You have a Personal Brand on Social, what next?

You have a Personal Brand on Social, what next?

Congratulations on that LinkedIn Profile

Congratulations, you have been on the course, you are all set up on Twitter and LinkedIn. That LinkedIn profile has been tweaked and tweaked and you are pretty sure its “Buyer centric”.

You have worked out how to find (curate) and maybe you have even had a go creating your own content.

This means you are a social seller, all you have to sit back and ……. What do you think happens?

Social Selling First Principles 

Let’s go back to first principles, why did we turn our LinkedIn profile, a CV to attract recruiters into a buyer centric profile to attract buyers?

Buyers are going online and using social in “ignore salespeople mode” to do research for good and services. What happens if they get wise to what salespeople do? And they bypass Buyer Centric Profiles?  Or maybe you have one of those profiles that look like a "salespeople that have been on a LinkedIn course" type profile?  Came across a sales team last week that had a LinkedIn training course the three months before and they said "it was nothing like the course we gave at my company Digital Leadership Associates (DLA)".  I'm not surprised, their profiles looked like sales people that had been on a LinkedIn course, rather than a Social Selling course, which we at DLS deliver.

With digital and social the world has changed and keeps changing, and with that sales people and Social Selling keeps changing.  If your LinkedIn profile is not giving you inbound, you are doing it wrong!

So what do you do next? - Build a Community

As part of your selling activity you need to build a community. This is no different that what you have done off-line to manage a territory, but you need to do this on-line. What do I mean?

If for example, you sell into the Manufacturing space, you will have built up an understanding of the market and be passionate about it.  In my sales territory I know everything that goes on, and I know everybody.  You should be able to talk to your prospects and customers about the latest and greatest. What do you think about 3D Printing? Do you see Augmented Reality applicable in your areas? These may not impact on what you are selling, but it shows you have a point of view and gains you more market knowledge and insight.  The person people want to know.

Who in Your Community is a Mover and Shaker?

As you prospect in the accounts you will understand whom the “movers and shakers” are, let’s call them influencers. These people maybe academics, consultants, customers and prospects.  Connect with them and build relationships with them.  You should already do this off-line, but now you can do this, and at scale, online.

You will also know people in your customers; you will also have made contact with people within your competitors.  Connect with them on-line.

Everything I’ve written above can all be created and completed off-line. It was how I sold in the 1990s and still sell today. But ....

Fast-forward to the digital age and that all can replicated on-line, or put it another way. With your customers and prospects being online, it is a bit pointless you working with your Rolodex in offline mode.  Be a community builder!

A Buyer Centric LinkedIn Profile is Passive Social Selling, Time to up Your Game!

As part of personal branding, building a community and influence is paramount. It is more likely to generate for you the inbound requests, you want from buyers as you hack the buying process.

In my book, Social Selling, I discuss in practical steps how salespeople can own their Territory and build influence and community, locking the competition out. Play your cards right and like a moth to a light, the moment a prospect hits your online community they will be drawn to your commanding position.

Want to know how to sell to the modern, connected buyer?

If you're interested in a blueprint to help you in your move to digital and social then I recommend my book.  “Social Selling - Techniques to Influence Buyers and Changemakers”.  Written in a workbook style, it's designed to help you implement a digital and Social strategy across Sales and Marketing. 

To order follow this link to Amazon there is also a Kindle, eBook version.

About the Author

Tim Hughes is co-founder of Digital Leadership Associates a company that provides support and guidance in all areas of Social Selling.  He has been called "an innovator and pioneer" of Social Selling and in the recent Onalytica list of the most influential Social Sellers globally, Tim was named as number 1.

Tim can be contacted on Twitter @timothy_hughes where he has some 150,000 followers or tim@digitalleadershipassociates.com - You can find him at his blog The Social Selling Network

Digital Leadership Associates 

Digital Leadership Associates is a consultancy to help companies move to digital and social.  Set up by Social Media guru and bestselling social media author, Adam Gray@agsocialmedia and myself.  DLA provides advice and guidance to companies, given by actual Social practitioners, that is people with actual experience in social media, social and digital transformations. Check out our website or contact me at tim@digitalleadershipassociates.com

Jon Flynn

Data & AI Nerd | Author | Microsoft

7y

Tim, great work as usual. You are fast becoming my daily go to!

Like
Reply

thoughtfully written. Smart strategies. Book is next.. looking forward to it...

Cloris Kylie

I help consultants and coaches build authority and get ideal clients by collaborating with influential people in their industry

7y

Thank you, Timothy (Tim) Hughes. So interesting how a small change in our approach can produce a huge shift in the kind of relationship we have with potential clients!

Mike Garrison

Life is better with a Guide. Special Needs Parent and Fanatic Fly Fisherman. Helping business owners love their business and their life.

7y

The key thin for me from this is: Buyer Centric profile and content. So much of my career has been determined by a quest to 'listen like a customer' and to see you bring that to print has been, in a word, transformative. Like when I saw The Matrix for the first time and 'saw' my favorite books from my childhood brought to life. Thank you Timothy (Tim) Hughes

Gary Santino

Chairman at Swans Flight Ltd

7y

I have placed my review of your seminal work on Amazon.

To view or add a comment, sign in

Insights from the community

Explore topics