Industries, consumer needs, and businesses are changing quickly in today’s online “world”. There are all kinds of statistics that point to the fact that buyers are doing their research about you, your company and your competitors way before they ever talk to you about your products or services.
In fact, a few of the stats that I found eye-opening is that 70% of B2B executives use smartphones and tablets to look up product or service information upon first learning of an offering. And, by the year 2020, 85% of the buyer-seller interaction will happen online through social media and video.
So, what are you doing to address this? Are your sales strategies adjusting to the changing marketplace? Or, are you still picking up the phone and cold-calling all day with the hope that someone will pick up on the other end and be happy that you interrupted their day?
Perhaps you relate to these challenges in your sales process?
- Your sales reps cannot gain access to decision makers
- New sales reps have difficulty building client base in a mature market
- You are experiencing low ROIs with traditional sales strategies
If so, you are not alone – the good news is you don’t have to look far to solve these problems because LinkedIn is where you need to be spending your time.
Let me explain with a case study example from a recent LinkedIn Campaign we executed for one of our clients, Knight Signs. In just 30 days, we were able to generate 14 qualified and 21 warm leads for one of their new sales reps that had no experience in the “architectural signage” industry.
Below I will share our key takeaways from the campaign and how your can model the same strategy to increase warm, qualified leads for your business.
THE PROBLEM: For more than 45 years, Knight Signs has been creating way-finding and architectural signage solutions around North America. Scott Ellerbeck was a new account executive, and like many newcomers to any mature industry, one of his main concerns was that he would not be able to develop a large portfolio of clients and earn a sustainable commission.
THE SOLUTION: Knight Signs senior executives realized that they needed to support and empower their new account executive with qualified leads to give him an opportunity to success in his new role quickly. After all, the cost to hire and train a new employee is significant. So, anything they could do to ensure his success in their company was seen as a sound investment, as long as the ROI is there.
As a new account executive, Scott needed instant leads and increased visibility in front of his target clients. Knight Signs hired our company to:
- Proactively view the profiles of Scott’s target prospects on LinkedIn to be ‘top-of-mind’
- Find, target, build and nurture relationships in the construction, architecture, and planning industries
- Train Scott on “LinkedIn best practices” so he could engage with the prospects we were feeding into his sales pipeline
THE RESULT:
- 14 qualified and 21 warm leads in Month 1
- 2 instant tender inclusions, and 3 long-term on-going tender inclusions in Month 1
- 1065% increase in profile views in Month 1
Why was the strategy so successful? It was targeted and proactive in the sense that many of the people Scott was reaching out to had a direct need for what he had to offer. But, those prospects typically don’t take the time to reach out to vendors. Instead they wait for vendors to contact them or make a quick decision on a vendor at the end of their projects.
So, by Scott using LinkedIn to reach out to these people, he not only lined up a few potential “quick wins”, he was also able to build his sales pipeline and get himself included in some larger tender bids that could prove to be very lucrative for him 3-6 months down the line.
As the world’s largest database of online professionals, LinkedIn provides many opportunities to build and nurture partnerships, especially in a B2B sales environment. Scott was able to build trust through an impressive LinkedIn profile and effective targeting. As a result, the likelihood of success in his role has been significantly increased, which will help the bottom line of the company now and in the future.
This story originally appeared on Linked Into Leads. Linked Into Leads is a LinkedIn lead generation, training and consulting company based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. For more LinkedIn tips, head over to http://www.linkedintoleads.com/tips and signup for our newsletter and free resources.
