How to use LinkedIn and other social media tools to connect, engage and sell prospects. LinkedIn and social media selling strategies and revenue results are included.

1. Denver Sales Symposium
Using Social Selling to
Create Meaningful (and
profitable) Connections
By Christopher Ryan, CEO
Fusion Marketing Partners

2. The Objectives: Why You Need Meaningful Connections
1. Generate leads and shorten
the sales cycle.
4. Most important: Hit your
revenue goals more
consistently.
2. Boost awareness: Be
seen as “the” go-to
solution provider.
3. Increase number of LI
followers and connections.

3. The Problem
“The percentage of salespeople actually
meeting their quota has dropped over a five-year
period—it’s down to 53 percent. However, those
salespeople who are using social selling have a 50
percent higher chance of reaching quota.”
Source: Ducttape Marketing.

4. Life Gets Really Good when You Generate Meaningful
Connections
Your high-value
relationship is a
barrier that can
prevent other
companies from
taking your
revenue.
Rewards are great in terms of
awareness, trust and credibility
Equally important is
what you will get less
of: competition, slow
sales cycles, and
missed revenue.

5. How Are We Going to Make it Happen?
 Part 1: Create the Foundation for Success
 Part 2: Increase Number of Connections and Followers
 Part 3: Engage with Prospects, Customers and Influencers
 Part 4: Sell People Something
And do all of this
without
the need for high-
pressure sales!

6. Part 1: Create the Foundation for Success
• Align messaging on LI company page with website messaging.
• Update your profile and summary to align with messaging.
• Include photo and endorsements on your profile.
• Make sure privacy settings allow you to accept followers and allow
connections and followers to see your activity.
• Add social media icons to every outbound communication.
• Sign up for upgraded LinkedIn edition (InMails + advanced search).

7. Part 2 : Increase Number of Connections and Followers
• Find new prospects by looking at profiles of existing connections and
navigating to “People Also Viewed” profiles on right side of page.
• Also look at profiles of potential prospects – some will look back!
• Follow relevant prospects who do not connect with you (allows you to
see and share their content).
• Can also find prospects’ profiles by searching outside LinkedIn:
site:LinkedIn.com “VP Sales”.
• Research company and individual LI profiles prior to reaching out.
(Map the account)

8. Part 2 (cont): Increase Number of Connections and
Followers
• Turn off private viewing and reach out to those who view your profile (5-12% of
these will connect).
• Save prospect searches and have LI update these weekly or monthly. Example:
“Search for all high tech CFOs within 50 miles of Chicago” will give you a weekly
update of new matches.
• Follow the LI updates of your target companies (and key personnel) to gather
useful sales intelligence.
• Search for content using all-hashtag.com. Example: a search for #revenue model:
#revenuemodel #content #monetizationmodel #marketresearch #industryresearch #marketsize #marketgrowth
#markettrends #marketentry #marketingstrategies #competitors #customerbehaviour #competitoranalysis
#businessmodel #strategicplanning #revenue #whitepaper #onlinestreaming #audience #subscribers

9. Because your
Network will have
a lot to do with your
Net Worth!
Always Build Your Network

10. Part 3: Engage with Prospects, Customers and Influencers
• Share your company’s LinkedIn updates.
• Post your own updates - with a 3-to-1 ratio of education to sales.
• Join and participate with groups.
• Share prospects’ and industry influencers’ updates and articles (use hash tags
mentioned in part 2).
• Take suggested actions under the “notification” tab: e.g. congratulate on work event.
• Pay special attention to “trigger events” (e.g. job switch, promotion, award).
• Boost the visibility of your social posts with keywords tools like TagCrowd.com.

11. Example of TagCrowd
Based on search of FusionMarketingPartners.com

12. Part 4: Sell Something to Your New Connections
• Use information from the prospect’s profile to turn the ‘cold’
outreach into a ‘warm’ outreach’
Example: “Noticed that you are also a CU Buffs Alum”
• Tie your sales message to an update in their profile.
Example: “Fascinating article you posted about_____”
• Reference a common connection:
Example: “Bob Smith is an old colleague”
• Use InMail to get past gatekeepers. (LI claims 30x greater response)

13. Suggested Activity Cadence (for sales)
1. Connect to 15-20 individuals per week – send a message
with a connection request.*
2. Send “welcome” message to new connections within 24
hours.
3. Post 2-3 updates per week, including liking, commenting and
sharing connections’ updates.
4. Share every new blog post and article.
5. Send out 5-10 LinkedIn emails.
Note: the more level 1 connections, the more
access to level 2 connections.

14. How You Sell is More of a Competitive
Differentiation than What You Sell.
Winning formula:
Elevated Relationships
=
More Revenue
and More Profit
Elevated Relationships
Begin with
Meaningful
Connections
The real problem may be that you are
selling at the lower end of the value
chain and being perceived as a
commodity supplier, where sales cycles
are long and price pressure is greatest.

15. Connections Can Move You Up the Food Chain
Trusted Adviser
Consultant
Preferred Vendor
Vendor
STRATEGIC
TACTICAL
C-level relationships; sought out for vision
and advice prior to formation of project teams.
Called upon by senior/mid-level operating
management to evaluate & advise.
Have a champion; collaborate on RFP
prep; less price sensitive.
Recognized as a commodity supplier; no
champion; price sensitive; asked to bid.

16. About Fusion Marketing Partners
Christopher Ryan, CEO
We Do This:
 Brand building/messaging
 Lead-to-revenue modeling
 Lead Generation
 Website optimization
 Content creation
You Get:
• More Awareness
• More Leads
• More Revenue
cryan@fusionmarketingpartners.com
719-357-6280
http://FusionMarketingPartners.com/