Episode 341: Using LinkedIn Recommendations in the Sales Process

Intro

Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast, featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynne Tillman, Stan Robinson, Junior, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies. Our guests are teaching their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. Enjoy the show. It’s time for Making Sales Social Live coming to you from the social sales link and virtual studios.

0:01:25 – (Bob Woods): I’m Bob Woods, Brynne Tillman and Stan Robinson Jr. Are joining me today. How are you all doing?

0:01:35 – (Brynne Tillman): I’m pretty good.

0:01:40 – (Bob Woods): I’m one footed. One footed.

0:01:42 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, that’s all, it’s all good. I’m hopping around.

0:01:47 – (Bob Woods): Yep, good thing. You only need one foot to do Making Sales Social. So we are, we are absolutely good to go, especially today because we’re diving into an angle of LinkedIn that we don’t really talk a lot about, but we’re going to talk about it today and that’s leveraging LinkedIn recommendations throughout your sales process. And we’re not just talking about, you know, your open, your close, all that type of stuff.

0:02:21 – (Bob Woods): We mean several different areas where recommendations can help. So first let’s talk about recommendations, what they are, how they help overall and so on before we actually get into the actual seven. I’m not sure who wants to handle that, but go ahead.

0:02:40 – (Brynne Tillman): I’m always happy to chat.

0:02:43 – (Bob Woods): Yes, you are.

0:02:45 – (Brynne Tillman): Recommendations are really social proof, right? When we have recommendations from our clients, from our referral partners, from people that we’re working for and that we’re serving, it really helps others to see that we’re good at what we do. Now the interesting thing and what we’re going to talk about today is different kinds of testimonials or referrals will help you at different phases in the sales cycle.

0:03:15 – (Brynne Tillman): And so that’s a little bit of what we’re going to cover today is how we leverage our client Recommendations Testimonials on LinkedIn to help us move the sale at every point of the process.

0:03:32 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yeah. And Brynne, as you so succinctly put it, social proof. That’s one of the things that recommendations give. And it’s always better to have someone else talk about what a great job that you did than for you to try and explain what a great job you did. It just comes across much better. And of course, when they write the recommendation, their profile picture is right there next to the recommendation.

0:03:57 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, we can use that everywhere, right? We can use that in emails on our website. We can use that. It’s great that it lives on LinkedIn. And why I’d prefer to start there is, you know, not only is it social proof, but if you go to a website and you see a testimonial, you’re like, oh, that’s pretty good, that’s pretty cool. But you can now click through to that person, to Stan’s point, right. And see who they are.

0:04:23 – (Brynne Tillman): And it’s like it just is. Has so much credibility.

0:04:29 – (Bob Woods): Absolutely. And then the other thing that I like about this whole process is that as we’ve taught in the past, recommendations go two ways. We all also give recommendations as well as receive them. And let’s just say, for example, you want to give someone a recommendation and they happen to be in sales. This probably works better with, like sales people. But you’re wondering what you can say specifically about them.

0:04:56 – (Bob Woods): You can actually go through this list and once, once we’re, we’re through with it, you can say, oh, this person really helped me, for example, and we’re going to be talking about this in a minute, but this person really helped me sell this project to within the company. Why don’t I give them a recommendation based on that? And then you can actually get with the person who you’re giving recommendations to as well and say, hey, listen, I’ve got seven different areas I can give you recommendations in.

0:05:24 – (Bob Woods): Which one would you want? Do you want me to do a couple of different ones? So always remember the reciprocity part when it comes to recommendations as well. And, you know, you can even start off with giving someone a recommendation and then they’ll say, hey, I like to give you a recommendation too. And then again, you can go through the list and say, you know, remember when I did this for you? If you could speak to how effectively that worked for you, that would be fantastic.

0:05:51 – (Brynne Tillman): Or you can offer to write it for them.

0:05:53 – (Bob Woods): You can offer to write it for them as well. And that. And that quite frankly, is probably the better way to do it. So offering to write it for them really takes a lot of pressure off them because they’re not staring into that blank piece of paper syndrome that we all know and love whenever it happens to us. If, you know, they copy and paste it, they can make changes and things like that. You know, it’s just a really good springboard to get that recommendation started for that other person.

0:06:25 – (Brynne Tillman): I laughed when you said the blank paper. I don’t even think I have paper.

0:06:29 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, paper doesn’t really exist anymore except for me and posting notes. And those go.

0:06:36 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, well, I actually have digital post notes that I’m using.

