In this Expert Insight Interview, Nik Eberl discusses the power of reciprocation and how you can build strategic relationships on LinkedIn that turn clients into clients for life. Nik Eberl is the co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at The DealMaker System.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The rise of spamming on LinkedIn
• How to stand out from the crowd
• How to earn the right to connect with a prospect

LinkedIn Fever

Over the last couple of years, particularly during the pandemic, LinkedIn has gone a little crazy. Everybody is on the platform prospecting and spamming, but how can salespeople rise above that and still use the business social network as a strategic tool without getting lumped in with everyone else.

Engagement has more than doubled since the pandemic started, and decision-makers are bombarded. Your competitors are on LinkedIn, and so are your clients, and you have to earn the right to connect before you even start to pitch. That’s what the new LinkedIn algorithm is all about.

Reciprocation

You have to build rapport before you start selling. The beauty of LinkedIn is that it has many touchpoints that allow you to build rapport before you even ask for the connection. This is where reciprocation comes into play.

What happens a lot nowadays is that people write you a nice little note requesting your connection. It all sounds reasonable until you click on it and get an immediate automated email with a sales pitch. What salespeople need to understand is that they need to be authentic.

Building Rapport

If you want to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you first need to learn about them and view their profile. You need to follow them, engage with their content, and make sure it resonates with you. It would be best if you made sure to like their content and comment on it — that is how you stand out and get noticed.

Posting a meaningful comment on someone’s content almost guarantees that they will pay attention to your connection request and accompanying message because you’ve earned the right to connect with them. However, the process doesn’t end there. You also need to tell the prospect why you’re connecting with them, and more importantly, why they should accept your request.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Kevin Urrutia discusses social media advertising in a B2B context. Kevin Urrutia is the founder of Voy Media, a performance-based, full-service agency that does a lot of work in social media advertising.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Why do many B2B companies struggle to leverage social media
• The power of being authentic as a company leader
• The generational and cultural changes in business

Corporate Identity on Social Media

Many B2B companies still struggle with how to leverage social media, advertise there, and make social media work for them overall. This is mainly because many people still have a “scattergun” approach to this marketing channel.

Another thing that companies struggle with a lot is that when they go to social media, they’re not sure what type of personality they should project. Sometimes they try to adapt to a platform too aggressively, creating a conflict between the company’s identity and what it is trying to achieve on social media.

Being Authentic

Especially in leadership positions, people are used to being an arm’s length removed and usually steer clear from being too up close and personal in their social media outings. Many companies understandably struggle with this as a choice needs to be made between being corporate and being authentic.

This issue is less pronounced with younger leaders as the new generation of B2B entrepreneurs seems not to have a problem being vocal on social media and leaning their entire brand on their personality.

Cultural and Generational Changes

Business culture has changed in many ways to be more open to flatter organizations where ideas can come from various places because nobody can keep up with everything. Many companies fail to keep up with these changes in culture and the changing behavior of their customers.

Sometimes B2B sales professionals look at how customers behaved five, ten, or even fifteen years ago, and they don’t seem to account for the many cultural and generational changes happening in various business areas.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Dr. Nadia Brown discusses why courage is a critical sales quality we need. Dr. Nadia Brown is the founder of The Doyenne Agency, a global sales, and sales training company.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The importance of courage in sales
• How it has never been more challenging to get the prospects’ attention
• Acknowledging the things that you can control

Fear of Rejection

Courage is the willingness to move despite fear and concerns. Sales conversations can bring up worries about rejection, so having the courage to put yourself out there is a necessary sales skill.

A lot of people default into sales as a career. Now, this is being increasingly addressed with sales courses in universities, but once upon a time, most people who studied marketing ended up in sales as their first job, so it is not uncommon for young salespeople to come into the profession unprepared which is particularly scary.

Celebrating Your Courage

We feel that we are busier than we’ve ever been, or more distracted at the very least, so when a salesperson calls, the last thing that we want to do is talk to them. It has never been more difficult to get somebody’s attention, so the rejection rate has increased considerably in recent years.

So, how do you find the courage and resilience to keep going when the going gets tough? One thing you can do is celebrate the fact that you dared to put yourself out there in the first place.

Focusing on What You Can Control

Sometimes, there’s so much pressure for sales professionals to get the “yes,” close the deal, and move things forward that we don’t take the time to celebrate or acknowledge the fact that we did our part. We can’t control if and when our clients say yes; we would all be billionaires if we could.

