cnvrg.com

LinkedIn for Sales

Best Practices to Grow and Protect Your Business

@JustAskSevier

About the Author:

Jim Sevier, Founder

Convergence Readiness

Jim Sevier is an accomplished

technologist, business builder,

thought leader, educator and

professional presenter.

Before founding Convergence

Readiness, Jim worked for such

noted companies as Lucent

Technologies, Avaya and Intel

Corporation.

Jim has also presented to

Intel’s Gordon Moore, Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu and the Korean

White House.

Follow Jim on Twitter

@JustAskSevier

Table Of Contents:

Chapter One:

Get Started 1

Chapter Two:

Build Your Profile 2

Chapter Three:

Build Your Connections 4

Chapter Four:

Secure Your Connections 7

Chapter Five:

Understand Endorsements 8

Checklist:

Summary 9

@JustAskSevier

By now most of us have heard about

online professional development and

networking tools such as LinkedIn.

These Internet applications allow you

to post your professional profile in the

form of an online resume and then

connect to peers.

The value of these applications is

twofold: 1) It allows you to easily

create a network of peers 2) It allows

you to build connections to people you

do not yet know.

Why should I care?

The reason this is so valuable

(especially to those in sales) is that the

connections you build can give you

access to other people that you may

want to start a business relationship

with. The key becomes building the

right connections and having a profile

that is professional and attractive.

Let’s jump in…

Chapter One:

Get Started

“There are

hundreds of

millions of

professionals

worldwide who

have a LinkedIn

profile.”

@JustAskSevier

The first step towards developing the

right connections is having a well

developed and professional profile.

Let’s start with your profile picture.

Your picture should be in focus, high

resolution and black and white. You

should be larger than your backdrop

and you should either have a smile that

shows teeth or no smile at all. Try not

to grin.

Have a GREAT Summary:

Your summary should be no more than

75 words. The key is to keep it short

and to speak in natural language. (Try

not to use industry jargon or slang).

You should say something about

yourself, the company you currently

work for and any special skills (e.g.

Public Speaking, Multilingual, etc.)

“Make certain everything is spelled

correctly.”

Chapter Two:

Build Your Profile

“Professional”

“Looks good in a tuxedo.”

“What does your

picture say

about you?”

@JustAskSevier

The next element is your employment

history. Again, keep it brief. You only

need to list three previous employers

(unless you really want this to be an

online resume) and only give your

position and length of employment for

each. If you like you can give more

detail about your current position than

the other two positions.

One Other Element to Consider:

LinkedIn provides a space right below

your name for you to place a title. The

thing to remember is that you are

much more than the title you currently

hold. Try to use this space in your

profile to explain who you are. Stay

away from being too cute or ambitious

with your description. “Sales Animal” is

not good. “Sales Executive” is better

but still too boring. “Business Minded

Selling Professional” is much better.

In short, tell YOUR story…but make

it easy to read and interesting.

Chapter Two:

Build Your Profile

“The single greatest

piece of advice I

can give you about

your profile is to

give it life!”

“Resume or Profile:

You Choose!”

@JustAskSevier

Now that we have a professional and

attractive profile we can start

developing our strategy to grow our

connections. Connections come in two

categories.

1. People we want to connect with

2. People who want to connect with

us

How Do I Get Connected?:

Start by creating a connection filter

and then pass each connection request

through it. Here is an example of my

connection filter;

• Are they in an industry I am

targeting or in a complimentary

industry to mine? Yes? (Continue)

No? (Stop)

• Do they hold a position of power or

influence in their industry? Yes?

(Continue) No? Could knowing

them improve my influence? Yes?

(Continue) No? (Stop)

• Are they well connected on

LinkedIn? Yes? (Continue) No (Stop)

Chapter Three:

Build Your Connections

“ Don’t use the template connection

request form. Instead write

a personal note.”

@JustAskSevier

Even though LinkedIn is about

numbers of connections, in sales it is

also about the QUALITY of those

connections. So how do you find

(and connect to) quality people?

