Selling Your Offerings on LinkedIn

There are many different ways in which you  can sell your products and/or services. One of the effective ways to do that is on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has far more capabilities than you, as a business owner, might realize.

The misperceptions of LinkedIn

There are some professionals who believe that all they have to do is to write and publish content and, poof, everyone in the universe will be able to read it and those people will start to interact, leave comments, and ask questions of the content writer. Unfortunately, what those people don’t understand is that posting content as a final step is rather like opening a casino in the Nevada desert. If you don’t let anyone know about it, those people can’t benefit and you can’t benefit because nobody will be trying to interact with you. In other words, you will be finished before you actually begin.

If you have the greatest content around but nobody reads it, where will you be?

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So, posting without syndicating (or sharing) is the first misperception. The second one is that it is next to impossible to successfully acquire business through your interactions on LinkedIn. It is actually easier and more effective than you might think it is. Interestingly, LinkedIn has tremendous capabilities beyond what many people understand. A little bit of research and some time will show you just how beneficial LinkedIn can be for your business.

Another misperception is that LinkedIn requires a great deal of devoted, concentrated attention each and every week. That is not necessarily the case. You may be able to spend a lot less time and make a lot less effort than you think. The key to your success in that regard is consistency and commitment. If you are willing to devote a specific amount of time each week to LinkedIn for your business, you will begin to see results relatively quickly. 

The last misperception that you may have (or may have heard) about LinkedIn is that you will never be able to sell anything on that tool, no matter how much effort you devote to it. That is simply not true. It is just a matter of your understanding what to do. Once you have nailed that, you will have an easy time of it.

LinkedIn is geared toward selling (in a subtle manner)

The truth of the matter is that LinkedIn is built for selling your products and/or services. In fact, one of the groups of people to whom LinkedIn is geared is salespeople. LinkedIn has an objective to enable salespeople to obtain more and more business. The mystery here is that so many people believe the opposite about the social media channel. In this case, it is important to define exactly what selling is and what it should not be.

First of all, selling does not only mean forcing your products and/or services onto the other person and then getting that person to agree to buy whatever you are selling. Selling is a process (or a journey, if you will) and to go from Point A to Point B takes nurturing, patience, relationship building, and a whole lot of other human interactions. Selling requires:

• Truly listening to the other person and what he or she wants and needs.

• Educating the other person and offering that person valuable information that he or she can apply to his or her own business.

• Drawing your prospects to you and engaging them over and over again.

• Achieving a status of subject matter expert so that the next time your prospects need precisely what you are selling, you are the first person who comes to their mind.

It is actually safe to say that if you don’t take advantage of LinkedIn’s selling power, you will be doing you, your business, and your prospects a huge disservice. One essential difference between traditional selling and selling on a social media channel, such as LinkedIn, is that you need to build the relationship more solidly before you can do anything else when you are using social media.

Conclusion

When it comes to selling on LinkedIn, there is a delicate balance about which you need to be sensitive. You absolutely can sell on LinkedIn, however, your interactions should be a subtle as possible. You still don’t want to make the other person feel as though you are knocking him or her over the head with your products and or services in an effort to get that person to say “yes.” However, with that said, LinkedIn can be instrumental in helping you to identify the right people and valuable information. LinkedIn allows you to develop your brand very effectively and that will speak volumes to your prospective clients and existing clients.

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