How to Sell on LinkedIn Without Being Salesy

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Everyone says don't be salesy on LinkedIn, but what if that's what's actually

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holding your business growth back?

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Selling isn't the problem my friend.

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Bad selling is.

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G'day everyone.

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It is coach Michelle J Raymond, and I am super excited.

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I am still traveling the world on my Global Page Advocacy Tour,

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and I'm going to have so much that I'm going to share with you.

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So I recorded this episode in advance and let's be clear as I've been preparing

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for this and absorbing everything I can in these two conferences, Uplift Live

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and Social Media Marketing World, I've been surrounded by all things marketing.

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And there's a little piece of me that 20 years that I spent in B2B sales,

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which I think I need to get out in this episode, because no matter how many

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people I talk to, the number one problem that always keeps coming up is people

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want more sales for their business.

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I know that there are people that are consultants in small businesses that

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are really doing things tough because they can't generate the right amount

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of leads to keep their business going.

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And realistically, it does not matter the size of your business.

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This is a problem across the board.

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And I actually think that we're doing it to ourselves for the most part.

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I think that there are too many people out there following the advice

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of don't be salesy on LinkedIn.

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And it is really hurting you.

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And I think that I understand where people are coming from because there's

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so many annoyingly bad sales practices on LinkedIn that we don't want to be that

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so we can avoid that fear of rejection.

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So I totally get it from that side of things, but ultimately I'm here

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to help you grow your business.

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That is exactly why I do this podcast.

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Like it's all about leveraging LinkedIn for business growth.

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Think about this, logically, LinkedIn is a platform where people come to do business.

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So they are in that frame of mind.

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To avoid doing the thing that we all come onto this platform expecting

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seems a bit ludicrous to me.

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And so this is why I want to talk about this more.

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So sales isn't the problem, bad selling practices are.

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So how do we simplify this and make sure that you can confidently sell

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on LinkedIn without feeling icky, without resorting to tactics which

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are more akin to spray and pray.

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I'm not a big fan of that either.

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And so I'm going to take you through my three step framework to selling the right

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way, and also how you can make offers without feeling like you're being pushy.

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So if that sounds good to you, stick around after this quick word from

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our podcast sponsors Metricool, I'm going to share all the details.

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I'm going to give you a really simple, easy framework to follow just three

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steps so that you can make sure that you are selling the right way on LinkedIn.

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Number one, lead with value first, share all of the information that educates

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your buyer on the other side that helps them to make their decisions confidently.

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We live in a world where buyers do so much research before they

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reach out to salespeople that it's really important to make sure that

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you are sharing the kind of content that helps them along that journey.

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Ultimately, we're talking about thought leadership, education, content

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that is in service of your audience.

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You know, those things that I say pretty much every single podcast episode.

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So leading with value first, so we're not asking them for anything as yet.

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It's almost like the taste tester that they get for free up front to

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see, do you really know your stuff?

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Are you my kind of person?

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Are you the person that I want to work with?

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So this is the type of content that we're doing.

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Number two, you're going to focus on building relationships

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and engaging with other people.

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It's really hard in an online world where there's billions of scams

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going on every day for people to just immediately trust you just

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because you did a post on LinkedIn.

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Like there is so much more to it than that.

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Can we just get that part really clear?

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Posting content alone does not build the trust that you need for

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people to buy in an online world.

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So connecting strategically with the right people, nurturing those

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relationships by being responsive to comments, direct messages, following

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things up, sharing thoughtful tips or articles that you've seen, things

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that keep conversations going.

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If you invest your time in building relationships with people

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and being curious about them.

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What's going on for them in their world?

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Do they have a need for a product or service that you offer?

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When the answer is you've discovered, yes, they do.

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You can confidently make that offer and I assure you, you will never feel icky.

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You won't feel slimy.

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You won't feel pushy.

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You won't feel salesy as people always say, because you'll know that what

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you do will make a difference to them.

