Build Trust, first & foremost!

Selling on LinkedIn is no different from selling offline. We still have to build trust.

Finding out who is the decision maker or who heads IT department [or EDP as it was called during the dinosaur era] from the receptionists is obsolete.

You do the searches on LinkedIn.

But that’s where the difference ends.

Rest of the process is the same.

You still have to introduce yourself & not make a pitch in the first meeting.

No one wants to hear how good you are.

Especially when you have not understood anything about them or their organization or their challenges.

Offline, we do cold calls. We meet customers. Introduce ourselves. Then, we get to know them.

Build Trust.

Then offer to solve some problems.

Show proof.

Then proceed with the rest of the process.

The idea is to build trust first. And then make sure that we don’t break it for the rest of our lives.

Sales people think it is easy to target customers on LinkedIn.

In the invitation, they make a pitch.

Some bold sales guys even ask for 30 minutes time for a meeting.

Maybe, I guess, they will send a proposal after the meeting.

And close the deal immediately after sending the proposal.

They will then move on to the next customer who is waiting to give them orders. [Or so, they think.]

Wow!

I am impressed.

#b2bsales #coldcalls #sales #kkrocks