July 13, 2025 • 39 mins
The mysterious world of LinkedIn selling doesn't have to be intimidating. Rich Brooks, president of Flight New Media and founder of the Agents of Change, breaks down exactly how B2B service providers can leverage LinkedIn to build meaningful relationships that naturally convert to sales—without the awkward pitch-slapping that makes us all cringe.
Unlike Instagram or Facebook where direct selling is common, LinkedIn demands a more nuanced approach focused on establishing expertise and building trust. Rich shares his framework for LinkedIn success, starting with profile optimization using strategic keywords and professional imagery. He explains the critical importance of checking your Social Selling Index (SSI)—LinkedIn's algorithm that determines your content reach—and offers practical tips to improve your score and visibility.
What makes this conversation particularly valuable is Rich's emphasis on "consent-based selling"—an approach where you build relationships first and only offer solutions when someone has explicitly expressed a need. "Nobody likes to be sold, but everybody loves to buy," he explains, outlining how to move conversations naturally from public comments to private messages to eventual sales calls without coming across as pushy or desperate.
The episode covers everything from earning credibility badges, strategically building your network to 500+ connections, creating native video content, and contributing to AI-generated articles—all tactics that position you as a trusted authority in your field. Whether you're new to LinkedIn or looking to refine your approach, these actionable insights will transform how you view social selling on this powerful B2B platform.
Ready to transform your LinkedIn strategy? Subscribe to Tiny Marketing for more practical, immediately applicable marketing advice for service-based business owners. How are you currently using LinkedIn? We'd love to hear your experiences!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, hey, welcome to episode 145.
This is Tiny Marketing, and Iam Sarah Noelle Block.
Today we are getting intoLinkedIn social selling
strategies with Rich Brooks.
Enjoy, hey, everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof Tiny Marketing.
Today we're diving into a topicthat I'm super excited about
(00:24):
selling on LinkedIn.
Whether you're new to theplatform or a seasoned pro.
Linkedin offers incrediblepotential for B2B service
founders like you.
But let's be real LinkedIn canbe a bit of a mystery.
It's not just about addingconnections, posting updates.
It's not like all of the othersocial media platforms.
(00:44):
Posting updates, it's not likeall of the other social media
platforms.
There's a whole strategy behindhow to do it effectively to be
able to sell your services, andthat's exactly what we're going
to uncover today.
Today's interview is with RichBrooks and he's going to teach
us his social selling strategyfor LinkedIn.
So if you're struggling withleads, or perhaps you're getting
(01:06):
leads but they're notconverting into clients,
whatever the case might be,we've got actionable insights
that you can use to turn thingsaround.
So why should you even careabout LinkedIn?
Great question, linkedin iswhere decision makers hang out.
It's a platform filled withprofessionals and it's designed
(01:28):
for networking.
You're basically finding littlelike water coolers, to hang out
in and talk to people who couldbe potential clients for you or
referral partners for you.
Unlike Facebook or Instagram,linkedin is all about the
professional reputation andrelationships.
(01:49):
It's really about buildingrelationships.
It's where all of my bizfriends have been made.
So in today's episode, we'lluncover everything that you need
to know to maximize yourLinkedIn strategy, build those
long relationships and convertyour audience there's a bee
flying past this camera toclients.
(02:12):
Okay, so grab a cup of coffee,get comfy.
Or, if you're like me, you'reprobably listening to this while
you work out, or you're walkingthe dogs or you're cleaning the
house.
You know what you do, you.
You don't have to have a coffee.
All right, stay tuned.
Hey Rich, thanks for joining metoday.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Sarah, I am so pleased that you asked.
Pleased as punch.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Thanks so much.
Yeah, we're talking today abouteverybody's favorite topic.
Absolutely everyone I have aconversation with brings up
LinkedIn to me, maybe becausethat's my primary channel, or
maybe that's just what's ontheir mind, but everybody is all
about LinkedIn.
We talk to B2B service founderson this show.
So that's what your thing is.
(02:59):
You are very good at that, andwe're homing in on the selling
piece of it.
I saw a LinkedIn post fromMolly, who's also part of this
LinkedIn series, that said um,with Instagram, it's selling,
selling, selling.
You can sell really easily andyou can sell every day, but on
LinkedIn it's a whole otherapproach.
(03:20):
It's really subtle.
So I'm excited to hear from you.
Can you introduce yourself toanyone who doesn't know who you
are yet?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, I'd be pleased to, because I'm sure a lot of
your listeners have no idea whoI am, but my name is Rich Brooks
.
I'm the president of Flight NewMedia.
It's a digital agency I startedover 27 years ago.
We're located in Portland,maine, one of the most beautiful
places in the entire world tocome visit, and we offer
services like branding, webdesign, seo, social media,
(03:49):
digital advertising, and on topof that, I'm also the founder of
the Agents of Change, which isa weekly podcast and I was
blessed to have Sarah on my shownot too long ago and we've had
over 500 episodes of that show.
I think we're coming up on like540.
And that's also an annualconference that we put on as
well, which we have again herein Portland Maine, and this year
(04:17):
will be our 10th annual Agentsof Change Digital.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Marketing Conference.
So that's a little bit of who Iam.
That is awesome.
Yeah, podcasting has reallychanged the way I do business
and I'm always recommending that, even if you don't want to
podcast, you at least have likea episodic kind of content, so
you're always showing up andbuilding new relationships with
people.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's probably my favorite content creation
vehicle right now.
Like for years, I preferredblogging.
I just love to write.
But as blogging has become moreand more competitive in the SEO
world and I found myself movingfrom I could write out a blog
post in 30 to 60 minutes and itwould perform we now find
ourselves spending 8 to 10 to 12hours per blog post in my
(05:01):
company Wow, and not as goodreturns, even though I think the
content we're producing is evenbetter than when I was just you
know, kind of knocking them outleft and right.
But podcasts whether you haveyour own show, like you and I do
, or whether you just decidethat you want to guest on other
people's show I think it's justsuch an easier lift, especially
when you're just getting started.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So it is, and I feel like it's more intimate to a
blog post.
You don't know who wrote ituntil you're scrolling looking
for a name for a specific person, like purpose, but with a
podcast, you know that person.
I have mentioned this beforeand I cannot remember what it is
, but there is like a syndrome,I'm going to say, where you feel
(05:45):
like you are friends with thepodcast hosts because they're
just like living in your ears.
It's a very intimate experience.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
But podcasting isn't what we're talking about today.
We're talking about LinkedIn,so let's get into it.
So you have an agency.
I am going to guess that you'regetting the majority of your
clients from LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're getting a percentage of it.
I I am a strong believer thatit's not ever one thing that
gets the sale.
It sometimes is, but but Ithink it's about getting in
front of people and positioningyourself as an expert, and I
know we're going to talk aboutsales and selling on LinkedIn
today and I'm happy to share anytechniques or skills that I've
(06:29):
developed over the years, but Ithink so much of the power of
LinkedIn is just the ability toestablish yourself as an expert
in the field that you want to beknown for and getting yourself
in front of your best prospects.
And I know that you weretalking about how you know on
Instagram, you can sell, sell,sell.
That is very much a consumerfacing platform, and I started
(06:56):
off.
Obviously, I've been doing thisfor a while.
You know I was an early adopterto Twitter.
I was on Facebook pretty earlyon as well, and I enjoyed them
at the time.
I honestly can't stand themanymore, like when people say to
me oh, you're the social mediaguy.
I'm like I slightly groan andthen I say, well, you can find
me on LinkedIn.
(07:16):
Like I know that sounds old,but LinkedIn is my favorite
social media platform, in partbecause I can get more done in
five minutes on a more effectivework done on LinkedIn in about
five minutes a day, or evenevery third day, than I ever
could on Facebook or Twitter orany other platform.
So for me it's just a veryefficient use of my marketing
(07:39):
time as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, for me it's fun because it feels like hanging
out with my friends.
I'll go on there and then I'llenter little watering holes
where I'm having conversationswith people in comments, and
it's like networking all thetime, a place where I can go and
make friends with people.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah.
So I mean, for me it's been agreat platform to connect with
people.
I also use it.
So I use it in many differentways for doing sales, but one of
the most effective ways,because I am not that kind of
guy who slams the top of a usedcar and says what is it going to
take you to get into this cartoday, like I don't want to sell
to anybody who doesn't need myservices, and that's something I
(08:21):
tell my employees all the time.
