How Agencies Can Leverage Personal LinkedIn Profiles for Brand Sales

[00:00:00] StephanieLiu.: Over the past few years, Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms have come under fire for all kinds of concerns around privacy and politicized agendas. But do you know who hasn’t? LinkedIn. And with nearly 700 million members focused on business engagements, it’s no wonder that 80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn.

[00:00:25] Now, of course, you already have a LinkedIn company page for your agency. But how are you leveraging your employees and your own personal profile to grow the brand? That’s what we’re covering in today’s episode of Agency Accelerated.[00:01:00]

[00:01:03] All right. Welcome back to Agency Accelerated, the show for agencies who want to grow bigger. So stick with us to learn how you can simplify your growth strategy with practical tips from the marketing pros. Hi, I’m Stephanie Liu, and I’m here in beautiful, sunny San Diego. Now, those of you watching live right now, let us know where you’re tuning in from in the comments, cause I wanna know how you’re doing. I’d love to see you. And if you’re watching the replay, you know what to do. Go ahead and leave the comment #replay. Now, as a quick reminder, those who watch and engage live have the amazing opportunity to get their questions answered in real time. We’re live every other Wednesday at 2:00 PM Eastern Time, 11:00 AM Pacific time on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and of course, LinkedIn. So make sure you head on over to agorapulse.com/calendar and subscribe so you don’t miss any episodes and stay until the very end, because [00:02:00] you’ll get a chance to get your hands on a creative way to grow and scale your marketing agencies.

[00:02:06] All right. Cool. Let me see who’s here. Let’s see. Oh, nice to see you. Hey, welcome. So, today we’re doing a deep dive into the topic of LinkedIn and how marketing agencies, like yours, can not only tap into that vast network of prospects, but do so hand in hand with your key staff and your employees. Now, in our last episode with Kevin Lau from Adobe, we talked about the importance of building community and creating processes and intention around the idea of customer advocacy.

[00:02:39] Now, today’s topic is similar and that we’re trying to get other people, real people, talking about our brand and business. Cause the thing is, if you can activate your employees on LinkedIn, then that broadens the reach and exposure of your brand and ultimately, drive sales. It can also help with recruitment retention and [00:03:00] so much more.

[00:03:01] But what exactly do you ask your employees to do? And not only that though, but how do you provide them with direction on what is essentially a personal social media profile? That’s exactly what our guest is going to talk to us about today. David JP Fisher is a speaker, coach, and author of 12 books, including the best selling Hyper-Connected Selling and Networking in the 21st Century.

[00:03:24] Why your network sucks and what to do about it? David helps salespeople, business owners and marketing agencies, just like yours, understand the sales Sherpa Path where social media, LinkedIn, especially, networking and traditional sales skills are the key to providing value and staying relevant. So, David, welcome to the show. How you doing?

[00:03:48] DavidFisher: Living the dream. So excited to be here.

[00:03:51] Thanks for having me.

[00:03:52] StephanieLiu.: I love it. I love it. So let’s start by setting some expectations. In your book, Networking and the 21st [00:04:00] Century, you said that LinkedIn is a tool. It’s not a magic pill. What did you mean by that?

[00:04:04] DavidFisher: It’s so easy. I think in our highly technical and digitized modern sales world, to think that the key, the secret to getting the sales we want, getting the revenue we want, lies in the platform that’s just over the horizon, and let’s face it. A lot of providers of those platforms would love to have us think that, they’re trying to get their sales too, but the reality is, lies in the fact that LinkedIn, for example, is an amazing social networking platform to connect with the prospects, the clients, the partners, the employees, the employers that we want to, but we still have to use that tool.

[00:04:45] It’s kinda like a hammer. You can’t just give somebody a hammer and say, go build me a palace. You have to say, okay, here’s a hammer. Let me show you how to use that hammer. Maybe bring in some other tools, maybe create a blueprint and then use that as a [00:05:00] means to an end. And I think that we’re still in the process, even though we’re almost 20 years into the existence of LinkedIn of people realizing, oh, it’s not gonna do the work for me.

[00:05:10] I still have put in the effort. I still have to put in the energy and the time.

