LinkedIn for Sales

This week Nicky's joined by one of Australia's leading LinkedIn strategists, Karen Tisdell, as they delve into a question every sales leader and business owner feels: can LinkedIn really be a sales engine, not just a networking afterthought?

Spoiler: yes. But only if you’re using it with strategy, not just scrolling.

In this value-packed episode, we unpack:

• Common mistakes salespeople make on LinkedIn
• What to write (and what not to) in your profile headline
• The three content buckets that actually move the sales needle
• How “bridging statements” and “collecting yeses” can shift a no to a yes
• Karen’s practical, repeatable process for turning cold connections into warm leads

If you want to use LinkedIn as more than a digital CV (and actually turn your activity into conversations that lead to clients) this one’s a must-listen.

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn here.

Learn more about Nicky at nickymiklos.com

Grab The Growth Code™ here!

Get your a copy of Healthy Hustle: The New Blueprint to Thrive in Business & Life at www.healthyhustle.com.au

Connect: LinkedIn | Instagram

Contact: 0403 191 404 | hello@nickymiklos.com

Music by Jules Miklos-Woodley

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

Hello, it is wonderful to have you here again for this week's episode of Smart Business Growth Podcast. And I'm really excited about what you are going to hear in today's conversation. Today, my guest is Karen Tisdell, who is one of Australia's top LinkedIn strategists and profile writers. She's been named by SMMI as one of the top eight independent LinkedIn trainers in Asia Pacific. And Karen has been training sales teams since 2015 on how to search, prospect, and qualify leads on LinkedIn. That is exactly what we dived into today. Really targeted from a salesperson perspective, which let's face it is relevant for sales leaders and business owners as well. Really about how can we utilize LinkedIn as a powerful lead generation tool. We talk about the biggest mistakes that salespeople make on LinkedIn, how to generate leads on LinkedIn. We go through different content bucket types that are actually targeted for salespeople. So it's very easy and a sales process on how to nurture and engage so you can start to build relationships on LinkedIn and take it offline to really qualify and turn them into high-quality leads and ideal clients. We talked about collecting yeses and explaining how a bridging sentence can make all the difference to turn from being icky and uncomfortable and awkward on LinkedIn to really nailing it and creating quality connections that, again, can turn into ideal A-player clients. Now, Karen has been doing this for quite some time. She is an early adapter of LinkedIn. She's written thousands of profiles for business owners, C-suite leaders, and as I said, has been working with sales teams and salespeople since 2015. She has tracked and continues to track every major algorithm shift since LinkedIn's early days. And she she launched her business back in 2009, long before it was trendy. So we also touched on how LinkedIn LinkedIn has changed and you know the old school version of LinkedIn versus, again, the powerful tool that it can be for your sales function and the growth engine in your business. So buckle up, enjoy, get that pen and paper out ready. You might want to, you might want to rewind this episode a little bit to get certain scripts and approaches that we go through because it's a good one. It's a biggie and enjoy. Hello, you awesome humans, and welcome to yet another episode of the Smart Business Growth Podcast. And you already know who we're talking with today because of the intro, but I just have to give one of my favorite humans another shout out. Karen Tisdell, thank you so very much for joining us today to talk all things LinkedIn as a sales tool.

Speaker: 3:18

So excited to be with you. You're one of my favorite humans, actually. I've always been obsessed with sales psychology and the science behind buying behavior. And that's you know something that's always fascinated you too. So super excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 3:33

It's such an amazing opportunity when we connect with like-minded people, awesome humans doing cool things in the world, and we can totally geek out on things like sales because your background is in recruitment. You've got quite a distinct sales background, and of course, now you're working with this incredible sales tool that is LinkedIn. So I want to dive straight in and ask you, what do you think is the number one mistake that business owners or salespeople or sales leaders are actually making when they're trying to use LinkedIn to generate leads or sales?

Speaker: 4:06

I believe it's not earning trust. So I feel that so many salespeople do not change on LinkedIn their position title, their headline, the bit that sits underneath their name from sales. So they instantly announce themselves to their prospects as somebody who's all about business development and all about sales. And they often talk in their profile about how much money they've made from sales and how they've won sales awards and they've gone on this cruise because they won this sales. I wouldn't want to know as a prospect how much money you've made from sales. Instead, what I'd love salespeople to do is really ground themselves in their deep expertise and realize that their prospects and their their pipeline and their past clients are judging them and are remembering them from their profile. So I think that's one of two mistakes. I think the other one is also not to see it as a place where they can build pipelines. I think a lot of people think of LinkedIn as a place to just turn up and throw up, and that means creating content. And actually, it's not a content creation platform, despite what LinkedIn would have you think, because it's in the business of selling adverts these days, not just subscriptions. But it's really an address book where you can find everybody you'd ever want.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I love that because I think, you know, LinkedIn, or I know that we've had we've had conversations around this, that LinkedIn for some people still has, I don't know if it's a bad rap, but like an old school rap. You know, it's the from the corporate days when we first went on LinkedIn, and it's actually changed so, so much. And I think, you know, honestly, even if people stop listening and watching now, which I highly recommend that you don't do that, but even just that tip around what is the tagline? What is it that you're saying that you do? I know personally when I had sales coach or sales trainer, I didn't get as many connections. People weren't as open to talking to me. So as soon as I changed it to be more around the value or the thing that I'm passionate about or the work that I do, not in a sales y way, there was so much more openness. So that is a very, very practical tip that people can implement straight away. It's almost like if you were writing an ad for yourself, you know, like you're you it's it's I don't know if ad or it's it's like a creative business card. It's something that can pique curiosity and and create that connection in the first go. It's the first impression, really.

