In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how to build and nurture warm relationships that will be more open to you and buy into your brand, product, or service without coming off as salesy.
With over 830 million members in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is an incredible platform to shape your brand, monetize your expertise, and sell a product.
So if you’re neglecting to build an epic brand on the world’s premier business network, you’re missing out on a goldmine of opportunities.
But how can you tap into this business network without being a pesky salesman?
As you’re aware, when you bore your network with sales pitches, they tune out, and you risk losing their trust forever.
But done rightly, your network can warm up to you and your offers. These connections are a powerful resource that you can tap into for job opportunities and leads.
The best part? They could become your brand advocates, voluntarily sending you tons of business and referrals.
Unfortunately, many business owners on LinkedIn view their connections as just a lead list. Targets they can sell their products to or slap with spammy emails and automated outreach campaigns.
Reasons You’re not Selling on LinkedIn.
As a business owner, you know you’re network is one of your greatest business assets. But here are four reasons why you may be struggling with sales.
- A poorly optimized LinkedIn profile: Your profile is the first place to grow your know, like, and trust score. If it doesn’t tell people what you do, why you do what you do, and who you help, you’ve lost out on a massive opportunity to have your connections warm up to you.
- Your posts are all about you or offerings: No one warms up to a self-centered person. Making things all about you is no way to keep a relationship.
- You don’t nurture relationships on LinkedIn: Experienced salespeople know that starting a relationship is just the beginning of a sales process. The cherry on top is nurturing and building those relationships.
- You don’t give value: An incredible way to deepen trust is to provide value. If your audiences are not getting the deal from your LinkedIn, they’ll feel you’re always taking from them and not giving.
Thankfully, all these mistakes can be undone. With this guide, you’ll be able to start on a clean slate.
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I’ve rounded up crucial steps you should take to build and nurture warm connections that will help you stay top-of-mind with potential customers.
Turn Your Connections to Customers without Being Pesky
Step 1: Optimize Your Profile!
An optimized LinkedIn profile is the magnet that attracts the right people to you and spikes their interest in what you do.
A quick way to do this is to search for influencers in your niche, copy off their profile into a Google document and use their format as a template to build yours.
Before July this year, my client Amanda was winging it on LinkedIn, and her profile was barely visible.
But when we worked together to tweak her headline, banner, headshot, and summary section, she saw a 10x increase in her following and engagement in less than two weeks. How powerful is that?
If you’d love a more detailed guide on optimizing your profile, you can pick my free LinkedIn Cheatsheet here.
Step 2: Make your audience the hero of your posts.
“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.” – Mary Kay Ash
Many marketers brag about their products on LinkedIn. A better way is to empathize with your audience’s pain points by showing them that you care. Let them feel you know what they’re going through and that you’re on a level playing field with them.
For example, in this newsletter, I know that many solopreneurs have difficulty getting leads and sales on LinkedIn. I acknowledge their pains and try to give them hope by showing them how to crack the sales code.
So avoid always talking about your products features in your posts. Instead, put your potential clients front and center and focus on genuinely understanding their needs and truly spreading sunshine. Remember listening to understand their problems is critical in empathizing.
Step 3: Get social!
“If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell six friends. If you make customers unhappy on the internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.” – Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.
Networking is the No. 1 secret sauce that fast-tracks your business success.
Consider networking to be like planting and cultivating previously bare farmland. This involves building mutually beneficial relationships that become a win-win for all.
So when you build solid relationships, you’re a step ahead of your competitors because your connections would give you an unfair advantage. As a result, you’ll quickly get leads, job opportunities, events, and tons of referrals.
Networking is not being transactional or pushy. It’s about going out of your way, and being helpful to your connections, often without expecting a favor in return.
The fantastic thing is that these favors will come when you genuinely give off yourself. And when they do, they will come from a place of reciprocity.
An essential way to network is to like, comment, and show love to your LinkedIn connections when their posts resonate with you.
Another way is to respond to their comments, direct messages, attend events, and share their good stuff with your network.
Apply these tips and build incredible trust with your connections. Eventually, your networks will warm up and buy into your offerings because you’re selling without selling.
That’s it for today.
I hope you enjoyed it.
Nora
P.S. Whenever you’re ready to skyrocket your LinkedIn growth, here are 2 ways I can help you:
- Optimize Your LinkedIn with this free Cheatsheet
- Want 1-on-1 LinkedIn growth coaching? Click here to get your spot.