We're not pushing products,we're trying to understand pain
points and see if we have asolution for it, and so that's
the approach I take for LinkedInas well.
So I mean, if somebody islooking for help, how do I start
generating business on LinkedInor how do I start selling my
business on LinkedIn?
For me, the first thing is youjust start with your profile.
(08:42):
You need to make sure that yourprofile that's your tentpole on
LinkedIn, and so you want tospend a lot of time there really
developing that.
You know, with a professionalheadshot, or at least a really
friendly headshot, you know itcomes down to what are the words
that the search engine inLinkedIn is very basic compared
to, say, google, so making sureyou've got keywords in there,
(09:04):
like I will sometimes go toLinkedIn and be like I need a
photographer or I need avideographer or I need a
copywriter and I need them, youknow, if it's a, you know I like
working with people herelocally in Maine, so I'll then
narrow the search down to Maine.
So, knowing what people arelooking for when they're looking
for somebody who offers yourservices, and making sure those
things go into your headline andthe description of your current
(09:27):
company and yourresponsibilities and definitely
your about section, those areall things that are really
critical.
And when I come into companiesand do training on LinkedIn
which is something I love doingthat's one of the places where
we spend the most time.
It's just let's go through afew of the employees' profiles
and really make them the bestthey can be, because a lot of
(09:47):
people they sign up for LinkedInyears ago they basically
thought it was a place to postyour resume and that's it, but
there's this 5% of us that haverealized that it is a Swiss army
knife of B2B marketing and it'sso powerful, but you have to
spend an hour or two.
I would recommend reallycreating the best personal
(10:07):
profile you can be and reallymaxing it out.
I mean, there's the featuredsection and you can put up
videos and just really make itas active as you can be, and I
think that goes a long way togetting things ready so that you
can start quote unquote sellingon LinkedIn.
But for me, like just you know,today I have a lead from
somebody they called up and Igot back to them.
(10:29):
But the very first thing I everalways do, if somebody wants to
meet with me or whatever it is,I look them up on LinkedIn.
I see if they're on LinkedIn, Isee if they're active on
LinkedIn.
I try and get a better sense ofthem.
I used to do this on Facebook,but now I don't really use
Facebook for that anymore.
So I go to LinkedIn and then,once I get to see a little bit
about them, then I try andconnect with them.
(10:50):
I send them that invitation andI also tell them the reason
we're meeting.
And I don't do a lot ofoutbound requests on LinkedIn.
I field a lot, but for me it'slike I'm just trying to
strengthen that relationship.
So they can see how serious Iam both about LinkedIn but also
about their business, that I'mtaking this extra step.
I'm learning about them, I'mlearning about their company.
(11:11):
I'll add something personal inthat note.
And then that's usually a greatway of kind of solidifying that
, that weak tie, if you will, orthat early stage relationship,
so that we can discover is therean opportunity for the two of
us to work together?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, that's one thing that I always have in my
forms is drop your LinkedInprofile here so I can check them
out, I can connect with themand even if it doesn't turn into
a sale right away, I have foundthat connecting on LinkedIn has
been a great nurturing tool too, like, okay, they didn't
(11:49):
convert immediately, but threemonths later it did convert
because they got to know me,they interacted with my content
or whatever, but we built acloser relationship through it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Absolutely, and you got to remember that B2B sales
tend to be a lot longer.
The sales cycle is a lot longerthan B2C.
So I mean putting you know,starting to build those
relationships that's thefoundation of selling when it
comes to B2B.
So putting yourself out there,educating, I think it's a fine
line.
On LinkedIn and other peoplehave different opinions of how
(12:23):
personal you should be I thinkyou should be 100% a human being
when you're on LinkedIn,whether you're creating your own
posts or, like you said,commenting on other people's
posts.
We want to see that we'redealing with humans.
But I also like LinkedInbecause nobody posts pictures of
their kids graduating fromkindergarten looking for
congratulations.
So for me it's like, yes, Iwant to be personable here, I
(12:43):
want to be human here, but I maynot share as much as I would
have back in the day on Facebookor Instagram.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, I don't think anybody is sharing their
personal stuff the way that theyused to.
It's weird become.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I see some posts on LinkedIn where I'm like this
should have been a this out.
This feels like a Facebook postto me.
Like.
I'm definitely seeing that andfor me and this is just me
that's a turnoff, like that'sjust like not what I want to
talk about when I come toLinkedIn.
And this is one of the reasonsI like LinkedIn because it does
tend to be about business andI'm an entrepreneur and I like
having these discussions withother business owners and other
(13:20):
marketers, building thoserelationships with ultimately
leads to sales and for me,sometimes speaking.
And I like having thesediscussions with other business
owners and other marketers,building those relationships
with ultimately leads to salesand for me, sometimes speaking
gigs as well.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
So, for the personal profiles, we talked about SEO
search engine optimization usingthe right keywords, taking
advantage of all of the sectionsthat are available within your
profile, like the featuredadding services, and filling out
that about section.
Is there anything that you havefound that scares people away
(13:48):
from people's profiles?
Any red flags?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Well, I think of it more like when I so I batch my
accepting of invitations forFriday morning.
I have a list of things that Itackle on Friday morning and
LinkedIn invitations respondingto them or one of them.
You know this has beensomething that's evolved over
the years.
I used to respond immediately.
Now I just find like once aweek I knock everything out at
once and although I am guilty ofthis, like in my header, my
(14:16):
headline it says what I do.
I'm a digital marketer and Ihelp businesses generate more
leads online.
Give me a call, whatever it is,but when I'm on the receiving
end of that, sometimes it canactually close some doors.
Because right now, the adviceis don't put down something like
president or CMO or whatever itmay be in your headline.
(14:39):
Instead, tell people what youdo and how you help your ideal
audience, which is great, butsometimes that can immediately
close the door before you get achance to talk to somebody.
So I get probably five to 10invitations to connect each week
that say I can guarantee youfive additional sales calls a
(15:00):
week or could you handle 20 newclients a month?
And to me, that and maybe it'sthe way that they're presenting
it rather than what they'reactually.
It's such a turnoff that itimmediately closes that door for
me.
So I think you kind of have tofind that balance, like it's
okay that you're not all rightfor everybody, but sometimes
that headline can come on sostrong that you feel like, if I
(15:22):
let this person into my LinkedInlife, all they're going to be
doing is pitching me 24 sevenand I know I hate to be pitched
to like I know when I needsomething and I will find you,
or I know that you docybersecurity and you're local
or you've been well-recommended.
I'm going to talk to you then,but I may not want to the second
we connect.
(15:42):
I may not want to buy yourcybersecurity services.
So I think, as we're doing this, we need to be aware of not
raising those red flags forpotential customers and not
necessarily closing those doors,but rather just opening
conversations so that we canstart to network and see, hey,
(16:05):
maybe you're not right for this,but maybe you know somebody who
does need cybersecurity or SEOor email marketing or whatever
it is, and that's where thatconnections come from.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, I found the same thing, that certain job
titles that are in the headlines.
They scare me off.
I'm like, oh, this is going tobe a pitch slap, I know it.
I'm just going to avoid it now.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And yeah, I hadn't heard that one before, but I
like that I may use it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It's all yours.
So we optimize our profile andhow do we start building
credibility within the feed?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I think a lot of that just comes.
So what I've started doingmyself because I want to be
consistent and there's I'musually not somebody who tries
to time when specific posts aregoing to be, but I also know
that running my own company andthen having my own podcast and
putting on a conference, likethings, just happen so I have
started to come like createlists of things that I want to
talk about, things that I wantto share on LinkedIn, so I
(17:03):
always have some content I canshare.
And my personal goal for me isthat I'm going to post three
times a week and it doesn't meanthat I'm always posting really
heavy educational information,but I try to like when I learned
something new.
Right now, like half of theworld, I'm really focused on AI
and how that impacts my businessand marketing and my clients,
and so when I find somethingthat I think is really neat and
(17:25):
very helpful, I'll create alittle video and I'll show
people hey, have you tried?
What I did recently is, haveyou tried talking to your data
using AI?
And so I had this little videothat shows how I'm using a
couple of different tools to getbetter information out of the
data that's in front of me and Ithought that was helpful and a
lot of people responded to it.