Speaker: 6:39

It's your first impression and it's often your last. You know, people don't look at your profile as often as you think, but your headline follows you everywhere. So every time you comment on somebody's post or you DM people, right at the very top of your DMs, people can see your headline. So um, if you're sending them an in mail, whatever you're doing on LinkedIn, that headline follows you everywhere. So instead, talk to the value, talk to the pain, the problem, the longing, the outcome, and talk about why this matters. And don't talk about yourself like you're not yourself. You need to be human in a world of AI and in a world where our our customers are just so very informed these days. You know, my husband never goes to, you know, a car yard and asks about the car. He's already done a virtual driving experience before he's even got there. He often knows more about the car than the person selling it. But the person selling it is there to talk about the value they can add to that sales process. So it's really important to make sure that you're really showing all those things in a human way on your profile and in your messaging as well.

Speaker 1: 7:45

I mean, so again, so many great points in that around bringing the humanness and HubSpot recently released some research that really talked about the fact that as salespeople, our role has changed. For that very reason, Karen, you know, people not only are able to Google and have do some research, but I mean, we have to really redefine what is our role as a salesperson, um, what is our role as a connector, as you know, fulfilling needs for our clients. And again, which is why I think, you know, if anybody's listening and watching and still has that perception of LinkedIn as that old school, think about everything that's changed around us as has LinkedIn. So, what do you think? This is gonna be a really open question. I know it's it's a big one, but I think there's gonna be so there's always so much gold that you share around this. How can salespeople really use LinkedIn to generate sales leads?

Speaker: 8:36

By connecting the people. Not by following them, not by creating content. Content can be awareness, but typically your content is only shown to people you're already connected to. So you are putting, as my grandfather would say, you're putting the cart before the horse. If you're thinking, I need to create content, I need to create content. No, actually, you need a profile that builds trust. You need to get the right people, so you need to reach out and connect to people. And then that posting is a nice to-do. Um, and that's where you're reminding people who you are and and deepening if and how they think of you. So reaching out and connecting and following up with people that you've connected to. So don't just connect with people and then ignore them. But I think it's really important to create, say, a bridge sentence such as thanks for connecting, I appreciate it. Copy, paste, copy, paste, copy, paste, so that you can then go back to people and say, you know, I happen to be in your city, or um, I found an interesting statistic about your your space that that I think you might enjoy as well. This is this is the article below, this is, you know, one sentence headline about it, you know, sort of so that you're you're building those relationships constantly, both with prospects, but also people who are in your ecosystem. So who are the people who are also selling to those same clients?

Speaker 1: 10:04

I love that. I talk about that as A players and B players. So A players are your potential direct clients that you can service and help. B players, they might be an A player as well, but they also are connected to your A players, to your ideal clients. And that's what you're really big on is creating that network. And again, it's about how we're having conversations on LinkedIn. A good thing that I often think about, because I get stuck. I mean, you're the expert in this, and I've we've worked together, you know, for actually a number of years now. Um, and I often think when I have when I go to comment or I send a message, if this person was standing right in front of me, if we're in a networking event or I've just met them, they're standing right in front of me, what would I say to them? And then I try and write something so it feels a little bit more human connected. Because, you know, are there any other tips in terms of what do we actually say? Because I think the other thing is sometimes, yes, we connect and then there might be an initial message, but then sometimes it's a bit people can get a bit gun shy around, well, what do I do next? And you did give a couple of tips there, but any tips on how we really start that conversation and then transition it offline because ultimately that's kind of the goal, isn't it?

Speaker: 11:15

It is, and I'm sure with your mind, you've got just to put you on the spot here, you've got some statistics around how many touch points it it takes. And um, and and I'd love to hear how many it is. But I think it's not just you know connecting with somebody and then reaching out and saying, Hey, do you want to buy? It's a a bridge sentence. So thanks for connecting. I appreciate it. And not expecting a response back. Um, sometimes you'll get a thumbs up. I I frequently get a thumbs up to that or a little smiley face. Typically, I just get crickets. And then I'll drop in another thing, such as a positive statistic. So positive statistic about their industry, and I it's just and it'll be three to five words, just seeing this about, you know, X is growing by this percent. Thought you might find the below article or a podcast or something interesting, or dropped below. And again, no expectation of a response. And then another one might be there's an industry event going on. Um, we've not met, um, but we are connected on LinkedIn. It'd be nice to put a face to the name. Ignore the fact you can already see their face on LinkedIn. It's nice to put a face to the name. Are you going to be at that event? Um, or I'm interstate. Um, I do a lot of interstate trouble with my work doing LinkedIn training. And I always find it much easier to catch up with people interstate than I do people in my hometown of Sydney, Australia. It's so much easier to catch up. I'm like, I'm only in Adelaide or Brisbane or wherever for a few days. Do you have any chance I can catch up? So it's sort of a number of touch points over time, which are low pressure. Now, how many, how many touch points do you need until people buy? What's the stats around that? I bet you've got it.