How Do I Join Groups?

Groups are created by LinkedIn

members as a way to develop better

connections with like minded people.

Nearly ever industry has a LinkedIn

Group. If you don’t know where to

start you can look up someone in that

industry and see which groups they

follow. You can also use the Search

bar and put in the name of the

industry (ex. Retail Marketing

Professionals)

The search results will usually contain

multiple groups. The group with the

most connections is the group you

too should join. A word of caution: If

you join a group to advertise your

service you will be quickly removed

from that group. Remember, this is

about learning and socializing; not

selling.

Chapter Three:

Build Your Connections

@JustAskSevier

Here are 3 best practices when joining

groups:

1. When submitting your membership

request make certain to be honest

about your intentions.

2. Do not immediately respond in the

discussion forums. Take a week to

listen to the members of your

group, learn their needs, so you

can better serve them.

3. When you do engage in discussion

keep your responses and inquiries

brief. Many people like to give

long, detailed responses. Don’t be

that person. Instead make your

point and offer your input in as

brief a manner as possible.

Again, please do not advertise or ask

for connections within groups. Usually

each group has a code of conduct that

you must adhere to. If you break the

rules you will quickly be removed from

the group.

Chapter Three:

Build Your Connections

“Groups are a great place to meet lots of

people within an industry.”

@JustAskSevier

By now you have spent a considerable

amount of time and energy locating

and connecting to people that will

improve your network of connections.

The next step is to make certain that

those connections remain invisible to

others.

Why Secure My Connections?

When you connect to someone you

are telling LinkedIn that you know the

person. This means they can view all

the connections in your network.

Most times this is not a good idea.

Remember that peer you connected

to at the office? Well they just left

and went to a competitor. Now they

can take your connections and reach

out to them. To keep this from

occurring you can change your

connection visibility so that only you

can see your unique connections.

Chapter Four:

Secure Your Connections

On the top of the page select Profile and then

Edit Profile

Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on

Customize visibility.

You will be asked to log back into LinkedIn

(security)

Then select “Only You” and save changes

@JustAskSevier

LinkedIn uses endorsements as a tool

to measure your expertise or

knowledge in various fields. The

trouble is that most people hand out

endorsements far too easily.

Simple Endorsement Rules:

1. Endorse people you KNOW for the

skills you KNOW they have. (Just

b/c LinkedIn says to endorse Bob

for Sales Mgt. doesn’t mean you

have to.)

2. Manage your endorsements. Many

times people endorse us for skills

we either don’t have or would

rather not have on our profile.

Removing Endorsements:

Click on the Profile – Edit Profile tab at

the top of your LinkedIn page. Scroll

down to Skills & Expertise and hit the

blue Edit icon. Find the Skill you want

to delete and hit the “x” on the label.

That’s all it takes!

Chapter Five:

Understand Endorsements

@JustAskSevier

Your Profile Checklist:

So there you have it! A simple guide to follow to maintain a professional profile that helps you locate and connect to new business. Let’s review the Highlights:

• LinkedIn is more than an online resume

– The 250M+ people who use LinkedIn provide a way for you to connect to those you wish to do business with but do not yet know.

• However you utilize LinkedIn (Resume or Connections) it is best to make certain your profile stands out (and not in a bad way)

– Think of this as your professional tattoo. Do you want misspelled words or fuzzy images. Make it colorful, clear and accurate

• If you use LinkedIn for building connections you better have a strategy

– Start with a Professional Profile, Join groups that include the people you are actively looking to connect with and make certain you interact in thoughtful (and brief) messages

@JustAskSevier

Your Profile Checklist:

• You don’t want your competition to see your connections

– Locking down your connections should be the first thing you do.

– Check often to see if you share connections with your competitors

• Use Endorsements wisely

– Make certain you know who it is you are endorsing

– Manage your endorsements proactively

If you would like information on using LinkedIn for Sales please connect with Jim at (you guessed it)

http://linkedin.com/in/jimsevier

@JustAskSevier