But just today, just got backfrom some time off and right
(17:46):
before I left I took my team outfor a day of archery at LL Bean
and had some photos that Iwanted to share and that is work
related.
It's like, hey, we went out, wehad a great time, team bonding
and all this sort of stuff.
Here's a photo of us standing infront of the targets, so on and
so forth, and so it's more of alighter stuff, but I want to
stay visible in front of people.
I know all of my posts are goingto get some sort of engagement
(18:08):
because I built up my SSI, whichis LinkedIn's algorithm that
they share with us, the SocialSelling Index, and if you Google
LinkedIn SSI, you'll get to thepage that.
Then you can find out what yourown is and also how to improve
your SSI, and the reason youwould want to do this is because
it extends your reach.
So if I have a very low SSI andI post something, versus
(18:32):
somebody who posts the exactsame content but they have a
very high SSI, their post isjust going to go further.
It's going to get seen by morepeople.
Now, if my post is great, itwill also get seen by a lot of
people, and if their post isjust spam bait, it's not going
to get seen by a lot of people.
But all things being equal,improving your SSI will improve
(18:53):
your reach and improve yourability to finally make that
sale.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm intrigued.
I'm going to go to this SSIright now.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Your score is never as high as you want it to be,
because it's a pretty steepgrade right there, but at the
same time, it's like you can see.
The nice thing is it tells youhow you do within your network
and then how you do within yourindustry.
So you're in the top 5% of thisor the top 15% of that, and
that gives you a sense of likeOK, so maybe my score was only a
67 out of 100, but I'm in thetop 3% of my network.
(19:24):
I'm doing all right.
But that definitely is a scorethat you can, and it gives you
tips on what are the things thatyou're weak in, so that you can
concentrate on those andsuddenly raise your.
Oh, there you go.
Look at you.
Top 1%.
Fantastic, I just pulled it up.
I have nothing left to teachyou, grasshopper.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I highly doubt that because I have 37 out of 100 in
the people in my industry.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, no the people in your industry average 37.
You're a 71.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Oh, okay, and the people in your?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
network average of 43 .
So a lot of people just don'tdo this.
I mean, you have a perfectbuild relationship score right
there.
If people are looking at thevideo we're looking at your
screen right now, you can't getany better at building
relationships.
You know?
It says engage with insights,which I think is a little bit of
.
Personally, I'm like they justwant you to engage with the
(20:17):
things that they show.
There is the insights findingthe right people.
Maybe you're not going out andconnecting with as many people,
but perhaps people are coming toyou.
So it's not perfect, but itdoes.
You know.
It tells you if you do want toget that further, reach the kind
of things that you have to doto play by LinkedIn's rules so
(20:38):
that they're going to share yourcontent further.
And look, that's the onlyreason we're on LinkedIn is
because it's a networking site.
We want to build our brand, wewant to build our company and we
want to close sales.
It's not like social media,it's not like Facebook, where
what we want to do is postpictures of our kids or our dogs
or our lake house.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I mean sometimes Okay , so we've got our profile, we
know how often we should begoing on LinkedIn and actually
having conversations with postsand checking out our SSI, our
social selling index.
So what is?
(21:13):
Is there anything else that weneed to do to build credibility
with our audience or startprospecting on LinkedIn?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yes, One of the things that's really big right
now and I knew I was going toblank on what this is called,
but there are articles, AIgenerated articles that you can
contribute to.
Have you ever seen those badgeslike top B2B voice or top
marketing voice or top?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, I have top content marketing voice.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
There you go.
So you've contributed to thosearticles, I assume correct?
Yes, yeah, so if you, if you,if you're listening and you
don't know what we're talkingabout?
Um, there are content articlesthat are generated by AI, but
then use LinkedIn um members tocontribute to those articles and
I think, if it's like youcontribute to three articles,
(22:02):
you can earn the top badge forthat particular niche.
You can only have one on yourpage at a time, I believe at
this point but that's annoying.
Yeah, Cause I remember it's likeoh, I earned two, but I only
get to show one.
Right, and then you also have tokeep contributing, because I
also lost one one time and thenI was like holy cow, I better
(22:24):
step up my game.
And those only take what?
Five, 10 minutes to give ameaningful answer to one.
So one of my things that I tryand do is a couple times a week
I'll go in and I'll contributeto either content marketing or
B2B marketing, depending onwhich one I want to do.
It increases your visibility andthese are the kind of things
that get rewarded on LinkedIn.
So that's another way ofbuilding your credibility on
(22:45):
LinkedIn is having those badgesas well.
There are certificates that youcan go after on LinkedIn, which
can also be another badge onyour profile.
I don't know that everybodynecessarily cares about those
badges.
I think the top voice isactually the most important
badge right now to get on yourprofile.
That definitely helps.
It's critical to have at least500 connections on, because once
(23:09):
you get past 500 on LinkedIn,it just says 500 plus.
But when I see somebody who'sgot like 23 connections or even
480 connections, I know thatthey're either just getting
started on their LinkedInjourney or they don't take the
platform very seriously.
So I think it's critical to dothat 500.
And then for me, like I said, Idon't do as much outbound as I
used to, only because I haveover 10,000 connections that
(23:30):
were 10,000 followers, whateverthey call.
So I don't go out of my way forthis right now, but I do think,
especially as you're startingout or if you just want to build
up your LinkedIn connections,that's something that's really
important to do, and I have noscientific proof for this.
Next point, sarah, but this iswhat I believe in my heart that
LinkedIn is recommending peoplebased on your network already.
(23:51):
So it's like if I have a lot ofpeople from Maine, or if I have
a lot of marketers, or if Ihave a lot of people in HR
whatever it may be who I'mconnected to, they're going to
show me more similar people.
So I often think of shaping mynetwork on LinkedIn.
So if I'm getting people frombusinesses who I'll never do
business with, or countriesbecause we generally just do
business in the US and Canada soI put my focus on connecting
(24:14):
with people in the US and Canada.
I don't care about countriesoutside of those two and this is
not you know.
Somewhere else I'll connectwith them.
But, like I'm trying to teachLinkedIn who to recommend to me
and who they should recommend meto.
So I'm very conscious aboutthese days less so at the
beginning, but these days aboutwho I connect with, and just
(24:35):
because you send me aninvitation does not mean I'm
going to connect with you.
Whenever I ask somebody toconnect with me, I always give
them a very good reason why theyshould connect with me.
It seems so obvious, but I,every Friday morning when I go
through, if I've got 60 newpeople who are trying to connect
with me, I would say maybe fiveof them have told me why we
should connect and probablythose three of them are like hey
(24:57):
, I like to connect withlike-minded people, which is
such a lame comment.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
It has to be one of the generic ones, because I get
that one a lot too.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Right, I'm really impressed by what you're doing
with.
And then they'll list somethingand I'm like, or they'll list a
company I no longer work with.
I'm like, yeah, okay, way to doyour homework, but yeah, so I
mean, I try and keep it personal, but those are some of the
things that will help increaseyour stature on LinkedIn and
attract more like-minded peopleand more prospects to you as
well.
(25:26):
And then there's you know, so,all most of what we've talked
about so far has been inbound,but I do know, like sales
includes outbound stuff.
So you know, when I'm goingafter a type of business,
usually I have something in mindlike I want to find directors
of marketing in the state ofMaine.
So I might start using theLinkedIn search, finding those
people and then just seeing isthere a connection?
(25:47):
Is there a way of getting in?
And if there's a companycompany X, we'll call it that I
really want to get in front ofthe director of marketing
because I think we have aproduct or service that they
need.
I will start, and I willprobably start by going to her
LinkedIn feed, assuming that sheis posting regularly and,
without being stalkerish, I willcomment on her stuff and then I
(26:12):
might ask for an invitation, orI might invite her to connect
with me.
Once somebody is connected withyou on their profile, you'll
see a little bell.
You can click on that bell andthen you get alerted every time
they post something new onLinkedIn so you can show up
early and comment on it.
And this this is where you haveto be not creepy is the best
(26:34):
way that I can do it, especiallyas a man.
You need to be especially notcreepy on LinkedIn or any other
social platform.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So you want to be respectful.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, exactly, you want to be respectful and you
want to keep it veryprofessional in a human way.