Speaker 1: 12:56

I know that there's, so there is, you know, the law of seven, which is really popular around, you know, you need to see something seven times. It's a marketing stat, actually, before you buy, but also it's also relevant for um learning and development. So we need to see or hear something seven times before we actually really learn it. The other interesting stat that I throw out a lot is uh we need five follow-up touch points when we're doing our follow-ups. But we've got to remember that's a warm to hot prospect. So in this instant, I think what's really critical in what you just said is you might not get a response. You might get crickets. It doesn't actually mean that it hasn't worked and it does, it's not a bad thing. I'm sure we're gonna get to LinkedIn voice notes in a little bit uh further and in the conversation. But when I share or we we try and I say, you know, send a LinkedIn voice note or send a message, and then the person comes up to me, a client back to me, a client coachy, comes back and says, Oh, it didn't work. I'm like, okay, cool. So how many did you do? Karen, you would get this all the time. All the time.

Speaker: 13:55

I tried LinkedIn once, I didn't get any clients. And I'm like, what do you mean try? I put it exactly. One voice note, like what?

Speaker 1: 14:02

Exactly. It's like you have to do so. Oh, maybe I did it five times and no one was. This is about we need to create processes to make it simple. Like Karen, you said, your bridging sentence, I love the terminology of that. You can copy and paste it. So it can be, you could do 20 um bridging sentences in 15 minutes. That's a reality, you know, because it's it's it's easy and it's repeatable. And then as you're nurturing that conversation, uh, then you can get a bit more tailored. Because I'm even thinking if you're strategic about targeting an industry, then you've got a really cool stat for that industry. And then you're putting in your calendar two weeks later, because we don't want to be desperate or, you know, be guided by you a week, two weeks, three later. Here's a cool stat. Here's what I thought. So you can actually still create a process. So it's really tired, it's not time intensive. And you're warming up. And even if they don't respond to that, that's okay because you're still top of mind for them. And again, you know, I love the if you are in town or the meeting, because I find that it's really easy. And one of the things I'm always saying is make that message, especially the bridging message, really short, as short as possible. And a lot of people will go to, hey, I've got this really cool thing. Do you want my thing? Right? Even if it's a free thing, even if it's a lead magnet or a kit or I don't know, something really cool, we can go in too hard too quick, can't we?

Speaker: 15:21

Definitely go in too hard too quick. I do believe that when people open their LinkedIn inbox, uh their messages section, we're actually bracing ourselves to be sold to much like we open our emails in the morning. We're bracing ourselves for all those subscriptions we haven't unsubscribed from. We're bracing ourselves for all those sales messages. So you want to go really slowly. So I wouldn't go every couple of weeks, I would literally go every couple of months. Think about short and you would do it in person and night sort of double or triple it. It's really slow, which is I know really annoying and not what people want to hear. Oh, so two weeks is too soon, too desperate. It is. You could do an initial one. So you leave a thanks for connecting, I appreciate it, and then two weeks later, leave a positive statistic. But you don't then want to message another two weeks after that. You want to then leave it a month or two and say there's an industry event, or you know, is there somebody I can introduce you to, or sort of, you know, or here's something, you know, is there something that I can give you? My company is holding a webinar. It's an information session on XYZ. Would you be interested in the link? Don't thrust the link on somebody because they will perceive that. You think you're being generous and saving yourself time. So you don't have to go back when they say yes and paste in the link. You think you're saving yourself time, but they're perceiving it as, you know, you've you've you're thrusting things on people. You need to ask for permission. You need to ask. It's really important.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Which is such a big part of solution selling, relationship selling. And so I guess also in that, what that means is you've got a higher qualified, um, I'm gonna say lead or prospect, but not even so much yet, but interaction, a higher qualified interaction. Because if they're saying, yes, I'd like the information, they're actually genuinely curious about it rather than that whole spray and pray. You know, I might have sent it to a hundred people, but not one single person is actually interested in that message. And something you've taught me in the past that has worked really well around this is also putting something in that message around, you know, I hate spam. So just let me know if you want the link. Again, how would you say it? Or, you know, promise no spamming from here. A bit of lightness and humor. So think about your own personality, you know, as a salesperson. And by the way, if you're a business owner, leader, listening, sales leader listening to this, you're still a salesperson. We all have a role to play in terms of how we're using LinkedIn in in this way. Um, so bring some personality and some lightness whilst keeping it short, I think, and and minimizing those lengths. Love that. No expectation. Create a process around it. How am I being human? Thoughts on, because I've actually shared this with a few clients and there's some resistance. Thoughts on one of those initial messages after the bridging message, or maybe the bridging message is it, doing either a video. So I've seen that you can do videos now, or a voice note. There's been probably more resistance to video, but in fact, there's not a lot of uptake, I would say, in voice notes or video. Yet I know when I do it, particularly if it's a little bit warmer, I get a great response. And by great response, just to manage that expectation, that's a couple of people responding and say, wow, that was really cool. I haven't seen a voice note. Yes, I'd love to. Great response doesn't mean even 50%, right? Like it's it's that's not kind of the point here. So I've just throwing a lot at you. Karen, take from that.

