I'm not sure about you, but I get connection requests everyday from people that will promise what seems to be an unbelievable offer ..... they will create you leads.

It sounds convincing, why wouldn't you want more leads?

There are many risks in this, that you need to take into account.

1. Your Linkedin profile, like you bank account is yours.  If like me, you have built an asset over a number of years, would you really hand this over to a stranger to manage?

Are you aware that for Linkedin, giving access to your Linkedin profile is illegal and they will close you down if they find out?

There is no way they will re-open the Linkedin account for you, it's gone ...... forever.

2. Are you really sure that the person you are working with is legit?  There are a number of chatbots on LinkedIn, can you detect a chatbot?

There is a growing campaign to put a . (full stop) before your name or an emoji before your name. As the chatbot won't detect this.  So if you put an emoji before your name and start getting connect request "to emoji" then you know it's a chat bot.

My name is Timothy "Tim", so I know that anybody who addresses me like that is a chatbot.

3. Digital understanding

One of the reasons why I do my own social, is that I gain a digital understanding.

It seems like a great short cut ..... here we are as a leader or a sales team with analogue methods, so we get somebody into run our accounts.  It's like a silver bullet. Or is it?

An analogue sales team is still an analogue sales team.

Social selling isn't just about bombarding people with connection requests and hoping you will get a response.

Just like using a mobile phone, using word are all skills we would expect to have, so is using social and using it throughout the sales process. 

It's like losing weight by getting somebody to go to the gym for you.

4. Bombarding people with Linkedin connections is not social selling.

The old way of selling is through interruption ... advertising, cold calling and email marketing is all about interruption.

Social selling is about permission and relationship.

Sending connection requests, is no more than cold calling on a social network.  It's nothing more than spam.

Does your business (and you as it's your LinkedIn profile) really want to be known as a spammer?

Social selling requires you to have a buyer centric profile, to grow a network (not contacts) and to create content.

If you pay people to send connection requests this is not authentic and as I mention above spammy.

Social selling is a process and a methodology that is used throughout the sales process.  From prospecting to accelerating people through the pipeline, to closing.

To give you a benchmark, people using our social selling methodology should be able to gain an additional 30% of revenue and reduce the sales cycle by 40%.  Is social selling selling provider offering you that? 

We Know We Want To Get To Social ....

A CEO told one of my team this week "we know something is wrong, we know the answer is social, but we don't know how to get there ..."

You don't get to social by having people write your LinkedIn profile or having people run your LinkedIn profile or having the one hour masterclass ...... you get to social by going on a journey yourself.  Social does not invalidate your sales skills today, quite the opposite, it enhances them, but social does require a mindset change and a habit change.

I want to get fit and lose weight, going to the Gym for a day is no use, or getting somebody to go to the Gym for me is also no use.  I have to go to the gym 3 times a week and change my diet ..... for ever.

We run social selling programs that are both training in terms of being classroom based.  They also provide coaching through one-to-one sessions.

The group session make sure the concepts are covered, but as everybody learns at their own speed the confidential one-to-ones brings everybody along.

We would expect salespeople to have a 30% increase in sales and a 40% reduction in sales cycle.

Why not have a chat with one of the DLA ignite team?

I can be contacted here

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/