But as you start to show up andespecially if they engage with
you back, there's moreopportunities for you to then,
ultimately, what I want to do isI want to move somebody over to
DMs, to the messaging system onLinkedIn, so I can have more of
(27:03):
a private conversation withthem and then ultimately move
them to email, a phone call or aZoom call, depending on the
situation, where we can have areal conversation about business
.
But that's how I do it.
Yes, there are definitelypeople out there who use a lot
of bots and a lot of things justto kind of start those
conversations.
I haven't really gone down thatpath.
(27:24):
I feel that, you know, I prefermy method of building up.
You know, kind of like a nicelittle fiefdom of I've created
something of value, I'm sharinga lot of good information, I'm
engaging with like-minded peopleand then, when the opportunity
arises or if I see somebody thatI feel like I could really help
that company, because I knowthat these are the kinds of
companies I have.
You have, we can work withlumber companies.
(27:46):
We've got all this experienceWork with real estate agents.
That's when I can do thatoutreach and start to have those
kind of conversations, similarto the way that you would at a
real life networking event,where you don't go in there with
an unsigned contract and youjust start going up to people
and asking them to sign on thedotted line.
You start with conversationsand that's how B2B sales, in my
(28:06):
opinion, is done.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Okay.
I have one question though howdo you start your conversations
when you're prospecting, so itdoesn't feel like you're coming
in hot with that contract?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Great question and it really differs on the person
and the situation and what I'mlooking to accomplish.
So, for example, I have theannual conference and once a
year I want to let everymarketing person and social
media person in Maine and NewEngland and beyond know about
this and I will literallysometimes just send out, you
(28:42):
know, copy and paste messages toall of them telling them about
the event.
And just do you want some moreinformation?
I found I don't usually usethis, but I know it's successful
where somebody might say hey,sarah, you know, I see that
you're working with a lot ofsmall businesses, you're doing
marketing.
I actually do HR, fractional HRfor small businesses that can't
(29:05):
afford to have someone.
Do you think there might be anopportunity for us to do
something together, like thatmight be one way in, and I'm
probably not selling directly toyou in that case but I'm like
let's develop a relationshipwhere I can refer businesses to
you and you can refer businessto me, and it's more exploratory
than anything else If I hadsomebody who was like oh man,
the director of LL Bean, andthey have their own marketing
(29:27):
agency, they don't need my help,but I'll just use them because
we're talking about you know.
I live in Maine, I would findthe person that I need to speak
to, because LinkedIn has thatpowerful search engine.
I can go through it.
I can find the right people.
And I might just say I mightstart with hey, I see that we're
both doing marketing in Maine.
I love to be connected withlocal marketers.
(29:48):
That actually works for mequite a bit.
There's really nothing more toit.
Or I might say that I noticedthat we're in a couple of the
same groups together and localdoes mean a lot, so it could be
that, or it could be a nicheindustry.
So I might say, depending, thiswouldn't be me, but it's like
hey, you know, I'm in the medspa business and I noticed
you're in the med spa businesstoo.
(30:08):
Just wondering, you know, if wecould connect.
I saw some of your posts.
I think they're reallyinteresting and maybe there's
something there, or the first orsecond message, private message
that I send to them, unlessthey've given me some sign that
(30:30):
they're interested in being soldtoo.
And if I see that, then I mightsay hey, and even then I don't
want to have that conversationreally on LinkedIn.
Even in the messaging I'dprobably say hey, look, why
don't we set up a time.
Here's a link to my Calendlyand I'd love to learn more about
what you're doing and whateverthe case may be.
So I'm sure I'm a little bitmore tender footed than some
(30:51):
people might want to be onLinkedIn, but I found that for
long term success you have tohave a long term view, and I've
been doing this for 27 years andin part because I'm not
slapping the top of used carsales.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Used cars, yes.
I have to agree with you thatthat doesn't work for me and I
am all about consent-basedselling.
I need you to tell me that youwant a solution before I'm going
to start offering it to you.
Even like, if my husband asksor is complaining about
(31:30):
something, I'll be like do youwant me to listen or do you want
advice?
And I'll take that sameapproach with someone I'm
talking to in the DMs onLinkedIn, like do you want
advice or do you want me to justlisten?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right, exactly, and that's a great way of
approaching it too, Because Ifind that people will often sell
themselves much moreeffectively than we can ever
sell them Nobody you know it'san old saw Nobody likes to be
sold, but everybody loves to buy.
So I think it's just a matterof if you're putting out
valuable content that's specificto your industry, solution
(32:07):
clientele, clients, pain points,you're going to find that
people seek you out.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
And I think the more that you don't look like the
second.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They DM you that you're going to try and force a
solution down their throat.
They're going to be much moreopen minded and I think the
approach to sales that I like isjust having those conversations
.
And I've had plenty of salescalls outside of LinkedIn where
I get to a point and I'm like Ijust don't think that we're the
right company for you.
Either you're too big or you'retoo small.
(32:37):
Maybe we could do somethingdown the line and as you're
willing to push people away,sometimes that actually makes
them even more convinced thatyou're the right person.
That's reverse psychology.
We don't need to get into that.
But the bottom line is I thinkthat I love what you said
consent-based marketing,consent-based selling.
So having those conversations,keeping everything very open,
(33:00):
and then when you see thatthere's an opportunity, they
talk about a pain point andthey're looking for help.
You can just say well, listen,I've seen this before, I've
helped people with it.
Would you like to learn more?
Or can we talk about it?
Something like that, where it'sa segue and you're really there
to help somebody.
For me, I've just found thatthat's my style of selling and
so that's the kind of sellingthat I do on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah, and that is the perfect way to approach it,
because you are askingpermission to talk about the
solution before you're justgoing at it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, and to your point a while ago where you were
talking about podcasts and howlike it's so intimate and people
like sometimes just feel likethey know you.
Like I ran into somebody andthey were talking to me like I
knew them and then it turned outthey had binged my podcast
episodes episodes like all theway to Buffalo and back so they
had to listen to me for like 18hours.
(33:49):
So of course they thought theyknew me, even though I didn't
know who they are.
I think that that's a reallyimportant thing that you can tap
into on LinkedIn as well.
So if you're willing to createsome videos for LinkedIn, that's
also something that can be verypowerful.
And if you are creating videosand maybe you're putting up to
multiple places, I wouldrecommend that you upload them
natively to LinkedIn, becauseposts that take people off site
(34:12):
this is true on LinkedIn andevery other social platform are
never going to perform as wellas as posts that keep people on
the page for longer.
So a video that's native toLinkedIn, even if you also
posted it to YouTube, is alwaysgoing to perform better.
So showing up regularly, as youkind of mentioned before, but
also like if you're willing toget in front of the camera and
(34:32):
share some of your ideas, peoplejust start to feel like they
know you, and of course, noleads to like and trust, and so
we're not talking about beingmanipulative here.
We're just talking about theseare the things that human beings
crave, and I hope everybody onwho's listening to your podcast
is as ethical as possible, andso they're using these
(34:52):
techniques for good, not evil,but that's a great way of kind
of really ingratiating yourselfto that audience, building trust
of that audience.
Even if you can't see them,they can see you and they're
going to be more open to havinga conversation with you when
that moment arrives.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yes.
So I'm just going to reiteratebefore we wrap up.
First things first is optimizeyour profile.
Make sure the keywords are inthere, make sure you're taking
advantage of all of thosesections you want to create
content consistently and checkyour social selling index, the
SSI, to see where you're at andwhere you can improve.
(35:27):
And then, last, is theconsent-based selling that
you're building relationships.
You're not actually selling andyou're waiting for them to
raise their hand for yoursolution.
Before you bring it up, beforeyou approach it and then take it
offline, take it into a call.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
All right.
Did you have any resources thatyou wanted to share?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Well, let's see.
So I don't have any resourcesper se, but I will say that if
people like this kind ofconversation and they're looking
for more, they should check outmy podcast, the Agents of
Change, because obviouslythey're already podcast
listeners and, depending on whenthis episode drops, maybe you
want to come to Portland, maine,and check out the 10th Annual
(36:17):
Agents of Change DigitalMarketing Conference.
Those are probably the onlyresources that I came today with
, prepared with.
Yes prepared with All right.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
We will put the links to those in the show notes and
this just for your information.