Speaker: 18:52

Where will we go from here? Absolutely. I mean, just gonna go back there. Something that you and I often geek out about is the psychology behind all of this. If you get a thumbs up or you get a yes, then that's changing how they're feeling about you. I was taught in sales, so I I used to be in recruitment, hardcore sales recruitment. Um, so we're I'm pimping people. And this was in the 1990s, so I got so much sales tracking. The 1900s, you probably would 1990s, not 1900s, not quite. But that is the 1900s. Aren't you seeing all the memes? Well, they're that old now.

Speaker 1: 19:28

Anyway, that's another conversation.

Speaker: 19:31

So, you know, we were always sort of taught, or I was taught, you know, you want to collect yeses as much as possible because, and when you say the word yes, you actually feel different than when you say the word no, you know, so it's all about collecting those yeses. You know, let me know, you know, if you'd like this, if you'd like that. So it's all about sort of collecting those yeses, part of that IKEA effect of, you know, if they build it, part of them building it will make them love it more. So I think that's a really yeah, really important step to um to keep in mind in terms of how you're messaging and that silence doesn't mean that they're not interested. It just means that they don't check LinkedIn very often. They don't have the budget yet, the pain isn't big enough yet, the longing isn't big enough yet, they're hungry, they've got other demands, and they just, you know, they saw your message and thought that looks interesting, and they didn't get back to replying. So it's never a no, it's just a not yet, and I think that's really important to keep in our mind. And uh, what was your question after as I geek out about all of this? Oh my gosh, what did you originally ask?

Speaker 1: 20:34

Video, thank you. Yes, I had to think for a moment. Videos and voice notes. Yeah, absolutely. A quick interruption to this podcast episode. I'm really curious, do you want to close more sales in less time? If the answer is yes, which I hope that it is, then you need to get your hands on the growth code. It is going to give you three proven frameworks and tools that will help future-proof your business and scale with clarity. All you have to do is head down to the show notes and click the link below.

Speaker: 21:08

Now, I forgot to check in on the demographic of your audience. So, um, like whereabouts they're located. But as somebody who's a LinkedIn trainer has been doing LinkedIn training now for coming up to 16 years.

Speaker 2: 21:20

Yeah.

Speaker: 21:20

And I'm connected to LinkedIn trainers all over the world, many of whom do a lot of sales training. I know for a fact that America's got a really high appetite for video. So if you're a salesperson in the US, in the States, and you are not doing video, I'm sorry, but you are behind the ball because I know, I know that my peers are in the US, LinkedIn trainers in the US, they are teaching sales teams all the time and it's doing really well. Here in Australia, we're actually a lot more conservative, so it tends to be on the phone. You can only record voice notes on the phone. It tends to be voice notes. Okay. There is a huge resistance to it, and I I don't know why. I don't know why us Australians tend to not get in our own way. I think that's why you do so well, Nikki, because you're always about helping people to get their teams to not get in their own way.

Speaker 2: 22:14

Yeah.

Speaker: 22:15

I don't know why people don't like it. Voice notes are really powerful. Things to remember on the voice notes. Um, again, just to deep dive into the psychology, I've noticed that when I'm training people on how to do a voice note, don't start with, hi, it's you know, Karen Tisdell here. If you start with your name, like I've heard people practice with me, when they start with their name, their voice starts constricting. And I'm like, I can hear you're almost bracing yourself for like this is so uncomfortable. So don't say, you know, just pretend you already know the person, jump straight into it. Very cool. And also you want to love bomb them. So what I mean by love bomb is you want to really dial up your warmth. So uh Dan Nelkin, stunning writer, uh copywriter, marketing copywriter, he says marketing is warmth. So you really want to show a lot of warmth, a lot of humanity in your voice. You know, you really want to dial up that personality. I can feel myself doing it now in my voice. So I'm really like oozing warmth. You know, you're really exaggerating how you speak. So you're really building that connection through your voice. You're making your voice almost a caricature of itself. And that will distract you from thinking about, you know, everything else going on. Don't worry about going, uh, um, uh, you know, like all of that's great because you actually don't want to sound too polished. You want to sound human. You want to start with them and end with them. And voice notes are very powerful because trust in the written word has been declining since the 1970s. We do not trust what we read. I believe we also brace ourselves being sold to. But when we hear something, we're more inclined to believe it to be true. So trust in voice is increasing, which is why we've got so many people, so many cybersecurity people and stuff. Like they're targeting one of the biggest things that people are targeting at the moment is phoning people and trying to do doji sales on voice. We trust voice implicitly. I think it's because of our GPS. When all of our instincts are saying turn left and the GPS says turn right, we turn right. So voice is a really powerful tool, but you need to uh you need to not get in your own way and just do it.

