There are a number of reasons you might need to convert Sales Navigator URLs to LinkedIn URLs. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to do it!
The first method involves manually copying and pasting the bit of the URL you need. It works better when you have a small number of URLs to convert. The second method uses an Excel / Google Sheets equation. This is a great option for when you already have a large list of URLs to convert. The third method converts Sales Navigator URLs to LinkedIn URLs automatically, as you export from sales nav – using Lix! Skip to the method that suits your needs.
This is a super-simple and quick way to get the standard LinkedIn URL from the Sales Nav version. Essentially, it’s just removing a small section of the Sales Navigator URL and copy & pasting it into the standard format.
Select and copy everything that comes after lead/ and before the first comma:
Paste this on the end of the standard LinkedIn profile URL format www.linkedin/com/in/
You can also replace sales/lead with in and delete everything after the comma – both methods give the same result!
If you’re converting a handful of profiles, this process is great… What happens when you have hundreds (or thousands!) of Sales Navigator URLs to convert?
Excel / Google Sheets Equation
If you have a list of Sales Navigator URLs you need to convert LinkedIn URLs en masse, this is the solution for you.
1. Open up your file with the Sales Nav URLs and paste the formula in the next column. Be sure to change the value ‘A1’ in the formula to correspond with the cell of the first URL to convert.
2. Click the square in the bottom-right corner of the cell and drag all the way to the bottom of the list – this will apply the formula to the correct cells on the left!
3. Voila! A list of converted Sales Navigator URLs to LinkedIn URLs
Automatic Conversion During Export
If you’re regularly converting Sales Navigator URLs to the standard LinkedIn format, it’s probably easier to use a tool that does it for you! When you export data from Sales Nav using Lix, we automatically apply a formula like the one above, so that your spreadsheet comes with both Sales Nav and standard format LinkedIn URLs.
It looks like this:
You can watch a short video on how to export Sales Navigator data using Lix:
You can export 1,000 rows of Sales Navigator data every single month for free, on Lix’s starter plan. It also includes 50 valid emails and 50 profile enrichments.
Data decay refers to the gradual deterioration of data quality within a database. This can be especially damaging in sales and marketing databases. Sales and marketing efforts require accurate contact information for leads, along with up-to-date information on their organisations, employees, branch locations, and so on. When data decays from inaccuracies, outdated information, or aging out, B2B companies can see a decline in their overall performance, as well as in sales and marketing.
A simple example of perfectly good data decaying over time might be a website that includes information about movies that are currently playing in local cinemas and their showtimes. When those showtimes change without any updates being made to the database, the website will feature incorrect or outdated information.
Apply this to your own CRM and it’s not hard to see how data decay could be negatively impacting your efforts to close new deals. Every time an individual changes jobs, gains promotion, switches industries and updates contact details, the data in your CRM decays. This can present a big problem, especially for those of us with large databases. According to the ONS, every year 9% of people change jobs – that adds up to a 27% workforce shift every 3 years. Even for a modest-sized CRM with 5,000 entries will have 1,350 erroneous entries every 3 years.
No wonder then, that a recent study shows that data quality remains among companies’ top priorities. Among the companies that decreased their investment in data: 35% saw their overall performance decline; 75% saw a decline in sales and marketing performance; and 94% of those companies said that their sales and marketing performance improved after increasing their investment in data.
How can I avoid data decay in my CRM?
The simple answer is – stay on top of updating your database! This can be done manually, although that is not advised. Updating 5,000 records, even at a constant pace of 5 minutes per entry, would take 17 days without a break! Also, manual data entry is more susceptible to mistakes. Luckily, database enrichment can now be automated. Here at Lix, we offer a product called ReTrace, that plugs into your CRM and updates and enriches the entries with fresh B2B data. If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch.
There are some added bonuses to keeping your data fresh, too. An individual switching roles or being promoted can be a great opportunity to close a new deal. A prospect that knows you and your product, now in a buying-role at a new firm is a hot lead! Retrace CRM enrichment is not just about refreshing what you have, it also uncovers the potential deals hidden in your data.
It’s important to keep track of your data so that it doesn’t become stale, or corrupted over time. This will ensure that your information remains accurate and up-to-date and leads are never lost. If you’re looking for some help with this task or another project, please reach out! We’d be happy to assist you with any questions or concerns related to data decay.
With 830 million members, 53 million companies and more than 100 million active job listings, LinkedIn is the largest store of public business data in history. The problem is, how do you extract that LinkedIn data to make use of it? Whether you’re a salesperson looking to prospect, a market intelligence professional finding intel or an academic performing research – LinkedIn scraping can help you get the data you need, in the format you need it.
What is scraping?
Data scraping is a method of data collection in which a computer program extracts data from websites and web pages. The purpose of this technique is to obtain otherwise inaccessible or unstructured data. This can be useful for businesses looking to use the information they collect in sales and marketing campaigns, competitive and market intelligence, or even just for their own purposes (such as tracking sales).
How can I use scraped data?
