Intro
0:00:18 – (Bob Woods): Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests teach their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. This episode of the Making Sales Social podcast is brought to you by Social Sales Link, the company that helps you start more trust-based conversations without being salesy through the power of LinkedIn and AI. Start your journey for free by joining our resource library. Welcome to the show.
00:00:44:28 – (Brynne Tillman): Hello and welcome to Making Sales Social Live. I am Brynne Tillman and I am here by myself today to talk about the power of social proximity. So what is social proximity? Well, when you think about regular proximity, it’s the people that are around you, right? It’s how we’re connected. While social proximity is How are you connected on social.
00:01:12:07 – (Brynne Tillman): And we’re going to talk about it on LinkedIn primarily. Let’s talk about the importance, right? Especially if we’re in a sales role. Often we are out prospecting every single day. We’re making calls, we’re going to networking meetings, we’re meeting with centers of influence and referral partners, and we’re out there net new all the time.
00:01:36:09 – (Brynne Tillman): But we’re ignoring our social network mostly.
00:01:42:12 – (Brynne Tillman): So let’s talk about first before I jump into how we leverage the social network, Let’s talk about what kind of social proximity is. When we talk about LinkedIn there are four quadrants, there is the informal alliance in our world to know how close we are to decision-makers and stakeholders. And there is the connection.
00:02:11:00 – (Brynne Tillman): So there’s the connection level and the influence of the person. So let’s start that again. The connection level. How what connection do we have and then what influence do they have? Right. And so we want to talk about the most and ultimate goal of social proximity is really do we have a connection with an influencer or a decision maker that’s the top of the pyramid.
00:02:43:08 – (Brynne Tillman): They’re right that we have a decision maker and they are already at Connection. That’s the ultimate right. We can go out, we can have conversations with them, we can bring value and earn the right to get a conversation next down is an influencer inside of the company that we want to prospect. They may not be a decision maker, but they may be able to make an internal introduction or help us navigate that company.
00:03:16:20 – (Brynne Tillman): The next one is I have a connection, a client, or a networking partner that is connected to the decision-maker. That’s pretty valuable. It’s not quite as strong as knowing the influencer or the decision-maker, but having someone in your network who can get you in front of that decision-maker maker pretty powerful. And then what I think is the least powerful in all of this, at the bottom of the quadrant is I have an influencer, I have a connection that knows an influencer in that company.
00:03:56:04 – (Brynne Tillman): All right, so let’s recap that.
00:03:58:07 – (Brynne Tillman): So I articulated it in a way that’s easy to understand. Most importantly, I have a decision-maker that is a first-degree connection. Next, I have an influencer inside of that company that might be able to get me to that buyer, to that decision maker. Next, I have a client or a connection that can get me to the decision-maker.
00:04:26:23 – (Brynne Tillman): And last, I have a connection that can get me to an influencer. When we start to leverage these relationships and our social proximity to our buyers, we can start trust-based conversations pretty quickly.
00:04:45:22 – (Brynne Tillman): So how do we do this? I notice. Well, first I’ve got this first-degree connection. Who is a prospect now recognize they don’t necessarily want to hear from me or be sold and they don’t necessarily want to learn about my solution.
00:05:03:25 – (Brynne Tillman): So, you know, we have to make sure that we’re earning the right with them before we even mention our services or what we sell. So how can we do that with our first-degree connections? We need to kind of warm them up as if we saw them at a networking event. We would walk up to them. We make a little bit of small talk, find out a little bit about them, and naturally move into a conversation where we might be able to help them.
00:05:32:21 – (Brynne Tillman): So on LinkedIn, what does that look like? Well, if they have content engaged on that content, maybe you create a pull specifically for that title or industry and ask them to vote on that poll. Maybe you’re creating content that you can ask them to quote on, right? So maybe you get a quote for them in a blog post.
00:05:56:01 – (Brynne Tillman): These are ways to reengage and start the conversation with your first-degree buyers. That’s not coming off too spammy or pitchy. All right. Next down, is the influencer in the company. This is an interesting one and it really obviously depends on your relationship to that influencer in the company. You know, someone that can make an introduction internally where I often start is I’m going to talk as if you’re a sales rep versus an entrepreneur for a moment.
00:06:35:14 – (Brynne Tillman): If you claim them in the CRM, they are now assigned to you. So that’s kind of the mentality I have around this. So hi Jane. Whether it’s a message or a call, say, you know, your company has been assigned to me from my company and I’m wondering if you’d be open to a quick 10 minutes where you can help me understand the landscape.
00:07:02:05 – (Brynne Tillman): Now you can get a call and ultimately you’ll tell them kind of what you do and what you’re looking to do. And if the report is built and the value is you bring that value, potentially you could get that internal introduction into that buyer. Next on the list is if I have a client or a networking partner who is connected to that buyer.
00:07:31:20 – (Brynne Tillman): So the client is easy, right? Mr. Client, I’m so glad we’ve been able to help you do X, Y, and Z. I’m not sure if you know, but the way I’ve grown my business over the years has been from introductions from my happy clients. I noticed that you’re connected to someone on LinkedIn that I would really love to get in front of.
00:07:50:07 – (Brynne Tillman): Can I ask you, how well do you know her? A pretty simple conversation to have with an existing client. You’re not asking for the introduction. You’re asking how well you know her. And then if it leads to an introduction, fabulous. Or it could lead to permission to namedrop. So if it doesn’t feel like that client is open to the introduction, it might even be a hassle.
00:08:17:29 – (Brynne Tillman): Mr. Klein, thank you so much for your insights. When I reach out to her, can I mention that you’re my happy client? We chatted. Yes. Fabulous. Terrific. I reach out.
00:08:28:16 – (Brynne Tillman): Jane, Mr. Client and I were chatting the other day. Your name came up in the conversation. He says hello. He’s been my client for the last year and a half, and he thought it made sense for me to reach out and introduce myself.
00:08:39:23 – (Brynne Tillman): If you’re open, let’s connect. And they connect. Jane, thanks for the connection. Based on Mr. Client’s recommendation. I’d be happy to jump on a quick call and share a few insights that even if we don’t work together, can help you read X, Y, and Z. Please let me know your preferred way of scheduling if it happens to be the account drilling.
00:09:01:03 – (Brynne Tillman): Here’s mine. Simple. Now the last one, which is going to be probably the most frequent one and not nearly as successful as the other three, but will give you more volume is I have a connection who is connected to someone inside that company. So now it’s going to be kind of a two-step process.
00:09:26:17 – (Brynne Tillman): I’m going to reach out to my connection.
00:09:29:00 – (Brynne Tillman): Can I either get an introduction of permission to namedrop, to the influencer, talk to that influencer to potentially get an introduction or permission to namedrop into the buyer?
00:09:39:06 – (Brynne Tillman): This can be done simply by doing a great search inside of LinkedIn, of your ICP and your second to group connections, and you could get lists of hundreds if not thousands of opportunities where you have a shared connection.
00:09:55:01 – (Brynne Tillman): So social proximity is incredibly powerful. If you’re in a business development role and you are not leveraging social proximity, you’re probably missing out on some really huge opportunities.
00:10:10:03 – (Brynne Tillman): So this was a quick little one-person show today on leveraging LinkedIn and social proximity. If you are curious about how to leverage your social proximity, feel free to join our free library at Social Sales Link Accomplished Library.
00:10:29:24 – (Brynne Tillman): Check out one of our events at social sales link dot com slash events and we are happy to help you create those lists and leverage your relationships to start conversations on a consistent basis. So when you’re out and about, don’t forget to make your sales social.
Outro:
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