0:06:39 – (Bob Woods): Oh wow. I never got the digital post it notes for some reason. I still need that little bit of paper around and, and I do mean all around both of my monitors to help me remind me of things. So with that, let’s get into the nitty gritty of each phase and how recommendations can help. So I’m going to get started, I think, with the top of the funnel. So a top of a funnel recommendations discussed how informative and resourceful you were at the very beginning of a relationship.

0:07:17 – (Bob Woods): This will lead people to have them want to talk to you. So by showcasing recommendations that highlight how informative, how helpful, how resourceful you are, and you were to that person, you’re making a strong first impression, which is one of the big things that we talk about here all the time. When you develop yourself as a thought leader and trusted advisor through recommendations, this naturally encourages prospects to initiate contact because they’ve already seen the value in connecting with you. And if they don’t initiate contact and you’re coming to them first, they can certainly go to your recommendations and see and see, oh wow, this person was really good when the first, when this conversation first started between them.

0:08:01 – (Brynne Tillman): So Stan, you want to add to that just that.

0:08:04 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): That is great. And for that type of recommendation, when you’re positioning yourself as a resource, that’s an instance where it’s really helpful for you to craft it and send the person a draft because it may be hard for them to think about. Okay, how do I position Bob as a thought leader? I realized that offering to write your own recommendation, which is what we’re recommending people do, may sound counterintuitive.

0:08:32 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): But when you think about it, you’re saving the other person time and mental effort and people will thank you for it. It will also mean that many more of them will actually give you the recommendations that they promised to give you because you’ve done the heavy lifting for them and they don’t have to figure it out.

0:08:54 – (Brynne Tillman): So I’m just going to add to this, which is, I think, really important, this very top of the funnel, this content that you’re providing them, is what’s earning you the right to get into their sales process to be a vendor of ch. So when we’re talking about leveraging referrals and we’re talking, you know, we really want to have our client express how easy it was to contact us, how quickly we responded, how we truly listened to, you know, kind and provided value without even having to pay us or work with us.

0:09:40 – (Brynne Tillman): So, you know, that is that top of the funnel, that if our prospects see that recommendation and they’re like, wow, there’s no pressure. They’re not going to sell me. There’s no pressure here. Look at the value they’re bringing at the very first conversation. And that will help you earn that first conversation.

0:10:05 – (Bob Woods): Absolutely. And that’s what it’s ultimately all about. So now let’s go from that initial contact conversation to the discovery call, what we call the insights call. Most people call it the discovery call. Brynne, do you want to take that a little bit more?

0:10:20 – (Brynne Tillman): Oh, thanks. Yeah. So you really want to enable your client to say, Bob took great efforts to understand our needs. He really helped us to uncover things that we weren’t even aware were challenges. Right. And because of that, we were able to kind of move forward in a direction that could help us fix the challenge much more efficiently. And in addition to Bob helping us, he was able to introduce us to other people as well that could help us and support us in this newly uncovered challenge.

0:11:12 – (Brynne Tillman): So now they’re like, wow, not only were they resourceful upfront, but now the value that Bob brought to the table during discovery was really about uncovering our true needs, really helping to dive in so that we could see what was underlying in all of those challenges. So that kind of recommendation will move you from the first conversation to a true discovery call. Because they are now going to want Bob to help them the same way he helped the client that made the recommendation.

0:11:57 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, absolutely. I view it as this, this end and bringing this through with the recommendation. This stage is about listening and adding value without pitching. That’s probably the other big thing. Showing the process, showing the prospect rather that you are invested in their success. And that’s why we call it a bit more of an insights call than a discovery call. But at the same time, you know, you are showing interest. You really want them to succeed.

0:12:30 – (Bob Woods): You are helping them, actually helping them, not just talking about how you help them, which is kind of a spin on a phrase that I like to say. So I think all that’s great. Stan, do you have anything to add there?

0:12:44 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Just that the recommendation is one other tool that you can use to provide a story that helps the potential clients see how you’ve helped someone with an example of someone that you worked with. Because stories help to bring things to light, so to speak, just make them more clear.

0:13:07 – (Brynne Tillman): I think that’s critical.

0:13:09 – (Bob Woods): I love that that’s critical. Absolutely. So the next stage has to do with selling internally. So this is when you are providing content, you’re providing other ways to help. That person who may be a decision maker is probably more than likely a champion. And others need to come in and also sign off on that deal as well. Because keep in mind that old statistic, there are 6.8 people who are involved in any B2B buying decision. So, Stan, do you want to take that a little bit more?