Speaker 1: 24:32

Yeah. It's the law of familiarity, isn't it? And even when you say, I love the term collecting yeses, which is the law of consistency, because the more that we do say yes, the more like likely we are to continue to say yes. We are invested in that. And it's really interesting that there's a bit of a difference with the US. And I would say, and I'm gonna put it out there, come on, team, let's still do some videos. Because the law of familiarity even increases there. But I do think, yeah, there is this uh almost resistance. Is it cheesy? It's almost like, is it too cheesy? But I would also say to that, don't make it cheesy. Like be genuine, be authentic, be you, and therefore it is a true connection. Trust in the word declining, not surprising, with AI, with Chat GPT, and all these different, you know, tools that we can use to write scripts. So I think another really important message for everyone to take away is actually the less polished and the less perfect it is, even better. I had somebody actually do a video for me, and I'm pretty sure they were a LinkedIn person. I can't remember their name, but um one thing that they said if you're gonna do this, here's a top tip. Okay, so if you can do a voice note, well, that is uh unique anyway, because you're doing it in the message. But you can do a video, say, on Loom. I'm a big fan of Loom. You all know this. That's another thing that we've got to embrace. You can do a video somewhere else and still put it into LinkedIn chat. If you're going to do that, I mean, I know you'll agree with this, Karen. Please don't say, hey there. Hey there. I just, I'm like, okay, you've obviously good on you because you've recorded this video and you're sending it to 20 people, but I immediately didn't feel the connection. I would rather if that person said, Hi, Nikki, I'm recording you a quick video because I wanted to introduce myself and I hope you're having a freaking awesome day. Like it actually just could be, right? That simple.

Speaker: 26:25

Yeah, it's it is, it's really important. And when you say don't be cheesy, I think you so somebody here realistic in my mind, uh, LinkedIn uh train Angus Grady in the UK. And and and uh, dear Angus, if you're listening to this, he can be quite cheesy, but it really works. So he actually quite literally holds a piece of paper that literally says the person's name. And he's like, Yes! And that's a still image of the video. So you're like, okay, it's clearly for me because he's written Karen Tisdell on it, you know, and it is really cheesy. And he's like, I hope this caught your attention. Just wanted to jump into your inbox and just say how thrilled I am to be connected to you, you know, as someone who's got real expertise in your industry and your space around this, you know, I'm really thrilled to be connected. Just want to jump in and say hi, you know, let me know if you ever want to know more about, you know, pipes or whatever. Like, you know, it's just yes, yes.

Speaker 1: 27:18

And I think that's a really important uh reminder. Remember, if you're doing LinkedIn voice notes, it is literally uh you've got a three-step, it's it's is it take us through that. From your words, we'll be better.

Speaker: 27:30

Absolutely. So you can only do it on your LinkedIn um phone. So um, so you've got to have the app on your phone. You've got to be connected to the person. A really great time to do it is when you have just connected to them. So you don't have to have just connected to them yesterday or whatever, but they are a new-ish connection. Maybe even actually they're like three, four months old, but you've never spoken to them before. So you're connected to them. Um, so you bring up their profile. I brought up yours. I click on message, and then at the very bottom here, I've got a little microphone. I click on that once and it brings up a blue dot. I depress the blue dot and it starts recording a message. I've only got one minute. One minute, which is so good. So good. If I don't like what I say, I just delete it. Really important to not overthink it in that. Don't record your voice note and then listen to it and then send it. Otherwise, every voice note's gonna take you three or four minutes. Just smash it out. Done is better than perfect. Being human is fine. Um, I love, uh I'm glad it resonated with you that expression bridge sentences. So I will typically start with them and end with them. Really thrilled to be connected to you because I said, not because like in my prospect, but you know, I find it interesting and do this or whatever. So something about them, and I end with something that is about them, but often about the city they're in, the weather in that area, or something happening, or something, something like that. So it's sort of about them, but it's a bit broader at the end. In the middle, I do a I don't know if you had a chance to have a look at my profile. Um, but if you did, you might have noticed I and then I describe what I do. So that's my bridge. I don't know if you had a chance to look at my profile. And that's my bridge to then talk about what I do very briefly, and it just kind of slips out. You know, so that's your thing, you know, let me know. Anyway, just wanted to reach out and say thanks so much for connecting.

Speaker 1: 29:28

Yeah. Okay, I love it. So if we're creating a process out of this, we're connecting. We're doing high-quality connections, we're actually doing a little bit of intentional searching for who do we want to be connected from? An A player, ideal client, or B player, increasing network and can be connected to ideal client. We're reaching out and doing connections every week. We're then sending a bridging message, the bridging message or sentence, bridging sentence, which could be a handwritten, handwritten, wow, I'm really from the 1900s, which could be a typed out, great to be connected, really appreciate it. Or that's where you could do a voice note or a video with the same kind of script that Karen was talking about. Potentially two weeks later, you might share a little something. It could be an invite to an event. It could be a here's a cool stat. Here's a great resource. Typically, not something that you've necessarily created yourself so that it's not icky salesy. So it's not your lead magnet yet. It's not, and then maybe it's almost like the rules of two. And then two months later, you can then come back and you know, something else that you can add value or invite them to something, or I'm in your town.

Speaker: 30:31

Invite them to an event, your company's doing something like that.

Speaker 1: 30:34

But don't thrust the link on them. And don't thrust the link on them. I also think mix it up. You know, if you sent a voice note last time and you didn't get a response, maybe do a handwritten a handwritten, what is with me in handwriting today? Do a how I'm going with it, do a written res do a written message the next time. I think it's always really good to get creative and mix it up as well. So, Karen, what are your thoughts on? We can look at who's viewed our profile, which I think is a really valuable place to look. What are your thoughts on how can we, like, is there a potential to look at who's viewed our profile to potentially um nurture that lead a little bit quicker? Knowing that, because the bow the barrier I get to around this is they're probably looking at my profile because I've sent them a connection request, not necessarily because they're an active potential buyer, but some of them might be. So, how do we weed through that so it actually doesn't become icky? You know, you viewed my profile. Well, yeah, because you sent me a connection request.