[00:05:15] StephanieLiu.: That’s true. I often think about like, here in my neighborhood, there are houses for sale and there’s something that you could do where you could just put up the sign and say houses for sale and hope that people swing by, they’ll pass by, they’ll get a brochure and all that other stuff, but you still have to leverage different channels to get that foot traffic. When you said that LinkedIn has been around for 20 years, I was like, really? Wow.

[00:05:40] DavidFisher: I think it’s 18. So we’re almost there. It’s crazy.

[00:05:45] StephanieLiu.: Oh goodness. LinkedIn is almost old enough to get, get a drink.

[00:05:50] DavidFisher: Depending on local laws,

[00:05:51] StephanieLiu.: true. True. True.

[00:05:53] All right. So as an agency owner, my LinkedIn profile typically reflects what I do. [00:06:00] And a lot of the other projects that I’m working on, and if I was an employee of an agency, are there any specific tips that you would recommend that my team should optimize on their LinkedIn profile from that perspective?

[00:06:13] DavidFisher: Yeah, there’s actually a lot of different kinda levers you can pull, but I do think that the first place to start is actually helping, not only you as an agency owner, as a strategic planner of the future of your organization. But I think it’s really important to help your team members, whether those are, people that are individual contributors, whether those are your sales customer service, no matter where they are in the organization, help them think through strategically who are the people that they’re interacting with, especially like in a space like LinkedIn.

[00:06:50] Who are the people that they’re trying to influence? What is the message that they wanna share with those people? In some ways, what is the brand that even on a personal level, they’re trying to communicate? [00:07:00] I’ve often found that little step, which doesn’t take that much time is often the one that’s skipped.

[00:07:05] And so a lot of people think that a LinkedIn profile I’m just gonna go fill in the blame versus taking the same effort with a LinkedIn profile that you might, for example, a client’s website, right? You do a bunch of strategic research and then use that to guide what you put into that website. It’s the same thing in the profile.

[00:07:22] So I think that strategic step, while not super sexy, is the place to start. Then, you can look at the different levers, then you can go, hey, the banner image, the headshot are those in line with the message that I wanna share, the way that I wanna convey myself. The About Section, for example, is a great place to not only bring in a personal message, but also connect with that larger organizational message, that organizational brand.

[00:07:46] Hey, here’s what I bring to the work I do. But let me tell you how the gang around me also impacts the success that I can have. Same thing. Even the experience section, how you talk about the company will and should reflect [00:08:00] what the reader needs to see. So often we think that the profile is what we want to say, but really it’s what they need to hear, what they need to get as a reader in whatever capacity that reader is then gonna interact with you.

[00:08:13] If it’s a client, if it’s a prospect, a potential employee. So those are the places to start.

[00:08:18] StephanieLiu.: Okay. That makes a lot of sense, because I feel like when LinkedIn first came out, or even now when it’s taught in schools, people just say LinkedIn is just like your resume. It’s an online resume. You just put all your accomplishments and you’re like, no, no, don’t do that.

[00:08:32] And to your point, what I liked what you said, it’s more about what does the viewer, what does the reader need in order to understand what your business or your product service solves for the problem that they have? And so, it’s really understanding how your reader or your prospective client, how do they make a decision to want to work with you?

[00:08:53] What kind of information do you need to put out there to give them the confidence that, okay, you are the person [00:09:00] that can help me with this specifically or your business. So then, having said that, David, when we talk about The Great Resignation and all these other stuff that’s happening out there.

[00:09:09] Like so many people now are looking into side hustles, personal projects. How much of an individual’s personal projects, side hustles should an agency employee or anyone really share on LinkedIn?

[00:09:25] DavidFisher: Yeah. That’s a great question. That balance of personal and professional brand, right?

[00:09:31] Because the short version of a long answer is it’s a balance. It is not a binary one or the other. And because of that, I think people do get a little nervous, right? Here’s the suggestion I would make to any individual and also, to those who are leading others, so if you’re an agency owner, for example, and you’re talking to your team, you want them obviously to rep the organization and to rep what they’re doing for your customers [00:10:00] through their profiles, but it is their individual profile.

[00:10:02] The guidance that I often suggest is to think about what are the most important through lines. What are the most important themes around your professional life that are important to convey? Now, that might just include your official full-time role. It might also include some of these, the part-time roles or the side hustles.