0:13:48 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yes, and I’ll do a yes. And as far as emphasizing the number of people who are involved in the buying decision, because LinkedIn’s latest statistics say it’s 11 to 20 these days, it just keeps going up, partially because zoom has made it so much easier for more and more people to kind of get involved. And even the CEOs will want to buy in. So, you know, they used to be selling DeVito, and now even if you get to the very important top officer, a lot of times they’re going to push you back down.

0:14:25 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): So as far as selling internally, all I’ll say is that you do have to kind of coach your champion in how to help sell you internally. And one of the things about the LinkedIn recommendations is that the colleagues that they’re selling you to will look at your LinkedIn profile. And so one of the things you can coach your champion to do is say, just direct them to this particular recommendation. And I think it’ll solve this issue that the last CFO brought up that we were working with.

0:14:58 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): And here’s an issue that the last operations director raised and how we help them navigate it. So by coaching them and referring them to some of the recommendations that you’ve collected, it can kind of help make their life a little bit easier.

0:15:14 – (Brynne Tillman): So that is so brilliant. When we were talking about this, that was not what I had in mind, but oh my gosh, that is absolutely brilliant. I love that. Where my head was when we were talking about selling internally is that Our champion writes a recommendation. How easy we made it for them by providing them all they need. But the idea that once we have that, that we are actually using that recommendation to help them sell us internally is like a bonus. It’s like cherries on Sunday. That’s awesome.

0:15:56 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. And the only thing that I would add to that is that you have to know where these different or who these different people are, who you’re trying to help your contact also sell, for lack of a better phrase, because content for a company CFO, for example, is markedly different than content for the CIO or the I can’t. CFO, CIO, HR, if HR needs to get involved or you know, like that, that type of thing. So just keep that in mind that you can’t just develop one piece of content and then expect that to resonate with each individual stakeholder within the company. I think that that’s very important.

0:16:41 – (Bob Woods): And then when the person is writing the recommendation, they can even talk about you. They can even say, you know, this person even tailored content to each of these different stakeholders. And that’s what made this experience all the more beneficial.

0:16:55 – (Brynne Tillman): Mic drop. Awesome.

0:16:58 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yep.

0:16:59 – (Bob Woods): Number four, overcoming objections. So this is where you proactively offer, say an FAQ page or an FAQ list or other types of content that helps your buyers overcome obstacles in the buying process before they even come. Roadblocks sometimes. So then when you’re getting recommendations from the people in this specific type of area, you can, you know, you can definitely have them highlight the fact that they appreciated the fact that you anticipated their objections and were able to either provide content or just actually, just answer those objections, especially if you can do that in a, in a proactive type of sense.

0:17:51 – (Brynne Tillman): So I love that I’m going to just throw in I probably from my perspective and I don’t know what the word is, but I don’t think I’d use the word’s objections in the content. Right. Like its FAQs, questions and answers. And then when they’re writing the recommendation, you could have. Stan, anticipated my, my, my questions and was. Was very prepared to answer a lot of those even before I thought of them. Right.

0:18:30 – (Brynne Tillman): And so, I love that I think just, just shifting and thinking through this live. Right. Shifting this from. Because we say overcoming objections, but we don’t want to tell them they’re going to have all these objections. So anticipating questions might be the best way to frame that. I don’t know, Stan.

0:18:55 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yep, totally agree there. So, whether we call it questions, concerns, but basically, as you said, Brynne, anticipating, like if you were working with someone in compliance is a big issue. You could say, hey, Bob was totally prepared to help us work through all of the compliance related issues related to this project. So that type of thing.

0:19:25 – (Brynne Tillman): You guys are so smart. I love it.

0:19:28 – (Bob Woods): We try, we try our best. Number five, closing content. So I did mention closing at the beginning. You definitely do want to have content specific to whenever you present that all important close friend, right?

0:19:45 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah. So, you know, it’s interesting, you know what kind of content can help us close the deal. It could be ROI, like proving ROI right. Closing the deal could be kind of running through all of what they can anticipate. As far as you know, these are the next steps and this is when you could start to see implementation or whatever that might look like. It’s almost like assuming the close. Right. So that’s right. So then the recommendation might sound something like Bob made it so simple to get started.

0:20:33 – (Brynne Tillman): Right. It was so easy to onboard with a social sales link or it, you know, working with Bob, it was seamless. Implementing our new X, Y and Z. So that is the piece that will help you close the business, Stan.

0:20:57 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yeah. Nope, I think Brynne covered it.

0:21:01 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. So I think the only other thing that I would potentially add to that is Bryn mentioned ROI and roi. You know, something like something that is measurable is always something very important and that’s going to resonate with people out there. But if you have the type of product or service or whatever that inspires less measurable things like, you know, peace of mind, ease and simplicity, trust and confidence, you know, those types of things.