Speaker: 31:33

Yeah, absolutely. So I just have a habit. So I'm I'm all for like yourself, I'm all for habits and routines, you know, structures keep us moving forward. So I'm all for um doing a search through your network. And I'd love to return to how you do a search because everybody may be thinking, oh my gosh, now I've got to pay for sales navigator. You don't. Yep. Oh, that was another question. Yep. Yeah. So um, so having the same time every week, every week, and once a fortnight you're doing the search. Alternate fortnight, you're sending those bridging sentences. You're managing your LinkedIn inbox, which is I I know a bit clunky, by noticing it. Look at your DMs and notice that you can actually star messages. So you're starring messages, you're marking them as unread so that you've got a, oh, who do I follow up on? I can't even navigate my inbox, you know. So to have a your own system, whether it's marking them as unread or starring the ones you need to return to. Um, so something like that, and making sure that you're archiving them as well. So click on the three dots on the right and archive the messages. Don't ever delete them, archive them so you've got that message stream. So if you can't manage your inbox, the best process in the world is gonna fall apart, fall apart. So make sure you're managing that correctly. Right. You don't have to aim for a zero inbox, but just make sure that you're using star, unread, and archive. Yeah. Otherwise, you're not gonna know who you're returning back to. You can keep spreadsheets and stuff like that, but if you can keep it all nice in one place, the whole point of those messages are to try and move people off platform. So you want to have as many contacts as you can in that ecosystem. So A players, B players, C players. So that you are the one in the industry and you know everybody because the more connections you've got who are in industry, the more your second network is. So your first connections, those are all people you already know. Your second connections, you've got connections in common. Second network, you've got connections in common. Your third network, you don't have anybody in common. Really low trust. So it'll be like a snowball, if you're like, rolling down a hill. It's gonna get bigger and bigger and bigger the more connections you get. So making sure that you are always growing that network, you are always reaching out and you are always being just really light touch and really human with your interactions.

Speaker 1: 33:57

Yep, beautiful. So the star is like definitely something I'd for sure need to start doing. In mails. Let's talk about in mail because I don't know about you, but when I receive an email, immediately I don't even read it. To me, it screams sales. But is that just my perception? Or so I always think send a message from the main message, not from an in mail.

Speaker: 34:22

Yeah. So another thing I neglected to manage is you've actually now got two inboxes on LinkedIn. So you've also got you've got your LinkedIn message box, but if you look closely, you've also got something called other. So you could always put everybody that you want to respond to back in other. I've set my other up so that the messages I don't want to hear or don't want to see, such as in mails, automatically go into my other. You might have a different system. So um, or no system yet.

Speaker 1: 34:51

Um I feel like it automatically does that for me. It's so intuitive, it knows that I don't want to see those messages.

Speaker: 34:58

And just put the in mails straight in other. And I think actually it started happening to me automatically, and then I got a couple land, and I was just like, no, put them in other. So um, I don't like in mails. To me, they just scream sales. But I was speaking to somebody recently, a salesperson, and they use loads, they max out their um in mails. They've got a premium account, so you get loads of in mails. They max them out and they won a massive deal with Qantas, our airlines here in Australia. Wow. Through an in mail, yeah. So um, yeah, so they made a sale through an in mail LinkedIn. Look, so I it is possible, apparently, but um, I just always feel it's it's sales-y. I also feel that sending somebody an in mail instantly scream sales to me, and also you'll forget that if you're connected to them, you can automatically message them. So you want those connections because it's never a no, it's a not yet. You know, you want to have not just sales today and sales tomorrow, but sales next week and next month and the month after that and the year after that. You know, you you don't want it to be a finite number. So if we think about where people are at in their buying journey, not everybody's ready to buy at the right time. So you want to make sure that you're not missing any opportunities by having all those connections.

Speaker 1: 36:19

So really it's about understanding and bringing this concept of the cold, warm, and hot nurture to LinkedIn as well. So this is such a, I mean, you know, what are the tool really where we can actually nurture all types of leads? When we're looking at sending a connection request, message or no message in the connection request?

Speaker: 36:40

If you don't have LinkedIn Premium, you don't have any options around this. So personalized messages for people who are on LinkedIn free, right now only two a month. Wow. So I know it's um, but this hasn't created what LinkedIn had hoped it would create. Um, I believe that LinkedIn were, you know, because it's it's a money-making machine, of course.

Speaker 2: 37:04

Yeah.

Speaker: 37:05

Um, and so I think that they hoped that by reducing the number of personalized invites, more people would pay for premium. I'm sure some people have, but it's also normalized the act of not leaving a message when you reach out to somebody. Yes. Yeah. And I think human behavior has changed as well. When I look at how my teenagers interact and I and I a lot of a lot of the young people, you know, there's a huge reticence these days around talking to people face to face. There's a huge reticence around having a phone call. People are mediating things through really short text messages and WhatsApp and the like. So we're becoming more, we're becoming shyer while counterintuitively also lonelier. So I think we need to realize that if we are sending a personalized message, it can't actually be too personal because you it'll feel creepy to people.

