Episode 962: How to fill your sales pipeline, with Stephen Woessner
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Good Morning Onward Nation \\u2013 I\\u2019m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and your host.
Thanks for coming back \\u2014 it\\u2019s an honor to have you here, Onward Nation \\u2014 and this episode is going to be a solocast\\u2026where it\\u2019s just you and me\\u2026taking a deep dive into a topic where I\\u2019ve been answering a lot of questions in my daily calls and meetings with business owners just like you.
In addition \\u2014 several weeks ago \\u2014 we aired Episode 936 which was my interview with Shay Rowbottom \\u2014 one of today\\u2019s foremost influencers on how to crack the LinkedIn code in order to gain more visibility and to build community.
And the feedback we received from you, Onward Nation made me think it was time to focus a solocast around LinkedIn \\u2014 but in a super specific way so that you could walk away with specific strategies and steps for filling your sales pipeline with an abundance of right fit prospects.
My thought is \\u2014 that if you and I could have that type of strategic yet tactical discussion\\u2026and we could do that in August\\u2026you\\u2019d have one more arrow in your lead gen quiver and be ready to make the remainder of 2020 as fruitful and profitable as possible.
So that\\u2019s what you and I are going to cover in this solocast\\u2026how to effectively use LinkedIn like a pro so you and your team can generate a steady stream of well-prepared prospects so that you have a full pipeline as we step into the final 4-months of the year.
Before we dig in\\u2026I want to first make sure that we have a brief discussion around expectations.
Generating leads is not hard work\\u2026in fact\\u2026it is simple work\\u2026especially when you have the right recipe to follow, which I am going to share with you in full transparency in this solocast.
But\\u2026just because the work is simple does not mean it is easy.
In fact, I can almost certainly guarantee that you or someone on your team will be frustrated at the beginning because you don\\u2019t see immediate success.
You may even pound your first on your conference room table and wonder why the results are not better \\u2014 or \\u2014 you may get upset at your sales team for what seems to be a lack of productivity.
The key is \\u2014 to get out there and start testing for yourself the recipe that I\\u2019m going to share with you in this episode.
You need to get as many at bats as you can. And if you strike out \\u2014 to realize that that\\u2019s okay \\u2014 that that\\u2019s too be expected \\u2014 and you get up, dust yourself off, and you step back into the batter\\u2019s box to get ready for another swing.
Because the more at bats you have \\u2014 the more opportunities you have to make adjustments \\u2014 to make improvements \\u2014 and to perfect your swing.
Case in point\\u2026let\\u2019s take a look at Derek Jeter\\u2026arguably the greatest New York Yankee to ever wear the pinstripes.
Jeter is a lock to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer with his long list of impressive accomplishments including five World Series Championship rings
But\\u2026what most people don\\u2019t know about Derek Jeter is that of all players in Major League Baseball history, he is number 12 on the all-time list of total strikeouts.
In fact, Jeter struck out 1,840 times during his 20-year career.
To say that another way\\u2026there have only been 11 people in the history of baseball who struck out and failed more often than Derek Jeter.
So in baseball terms, Jeter failed 1,840 times \\u2013 but yet \\u2013 he continued to get up there \\u2013 to take another at-bat \\u2013 and he kept on swinging.
And through it all \\u2013 he recorded 3,461 hits, which is 6th all time and he finished 11 of his 20 seasons with a batting average of .300 or better.
A Hall of Fame resume to be sure.
He never got up to the plate \\u2013 struck out \\u2013 and then headed back to the dugout and said, \\u201cWell, Skipper \\u2014 I guess I don\\u2019t have what it takes to play ball after all. Thanks for having me but I\\u2019m hanging up my cleats.\\u201d
To minimize your strikeouts \\u2014 I\\u2019m going to coach you through the right recipe for success\\u2026so that you not only have the ingredients you will need\\u2026but\\u2026you will also have the process so you know what ingredient to blend in and when.
That way \\u2014 all you need to do is follow the recipe and then rinse and repeat.
Sound fair?
First\\u2026some quick words as to why we love LinkedIn as much as we do\\u2026and why it should be the cornerstone of your lead gen strategy.
