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

holding your business growth back?

Selling isn't the problem my friend.

Bad selling is.

G'day everyone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

want more sales for their business.

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

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

of leads to keep their business going.

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

This is a problem across the board.

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

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

of don't be salesy on LinkedIn.

And it is really hurting you.

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

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

so we can avoid that fear of rejection.

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

to help you grow your business.

That is exactly why I do this podcast.

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

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

So they are in that frame of mind.

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

seems a bit ludicrous to me.

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

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

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

on LinkedIn without feeling icky, without resorting to tactics which

are more akin to spray and pray.

I'm not a big fan of that either.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

that is in service of your audience.

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

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

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

see, do you really know your stuff?

Are you my kind of person?

Are you the person that I want to work with?

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

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

and engaging with other people.

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

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

because you did a post on LinkedIn.

Like there is so much more to it than that.

Can we just get that part really clear?

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

people to buy in an online world.

So connecting strategically with the right people, nurturing those

relationships by being responsive to comments, direct messages, following

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

that keep conversations going.

If you invest your time in building relationships with people

and being curious about them.

What's going on for them in their world?

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

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

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

You won't feel slimy.

You won't feel pushy.

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

you do will make a difference to them.

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

that their problem will go away.

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

know, excited about the possibility of working with these clients

when you've done the work first.

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

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

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

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

make offers without feeling pushy.

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

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

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

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

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

some of them are softer selling.

So what do I mean by that?

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

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

before they disappear, right?

So that's a hard sell in your face.

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

because I've been building your trust.

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

Hey, here it is.

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

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

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

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

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

with as well, why not reach out?

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

I'll send you something.

So think about subtle ways that we can do it.

We're giving people choices.

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

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

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

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

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

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

people are like going, stay away.

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

connections with an automated tool.

Hey, buy my stuff.

Yeah, that doesn't work either.

So we're not doing that.

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

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

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

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

These types of things give people choices.

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

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

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

They never have that experience of me.

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

isn't about pushing people.

It's about helping people find the right solution.

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

problem solving and helping people.

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

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

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

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

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

like I'm being salesy on LinkedIn.

That's why my business continues to grow.

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

There's nothing weird.

There's nothing aggressive.

It is literally how I grow my business.

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

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

been on the World Page Advocacy tour.

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

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

So I'm going to report that back.

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

get value from this podcast.

Please share it with them.

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

episodes, I really appreciate all of you.

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

me to know that it's helping you.

So until next week, cheers.