section. In 2,000 words or less,

this is your story. A great read is Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Ac-tion.” You can use the summary section of this book to develop your “why.” That is, why would someone do business with you? Additionally, what does he get when he engages with you? What makes you who you are? This is your personal storytelling time. Draw your visitor in by sharing what he can expect

by engaging with you, along with your unique promise of value. Folks, this is the game-changer section. In his book, Sinek states: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.”

How are you generating awareness and attracting execu-tives to your LinkedIn profile?

According to recent studies by Salesforce.com, 73 percent of salespeople who use social selling outperformed their peers. Likewise, there is 66 percent greater quota attain-ment for sales reps using social selling.

With a completely optimized LinkedIn profile you are now ready to nurture, grow and build those relationships. Here are seven steps to incorporate to generate awareness:

(1) Develop relevant content and ideas to share.(2) Share this content with your social network to help

start conversations.(3) Look at who has been reviewing your profile.(4) Convert these people to first-level connections.(5) Review your content engagement section for com-

ments on your posts.(6) Mine your network by reviewing your second-level

connections.(7) Block out time to make this a daily habit.LinkedIn is about building relationships. Be authen-

tic, add value, listen, build trust and be yourself. Today, salespeople must position themselves to be viewed as go-to resources for thought leadership and industry news. By incorporating LinkedIn, I firmly believe you will have less competition for the executive buyer’s attention, you will cre-ate a positive personal brand image and you will position yourself as a subject-matter expert. Most importantly, you will consistently keep the sales funnel full of prospects. nLarry Levine is the social sales strategist for Dealer Marketing. He coaches MFP sales professionals by helping

them tell their stories on LinkedIn and provides marketing services to help independent office technology dealerships thrive in a

changing marketplace. Levine can be reached at llevine@dealermarketing.net.

Visit www.dealermarketing.net.

Your LinkedIn page is your professional profile to the business world ... You are creating your personal brand via what you promote within LinkedIn ...

w w w. o f f i c e t e c h n o l o g y m a g. c o m | M a y 2 0 1 5