[00:10:23] What I do suggest often is, make sure that even those side hustles still align in some way, shape or form with that through line. Okay. Here’s a very specific example. So, it’s a bizarre image I’m sure, but I’m a fitness instructor as a side gig. I teach Zumba. It’s a ton of fun. It’s yes, I do not seem like I would be the stereotypical Zumba instructor, but I have a blast and I’ve gotta work out.

[00:10:47] So, it’s a great way to keep me in shape. It’s not on my LinkedIn profile. Not because I’m embarrassed in any way, shape or form, but because, if somebody’s first coming into my profile and they go, [00:11:00] author, speaker, LinkedIn, sales, blah, blah, blah, Zumba instructor. They get confused, you wanna keep it as simple as possible for somebody to really grasp quickly?

[00:11:11] One of the things we can even think about from a marketing point of view is people come to a LinkedIn profile often top a funnel. The first time they’re gonna interact with you. In fact, often before they ever interact with you. In the real world, whether that’s video or in person. So we have to keep it as simple as possible for somebody to grasp and get right away how you serve them.

[00:11:30] And so that’s, why even the idea of bringing in the personal and the professional is important. It’s what is the overarching narrative that I want somebody to be able to really quickly take away, hey, this is what D does. This is how he helps. And then allow people to opt in or not based on that.

[00:11:47] StephanieLiu.: That’s helpful. Yeah. I was recently at an event and you know how they always tell speakers? Okay, introduce yourself. That’s always a cop out for the fact that the MC didn’t take the time to actually read your bio, [00:12:00] right? And so, they pass the mic over to the speaker and the speaker’s, they haven’t done their own elevator pitch before and they do kinda what you said. They’ll tell the whole resume.

[00:12:12] And it’s PS by the way, I do this. And it’s okay. Let’s remember, this conference is targeting this specific audience. So let’s tailor that message in a way that’s really going to resonate and so that way, when you walk off the stage, they’re still able to remember what it is exactly that you do.

[00:12:29] Good call on that.

[00:12:30] DavidFisher: Exactly. I love that analogy.

[00:12:33] StephanieLiu.: So, what’s here in the comments, I’m here for Zumba chat. Yes. Oh my God. I’m loving this. So hey, if you’re just tuning in, we’re talking with LinkedIn Expert David Fisher and we’re also talking about how marketing agencies can leverage LinkedIn for their own sales and prospecting.

[00:12:56] But first, I wanna give you a quick story about how another [00:13:00] LinkedIn expert relies on Agorapulse for social media management.

[00:13:05] N/A: Because I remember, when I first started on social media, there weren’t any scheduling tools. And so, as they started to come out, there were certain things that this one did better than that one.

[00:13:16] And then I discovered Agorapulse and it really brings everything together. So what I’ve discovered or how I’m using it is primarily again for LinkedIn, but of course, it does pull in all of the social sites that most of us use. The user interface is very easy to use. And I think that’s a big differentiator.

[00:13:37] Now more than even investment, because we’ve been so spoiled with things like Apple and we’re getting so spoiled, as far as UX, as far as these user interfaces, and how to use something. And if you can’t get on a program and pick it up intuitively, then you’re probably not gonna use it. And Agorapulse is extremely [00:14:00] intuitive.

[00:14:01] It’s also very flexible. And so, where you might have to use different, like Chrome extensions or where you might have to use actually different platforms to get the job done, you can do it all within the Agorapulse platform. And now, of course, that they’ve got new mobile app.

[00:14:19] It makes it even easier to do it on the fly. I just think that the user experience, the user interface and the user experience is what differentiates Agorapulse from all the other ones out there.

[00:14:35] StephanieLiu.: If you’d like to learn more about how Agorapulse helps thousands of agencies grow and scale their business, head on over to bit.ly/AdAgencyRevenue. Now, let’s get back to your agency with David Fisher. So David, come on back. There you are. So we’ve been talking about LinkedIn company pages, how to tailor our message, right? [00:15:00] What’s some advice that you would have for agency owners who want to work with their employees in this way? Like how should they approach their staff? Is it only the salespeople? Is it the account managers? Is it the first person that works at the receptionist desk?

[00:15:13] What’s the best way to communicate this and have everyone on your team be aligned?