What we can control are our actions and decisions to put ourselves out there, so sales professionals should take the time to pause and take a moment to acknowledge the things that they can control, rather than focusing on things they cannot control.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Dan Gingiss discusses his latest book, The Experience Maker: How to Create Remarkable Experiences that Your Customers Can’t Wait to Share. Dan Gingiss is an international keynote speaker and customer experience coach.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Dan Gingiss’s latest book, The Experience Maker
• The way salespeople forget about the value of the customer experience
• Why the customer experience makes a difference in this day and age

The Experience Maker

Dan Gingiss’s latest book, The Experience Maker, is a collection of customer-experience stories that he has collected over the years. The stories come from 20 years of professional experience in corporate America, talking to many companies, researching them, and simply paying attention as a consumer.

When you pay attention and actually look for parts of the experience that stand out, there are many great things to learn. Dan hopes that the examples he presents in the book will inspire every business to start making their experience a little more memorable.

Strange Case of Amnesia

When people cross over the threshold and become a vendor or a company, they tend to forget about what it is like to be a consumer. They put the experience of being a customer behind them and begin to do everything wrong. It is almost like a strange case of amnesia.

The same person that appreciates a really fine dinner at a restaurant with excellent service and a terrific atmosphere then goes to work the next day and treats their customer like an account number.

Do Unto Others

If you look back at what you like as a customer and how you want to be treated, and you think about the brands that you are most loyal to, generally, they will be the ones that treat you the best. The old saying “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is very applicable to the customer experience.

There’s a perception that most products and services are commoditized nowadays. This means that the experience is the key differentiator between the companies you tend to do business with and those you abandon. Sometimes that even means you’re willing to pay more although the product is of equal quality.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Brandon Wilson discusses his book Sabotage: Leadership that Overcomes Betrayal, Theft, and Deceit. Brandon Wilson is one of the world’s most sought-after communication experts and executive consultants. He has helped leaders at some of the most influential companies realize daring pursuits, from building college campuses to addressing global wealth disparity.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• Leadership sabotage and where it comes from
• How to stay true to yourself despite the obstacles
• The power of curating a positive self-identity

Leadership Sabotage

Many leaders go through challenges and bouts of what is often referred to as “leadership sabotage.” The core of the challenge stems from the fact that it is not talked about enough, perhaps due to a sense of embarrassment for being betrayed or having your reputation assassinated. Having someone steal from you or lie to you and get away with it can be deeply embarrassing.

Brandon Wilson believes that all leaders should think about, plan for, and execute something bold and audacious several times a year. If you can achieve some of these things, they may end up having a legacy-defining impact.

Integrity

Sometimes doing the right thing seems like the longer route to success, and we’re often surrounded by people who seem to be doing the wrong thing, but it seems to be working for them, which can be very frustrating. It looks like no good deed goes unpunished, and all the bad deeds get rewarded.

That said, one of the most potent weapons against leadership sabotage, and even self-sabotage, is the courage to have integrity. Although that sounds simple, it isn’t easy to do because it requires you to challenge the status quo.

Positive Self-Identity

There are many things out there trying to stop us that we can’t change, but many of us also sabotage ourselves. To stop doing this, each of us needs to curate a positive self-identity. You need to see yourself as a winner, as somebody who can overcome any obstacle, and as somebody who does what they think is right regardless of the barriers they face.

If you truly decide to live your life with integrity and act according to your beliefs, you have to be prepared to be lonely as well.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Grant Leboff joins hosts John Golden & Martha Neumeister to talk about Lessons from the pandemic for B2B sales and marketing leaders.

Join host John Golden as he chats with Grant Leboff about the changes the pandemic has forced upon Sales & Marketing. These include changes in messaging, as well as a greater imperative for Sales & Marketing alignment – plus learn how virtual selling has opened up more opportunities for efficiency, scale, and reach.

The 30 minutes you spend with us live on YouTube could be your greatest investment this year!

Recorded Live – 14th October at 9am PT

EPISODE QUESTIONS:

Q1: What are the lessons that B2B Businesses Learned from the Pandemic?

Q2: Is digitization the ONLY way ahead?

Q3: How B2B marketing leaders can help their organizations and teams succeed in a pandemic?

Our Guest

Grant Leboff

Grant is the CEO of Sticky Marketing Club, a sales and marketing consultancy providing companies with the strategies to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. He is a highly sought-after consultant and speaker, and constantly makes presentations at conferences and events all over the world.