There are approximately 706 million LinkedIn members \\u2014 yes, 706 million.
And according to research done by Hubspot \\u2014 LinkedIn is 277% more effective than Facebook and Twitter at generating leads. And 79% of marketers see LinkedIn as a very good source of leads with 43% of marketers saying they have sourced at least one customer from LinkedIn. And B2B marketers shared with Hubspot that 80% of their social media related leads came from LinkedIn.
Next\\u2026want to guess the average number of LinkedIn connections for a CEO?
930. Interesting.
Why?
Because if 930 is the average \\u2014 some are higher \\u2014 some are lower \\u2014 but you tend not to get 930 connections by accident \\u2014 you work at it \\u2014 so if someone has 930 connections \\u2014 it is likely intentional.
Meaning, LinkedIn is a platform that he or she values \\u2014 and a place where they spend time \\u2014 that is great news for you.
Okay, next\\u2026some additional insight into why you should care about LinkedIn\\u202627 percent of all members are between the ages of 30 and 49\\u2026and another 24 percent are 50 to 64 years old\\u2026and 13 percent are over the age of 65.
So to say that another way\\u2026over 64 percent of LinkedIn members are over the age of 30\\u2026and 38 percent of total members earn $75,000 or more per year.
Bottom line\\u2026there are 706 million people on LinkedIn\\u202664 percent of them are over the age of 30\\u2026and 38 percent earn more than $75,000 per year\\u2026with the average CEO having 930 connections on the platform.
All of that speaks to your opportunity of finding and connecting with the prospects who can fill your sales pipeline, Onward Nation.
Okay \\u2014 let\\u2019s press forward by reviewing the seven ingredients within our recipe.
Our recipe for how to effectively use LinkedIn to fill your sales pipeline consists of seven core ingredients.
I\\u2019m going to share the full list with you \\u2014 and then we will go back and dissect each one.
Ingredient #1: Improve your LinkedIn profile by adding video / audio clips, value proposition, etc. to your Summary.
Ingredient #2: Import your existing email list in LinkedIn and send connection requests.
Ingredient #3: Build your prospect list using LinkedIn\\u2019s advanced lead gen tools like Sales Navigator.
Ingredient #4: Send InMail messages to your top prospects \\u2014 and be sure to speak the language of your \\u201cclient avatar.\\u201d
Okay \\u2014 let\\u2019s dive in and go tree-by-tree so you can see all of the tactical ingredients of this recipe.
Ingredient #1 is all about making sure your LinkedIn profile is not just good \\u2014 but that it is excellent \\u2014 dare I say optimized.
Why does this matter?
Because when you send InMail messages as part of Ingredient #4\\u2026the very first place your recipients \\u2014 your prospective clients will go to learn more about you \\u2014 is your LinkedIn profile.
And if your profile is sparsely populated with value propositions, your connections count is low, you haven\\u2019t taken the time to include a quality profile picture, you have zero recommendations, etc. \\u2014 then it looks like you don\\u2019t care.
And if you look like you don\\u2019t care \\u2014 they won\\u2019t either \\u2014 and they won\\u2019t respond to you.
Maybe your InMail was just spam \\u2014 you are ignored \\u2014 and they move on.
Or, if you take the time to include audio and video clips, Slide Shares of recent presentations you delivered, links to articles you have written recently, blog posts, recommendations from current clients \\u2014 it not only takes advantage of all the profile building tools that LinkedIn provides you \\u2014 but \\u2014 you also visually demonstrate your thought leaderships and expertise to your prospective clients \\u2014 and that is a very good thing.
Now when they receive your InMail message as part of Ingredient #4 \\u2014 they move from skeptical questions like \\u201cWhy did she send me this?\\u201d to \\u201cOh, interesting\\u2026they would like to talk with me? Awesome.\\u201d
Think of your LinkedIn profile as your personal landing page and it needs to be excellent \\u2014 just like everything else in your business.
And \\u2014 at Predictive ROI \\u2014 my team and I have been experimenting with long-form LinkedIn posts\\u2026typically about 800 to 1,000 characters\\u2026with a bold headline that includes a search term\\u2026and we have seen Google indexing this content and ranking well in search results.