[00:15:19] DavidFisher: It’s a really good question. And I think the first thing to understand is, it’s not necessarily a one-size-fits-all solution, right? I can’t say, hey, everybody should do exactly these things, in these ways. What I will say is important is organizationally creating some sort of basic template that outlines the language that your team can use on their LinkedIn profiles is such an important place to start, because over and over again, you hear employees say, hey, I got this new job, but I didn’t know what to put on my LinkedIn profile. How do I describe this new role? How do I describe what we do? [00:16:00] So having some sort of foundational document even, I work with clients and we’re even like, let’s just get a Word doc. Let’s start there if we need to, or PDF, whatever it is.

[00:16:09] But having this shared language that everybody from the receptionist to the sales team, to the C-suite, everybody’s on board and sharing an aligned message. It doesn’t have to all be the same. But it has to be, and I’ve used this word aligned, like going in the same direction, the metaphor I’ll use as a choir. Not every choir member sings the same note, but they’re hopefully, in the same key. That’s what you wanna do with your team and provide them some guidance.

[00:16:38] Yes, there we go. The sound effects. One thing that’s important to remember is that every individual’s profile is theirs. It’s not the organization’s. So if you try to go, hey, you have to do this. People will resist. But if you say, I wanna help you do your job better. I wanna help you have better interactions with your clients.

[00:16:58] You’re in sales. I wanna help you hit your [00:17:00] numbers for the quarter or the year, whatever. Let me help you have some tools to do that, and provide them that foundation. That’s the start. And then, I do think that if you really look at those high touch places in your organization, so that’s gonna be sales, that’s gonna be leadership, recruiting, maybe customer success or customer service. If you have something like that, your account managers, giving them some additional guidance. A big thing we should start talking about how LinkedIn is a tool and you need to tell people how to use that tool. Every time I run a poll about what blocks people from using LinkedIn more effectively.

[00:17:34] Way up on the list is I just don’t know what to do. So even being cognizant of giving them some training, some guidance, some knowledge about what to do with the tool, it goes so, so far. Cause it is easy to stand out if you do the right things, but you have to, again, put even a little organizational bandwidth on that to make it happen.

[00:17:55] StephanieLiu.: I love that. And it’s one of those things too, where I feel like so many of us [00:18:00] have been working from home or working from wherever. And we haven’t really had like that in-person contact often these days, and I don’t know about you, but I feel like, I’m headed over to a conference next week.

[00:18:12] I’m like, do people still know how to interact with people in people terms,

[00:18:17] DavidFisher: I dunno if they knew how to do that even before the pandemic.

[00:18:20] StephanieLiu.: That’s true. So, I was at an event last week and some of the speakers, we were just like, am I doing this right? Am I still communicating in a way that makes sense, that gets my message across? So when you were talking about LinkedIn and teaching people how to use it in a way that builds relationships, that highlights will what the agency is doing, and aligns in the message. I think that’s definitely spot on because so often, I find that people are just zooming, they’re zooming from one thing to another, squeezing in Zumba in between, and so on and so forth,

[00:18:53] DavidFisher: I’m not gonna live that down. OK. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:18:55] StephanieLiu.: Well, love it. I love it. I love it. David, do you have any recommendations [00:19:00] for tools or even maybe let’s say Chrome extensions that agencies can use to really optimize their experience on LinkedIn? So whether that’s for collaborating, networking with other people, following up on leads or just anything in general.

[00:19:16] DavidFisher: Yeah. Besides Agorapulse, you mean?

[00:19:21] StephanieLiu.: I was gonna say Grammarly cause often, when I’m like reaching out to I’m like, did I spell that correctly?

[00:19:26] DavidFisher: Grammarly can definitely be effective. So, I’ll actually go in a different direction because I do think a lot of people are looking for that Chrome extension.

[00:19:36] And there’s a number that are out there. I think it does depend a bit on the role. So, for example, if you are working with your sales team, there are a number of really good ones. Honestly, if you’re gonna get your salespeople on LinkedIn and using it. Sales Navigator, internal to LinkedIn, is super powerful.

[00:19:56] I do think one of the things that I like a lot in [00:20:00] conjunction with LinkedIn is actually some sort of asynchronous video. So one thing I suggest to people is something like Videoyard, however you wanna call it. Loom, cause that’s been a great way of messaging people. And you spoke of Grammarly.

