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Hard data on the benefits of social media as a sales tool has been hard to come by – until now.
Jim Keenan, author of the new book The Rise of Social Salespeople reports that salespeople who use social media outsell their peers by 78%.
Read the full article over at Forbes.com – Salespeople Using Social Media Outsell
So what’s an easy way to bulk up your LinkedIn connections?
When a new contract comes in for ads, sponsorships, whatever — I immediately send the new customer a LinkedIn connection request.
Here’s the text I use:
Hi Carl –
Thank you for placing your ads with us! I like to thank my new advertisers via LinkedIn. So, to that end, would you add me to your professional network on LinkedIn?
I have a 100% success rate. Every person I’ve sent this request to has responded with a connection.
Why does it work? People like to be thanked. That’s pretty obvious. But people are also more likely to do something if you give them a reason WHY you want them to do it.
In a study conducted by college professors who study such things, one group of people asked if they could cut in line for the copy machine. No reason given. A second group also asked to cut in line. But they gave a reason – “I need to make copies.”
The second group had a lot more success and by a wide margin. The reason itself didn’t matter at all. Of course you need to make copies. Why else would you be in line? But having a reason, any reason, was enough.
And why does this matter? Building up your LinkedIn connections is an excellent investment of your time. Not only can you track a prospect when they move to another company, you can see their peers – who are also likely customers.
Best of all: When you thank your new customer on LinkedIn, all their peers see it. If one of my peers is buying something, then I think that maybe I should check it out too.
Build up your prospect list and give your new customer an extra bit of appreciation, and it all costs you nothing. That’s a win in my book. Give it a try.
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Guest blogger: Christopher Ware, Vice President of Business Development, NAIOP and a frequent speaker for Niche Media HQ. Chris is an experienced association executive with expertise in generating non-dues revenue, including: corporate sponsorships, print advertising, online advertising, exhibit space and customized sponsorship plans.
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Good advice, Christopher – I was also pleasantly surprised at how new users of our sales software accepted my LinkedIn requests when I simply thanked them and offered help in the personalized message. Would recommend this strategy to any salesperson online.
Our CEO just wrote a blog post on how to share useful, effective articles on LinkedIn if you’re interested – http://buff.ly/1mqeiqy
Thanks so much for this, Chris. Great ideas!