Will come out in the fall andwhen is your conference?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
October 9th and 10th.
Okay, and there is a digitalpass.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Okay, cool, then I'll make sure that I do the
LinkedIn series earlier in thefall, so it aligns with the
conference.
All right, and they can findyou on LinkedIn.
Obviously, can you tell themhow they get to you?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, I am the Rich Brooks on LinkedIn.
If they want to check out meanywhere else.
Our business is Flight NewMedia and you can find us at
TakeFlight, which is F-L-Y-T-Edot com.
But seriously, just start onLinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
If you enjoyed this flashback episode, please like,
subscribe, share with a friendand let them know all about tiny
marketing.
Hey, hey, welcome to episode 145.
This is Tiny Marketing, and Iam Sarah Noelle Block.
Today we are getting intoLinkedIn social selling
strategies with Rich Brooks.
Enjoy, hey, everyone.
Welcome back to another episodeof Tiny Marketing.
Today we're diving into a topicthat I'm super excited about
(00:24):
selling on LinkedIn.
Whether you're new to theplatform or a seasoned pro.
Linkedin offers incrediblepotential for B2B service
founders like you.
But let's be real LinkedIn canbe a bit of a mystery.
It's not just about addingconnections, posting updates.
It's not like all of the othersocial media platforms.
(00:44):
Posting updates, it's not likeall of the other social media
platforms.
There's a whole strategy behindhow to do it effectively to be
able to sell your services, andthat's exactly what we're going
to uncover today.
Today's interview is with RichBrooks and he's going to teach
us his social selling strategyfor LinkedIn.
So if you're struggling withleads, or perhaps you're getting
(01:06):
leads but they're notconverting into clients,
whatever the case might be,we've got actionable insights
that you can use to turn thingsaround.
So why should you even careabout LinkedIn?
Great question, linkedin iswhere decision makers hang out.
It's a platform filled withprofessionals and it's designed
(01:28):
for networking.
You're basically finding littlelike water coolers, to hang out
in and talk to people who couldbe potential clients for you or
referral partners for you.
Unlike Facebook or Instagram,linkedin is all about the
professional reputation andrelationships.
(01:49):
It's really about buildingrelationships.
It's where all of my bizfriends have been made.
So in today's episode, we'lluncover everything that you need
to know to maximize yourLinkedIn strategy, build those
long relationships and convertyour audience there's a bee
flying past this camera toclients.
(02:12):
Okay, so grab a cup of coffee,get comfy.
Or, if you're like me, you'reprobably listening to this while
you work out, or you're walkingthe dogs or you're cleaning the
house.
You know what you do, you.
You don't have to have a coffee.
All right, stay tuned.
Hey Rich, thanks for joining metoday.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Sarah, I am so pleased that you asked.
Pleased as punch.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
Thanks so much.
Yeah, we're talking today abouteverybody's favorite topic.
Absolutely everyone I have aconversation with brings up
LinkedIn to me, maybe becausethat's my primary channel, or
maybe that's just what's ontheir mind, but everybody is all
about LinkedIn.
We talk to B2B service founderson this show.
So that's what your thing is.
(02:59):
You are very good at that, andwe're homing in on the selling
piece of it.
I saw a LinkedIn post fromMolly, who's also part of this
LinkedIn series, that said um,with Instagram, it's selling,
selling, selling.
You can sell really easily andyou can sell every day, but on
LinkedIn it's a whole otherapproach.
(03:20):
It's really subtle.
So I'm excited to hear from you.
Can you introduce yourself toanyone who doesn't know who you
are yet?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, I'd be pleased to, because I'm sure a lot of
your listeners have no idea whoI am, but my name is Rich Brooks
.
I'm the president of Flight NewMedia.
It's a digital agency I startedover 27 years ago.
We're located in Portland,maine, one of the most beautiful
places in the entire world tocome visit, and we offer
services like branding, webdesign, seo, social media,
(03:49):
digital advertising, and on topof that, I'm also the founder of
the Agents of Change, which isa weekly podcast and I was
blessed to have Sarah on my shownot too long ago and we've had
over 500 episodes of that show.
I think we're coming up on like540.
And that's also an annualconference that we put on as
well, which we have again herein Portland Maine, and this year
(04:17):
will be our 10th annual Agentsof Change Digital.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Marketing Conference.
So that's a little bit of who Iam.
That is awesome.
Yeah, podcasting has reallychanged the way I do business
and I'm always recommending that, even if you don't want to
podcast, you at least have likea episodic kind of content, so
you're always showing up andbuilding new relationships with
people.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
It's probably my favorite content creation
vehicle right now.
Like for years, I preferredblogging.
I just love to write.
But as blogging has become moreand more competitive in the SEO
world and I found myself movingfrom I could write out a blog
post in 30 to 60 minutes and itwould perform we now find
ourselves spending 8 to 10 to 12hours per blog post in my
(05:01):
company Wow, and not as goodreturns, even though I think the
content we're producing is evenbetter than when I was just you
know, kind of knocking them outleft and right.
But podcasts whether you haveyour own show, like you and I do
, or whether you just decidethat you want to guest on other
people's show I think it's justsuch an easier lift, especially
when you're just getting started.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
So it is, and I feel like it's more intimate to a
blog post.
You don't know who wrote ituntil you're scrolling looking
for a name for a specific person, like purpose, but with a
podcast, you know that person.
I have mentioned this beforeand I cannot remember what it is
, but there is like a syndrome,I'm going to say, where you feel
(05:45):
like you are friends with thepodcast hosts because they're
just like living in your ears.
It's a very intimate experience.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
But podcasting isn't what we're talking about today.
We're talking about LinkedIn,so let's get into it.
So you have an agency.
I am going to guess that you'regetting the majority of your
clients from LinkedIn.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We're getting a percentage of it.
I I am a strong believer thatit's not ever one thing that
gets the sale.
It sometimes is, but but Ithink it's about getting in
front of people and positioningyourself as an expert, and I
know we're going to talk aboutsales and selling on LinkedIn
today and I'm happy to share anytechniques or skills that I've
(06:29):
developed over the years, but Ithink so much of the power of
LinkedIn is just the ability toestablish yourself as an expert
in the field that you want to beknown for and getting yourself
in front of your best prospects.
And I know that you weretalking about how you know on
Instagram, you can sell, sell,sell.
That is very much a consumerfacing platform, and I started
(06:56):
off.
Obviously, I've been doing thisfor a while.
You know I was an early adopterto Twitter.
I was on Facebook pretty earlyon as well, and I enjoyed them
at the time.
I honestly can't stand themanymore, like when people say to
me oh, you're the social mediaguy.
I'm like I slightly groan andthen I say, well, you can find
me on LinkedIn.
(07:16):
Like I know that sounds old,but LinkedIn is my favorite
social media platform, in partbecause I can get more done in
five minutes on a more effectivework done on LinkedIn in about
five minutes a day, or evenevery third day, than I ever
could on Facebook or Twitter orany other platform.
So for me it's just a veryefficient use of my marketing
(07:39):
time as well.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Yeah, for me it's fun because it feels like hanging
out with my friends.
I'll go on there and then I'llenter little watering holes
where I'm having conversationswith people in comments, and
it's like networking all thetime, a place where I can go and
make friends with people.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Yeah.
So I mean, for me it's been agreat platform to connect with
people.
I also use it.
So I use it in many differentways for doing sales, but one of
the most effective ways,because I am not that kind of
guy who slams the top of a usedcar and says what is it going to
take you to get into this cartoday, like I don't want to sell
to anybody who doesn't need myservices, and that's something I
(08:21):
tell my employees all the time.
We're not pushing products,we're trying to understand pain
points and see if we have asolution for it, and so that's
the approach I take for LinkedInas well.
So I mean, if somebody islooking for help, how do I start
generating business on LinkedInor how do I start selling my
business on LinkedIn?
For me, the first thing is youjust start with your profile.
(08:42):
You need to make sure that yourprofile that's your tentpole on
LinkedIn, and so you want tospend a lot of time there really
developing that.
You know, with a professionalheadshot, or at least a really
friendly headshot, you know itcomes down to what are the words
that the search engine inLinkedIn is very basic compared
to, say, google, so making sureyou've got keywords in there,
(09:04):
like I will sometimes go toLinkedIn and be like I need a
photographer or I need avideographer or I need a
copywriter and I need them, youknow, if it's a, you know I like
working with people herelocally in Maine, so I'll then
narrow the search down to Maine.
