The New Way Buyers Are Researching Your Solution | Donald Kelly - 1719

11/07/23 • 16 min

"Are you tired of your sales outreach falling flat and not getting the results you want? Well, you're not alone.

Many sales reps miss out on a crucial aspect of their customers' buying behavior. In this episode of the Sales Evangelist podcast, host Donald C. Kelly emphasizes the importance of utilizing LinkedIn as a tool for generating sales opportunities and engaging with prospects.

He highlights recent buyer behavior trends and provides insights on overcoming common challenges faced by sales professionals on LinkedIn. Listen to this week’s episode of the TSE podcast to hear a powerful strategy to maximize its potential.

Recognizing the Potential of LinkedIn

Many sales representatives acknowledge being present on LinkedIn for years without seeing significant business results.
Donald acknowledges the frustration and attributes the lack of effectiveness to a failure in properly utilizing the platform.
He encourages listeners to acknowledge that their prospects are active on LinkedIn and proposes that engagement is key to success.

Being an Active Participant

Donald points out that a common mistake on LinkedIn is observing and not actively participating.
He urges sales professionals to break free from being wallflowers and actively engage with their network.
Donald reveals the core strategy: posting at least one piece of content on LinkedIn every week.

Overcoming Excuses and Finding Topics

Donald dismisses the argument of lacking time as an excuse for not posting.
He underscores that investing 15 minutes in creating a post is manageable for those actively pursuing new leads.
To counter the issue of not knowing what to post about, Donald suggests reflecting on objections received during prospect conversations.
He advises addressing objections in a post, giving practical examples to illustrate how to do it effectively.

Tailoring Content to Address Objections

Donald emphasizes the need to provide compelling reasons in response to objections.
He advises sales professionals to dig deeper into objections to uncover the underlying concerns.
Using a hypothetical scenario of selling a CRM to a prospect with an existing internal solution, Donald illustrates how to approach objections effectively.
By addressing the deeper reasons behind objections, sales professionals can debunk misconceptions and provide compelling reasons for prospects to consider their solution.

Donald highlights the significant potential of LinkedIn as a platform for sales professionals to engage with prospects and generate new business opportunities. The key to overcoming common challenges and creating meaningful connections is to participate actively and consistently post relevant content.

Addressing objections in a compelling manner allows sales professionals to build trust and convert prospects into customers. Implementing these strategies on LinkedIn can yield remarkable results in expanding the sales pipeline and increasing close rates.

“I talked about this several places, but the data is also proving it because most of the buyers are tired of searching and clicking. What they're doing, however, is that they want to find stuff where they are. And the study has shown that 44% of buyers have said they are discovering new software and products via social media.” - Donald Kelly.

Resources

Donald C. Kelly on LinkedIn

Sponsorship Offers

This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.

With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.

2. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.

3. This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.

Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.

Credits

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey

"Are you tired of your sales outreach falling flat and not getting the results you want? Well, you're not alone.

Recognizing the Potential of LinkedIn

Many sales representatives acknowledge being present on LinkedIn for years without seeing significant business results.
Donald acknowledges the frustration and attributes the lack of effectiveness to a failure in properly utilizing the platform.
He encourages listeners to acknowledge that their prospects are active on LinkedIn and proposes that engagement is key to success.

Being an Active Participant

Donald points out that a common mistake on LinkedIn is observing and not actively participating.
He urges sales professionals to break free from being wallflowers and actively engage with their network.
Donald reveals the core strategy: posting at least one piece of content on LinkedIn every week.

Overcoming Excuses and Finding Topics

Donald dismisses the argument of lacking time as an excuse for not posting.
He underscores that investing 15 minutes in creating a post is manageable for those actively pursuing new leads.
To counter the issue of not knowing what to post about, Donald suggests reflecting on objections received during prospect conversations.
He advises addressing objections in a post, giving practical examples to illustrate how to do it effectively.

Tailoring Content to Address Objections

Donald emphasizes the need to provide compelling reasons in response to objections.
He advises sales professionals to dig deeper into objections to uncover the underlying concerns.
Using a hypothetical scenario of selling a CRM to a prospect with an existing internal solution, Donald illustrates how to approach objections effectively.
By addressing the deeper reasons behind objections, sales professionals can debunk misconceptions and provide compelling reasons for prospects to consider their solution.

Resources

Donald C. Kelly on LinkedIn

Sponsorship Offers

This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.

With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.

2. This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.

3. This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.

Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.

Credits

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey

Previous Episode

Internal Buy-In - The Sale Before The Sales | Carlos Oquendo Jr - 1718

Did you know that you can close a deal before the actual sales process?

Say what? That doesn’t make any sense.

Actually, it does. But for it to make sense, you must listen to this week’s episode of the TES podcast. In this episode, host Donald welcomes Carlos, a Dynamics and Business Application Specialist at Microsoft, to discuss the importance of internal buy-in for sales reps.

Carlos shares his insights and experiences in navigating large organizations and building strong relationships with internal partners. He highlights the significance of trust and effective communication in securing warm leads and closing deals successfully.