Speaker 1: 37:59

Yes. Well, again, it comes down to the human connection.

Speaker: 38:03

Yeah, it does. It does. So when people have uh remarking on things in my profile, such as where I've studied and stuff like that, I'm like, did you just put my profile into AI and say creep? Like, you know what I mean? I'm like, did you really read that? Yeah, I know. I'm like, oh, it feels creepy and weird. So so I think people are also feeling a bit creeped out. So don't feel you need to. I know I'm fencing on this question. I'm not giving a yes-no on this because um it it doesn't matter if you don't personalize that invite for most prospects.

Speaker 1: 38:33

Yeah.

Speaker: 38:34

LinkedIn are putting out stats saying you have to personalize because you'll get a higher acceptance rate. LinkedIn are putting out that stat. They're not showing the evidence. Who knows? So long as you follow it up with that second message, and that second message isn't an instant sales pitch, otherwise, they will disconnect you from you, block you, and potentially report you. So that's why you want to go really chip.

Speaker 1: 38:58

I did almost go to LinkedIn jail once, excuse me. Um, so I've been very careful uh since then. Again, what I'm really hearing with all of this is would we do it at a networking event? You know, would we have gone and looked at their website? Well, maybe when before we meet them, but we wouldn't then kind of verbatim, here's the things I loved about your website, be great to shake your hand and meet you right now. Um, you know, short, sharp, sweet, some character, some genuineness if you are going to write a message. Mix it up, do some without, do some with, kind of see for yourself what the results are. And even this whole, because again, I see it so much. People are rushing to send through whatever that thing is that they sell or the offer or discover meeting. It's like, why are they gonna say yes? Would they say yes to you if you were um if you were standing in front of them? So I do want to reiterate that because as you sort of alluded to before, and I get it because I'm an impatient person. I'm like, what's the quick process? But actually, we're dealing with humans here, even though it is online, it is as though we are in person. So there's got to be something interesting, meaningful, of value, piques their curiosity for them to actually move from on, you know, LinkedIn to um a meeting or a catch up or coming to an event or a phone call or whatever else it might be. Uh so look, LinkedIn is can get very cloud uh crowded as well. And we've talked about some really good practical strategies on how to engage and nurture and use LinkedIn as a tool. We've not really even touched on content. I do have uh a quick question around that because I I tend to see salespeople, that's not where business owners, that's where their mind goes to first. I need to create content. Salespeople, that doesn't even kind of even register, I think, for them somewhat. And obviously, we need to have a half decent bio. It doesn't have to be the fanciest, but I guess what's the minimum that a salesperson needs to do in terms of making sure that their bio is professional enough that it sets, you know, good enough message and for content, creating content, because they're not necessarily marketers, you know. But is it a critical important part of LinkedIn to generate leads?

Speaker: 41:08

Yeah, absolutely. So uh on that profile piece, don't talk about sales, don't talk about business development, don't talk about that world trip that you were given for the volume of sales that you made. Talk about your expertise and your passion and your genuine interest in the industry that you're in. Talk about the pain, the problems, talk to some case studies, some of the difference you've made and why you enjoy it and what you like about it. You want to show that this is the sort of thing that you're an expert in, that you're reading lots about, so that your very well-informed customer who's also read a lot about it, doesn't have to keep reading. Yeah. They can just go, great, I've read a lot. That lines up with what this person's saying. I feel trust. And we have a lot of connections in common. I feel trust. With that creating content piece, I'm seeing two different types of content to divide it into two buckets. So, one, there is that thought leadership content. So that's where you can create tips and show what actually for salespeople you could even have a third. So you're sharing tips and information on uh frequently asked questions. So, what are your frequently asked questions? What are your FAQs? Ask your customer service team. In fact, get them to BCC you on their emails. What are the frequently asked questions that you get? That's what you create content about. Great. The second type of content I'm seeing quite a lot is really emotional content and really personal content. And that's where you have to go. What's my role in the organization? How would my organization feel about this? Don't make it political. You know, is this okay for me to say? And if you can, try and make it quirky personal. So I did quite well with uh a piece that I wrote ages ago. Um, and I just happened to mention that as a child of the 1980s, because I am that old as we've established earlier today. I I used to do roller skating. I was one of those roller skating girls. And um and so you can so see that, can't you?

Speaker 1: 43:09

And um I do, I love it. I'm jealous. I'm roller skating.

unknown: 43:14

Do it. I love that.