So, knowing what people arelooking for when they're looking
for somebody who offers yourservices, and making sure those
things go into your headline andthe description of your current
(09:27):
company and yourresponsibilities and definitely
your about section, those areall things that are really
critical.
And when I come into companiesand do training on LinkedIn
which is something I love doingthat's one of the places where
we spend the most time.
It's just let's go through afew of the employees' profiles
and really make them the bestthey can be, because a lot of
(09:47):
people they sign up for LinkedInyears ago they basically
thought it was a place to postyour resume and that's it, but
there's this 5% of us that haverealized that it is a Swiss army
knife of B2B marketing and it'sso powerful, but you have to
spend an hour or two.
I would recommend reallycreating the best personal
(10:07):
profile you can be and reallymaxing it out.
I mean, there's the featuredsection and you can put up
videos and just really make itas active as you can be, and I
think that goes a long way togetting things ready so that you
can start quote unquote sellingon LinkedIn.
But for me, like just you know,today I have a lead from
somebody they called up and Igot back to them.
(10:29):
But the very first thing I everalways do, if somebody wants to
meet with me or whatever it is,I look them up on LinkedIn.
I see if they're on LinkedIn, Isee if they're active on
LinkedIn.
I try and get a better sense ofthem.
I used to do this on Facebook,but now I don't really use
Facebook for that anymore.
So I go to LinkedIn and then,once I get to see a little bit
about them, then I try andconnect with them.
(10:50):
I send them that invitation andI also tell them the reason
we're meeting.
And I don't do a lot ofoutbound requests on LinkedIn.
I field a lot, but for me it'slike I'm just trying to
strengthen that relationship.
So they can see how serious Iam both about LinkedIn but also
about their business, that I'mtaking this extra step.
I'm learning about them, I'mlearning about their company.
(11:11):
I'll add something personal inthat note.
And then that's usually a greatway of kind of solidifying that
, that weak tie, if you will, orthat early stage relationship,
so that we can discover is therean opportunity for the two of
us to work together?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, that's one thing that I always have in my
forms is drop your LinkedInprofile here so I can check them
out, I can connect with themand even if it doesn't turn into
a sale right away, I have foundthat connecting on LinkedIn has
been a great nurturing tool too, like, okay, they didn't
(11:49):
convert immediately, but threemonths later it did convert
because they got to know me,they interacted with my content
or whatever, but we built acloser relationship through it.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Absolutely, and you got to remember that B2B sales
tend to be a lot longer.
The sales cycle is a lot longerthan B2C.
So I mean putting you know,starting to build those
relationships that's thefoundation of selling when it
comes to B2B.
So putting yourself out there,educating, I think it's a fine
line.
On LinkedIn and other peoplehave different opinions of how
(12:23):
personal you should be I thinkyou should be 100% a human being
when you're on LinkedIn,whether you're creating your own
posts or, like you said,commenting on other people's
posts.
We want to see that we'redealing with humans.
But I also like LinkedInbecause nobody posts pictures of
their kids graduating fromkindergarten looking for
congratulations.
So for me it's like, yes, Iwant to be personable here, I
(12:43):
want to be human here, but I maynot share as much as I would
have back in the day on Facebookor Instagram.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Yeah, I don't think anybody is sharing their
personal stuff the way that theyused to.
It's weird become.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I see some posts on LinkedIn where I'm like this
should have been a this out.
This feels like a Facebook postto me.
Like.
I'm definitely seeing that andfor me and this is just me
that's a turnoff, like that'sjust like not what I want to
talk about when I come toLinkedIn.
And this is one of the reasonsI like LinkedIn because it does
tend to be about business andI'm an entrepreneur and I like
having these discussions withother business owners and other
(13:20):
marketers, building thoserelationships with ultimately
leads to sales and for me,sometimes speaking.
And I like having thesediscussions with other business
owners and other marketers,building those relationships
with ultimately leads to salesand for me, sometimes speaking
gigs as well.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
So, for the personal profiles, we talked about SEO
search engine optimization usingthe right keywords, taking
advantage of all of the sectionsthat are available within your
profile, like the featuredadding services, and filling out
that about section.
Is there anything that you havefound that scares people away
(13:48):
from people's profiles?
Any red flags?
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Well, I think of it more like when I so I batch my
accepting of invitations forFriday morning.
I have a list of things that Itackle on Friday morning and
LinkedIn invitations respondingto them or one of them.
You know this has beensomething that's evolved over
the years.
I used to respond immediately.
Now I just find like once aweek I knock everything out at
once and although I am guilty ofthis, like in my header, my
(14:16):
headline it says what I do.
I'm a digital marketer and Ihelp businesses generate more
leads online.
Give me a call, whatever it is,but when I'm on the receiving
end of that, sometimes it canactually close some doors.
Because right now, the adviceis don't put down something like
president or CMO or whatever itmay be in your headline.
(14:39):
Instead, tell people what youdo and how you help your ideal
audience, which is great, butsometimes that can immediately
close the door before you get achance to talk to somebody.
So I get probably five to 10invitations to connect each week
that say I can guarantee youfive additional sales calls a
(15:00):
week or could you handle 20 newclients a month?
And to me, that and maybe it'sthe way that they're presenting
it rather than what they'reactually.
It's such a turnoff that itimmediately closes that door for
me.
So I think you kind of have tofind that balance, like it's
okay that you're not all rightfor everybody, but sometimes
that headline can come on sostrong that you feel like, if I
(15:22):
let this person into my LinkedInlife, all they're going to be
doing is pitching me 24 sevenand I know I hate to be pitched
to like I know when I needsomething and I will find you,
or I know that you docybersecurity and you're local
or you've been well-recommended.
I'm going to talk to you then,but I may not want to the second
we connect.
(15:42):
I may not want to buy yourcybersecurity services.
So I think, as we're doing this, we need to be aware of not
raising those red flags forpotential customers and not
necessarily closing those doors,but rather just opening
conversations so that we canstart to network and see, hey,
(16:05):
maybe you're not right for this,but maybe you know somebody who
does need cybersecurity or SEOor email marketing or whatever
it is, and that's where thatconnections come from.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Yeah, I found the same thing, that certain job
titles that are in the headlines.
They scare me off.
I'm like, oh, this is going tobe a pitch slap, I know it.
I'm just going to avoid it now.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
And yeah, I hadn't heard that one before, but I
like that I may use it.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
It's all yours.
So we optimize our profile andhow do we start building
credibility within the feed?
Speaker 2 (16:41):
I think a lot of that just comes.
So what I've started doingmyself because I want to be
consistent and there's I'musually not somebody who tries
to time when specific posts aregoing to be, but I also know
that running my own company andthen having my own podcast and
putting on a conference, likethings, just happen so I have
started to come like createlists of things that I want to
talk about, things that I wantto share on LinkedIn, so I
(17:03):
always have some content I canshare.
And my personal goal for me isthat I'm going to post three
times a week and it doesn't meanthat I'm always posting really
heavy educational information,but I try to like when I learned
something new.
Right now, like half of theworld, I'm really focused on AI
and how that impacts my businessand marketing and my clients,
and so when I find somethingthat I think is really neat and
(17:25):
very helpful, I'll create alittle video and I'll show
people hey, have you tried?
What I did recently is, haveyou tried talking to your data
using AI?
And so I had this little videothat shows how I'm using a
couple of different tools to getbetter information out of the
data that's in front of me and Ithought that was helpful and a
lot of people responded to it.
But just today, just got backfrom some time off and right
(17:46):
before I left I took my team outfor a day of archery at LL Bean
and had some photos that Iwanted to share and that is work
related.
It's like, hey, we went out, wehad a great time, team bonding
and all this sort of stuff.
Here's a photo of us standing infront of the targets, so on and
so forth, and so it's more of alighter stuff, but I want to
stay visible in front of people.
I know all of my posts are goingto get some sort of engagement
(18:08):
because I built up my SSI, whichis LinkedIn's algorithm that
they share with us, the SocialSelling Index, and if you Google
LinkedIn SSI, you'll get to thepage that.
Then you can find out what yourown is and also how to improve
your SSI, and the reason youwould want to do this is because
it extends your reach.