Carlos' Role at Microsoft

Carlos briefly explains his role as a dynamics and business application specialist at Microsoft, specifically focusing on the banking vertical.
In this position, Carlos collaborates with large banks to help solve operational and sales force issues using Microsoft's CRM tools and local platform.
He expresses his excitement and passion for his work at Microsoft and emphasizes the value he brings to the table through his expertise.

Understanding the Power of Internal Buy-In

Carlos emphasizes the significance of internal buy-in for sales reps. He highlights how sales professionals often struggle to realize the power of gaining support within the buyer's organization before closing a deal.
Carlos admits that he faced similar challenges when he started as a young sales rep, and he acknowledges that many others are still trying to figure out this process.

The Significance of Internal Partnerships

Drawing from his 15 years of experience in various sales roles, Carlos emphasizes the importance of building alliances with internal partners.
As a specialist, Carlos is not the primary point of contact with customers. However, he realizes the significant impact of warm leads generated through strong relationships with internal partners in increasing the probability of closing deals successfully.
Carlos shares an example from his early days as a field sales rep at Bank of America, where he developed a fruitful partnership with a financial center manager. This partnership allowed Carlos to enhance his lead generation efforts and create a successful sales pipeline.
Trust, timeliness, and follow-through were key factors in building and sustaining such partnerships.

Success through Building Trust

Carlos explains how trust was pivotal in his relationship-building efforts with internal partners. By approaching his partnerships with humility and a genuine willingness to meet expectations, Carlos established a solid foundation for trust.
Through consistent communication, timely responses to leads, and transparent follow-ups, Carlos ensured that the internal partners were informed and involved in the entire sales process.
Carlos demonstrated his commitment to delivering value by prioritizing customer satisfaction, providing efficient service, and demonstrating integrity. His success in nurturing these partnerships led to multiple achievements, such as recognition in the Platinum Clubs at Bank of America.

Carlos emphasizes the significance of internal buy-in and the impact it can have on sales success. He encourages sales reps to prioritize building relationships with internal partners, being reliable, and displaying integrity throughout the sales process. Sales professionals can navigate large organizations and increase their chances of success by cultivating trust and delivering value.

"I learned quickly in my first sales role that I need to become friends with my customers. I'm sure everybody will agree a warm lead where there's a relationship with the customer is a lot better than a cold lead." - Carlos Oquendo Jr.

Resources

Carlos Oquendo Jr. on LinkedIn

Sponsorship Offers

This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.

With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.

This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.

Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointmen...

Next Episode

The Number 1 Reason Prospecting on LinkedIn Is Not Working! | Donald Kelly - 1720

In this episode of the Sales Evangelist podcast, host Donald C. Kelly dives deep into the number one reason why prospecting on LinkedIn may not be working for you and, most importantly, how to fix it. Kelly breaks down the common challenges sales professionals face and offers practical steps to enhance prospecting efforts on LinkedIn.

Understanding the Problem

Kelly opens the episode by addressing the frustration of salespeople not receiving responses or appointments through LinkedIn.
He attributes this challenge to the focal point of prospecting efforts - the people being targeted.

Focusing on the Right Accounts

The podcast outlines the importance of targeting accounts more inclined to purchase, emphasizing the concept of foresight in understanding buyer behavior.
Kelly suggests analyzing past successful deals to identify commonalities among the organizations, individuals, or industry trends, effectively creating a target account list based on these insights.

Leveraging Relationship Explorer

Kelly highlights the value of using LinkedIn's Relationship Explorer feature to identify shared connections with targeted individuals within an organization.
This approach enables sales professionals to establish more meaningful and genuine connections, increasing the likelihood of engagement.

Embracing Foresight

The episode stresses the significance of discerning potential buying signals, such as job changes within the target organization.
Kelly underscores that people who have recently changed roles are more likely to be open to making purchasing decisions, making them prime prospects for outreach.

Harnessing Alerts for Actionable Insights

Kelly advises the strategic use of LinkedIn's alerts feature, which provides timely updates on the target accounts, including job changes, content sharing, and hiring activities.
This empowers sales professionals with actionable insights to engage with the right prospects on time.

Personalizing Connection Requests

Kelly emphasizes the importance of crafting personalized connection requests based on the information gathered from LinkedIn.
By referencing shared experiences, posts, or geographical similarities, sales professionals can significantly increase the chances of accepting their requests.

Unlocking the Power of Warm Introductions

The podcast emphasizes the potency of leveraging warm introductions, as individuals are more receptive to engaging with connections recommended or referred by mutual contacts.
Kelly advocates using this approach to establish credibility and rapport with target prospects.

Donald reinforces the significance of targeting the proper accounts on LinkedIn and leveraging foresight to drive effective prospecting outcomes. The episode delivers actionable insights and practical steps for sales professionals aiming to enhance their prospecting efforts on LinkedIn.

“Those warm introductions are just like money. It is the bread and butter for LinkedIn because people have a higher chance of doing things with people recommended or referred to them.” - Donald Kelly.

Resources

Donald C. Kelly on LinkedIn

Sponsorship Offers

This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot.

With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales.

This episode is brought to you in part by LinkedIn.

Are you tired of prospective clients not responding to your emails? Sign up for a free 60-day trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator at linkedin.com/tse.

This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation.

Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin.

Credits

As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey . We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple P...