[00:20:15] Grammarly can be really valuable, especially if you’re trying to do a lot of content creation, and you’re writing your own posts and you don’t feel super confident to edit yourself, throw it into Grammarly really quick. It’s actually a good idea. There’s a number of different tools you can use to, and there’s a great one on Apple, which I don’t, I’m a PC guy, but the way to just have you type in like TT, and it’s a full message.

[00:20:39] Those Chrome extensions.

[00:20:41] StephanieLiu.: The keyword expanders. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:20:43] DavidFisher: Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Something like that can be really effective if you’re like, hey, I’m doing a lot of outreach and I don’t think you should do completely templated, basic, boring, no personalization kind of stuff. But if you are like, hey, I’m doing a lot of outreach. I just went to a conference.

[00:20:59] I know I [00:21:00] met 20 or 30 people. I want to connect with them. Yeah. Having a template that you can then customize saves you a ton of time. I think those are some of the easy ways of making your life on LinkedIn more valuable. But I do think it’s important to also not get caught in kind of what I call the automation trap.

[00:21:18] LinkedIn more than almost any other platform is not so much a social media site. It’s a social networking site, right? It’s about the relationship. It’s about the interaction. It’s not just about throwing stuff up there and trying to get views for views sake. And so, I think you can get trapped in this idea of oh, I’m just gonna automate a bunch of stuff.

[00:21:38] We’ve seen this since the beginning of the pandemic, the rise in pitch slapping, or, connecting pitch, however you wanna call it, where somebody connects with you and then, trying to set up a meeting with you right away. So, I think in some ways, it’s good to have these tools that make our life easier.

[00:21:54] But also we have to remember, this is about human engagement. If you like having a Chrome [00:22:00] extension before going to a conference, and you walk up to somebody and just push a button to have your elevator pitch in the beginning of the conversation. Hi, my name is David.

[00:22:10] We think that be ridiculous, but somehow we don’t think it’s ridiculous. Of course, it’s ridiculous. Online.

[00:22:17] StephanieLiu.: I would imagine people are probably at conferences and they’re still wearing their masks, but what if you had like your phone that only recorded your lips and then you push play on the video in front of your mouth and then it’s you actually saying it and then you don’t even have to about memorizing your elevator pitch?

[00:22:33] I might just do that just to have fun with people.

[00:22:36] DavidFisher: I gotta imagine somebody, somewhere, has made that and if not, I think you just got the next idea.

[00:22:42] StephanieLiu.: IP. Intellectual property. Before we move on, though, I wanna go back to the Sales Navigator, cause I don’t think most agencies are leveraging that.

[00:22:51] If anything, I feel like most C-level executives might know a little bit about it, but I would say your account managers or even like your paid media [00:23:00] practitioner doesn’t know what LinkedIn Sales Navigator is and if they should be using it. So can you give us like a high level overview of what it is? What are the benefits and how would an agency actually use it?

[00:23:11] DavidFisher: No, it’s a really good question. And yeah, I don’t wanna assume that people know the ins and outs of the platform. So Sales Navigator, it sits above the basic LinkedIn, and it is a really powerful tool, especially for account managers, definitely in the business development and sales world, obviously. What it really allows you to do is a couple really awesome things. One is you get a ton more information about who is coming to your profile. Who’s viewing you, who’s interacting with what you’re sharing, which can be really powerful if you’re using LinkedIn actively. One of the great things about it, it does allow you to create the lead lists, the prospect lists. You get a ton of really great filtering functionalities that really allow you to key in on maybe that best prospect [00:24:00] list. But even beyond that, once you’ve identified great accounts, or great leads specifically. It allows you to track those people and those organizations track their activity, for example, which I love. There’s organizations I’d love to work with being able to know that, hey, they posted something. I can comment on it, or I can like it and have that low level of engagement is really powerful. Going back to what we said, I tell people all the time, it is not gonna do the work for you, right?

[00:24:29] And a lot of times, especially sales people, sometimes can be a little lazy and just want everything spoon-fed to them. It’s not going all of a sudden give you the 20 leads in your inbox every day, but it’s gonna help you find the great leads, help you be a little more strategic and judicious with your time and really give you some of that information to really personalize and customize your approach to people. So instead, if you’re just starting out on LinkedIn, I always tell people, get comfortable with the free stuff. Do the [00:25:00] profile work, do the engagement work, that basic level stuff. But then if you’re, when you’re hit a ceiling, then getting Sales Navigator is a really powerful tool.