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And you'll know that when you deliver those products or services,

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that their problem will go away.

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So you never have to feel anything, but confident, positive, and you

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know, excited about the possibility of working with these clients

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when you've done the work first.

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If you try and skip these steps, that's when it turns to icky, my friends.

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So three steps, really simple lead with value first, engage and build

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relationships second and then the third thing is confidently make your offer.

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I wanted to talk about some ways that I think will help people

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make offers without feeling pushy.

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So if you have already ticked the box that says the offer that I'm making is relevant

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to the person that I'm making it to, and you can confidently do that because

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you've invested in those conversations and building those relationships with people.

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The funny thing for me is I'm always selling on LinkedIn, like pretty much

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every single post, every interaction, some of them are more direct and

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some of them are softer selling.

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So what do I mean by that?

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Sometimes my posts will literally be, I have two spots available for this.

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If you would like to grab one of those spots, then jump in fast

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before they disappear, right?

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So that's a hard sell in your face.

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Here's my product or service, I've earned the right to share about it

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because I've been building your trust.

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I've been nurturing relationships, and that is something that is.

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Hey, here it is.

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I've got a solution to a problem that you might have.

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If I didn't want to do something that was such a hard sell and I wanted

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to do much softer than that, you can do things like when I'm sharing

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content, I'll talk about a problem that I've been working on with a client.

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And at the end, I can say, if this is something that you've been struggling

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with as well, why not reach out?

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Let's have a chat or drop yes in the comments and I'll respond.

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I'll send you something.

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So think about subtle ways that we can do it.

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We're giving people choices.

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It's up to them, whether they reach out or not, but always making sure that they

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know that you're available to work with and it's a much easier way to do it.

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And I encourage you, if you are doing the work to make sure that you are

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adding value and educating your audience, you've earned the right to do this.

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It's only when you talk about yourself all day, every day.

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Don't care about them and are practically broadcasting and talking at them that

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people are like going, stay away.

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The same thing goes when you just spam 50 million of your closest LinkedIn

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connections with an automated tool.

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Hey, buy my stuff.

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Yeah, that doesn't work either.

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So we're not doing that.

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So you have no fear when it comes to these kinds of things.

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The other way you can do it is just you know, other CTAs, so the call to

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actions at the bottom of your posts, they can just be really subtle.

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Like if you'd like a free intro call with me go to my website.

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These types of things give people choices.

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They never feel like you're trying to shove something down their throat.

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Honestly, like as much as every single day on LinkedIn with most of the

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interactions that I'm having, I never feel like I'm doing a hard sell to people.

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They never have that experience of me.

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And that's because, you know, at the end of the day, sales

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isn't about pushing people.

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It's about helping people find the right solution.

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And so my context for selling, which is why I love doing it so much is

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problem solving and helping people.

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So the more LinkedIn problems that I can discover that people have out there, the

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more ways that my training or my audit and strategy or my LinkedIn profile

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services, the more that I can offer those that can take that pain away from people.

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You know, for me, there's never been a day where I've showed up on

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LinkedIn, not in service of my audience and so I have never had to feel

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like I'm being salesy on LinkedIn.

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That's why my business continues to grow.

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So if yours isn't try what you've learned here today.

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There's nothing weird.

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There's nothing aggressive.

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It is literally how I grow my business.

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So listeners until next week, it's going to be a big one.

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Cause that's when I get to recap everything that I've covered while I've

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been on the World Page Advocacy tour.

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There's going to be so many things that I've experienced that I've

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seen and people that I've spoken to and learned from other presenters.

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So I'm going to report that back.

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So if there's somebody else in your network that you think will

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get value from this podcast.

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Please share it with them.

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And to those of you who have recently done LinkedIn posts, talking about different

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episodes, I really appreciate all of you.

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You are helping me spread the word and it means the world to

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me to know that it's helping you.

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So until next week, cheers.