LinkedIn is mainly about your network, not about you. Here are some key things you may or may not have considered, but that you should as sellers…
1.) Many of you don’t plan to retire any time soon. LinkedIn is not just for the now. When you do it right, you will build relationships for the future that can pay untold dividends. Case in point: Tricendent recently conducted an executive search for a company that was seeking a new SVP of Sales. The person we found was through LI…a gentleman I had worked with briefly 13 years go who was a 2nd level connection. I won’t bore you with the economics of headhunting, but this connection was literally worth tens of thousands of dollars to my company.
2.) Updates keep you in the know of what people are doing. When you have an extensive network, LinkedIn can serve as a pulse of what is going on with your contacts. Most people have their setting set so that when you are in their network, you will see when they have new titles / education, when they add new connections, when they are taking trips, when they make new Twitter entries, etc. This is invaluable information for you as you run your business. Just think about the competitive G2 you can gain by seeing when competitive account managers are making connections with your people, etc.
3.) One of the ongoing challenges is building relationships with a broad enough base of people in your accounts. Finding specific people in general organizations and figuring out how to talk to them through a warm intro from your network is a fantastic benefit of an extensive network. Anyone you have talked to or emailed at all at any of your accounts or your partners is a good opportunity to connect with via LinkedIn.
4.) This is absolutely key. You need to be a contributor, not just a taker. This applies to business in general as well as life. However, if you go looking for what you can get only from your network, you are missing the boat. I regularly take the time to peruse my network and just reach out and say hello, congratulate people on promotions, offer help with something they are seeking, etc. When you do this, not only does it show character, but it builds up a battery of goodwill so that when you do need something, and we all do at some point, you have a give and take relationship with people…not all take.
These are just a few things to keep in mind, and just on LinkedIn. There is a huge amount of advantage to be gained from Twitter and other tools. We’ll save that for now.
Are you having success as an account manager in using LinkedIn to develop your territory…share it...