[00:25:08] And if you have questions about that, you’re more and welcome to reach out to me afterwards.

[00:25:12] StephanieLiu.: Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that you even brought up, get familiar with the platform first, do the basic foundations there, too, cause I even find just getting the notifications of so and so looked at your profile.

[00:25:25] I consider those like your missed connections. There might have been something in the headline or in the cover photo where they’re just like, that was interesting. And so for me, I could go back and oh, okay, who’s that person? And what do they do? Do we have friends in common? What have they posted recently?

[00:25:41] Are they going to the same events as I am? Because I don’t know how they found me, but let’s figure it out. Let’s do a little bit of, roll up the sleeve.

[00:25:48] DavidFisher: I’ll even just reach out. I reach out to ’em a lot of times, if there’s somebody who’s a second level connection, they came and looked at my profile.

[00:25:54] I’m not quite sure why I reach out and say, hey, thanks for stopping by. Great to meet you. What brought [00:26:00] you to my profile? And a lot of times people just like, oh, you know, it just popped up. I was curious, but every once in a while it’s hey, I know so and or, hey, we’re looking to do some, social selling work in organizations.

[00:26:10] I was doing some research. Awesome. Let’s talk, right?

[00:26:14] StephanieLiu.: Yeah.

[00:26:14] DavidFisher: It’s really powerful.

[00:26:15] StephanieLiu.: I really like that approach, too. Like, I saw you stop by that type of stuff. And one of our viewers, I think it was Christopher had mentioned earlier, he was saying that LinkedIn often feels like it’s an endless pitch fest or you had actually called it a pitch slap, which I thought was really interesting. Cause there are times where I have people, they reach out and it is the same message. I’m like, who is teaching you this? How is it same word verbatim?

[00:26:44] DavidFisher: I found like where some LinkedIn guru teaches a masterclass and it’s all like this, uncustomized. It happened about three weeks ago.

[00:26:53] I got 15 messages within 24 hours that were literally the like, cut and [00:27:00] pasting.

[00:27:00] StephanieLiu.: Yeah. One of my good friends was telling me that you could tell if someone is using an automated system or a bot, for example, cause if you change your LinkedIn profile name to say Stephanie Liu and a little emoji at the end.

[00:27:14] If it says, hey, Stephanie Liu emoji, then I’m like, oh, you’re a bot.

[00:27:19] DavidFisher: Right on those. On LinkedIn, I actually do suggest this to people. So the first name box for me is David JP, because that is what I use with, my formal name for my books and stuff. But I know immediately if somebody says, hey David JP. Delete.

[00:27:36] Cause they just scraped it, right?

[00:27:40] StephanieLiu.: See? Now everyone knows. Put a little emoji or put an extra initial in there and then that’ll be interesting. All right. Agency Accelerated friends, we’re getting close to wrapping things up with David JP. I’m just kidding. So, if you got questions, now’s the time.

[00:27:57] In fact, when you do type in your questions, it’s [00:28:00] very helpful for my producer and I, if you put a Q in front of your question, so that way I know that it’s a question. Otherwise it’s just a comment. So David, I do have one more question for you of my own, that I definitely want people to pay attention to.

[00:28:14] So I’m gonna give them a moment to go ahead and drop in their questions. In fact, I wanna give a quick shout out to Nancy who’s here. Who’s also said, it really depends on your clients and your market when you are optimizing your profile. I think that’s what she was mentioning earlier. Bishop Donald Oliver. Good afternoon. He says that this is the first time that he’s really heard about LinkedIn Sales Navigator. And he’s just gonna look at it today. Let us know how you feel about that. One of our viewers, David, is saying that they use QR codes now instead of business cards to share their Instagram info with people that they meet, what are your thoughts on that?

[00:28:50] DavidFisher: Cool. Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen that before people have even done the QR code to go to a LinkedIn profile. I think that’s a great way to [00:29:00] get people to your digital presence. I think it’s good if you do it great. If you don’t do it’s okay. Again, I started out an old school networker. I’m still an old school networker.

[00:29:09] So, if somebody’s like, oh, it’s nice to meet you. Take a picture of this. I’m like no, I’m talking to you. I can find your LinkedIn profile later. But I do. I think that’s a great idea, especially after you’ve had that conversation say, hey, by the way, it’s real easy. Just, scan the QR code and follow me on LinkedIn or on Instagram, whatever it is.