Speaker: 43:15

Yeah, I didn't do that. I was totally out there. And so I mentioned that in a post. So something about, you know, the dog you had, roller skating. Yeah, you know, though, you know still be light, entertaining. Something light and entertaining, but make it into a metaphor. Use AI to make it into a metaphor or to weave it into a story or something that's about your work. You don't want to make it all personal, otherwise, you're confusing how it is your thought or. Yep. Um, the third piece of content that I think salespeople can put out is really by sharing case studies, you've got permission to share, um, and also by looking at what's happening in your industry. So this is similar to thought leadership in that it's it's asking, answering frequently asked questions, but it may just be an event that you've gone to. Take pictures of all of the speakers, reiterate their key points, like be the spokesperson for your industry. So not just your company, not just your FAQs, but what's happening more broadly. And if you can always make your those types of content, we think about this as you know, number three type of content, then that is, you know, making it about other people, other things, other movers, other shakers. Make your customers the hero. Jump on and do a quick video with them. You know, make them like, you know, make them famous, talk about it. There are a lot of beautiful uh engineers doing some really great work on LinkedIn, and one of them is in Western Australia, and he does something to do with I kid you not, pipes. And these pipes are massive and they travel around Australia on on road trains, and he does video sh footage with like a drone of these pipes just going through different places and things like that. And the amount of clicks these this content gets is huge. Anybody in the building construction sales, that sort of stuff, people love seeing tunnels being built, they love behind the scenes. I know it sounds really weird, people love it. Get out your phone, shoot a quick video. Just check with Malarketing. Are we allowed to show this? You know, because they might have a fit if you do a video and nobody's wearing their safety hats or something. Oh, yeah. Just check with the legalities, you know, is this all all right? But um, those are the sort of pieces of content. But in terms of your success, remember that you really do need to reach out. And on LinkedIn, you've got those search. So in the top left-hand corner, you've got a search bar on LinkedIn, and it's not just for names. You can put one keyword in there and then look on your screen for all filters. And I say look on your screen because I reckon in 2026, probably 2027 is definitely, they're gonna move that all filters button. So that all filters button is where you can search by industry, you can search by job title right at the very bottom. I need to pay sales navigator. Yes. Yep. And you can also search by company, you know. So if you bring up a company page on LinkedIn, just hover over where it says employees and you can click on that, and again, you can click on all filters. But that all filters button I've seen on some profiles has moved. So I reckon LinkedIn are probably gonna move it permanently later in the year.

Speaker 1: 46:34

They keep they're keeping us on our toes, that's for sure. I love the intention behind even searching for a company and then adding multiple people in that company because again, that creates that second connection trust factor. I feel like, Karen, we're gonna have to do a part two of this because there's still so much that we can, you know, kind of talk about. But I feel like this is there's there's so much in what we talked about today in terms of creating a nurture and engagement strategy. Uh, quickly on posting, how often, what's the minimum for some a salesperson to post? Once a week.

Speaker: 47:08

Once a week before I think if you do a week habit, like just once a week, what's happening this week?

Speaker 1: 47:14

And even I'm thinking the personal, because some people might be resistant to that, particularly if we've been on LinkedIn for a while and we're transitioning to it's not a corporate, you know, it's actually this is a part of your professional brand and creating connection. But I even think that category could be a behind the scenes, you know, behind the scenes photo of I'm like in the store, in the work, in the warehouse, walking to a client appointment, you know, like you out in the wild. So people are getting to know who you are. But again, it's not too personal if you're starting to warm up to this.

Speaker: 47:47

And you're showing the values of your of the organization as well. And you've got to remember a lot of buyers are buying for values. Um, you know, it's really interesting how um how people will go, you know, I don't want to buy from that company. Like they want switch, they do this, they don't have nice values, you know. True. You're somebody with a bunch of integrity. So if you see people on LinkedIn and they're going, you know, oh my gosh, we're just celebrating that so-and-so's had a birthday or whatever, like you might go, oh my gosh, really putting this on LinkedIn, but you know, and then you do a piece about the values of the organization. That's what I love about working here. You're not talking about this is all of us on the yacht at Sydney Harbor celebrating our massive sales year. You're talking about the values, the feeling, what the organization cares about. Show all that behind the scenes stuff.

Speaker 1: 48:34

Amazing. There are so many good tactical things for salespeople and all of us to really take away. So if if if somebody's listening and watching, thinking, oh, where do I start? What's one action that they can take in the next 24 hours that you think would be really valuable for them?

Speaker: 48:51

Change your job title on LinkedIn from sales to something something expert. Be an expert, be a specialist. Yes.

Speaker 1: 49:00

Value value. Simple and so powerful. Thank you so much, Karen. Now, no surprises, people can find you on LinkedIn. And you are extremely generous with resources, FAQs. You have so many, so many tidbits. So, where do you want people to come and friendly stalk you?

Speaker: 49:18

Yeah, come and find me on LinkedIn. Click more or the three buttons on my profile and click connect. Don't just follow me. And I do. I've got tons of free stuff. Tons and tons and tons of free stuff. So if there's anything you're wondering, let me know.

Speaker 1: 49:29

You're so generous with your time and thank you for sharing your knowledge. And also, I'm going to put an extra challenge out there to you beautiful people. Why not send Karen or me or both of us a LinkedIn voice note? Extra bonus points for you. And actually, if you do that, I will send you a copy of my book, first person to do that of Healthy Hustle. So if Karen or I, first person to get a voice note or a video, I mean, you know, then I'm gonna send you a copy of my book. Uh, thank you so much for joining us for this episode. It is filled to the brim with so many practical strategies, tools, techniques for us to really utilize LinkedIn as an amazing sales tool that it is. Karen, thank you for joining us once again. And I reckon we book in a part two in a few months so we can go even deeper. Have a great day, everybody. Thanks so much.