So \\u2014 you\\u2019ve undoubtedly heard people talk about \\u201coptimizing\\u201d your LinkedIn profile for search\\u2026yep, it\\u2019s a thing.
Okay \\u2014 this is going to sound self promotional\\u2026and hopefully you know me well enough now to know\\u2026that I\\u2019m only mentioning this to give you a good tangible example.
Go to LinkedIn and look me up \\u2014 send me a connection request\\u2026and you will see illustrations of each step I just shared with you.
Now on to Ingredient #2 \\u2014 import your existing email list into LinkedIn and send connection requests.
To make sure we\\u2019re on the same page here \\u2014 I\\u2019m talking about taking your email list \\u2014 the list you communicate with often \\u2014 consisting of customers, prospects, your full community of email subscribers \\u2014 people with whom you have a relationship \\u2014 and then uploading that list into your LinkedIn account and inviting them to connect with you on LinkedIn.
But why?
First\\u2026when you increase your number of LinkedIn connections \\u2014 your network and credibility grows. Instead of having several hundred connections \\u2014 you move to several thousand or more.
And the next time a prospective client checks out your LinkedIn profile \\u2014 they may see the larger number \\u2014 and for some people \\u2014 the larger the number \\u2014 the more impressive and more credible.
Second\\u2026your number of 1st-degree connections in LinkedIn impacts the number of prospects you will be able to see during Ingredient #3 of this process \\u2014 when you use LinkedIn\\u2019s Sales Navigator tool.
To cement this into place \\u2014 let\\u2019s quickly review what LinkedIn defines as 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
A 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn is \\u2014 let\\u2019s say you are listening to this solocast \\u2014 you like what you hear \\u2014 and decide to send me a connection request on LinkedIn \\u2014 and by the way \\u2014 you should totally do that!
Anyway \\u2014 when I receive the request \\u2014 I personally accept it.
And so you and I become 1st-degree connections. Rock solid awesome!
Now, here\\u2019s what\\u2019s interesting. My nearly 27,000 1st degree connections instantly become your 2nd-degree connections. And all of my 2nd-degree connections become your 3rd-degree connections.
Again, why is that important?
Well, back to my connections\\u2026my 26,000 1st connections theoretically extrapolates out to a total network of 680 million people when considering 1st degree, 2nd degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
Yes, 680 million\\u2026which means I can roughly see just about everyone in LinkedIn.
HOLY BANANAS!
I can search through a huge number of people during Ingredient #3 in finding our ideal prospects we might want to reach out to.
So, Onward Nation, building your number of 1st-degree connections is essential to your success on LinkedIn \\u2014 and uploading your email list and sending out connection requests is a quick and easy way to boost your connection count \\u2014 and the size of your network \\u2014 with a couple mouse clicks.
Very powerful.
Here\\u2019s how you complete the step. And unfortunately, LinkedIn does not make this process very intuitive or easy. But \\u2014 hang with me\\u2026here\\u2019s how you do it.
Click the \\u201cMy Network\\u201d tab in the main navigation. You will then be taken to a screen that on the left side reads \\u201cConnections\\u201d at the top left column all the way down to \\u201cHashtags\\u201d as the last open in the left menu.
Click on the first option\\u2026\\u201dConnections.\\u201d
From this screen \\u2014 this is where it gets wonky.
On the far left\\u2026you should see an option that reads\\u2026\\xa0\\u201cYour contact import is ready. Connect with your contacts and never lose touch.\\u201d
And you should see a button underneath that reads \\u201cConnect\\u201d.
Click connect.
Next you will be taken to a screen that shows a list of a whole bunch of people from your contact list, etc. that are on LinkedIn\\u2026and LinkedIn is offering to send a bulk connect request to them.
Click the little check box in the upper left \\u2014 and then the blue \\u201cAdd Connections\\u201d button and by doing so \\u2014 you will invite hundreds if not thousands of new people into your network.
Awesome\\u2026but we\\u2019re not done yet.