[00:29:29] I love that as a leaving, way for people to follow up with you easily. I think it’s great.

[00:29:33] StephanieLiu.: That’s funny. It’s here’s my QR code. Just scan my QR code. I think I saw with the, those that are wearing face mask and whatnot, the companies that create the branded swag, they’re now putting QR coats by on the mask.

[00:29:45] I’m like, that’s so weird. I would be like, okay, someone’s coming up to my face. Scan my face.

[00:29:51] DavidFisher: Well, it was very big years ago and they still, at some conferences, still try to do it where they put the QR code on the badge. And it was designed to go to your [00:30:00] LinkedIn profile, whatever. And it was just very weird.

[00:30:02] And, here, can I scan your lanyard, which is often on your chest? Luckily on that one, I don’t think really got traction.

[00:30:14] StephanieLiu.: Yeah, I’ve seen the ones now where I think it’s called NFC, the cards that you just tap on your phone and then it’ll automatically download your info to the phone.

[00:30:22] So lots of different ways for it. I found the QR code for the Instagram interesting. I would imagine if you’re trying to connect with people on Instagram, it’s probably because that’s your best social media platform that highlights your business, your product, or your service. I’m a big fan of LinkedIn, for sure just because it tells me who we’re connected with. It tells me more information about what industry they’re a part of or even clients. So I find that to be really interesting.

[00:30:50] DavidFisher: Absolutely.

[00:30:51] StephanieLiu.: Cool. So, David, once you have your profile optimized, and you’ve convinced the team successfully that we’re all [00:31:00] aligned and you’ve got all the tools in place to help you, especially Grammarly, right?

[00:31:04] You don’t wanna have like your C-level executive sending out typos and David JP, right? How do you actually start to generate leads from LinkedIn at that point? How do you transition from, hey, I’m here to network. How do I help you into okay, now let’s start talking about sales without being so pitch slap.

[00:31:24] DavidFisher: Right. And you left this one until the end, which is great cause do we have a couple hours? I think this is definitely plays where your audience, your client type, and demographic does play into this. It’s not necessarily a matter of, oh, there’s just one thing you do. And then you get leads.

[00:31:44] We’ve got a lot of marketing people if you think about it. What does a lead really mean to you? Is it a name and a position, and you can reach out on LinkedIn? So you have some contact info. Is that a lead? Is it MQL? Is it SQL? Where is [00:32:00] it really fitting in?

[00:32:01] I think one of the problems or one of the black marks on LinkedIn has been the proliferation of what I would call the lead generators, which are the companies that teach or the automated platforms that will do it for you, where it’s just numbers, games, and it’s automated. And they’re just trying to get some sort of attention and interest even a little bit.

[00:32:26] To get that lead and all you’re really giving you is, here’s, you Susan. She’s the CMO of Company XYZ. It’s nice, but that’s not really gonna bring you into a true sales conversation. So how do you actually then leverage the platform to get those sales conversations? I think you can in a couple of simple ways. Pay attention of, for example, the newsfeed. We talk about Sales Navigator, the ability to follow specific leads or accounts. Even if you don’t have that, you might know there’s hey, 10 or [00:33:00] 15 people in your network that you’d love to do business with. You met somebody at a conference who be a great client, connect with them and then start paying attention.

[00:33:08] The analogy to old school, offline networking is very apt here where it’s about relationships. And relationships don’t happen immediately. They don’t happen without any energy or effort, it’s that ongoing conversation. A good friend of mine, Steve Watt from Seismic will often say LinkedIn is the biggest global ongoing networking conversation happening that you can always dip your toes into. So, there’s a lot of great technology out there that will allow you to pay attention to signals that your network might be giving off on LinkedIn. But also, this is where some training and some help with your sales staff or whoever’s customer facing. Definitely if you’re the founder, if you’re the president, if you’re the person in-charge, just talking and being in conversation, that could be posting, that could be responding to comments, and then you go, oh, this person is talking about a problem [00:34:00] that we solve.

[00:34:01] And then it’s as simple as going, slide into their DMS, reaching out, hey, I saw you post about X that’s something that we actually do. Is it worth grabbing a quick conversation for 20 minutes? The nice thing about Zoom calls now is everybody’s pretty comfortable with a 20-minute Zoom call. And I mean that this is where LinkedIn blurs that marketing and sales, those silos together.