So if I have a very low SSI andI post something, versus
(18:32):
somebody who posts the exactsame content but they have a
very high SSI, their post isjust going to go further.
It's going to get seen by morepeople.
Now, if my post is great, itwill also get seen by a lot of
people, and if their post isjust spam bait, it's not going
to get seen by a lot of people.
But all things being equal,improving your SSI will improve
(18:53):
your reach and improve yourability to finally make that
sale.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
I'm intrigued.
I'm going to go to this SSIright now.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Your score is never as high as you want it to be,
because it's a pretty steepgrade right there, but at the
same time, it's like you can see.
The nice thing is it tells youhow you do within your network
and then how you do within yourindustry.
So you're in the top 5% of thisor the top 15% of that, and
that gives you a sense of likeOK, so maybe my score was only a
67 out of 100, but I'm in thetop 3% of my network.
(19:24):
I'm doing all right.
But that definitely is a scorethat you can, and it gives you
tips on what are the things thatyou're weak in, so that you can
concentrate on those andsuddenly raise your.
Oh, there you go.
Look at you.
Top 1%.
Fantastic, I just pulled it up.
I have nothing left to teachyou, grasshopper.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I highly doubt that because I have 37 out of 100 in
the people in my industry.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Yeah, no the people in your industry average 37.
You're a 71.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Oh, okay, and the people in your?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
network average of 43 .
So a lot of people just don'tdo this.
I mean, you have a perfectbuild relationship score right
there.
If people are looking at thevideo we're looking at your
screen right now, you can't getany better at building
relationships.
You know?
It says engage with insights,which I think is a little bit of
.
Personally, I'm like they justwant you to engage with the
(20:17):
things that they show.
There is the insights findingthe right people.
Maybe you're not going out andconnecting with as many people,
but perhaps people are coming toyou.
So it's not perfect, but itdoes.
You know.
It tells you if you do want toget that further, reach the kind
of things that you have to doto play by LinkedIn's rules so
(20:38):
that they're going to share yourcontent further.
And look, that's the onlyreason we're on LinkedIn is
because it's a networking site.
We want to build our brand, wewant to build our company and we
want to close sales.
It's not like social media,it's not like Facebook, where
what we want to do is postpictures of our kids or our dogs
or our lake house.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I mean sometimes Okay , so we've got our profile, we
know how often we should begoing on LinkedIn and actually
having conversations with postsand checking out our SSI, our
social selling index.
So what is?
(21:13):
Is there anything else that weneed to do to build credibility
with our audience or startprospecting on LinkedIn?
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Yes, One of the things that's really big right
now and I knew I was going toblank on what this is called,
but there are articles, AIgenerated articles that you can
contribute to.
Have you ever seen those badgeslike top B2B voice or top
marketing voice or top?
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, I have top content marketing voice.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
There you go.
So you've contributed to thosearticles, I assume correct?
Yes, yeah, so if you, if you,if you're listening and you
don't know what we're talkingabout?
Um, there are content articlesthat are generated by AI, but
then use LinkedIn um members tocontribute to those articles and
I think, if it's like youcontribute to three articles,
(22:02):
you can earn the top badge forthat particular niche.
You can only have one on yourpage at a time, I believe at
this point but that's annoying.
Yeah, Cause I remember it's likeoh, I earned two, but I only
get to show one.
Right, and then you also have tokeep contributing, because I
also lost one one time and thenI was like holy cow, I better
(22:24):
step up my game.
And those only take what?
Five, 10 minutes to give ameaningful answer to one.
So one of my things that I tryand do is a couple times a week
I'll go in and I'll contributeto either content marketing or
B2B marketing, depending onwhich one I want to do.
It increases your visibility andthese are the kind of things
that get rewarded on LinkedIn.
So that's another way ofbuilding your credibility on
(22:45):
LinkedIn is having those badgesas well.
There are certificates that youcan go after on LinkedIn, which
can also be another badge onyour profile.
I don't know that everybodynecessarily cares about those
badges.
I think the top voice isactually the most important
badge right now to get on yourprofile.
That definitely helps.
It's critical to have at least500 connections on, because once
(23:09):
you get past 500 on LinkedIn,it just says 500 plus.
But when I see somebody who'sgot like 23 connections or even
480 connections, I know thatthey're either just getting
started on their LinkedInjourney or they don't take the
platform very seriously.
So I think it's critical to dothat 500.
And then for me, like I said, Idon't do as much outbound as I
used to, only because I haveover 10,000 connections that
(23:30):
were 10,000 followers, whateverthey call.
So I don't go out of my way forthis right now, but I do think,
especially as you're startingout or if you just want to build
up your LinkedIn connections,that's something that's really
important to do, and I have noscientific proof for this.
Next point, sarah, but this iswhat I believe in my heart that
LinkedIn is recommending peoplebased on your network already.
(23:51):
So it's like if I have a lot ofpeople from Maine, or if I have
a lot of marketers, or if Ihave a lot of people in HR
whatever it may be who I'mconnected to, they're going to
show me more similar people.
So I often think of shaping mynetwork on LinkedIn.
So if I'm getting people frombusinesses who I'll never do
business with, or countriesbecause we generally just do
business in the US and Canada soI put my focus on connecting
(24:14):
with people in the US and Canada.
I don't care about countriesoutside of those two and this is
not you know.
Somewhere else I'll connectwith them.
But, like I'm trying to teachLinkedIn who to recommend to me
and who they should recommend meto.
So I'm very conscious aboutthese days less so at the
beginning, but these days aboutwho I connect with, and just
(24:35):
because you send me aninvitation does not mean I'm
going to connect with you.
Whenever I ask somebody toconnect with me, I always give
them a very good reason why theyshould connect with me.
It seems so obvious, but I,every Friday morning when I go
through, if I've got 60 newpeople who are trying to connect
with me, I would say maybe fiveof them have told me why we
should connect and probablythose three of them are like hey
(24:57):
, I like to connect withlike-minded people, which is
such a lame comment.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
It has to be one of the generic ones, because I get
that one a lot too.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Right, I'm really impressed by what you're doing
with.
And then they'll list somethingand I'm like, or they'll list a
company I no longer work with.
I'm like, yeah, okay, way to doyour homework, but yeah, so I
mean, I try and keep it personal, but those are some of the
things that will help increaseyour stature on LinkedIn and
attract more like-minded peopleand more prospects to you as
well.
(25:26):
And then there's you know, so,all most of what we've talked
about so far has been inbound,but I do know, like sales
includes outbound stuff.
So you know, when I'm goingafter a type of business,
usually I have something in mindlike I want to find directors
of marketing in the state ofMaine.
So I might start using theLinkedIn search, finding those
people and then just seeing isthere a connection?
(25:47):
Is there a way of getting in?
And if there's a companycompany X, we'll call it that I
really want to get in front ofthe director of marketing
because I think we have aproduct or service that they
need.
I will start, and I willprobably start by going to her
LinkedIn feed, assuming that sheis posting regularly and,
without being stalkerish, I willcomment on her stuff and then I
(26:12):
might ask for an invitation, orI might invite her to connect
with me.
Once somebody is connected withyou on their profile, you'll
see a little bell.
You can click on that bell andthen you get alerted every time
they post something new onLinkedIn so you can show up
early and comment on it.
And this this is where you haveto be not creepy is the best
(26:34):
way that I can do it, especiallyas a man.
You need to be especially notcreepy on LinkedIn or any other
social platform.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
So you want to be respectful.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah, exactly, you want to be respectful and you
want to keep it veryprofessional in a human way.
But as you start to show up andespecially if they engage with
you back, there's moreopportunities for you to then,
ultimately, what I want to do isI want to move somebody over to
DMs, to the messaging system onLinkedIn, so I can have more of
(27:03):
a private conversation withthem and then ultimately move
them to email, a phone call or aZoom call, depending on the
situation, where we can have areal conversation about business
.
But that's how I do it.
Yes, there are definitelypeople out there who use a lot
of bots and a lot of things justto kind of start those
conversations.
I haven't really gone down thatpath.
(27:24):
I feel that, you know, I prefermy method of building up.
You know, kind of like a nicelittle fiefdom of I've created
something of value, I'm sharinga lot of good information, I'm
engaging with like-minded peopleand then, when the opportunity
arises or if I see somebody thatI feel like I could really help
that company, because I knowthat these are the kinds of
companies I have.