The next screen will give you a list of people who you know who are not yet using LinkedIn\\u2026and LinkedIn is asking you for permission to email them on your behalf to entice them to join LinkedIn.
To me \\u2014 that feels a bit yucky \\u2014 so I recommend that you click the \\u201cSkip\\u201d button.
Okay \\u2014 then finally\\u2026we have almost arrived to what I actually wanted to show you.
When you skip the last step\\u2026you will receive a screen with a headline that reads, \\u201cDidn\\u2019t see anyone you wanted to invite?\\u201d
Well \\u2014 at the bottom\\u2026in hard to read gray text\\u2026is a link that reads \\u201cDone for now.\\u201d
And when you click the \\u201cDone for Now\\u201d link\\u2026the magic happens.
You will be taken to a screen where you can do several things\\u2026you can connect LinkedIn to your email service and it will pull out your list of contacts for you\\u2026awesome.
Or \\u2014 from this screen\\u2026you can also upload your email list and send connection requests to all of them instantly.
BOOM!
Okay, back to lead gen and Ingredient #3: How to build your prospect list using LinkedIn\\u2019s Sales Navigator Tool.
Sales Navigator is a premium version of LinkedIn \\u2014 but and my guess this happens to you a lot, too \\u2014 I am often offered the opportunity to upgrade from the Free version of LinkedIn into one of the premium versions several times of year.
And when we have a major biz dev push or campaign taking place \\u2014 we definitely make the upgrade. But for maintaining your profile and sharing your thought leadership content \\u2014 LinkedIn\\u2019s free version works just fine.
So let\\u2019s do a quick tour of Sales Navigator.
From within this powerful tool\\u2026you will be able to search through your entire network of connections using several powerful filters, such as:
- Keywords
- First Name
- Last Name
- Title
- Company Name
- Location \\u2014 or mile radius from your office or location
And then you can take it deeper and make your searches more refined by including your prospect\\u2019s years of experience, their function within their particular company, seniority level, what they are interested in, company size, and so forth.
By taking the time to get specific about your prospect \\u2014 you leverage LinkedIn\\u2019s database \\u2014 to deliver back to you a list of prospects who match your criteria and you eliminate the time wasting of sending direct mail to a purchased list and hoping for a better result outcome than the last campaign.
So let\\u2019s say that in your first attempt \\u2014 LinkedIn returns a list of 100 people.
You can then click on the profiles of each person (see \\u2014 Ingredient #1 is really important) and from their profile \\u2014 you can better determine if he or she is a good fit for your lead gen efforts.
If yes, add the person and their details to an Excel or Google Sheet so you can keep a running list of who you have reached out to\\u2026and no\\u2026LinkedIn does not offer any sort of automated CRM functionality.
This is tedious work \\u2014 I get it \\u2014 but \\u2014 it is also where the rubber meets the road in the success of your business and it will fill your sales pipeline.
Okay, so I\\u2019m going to assume you did all of the work you needed to do up to this point. You have built a solid profile \\u2014 you expanded your LinkedIn network by leveraging your email list \\u2014 and being smart \\u2014 to also reverse the process and cross-pollinate your connections back into your email list\\u2026and now\\u2026you have mastered the Advanced People Search tool with the resulting outcome being \\u2014 a highly targeted prospect list \\u2014 perhaps the most targeted list you and your sales team have ever had.
So now what?
Ingredient #4 is next.
Crafting your InMail message and sending it to each of the people on the list you just created.
There are seven sub-ingredients, if you will, that make up the InMail message\\u2026and they are:
- Include the first name of the recipient in subject line
- Your first 255 critical characters need to be awesome
- Speak to your \\u201cAvatar\\u201d
- Include credibility indicator(s)
- Include a client testimonial
- Include a call-to-action \\u2013 reason for your prospect to reply to your message
- Include your email signature
In today\\u2019s show notes \\u2014 I included an actual InMail message \\u2014 a template \\u2014 you can use to create your own.
Please use it.
My Predictive ROI team has sent thousands and thousands and thousands of InMail messages on behalf of our client\\u2019s lead gen efforts \\u2014 as well as for our biz dev \\u2014 and the template we included in today\\u2019s Show Notes is the resulting outcome of all that testing and hard work.