[00:34:24] And it’s tough because I can’t give you this. Oh, you do X and then Y and then Z and then boom, money. But, we know that’s how sales has always happened. And that’s really where again, we can scale. And I would almost say like use LinkedIn is a force multiplier. I don’t have to go to that conference, fly and take three days to talk to 20 or 30 people.

[00:34:43] I can do that from the comfort of my home office, on my screen and have those conversations. So that was my long rant. But hopefully that makes sense.

[00:34:53] StephanieLiu.: It does make sense. And so often on Agency Accelerated, we’ve said there are resources in [00:35:00] relationships, so start building them now. You might not get the sale right away, but you may know someone who knows someone else that can help them with a specific problem that they’re facing right then and there. And if you are that person that is a problem solver that has the connections and the resources, then you become top-of-mind and tip-of-tongue .

[00:35:20] DavidFisher: I called the sales trip, a path being that, sorry to interrupt. That’s it’s being that guide and doing it before we talk all about the buyer’s journey these days, where the reality is, if we can let them be on their buyer’s journey, be the resource for them when they need it and position ourselves as that person can be the resource for them. When they are ready to buy, when they go, hey, Stephanie, you talk a lot about topic X, Y, Z. That’s what we need. Can we have a conversation? It’s a lot easier way to sell than, hey, can you talk to me? Hey, can you talk to me? Hey, you wanna buy from me?

[00:35:50] Hey, can we talk right now? Do you wanna buy right now? Can we do something right now? Can we go? I’m exaggerating for a fact, but I’m not exaggerating that much.

[00:35:59] StephanieLiu.: Very true. [00:36:00] Very true. And so then having said that, you also mentioned how it’s important to know how to use these tools in order for you to get training and all of that other stuff.

[00:36:11] Is that something that you offer is that something that you share with teams?

[00:36:16] DavidFisher: I’m biased. Yes. That a lot of my work is looking at the strategy. I say, the mindset, the skill sets and the tool sets. It’s easy to write a check or pay on a credit card to get the tools, but you gotta have the mindset and skillset.

[00:36:28] Yeah, that’s a lot of the work that I do with organizations, helping them bring the human back into the digital.

[00:36:35] StephanieLiu.: I like that. Yeah. You’re gonna take the mess out of their messaging so that way they can connect, that’s for sure. See, we can do this all day. I love it. Good. So then can you let our listeners know where they can connect with you and learn more about all the amazing things that you do?

[00:36:51] DavidFisher: Yeah, LinkedIn is always, an easy way to find me. Just go to linkedin.com/in/iamdfish [00:37:00] or find me at my online home, davidjpfisher.com and always have you talk to anybody about LinkedIn business sales or Zumba.

[00:37:10] StephanieLiu.: I love it. And for those of you that are watching live, our producer dropped into the comments on where you can find David’s book on Amazon.

[00:37:18] We also have his website there for you, rockstarconsulting.com/aboutrockstar and he’s gonna teach you a lot about LinkedIn. Cause Bishop was listening earlier and he was like, this is my first time hearing about LinkedIn Sales Navigator and I bet you there’s so much more that he has to offer.

[00:37:34] So take advantage of that. Just remember, don’t say, hey David J.P.

[00:37:39] DavidFisher: Yes. Thank you.

[00:37:41] StephanieLiu.: You’ll be in the spam box, right? Yeah. All right, friends.. That’s all that we have for today. In our next episode, we’ll be talking to our very own Head of Agency Business for Agorapulse. That’s the wonderful, the amazing Theresa Anderson.

[00:37:54] And that’s when we’re gonna have an opportunity to do a deeper dive into building great teams within [00:38:00] your agency. Now, here’s the thing. I always ask you this. So if there’s a particular topic that you’d like us to cover, or there’s someone that you think that we should talk to, maybe there’s another David Fisher out there, right?

[00:38:13] Let us know, head on over to AgencyAccelerated.live, drop us a note. We’d love to hear from you. Is there a new author, someone that you saw on stage, someone that did a great job in sliding to the DMS, right? Let us know, cause we are here to help you build the resources that you need as well. Having said that, I’ll see you and your agency accelerating into the next show.[00:39:00]