Links › Sticky Marketing Club | LinkedIn.com | Twitter

Our Hosts

John Golden

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

Martha Neumeister

Martha is a social media strategist, responsible for all social media platforms of Pipeliner CRM. She is a communication expert with social media affinity, which she has been focusing on throughout her professional career. She has a bachelor´s degree in Entrepreneurship & Management and a master´s degree in Online Marketing which supports her in her career as Social Media Strategist.

About SalesChats

SalesChats is a fast-paced (no more than 30 minutes) multi-media series that provides leading strategies, tactics and thinking for sales professionals worldwide. It can be found on Twitter (#SalesChats), as a live Google+ Hangout, and as a podcast available on iTunes, SoundCloud and right here on SalesPOP! If you think you would make a great guest for #SalesChats, please contact co-host Martha Neumeister.

SalesChats is co-hosted by John Golden, CSO Pipeliner CRM, and Martha Neumeister, Social Media Strategist Pipeliner CRM.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Bill McCormick discusses how to be an authentic social seller. Bill McCormick is the CSO of Social Sales Link. He is passionate about taking what he’s learned and really help people leverage social selling and LinkedIn to build stronger relationships.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The history of LinkedIn and how it became a widespread marketing channel
• How the “connect and pitch” came to be
• Why being authentic is vital in today’s sales world

Rise of the Connect and Pitch

A few things happened with LinkedIn throughout the pandemic. It has gained much traction over the past couple of years, as it did when the global financial crisis hit in 2008. Back then, everyone was getting on LinkedIn because they had suddenly found themselves out of a job, while today, it is increasingly used as a sales spamming tool.

With the suboptimal social behavior exhibited by many salespeople the world over, the importance of authenticity has gone up, and authentic social sellers can stand out from the crowd.

Natural Progression

Although somewhat sad, the situation social selling finds itself in is not surprising. Bill McCormick calls it a result of a “natural progression.” Back in the 70s and 80s, telemarketers figured out that they could reach people on the phone and sell them things. Then, caller ID became available, and the number of people receiving calls from unknown numbers significantly declined.

During the 2000s, sales teams widely used email, as it allowed them to reach out to vast pools of people with just a few clicks. Once the pandemic hit, and salespeople could no longer meet prospects face to face, they realized that they could use social platforms such as LinkedIn to connect with potential customers and started utilizing this option.

Being Authentic

Being an authentic social seller means slowing down your outreach to speed up your outcome. It means reaching out to far fewer people but having sales conversations with more of the people you reach out to.

Also, if you are truly authentic, the people that you don’t end up engaging in a sales conversation right away are less likely to write you off forever. Instead, they will consider you a credible source whenever they do need a similar product or service in the future.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.

In this Expert Insight Interview, Ann Bennett discusses liberating your rebel spirit and raking in the revenue. Ann Bennett runs Renegade Branding. She’s a marketing expert, public speaker, author and helps entrepreneurs and small businesses with their branding.

This Expert Insight Interview discusses:

• The meaning of the phrase “renegade branding”
• Humans’ fascination with each other and the power of authenticity
• The four ‘iconic’ personality types and how each one fits into the puzzle

Renegade Branding

Renegade branding is about how you discover your ‘wow’ factor and adapt it to your personality style. It is about figuring out how much you want to magnify your personality in your business life to get what you deserve online and offline and instantly connect with other people.

There are almost 3 billion websites out there, and most of us see dozens, if not hundreds, of marketing messages in our inboxes every day. We tend to ignore most of these messages unless their subject lines are particularly interesting. Renegade branding helps you break through the fog.

You Are More Interesting Than You Think

As human beings, we are so fascinated with each other. Even if you think you’re not particularly interesting, there’s a part of you that sets you apart from other people, even if it is just 1% of your personality.

People crave more authenticity and genuine connection than ever because we’ve recently been through a hyper-technical revolution where everything has been automated, and people have disappeared into the background. Renegade branding is all about bringing out that authentic person within you.

Four ‘Iconic’ Personality Types

Ann Bennett separates people’s personalities into four ‘iconic styles’ that she feels everybody falls into. These help people see what makes them fascinating. The four personalities are as follows:

• Nurturer
• Disruptor
• Innovator
• Geek

All of these have different characteristics and different things they bring to the table.

Our Host

John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.