You will dramatically shorten your learning curve by using the template.
One last point about the InMail and the template you will see in the Show Notes \\u2014 there is a reference to \\u201cspeaking to your client avatar.\\u201d And yes, we have a recipe for that, too.
If you go to our free Resources Library at\\xa0PredictiveROI.com/Resources\\xa0you will be able to download our free workbook on how to create your ideal client avatar.
Having and mastering this knowledge is a must in writing effective InMails.
Before we close out for today\\u2026I\\u2019d like to leave you with a couple of important thoughts.
Now that you have learned the recipe \\u2013 and have seen the typical result outcomes \\u2013 there are two questions you and your team need to answer.
First\\u2026how will we take immediate action based on what you learned here today?
How will you apply it right away to fill your pipeline?
And that leads to the ultimate question.
Are you committed\\u2026or are you just interested in having a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your sales pipeline?
Being committed means knowing exactly how much new business you are seeking, from what sources, and having a strategy in place to fill the pipeline to get it.
Let me share a quick story about Coach Nick Saban from the University of Alabama \\u2013 who, in my opinion, represents the epitome of being committed.
Alabama is consistently one of the top-ranked teams in college football each year. They were the 2015 National Champion and played again this year for the title but lost to Clemson.
Coach Saban\\u2019s reputation is one of precise detail and process.
And once he uncovers a \\u201crecipe\\u201d for success\\u2026he uses it over and over again.
But he also freely shares his secrets without fear that his competitors will be able to duplicate his results.
How is this possible?
Case in point\\u2026my good friend, mentor, and three-time guest on Onward Nation, Don Yaeger, interviewed Coach Saban as they considered writing a book together.
During one of Don\\u2019s visits with Coach, he asked if there was a secret formula or recipe that gave Saban an edge to recruiting the best talent out of high school year-after-year.
Coach told Don that his recipe is simple. He committed himself to watching every single play that any of their 85 scholarship athletes every played while in high school.
Every play\\u2026so he could evaluate talent, effort, and other qualities.
Let\\u2019s just think about the magnitude of that for a minute.
Alabama has 85 scholarship athletes\\u2026who likely played at least 2-years of high school football\\u2026at 10 games per year in high school\\u2026and many high school players play both offense and defense during a game, so let\\u2019s call it 100 plays per game.
All totaled, Coach Saban watches film on 170,000 plays to make his recruiting decisions.
It is an overwhelming number, right?
How could anyone do that? But Coach Saban does.
And the resulting outcome is that Alabama is consistently the best on the field each year.
So Don asked him, \\u201cCoach\\u2026aren\\u2019t you worried that if we put your secret recipe into this book that people will steal it from you?\\u201d
And Saban looked at Don and said, \\u201cNope\\u2026not worried at all. Because no one is going to be willing to put in the same amount of effort that I am willing to commit to our success.\\u201d
Don\\u2019t give up
So my hope is that you don\\u2019t leave this solocast thinking \\u2013 yeah, I knew LinkedIn could do that. My challenge to you is\\u2026but is your business doing it?
And as Tony Robbins says\\u2026\\u201cA real decision is measured by the fact that you\\u2019ve taken a new action. If there\\u2019s no action, you haven\\u2019t truly decided.\\u201d
So I hope you will decide to put this sales pipeline-building recipe into action and then please drop me a line and let me know about your success.
So with that said, Onward Nation\\u2026
I want to say again, thank you for taking the time to be here with me today. It is an honor to have you here \\u2014 your time is sacred and I am delighted you chose this episode to be what you listen to, study, and take with you on your morning run, or maybe Onward Nation has become part of your daily commute, or in some other way has become part of your morning routine.
However our daily podcast fits into your daily routine \\u2014 I want you to know how much I appreciate you sharing some of your invaluable 86,400 seconds you have in your day with me and the strategies we learn and share each day from today\\u2019s top business owners.
Remember \\u2014 now\\u2019s the time to double down. The data is on your side.
Onward with gusto!
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