0:21:34 – (Bob Woods): Those are other things that you could potentially bring up in this, in this type of content as. As well. Because people do buy on emotions as well as they buy on the bottom line.

0:21:45 – (Brynne Tillman): Numbers, even sometimes more on emotions.

0:21:50 – (Bob Woods): More exactly. Depending on the type of person who you’re talking to. Absolutely. Number six is implementation content. So this is after you get the proverbial signature or signatures on the dotted line, offering easy to follow rollout timelines and things like that that can help buyers feel like they have a handle on the next steps. Stan, do you want to talk about that a little bit more?

0:22:18 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Yes. A lot of times clients will complain that as soon as the deal was signed, the salesperson disappeared. So they handed us off to their colleagues and then I could never get them on the phone again. So if you get recommendations about how Bob helped us through the whole process, not only did he facilitate the handoff with their implementation team, but he regularly checked in to make sure that everything was going smoothly.

0:22:51 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): That type of thing is magic.

0:22:55 – (Brynne Tillman): Dan said it.

0:22:58 – (Bob Woods): And I’m also loving how y’all are using me as an example and are making me sound really, really good. So I truly appreciate that.

0:23:07 – (Brynne Tillman): We’ll start writing. We’ll start writing them for real once we get off the phone.

0:23:11 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): The phone.

0:23:12 – (Brynne Tillman): How old am I?

0:23:14 – (Bob Woods): I know, I phone. What is.

0:23:16 – (Brynne Tillman): What is a phone?

0:23:18 – (Bob Woods): I don’t know. I have. I have no idea. We’re all. We’re all at least Gen Xers here. Finally, let’s talk about bringing. Not bringing everything together, but sometimes you want to have a recommendation that just says that you were a rock star from the very beginning to the absolute very end. So you. Sometimes you want recommendations of everything. Not everything that you did because you don’t want listings necessarily of everything that you did. Although, you know, depending on how many characters you have, that might actually work.

0:23:56 – (Bob Woods): But just overall, you do want people recommending you based on their experience with you throughout the full project, whether it’s an entire project or if you work on in like an ongoing contracted role relationship that doesn’t necessarily have like an end, like a project does that’s powerful for securing future business and encouraging referrals and, you know, especially having that recommendation of someone out there saying this about you.

0:24:28 – (Brynne Tillman): So I really love that. And I’m thinking, you know, any one of your clients, you can get the whole recommendation. Again, I’m going to go back to what I think Stan said, which is write it for them. Like offer to write it for them and then you can use pieces of those full recommendations where you need it in the sales cycle. But yeah, I do think we need a few. That’s the soup to nuts clients. But ultimately the goal here is, Bob, you said it early on.

0:25:03 – (Brynne Tillman): Leverage other people’s voices to talk about your successes. It’s so much more powerful. There’s social proof when other people are saying how great you were to work together. That’s it.

0:25:19 – (Bob Woods): That’s it, Stan. Anything else there that’s good?

0:25:23 – (Stan Robinson, Jr): Just if this is one piece of an ongoing project or there are up solving opportunities, so to speak, if they talk about how much they look forward to working with you in the future, future projects, that is also great because many times there will be opportunities to add additional value to your existing clients. So it’s always good if they can talk about that as well and how much they look forward to working with you again.

0:25:58 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, Stan. Looking towards the future, I like that a lot. That was really, really great stuff. So always keep in mind that recommendations are social proof of the fact that you are who you say you are and you do what you do, and that you have happy, satisfied customers who are willing to stand up for you and say, hey, this person is good for me. And because it’s coming from them and not coming from you, it just, it just means that much more to the people who are reading those recommendations.

0:26:29 – (Bob Woods): So use that social proof not just overall, but as we’ve demonstrated here, for all of the steps in your sales process. So with that, thank you for joining us for this episode of Making Sales Social Live. If you’re with us live on LinkedIn or YouTube right now or the other social networks that we broadcast to, we do this every week. So keep an eye out for our live sessions. If you’re listening to us on our podcast and you haven’t subscribed already, hit that subscribe or Follow button to access all of our previous shows and be alerted to new ones when new ones drop.

0:27:02 – (Bob Woods): Socialsaleslink.com podcast is where you can get more information about this shows because we do two shows weekly, this one and our Making Sales Social interview series where we talk with leaders and experts in sales, marketing, business and many, many more areas. So when you are out and about, be sure to make your sales social. Alrighty. Sounds good everybody. Have a great day. Have a great week.

Outro:

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