You have, we can work withlumber companies.
(27:46):
We've got all this experienceWork with real estate agents.
That's when I can do thatoutreach and start to have those
kind of conversations, similarto the way that you would at a
real life networking event,where you don't go in there with
an unsigned contract and youjust start going up to people
and asking them to sign on thedotted line.
You start with conversationsand that's how B2B sales, in my
(28:06):
opinion, is done.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
Okay.
I have one question though howdo you start your conversations
when you're prospecting, so itdoesn't feel like you're coming
in hot with that contract?
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Great question and it really differs on the person
and the situation and what I'mlooking to accomplish.
So, for example, I have theannual conference and once a
year I want to let everymarketing person and social
media person in Maine and NewEngland and beyond know about
this and I will literallysometimes just send out, you
(28:42):
know, copy and paste messages toall of them telling them about
the event.
And just do you want some moreinformation?
I found I don't usually usethis, but I know it's successful
where somebody might say hey,sarah, you know, I see that
you're working with a lot ofsmall businesses, you're doing
marketing.
I actually do HR, fractional HRfor small businesses that can't
(29:05):
afford to have someone.
Do you think there might be anopportunity for us to do
something together, like thatmight be one way in, and I'm
probably not selling directly toyou in that case but I'm like
let's develop a relationshipwhere I can refer businesses to
you and you can refer businessto me, and it's more exploratory
than anything else If I hadsomebody who was like oh man,
the director of LL Bean, andthey have their own marketing
(29:27):
agency, they don't need my help,but I'll just use them because
we're talking about you know.
I live in Maine, I would findthe person that I need to speak
to, because LinkedIn has thatpowerful search engine.
I can go through it.
I can find the right people.
And I might just say I mightstart with hey, I see that we're
both doing marketing in Maine.
I love to be connected withlocal marketers.
(29:48):
That actually works for mequite a bit.
There's really nothing more toit.
Or I might say that I noticedthat we're in a couple of the
same groups together and localdoes mean a lot, so it could be
that, or it could be a nicheindustry.
So I might say, depending, thiswouldn't be me, but it's like
hey, you know, I'm in the medspa business and I noticed
you're in the med spa businesstoo.
(30:08):
Just wondering, you know, if wecould connect.
I saw some of your posts.
I think they're reallyinteresting and maybe there's
something there, or the first orsecond message, private message
that I send to them, unlessthey've given me some sign that
(30:30):
they're interested in being soldtoo.
And if I see that, then I mightsay hey, and even then I don't
want to have that conversationreally on LinkedIn.
Even in the messaging I'dprobably say hey, look, why
don't we set up a time.
Here's a link to my Calendlyand I'd love to learn more about
what you're doing and whateverthe case may be.
So I'm sure I'm a little bitmore tender footed than some
(30:51):
people might want to be onLinkedIn, but I found that for
long term success you have tohave a long term view, and I've
been doing this for 27 years andin part because I'm not
slapping the top of used carsales.
Speaker 1 (31:08):
Used cars, yes.
I have to agree with you thatthat doesn't work for me and I
am all about consent-basedselling.
I need you to tell me that youwant a solution before I'm going
to start offering it to you.
Even like, if my husband asksor is complaining about
(31:30):
something, I'll be like do youwant me to listen or do you want
advice?
And I'll take that sameapproach with someone I'm
talking to in the DMs onLinkedIn, like do you want
advice or do you want me to justlisten?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Right, exactly, and that's a great way of
approaching it too, Because Ifind that people will often sell
themselves much moreeffectively than we can ever
sell them Nobody you know it'san old saw Nobody likes to be
sold, but everybody loves to buy.
So I think it's just a matterof if you're putting out
valuable content that's specificto your industry, solution
(32:07):
clientele, clients, pain points,you're going to find that
people seek you out.
Speaker 1 (32:13):
And I think the more that you don't look like the
second.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
They DM you that you're going to try and force a
solution down their throat.
They're going to be much moreopen minded and I think the
approach to sales that I like isjust having those conversations
.
And I've had plenty of salescalls outside of LinkedIn where
I get to a point and I'm like Ijust don't think that we're the
right company for you.
Either you're too big or you'retoo small.
(32:37):
Maybe we could do somethingdown the line and as you're
willing to push people away,sometimes that actually makes
them even more convinced thatyou're the right person.
That's reverse psychology.
We don't need to get into that.
But the bottom line is I thinkthat I love what you said
consent-based marketing,consent-based selling.
So having those conversations,keeping everything very open,
(33:00):
and then when you see thatthere's an opportunity, they
talk about a pain point andthey're looking for help.
You can just say well, listen,I've seen this before, I've
helped people with it.
Would you like to learn more?
Or can we talk about it?
Something like that, where it'sa segue and you're really there
to help somebody.
For me, I've just found thatthat's my style of selling and
so that's the kind of sellingthat I do on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah, and that is the perfect way to approach it,
because you are askingpermission to talk about the
solution before you're justgoing at it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, and to your point a while ago where you were
talking about podcasts and howlike it's so intimate and people
like sometimes just feel likethey know you.
Like I ran into somebody andthey were talking to me like I
knew them and then it turned outthey had binged my podcast
episodes episodes like all theway to Buffalo and back so they
had to listen to me for like 18hours.
(33:49):
So of course they thought theyknew me, even though I didn't
know who they are.
I think that that's a reallyimportant thing that you can tap
into on LinkedIn as well.
So if you're willing to createsome videos for LinkedIn, that's
also something that can be verypowerful.
And if you are creating videosand maybe you're putting up to
multiple places, I wouldrecommend that you upload them
natively to LinkedIn, becauseposts that take people off site
(34:12):
this is true on LinkedIn andevery other social platform are
never going to perform as wellas as posts that keep people on
the page for longer.
So a video that's native toLinkedIn, even if you also
posted it to YouTube, is alwaysgoing to perform better.
So showing up regularly, as youkind of mentioned before, but
also like if you're willing toget in front of the camera and
(34:32):
share some of your ideas, peoplejust start to feel like they
know you, and of course, noleads to like and trust, and so
we're not talking about beingmanipulative here.
We're just talking about theseare the things that human beings
crave, and I hope everybody onwho's listening to your podcast
is as ethical as possible, andso they're using these
(34:52):
techniques for good, not evil,but that's a great way of kind
of really ingratiating yourselfto that audience, building trust
of that audience.
Even if you can't see them,they can see you and they're
going to be more open to havinga conversation with you when
that moment arrives.
Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yes.
So I'm just going to reiteratebefore we wrap up.
First things first is optimizeyour profile.
Make sure the keywords are inthere, make sure you're taking
advantage of all of thosesections you want to create
content consistently and checkyour social selling index, the
SSI, to see where you're at andwhere you can improve.
(35:27):
And then, last, is theconsent-based selling that
you're building relationships.
You're not actually selling andyou're waiting for them to
raise their hand for yoursolution.
Before you bring it up, beforeyou approach it and then take it
offline, take it into a call.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
All right.
Did you have any resources thatyou wanted to share?
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Well, let's see.
So I don't have any resourcesper se, but I will say that if
people like this kind ofconversation and they're looking
for more, they should check outmy podcast, the Agents of
Change, because obviouslythey're already podcast
listeners and, depending on whenthis episode drops, maybe you
want to come to Portland, maine,and check out the 10th Annual
(36:17):
Agents of Change DigitalMarketing Conference.
Those are probably the onlyresources that I came today with
, prepared with.
Yes prepared with All right.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
We will put the links to those in the show notes and
this just for your information.
Will come out in the fall andwhen is your conference?
Speaker 2 (36:39):
October 9th and 10th.
Okay, and there is a digitalpass.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Okay, cool, then I'll make sure that I do the
LinkedIn series earlier in thefall, so it aligns with the
conference.
All right, and they can findyou on LinkedIn.
Obviously, can you tell themhow they get to you?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, I am the Rich Brooks on LinkedIn.
If they want to check out meanywhere else.
Our business is Flight NewMedia and you can find us at
TakeFlight, which is F-L-Y-T-Edot com.
But seriously, just start onLinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
If you enjoyed this flashback episode, please like,
subscribe, share with a friendand let them know all about tiny
marketing.
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