Understanding customers
Data scraping can provide insight into an individual’s current role, organisation, education, interests, skills and a whole host of information that might be useful for a business. It can help you to form an ideal customer profile, or identify individual targets for prospecting. It can also help you to better understand groups, industries and verticals. For example, LinkedIn scraping might allow a company selling training courses to discover how many individuals with a specific job title already have a qualification.
Understanding competitors
Extracting competitor data can help you to learn about their business structure, products and services, pricing strategies, marketing campaigns, hiring patterns and more – all of which could be useful in improving your own company’s performance. Scraping a competitor’s job postings, for example, could help you to determine which departments they are investing in and how fast they are growing. This is also useful information for investors.
LinkedIn Scraping
You can scrape data from LinkedIn search results and also directly from profiles – as long as those profiles aren’t private. The easiest way to do this is with a LinkedIn scraper tool, like Lix. LinkedIn scraping with Lix is as easy as performing a search, setting your filters and choosing your export options. You can export People, Profile, Companies and Jobs data in minutes, saving you time and money.
Let’s take a look at some of the data you can export from LinkedIn using Lix:
Search Results: People, Companies and Jobs
The most common form of LinkedIn scraping happens on search result pages. This is the page you land on when you type a keyword into the search bar on LinkedIn.
These are great for scraping, because they’re packed with lots of data per page. This is is important because LinkedIn have some rules about how many pages you can view in a day. In order to comply with their fair usage policies, it’s advised to not view more than 1,000 pages in a day. If you’re exporting profile data, this means you can export a maximum of 1,000 profiles in a day. However, standard LinkedIn search results show 10 results per page – allowing you up to 10,000 rows of data per day. Sales Navigator gives you 25 results per page, giving you a potential 25,000 scraped rows per day.
Currently, Lix can export People, Companies and Jobs results, but we will be adding other options in the future. Scraping these pages is super simple, here’s a 40 second video showing you how it works:
Export LinkedIn connections
Exporting LinkedIn connections is another popular form of LinkedIn scraping. You may want to export your own connections, to keep a record of your network or perhaps add them to a CRM.
There are many instances where you may want to export someone else’s connections, too. This is possible as long as you are connected to the individual whose connections you’d like to scrape. This is due to data privacy laws and there is no way around this – other than connecting with that person.
A complete LinkedIn profile is packed with data. Data this is extremely important in the recruiting process, or for market intelligence research. It can also be a great source of icebreakers and deep dive info on sales prospects.
Exporting LinkedIn profiles is a little more complicated than exporting search results, because you view far more individual pages in a short space of time. There is also a lot more data to collect for each result!
Lix’s Profile Enrichment tool works in conjunction with Sales Navigator, because Sales Navigator users can view more profiles per day without hitting LinkedIn’s limits.
The process itself is simple – export a list of individuals from a Leads search and then enrich that search in the Profile Enrichment area of your Lix dashboard. You get 50 free enrichments a month, so do give it a try and see what data you can get!
LinkedIn scraping allows you to export, works with and glean insights from the huge store of public data on LinkedIn. According to our users, Lix is the fastest and easiest way to do that! If you’d like to try it for yourself we give you 1,000 rows of data, 50 profile enrichments and 50 valid emails every single month.
Business intelligence for sales is a rapidly-growing field. It’s something the big players have been using for some time but with tools becoming more accessible to smaller teams, startups and even solopreneurs and getting in on the action.
What is business intelligence?
Business intelligence (BI) is a broad term that refers to the processes, tools and technologies used by organizations to extract, analyse and present business information. BI tools are used to help make sense of large volumes of data in order to identify trends or patterns. These insights are then communicated through dashboards and reports so that business stakeholders can act on them quickly.
BI technologies include data warehouses, data marts, ETL (extract-transform-load) tools for moving data from various sources into one central location for analysis, OLAP (online analytical processing) cubes for performing sophisticated calculations on large datasets, reporting tools such as Crystal Reports or Microsoft Excel macros — basically anything you need in order to work with large amounts of information efficiently and effectively.
Business intelligence can be used across departments and teams, giving companies a competitive advantage over their competition by helping them make better decisions faster.
Business intelligence is data-driven decision making
Business intelligence for sales, then, is about using that data to make better decisions.
If your business relies on sales to drive revenue, as a sales leader the decisions you make have a far-reaching effect. In a large company, your decisions can decide whether entire departments hit target or not. At a startup, it can be the difference between staying afloat or sinking. Business intelligence provides the data to inform and support those decisions. Helping you to make better decisions, faster.
Data-driven decision making is about making better decisions based on facts, not feelings or gut instinct.
Let’s look at some examples of how this might work:
You want to increase revenue, so you decide to target more affluent customers with a bigger budget than the average consumer. Using your BI dashboard, you can identify the top five percent of consumers who have spent the most per month by dividing their total spending by their total number of purchases—and then segment these high spenders into a separate list. Using this list, you can find common traits among your top spenders to identify the type of customer that is most valuable to your business – allowing you to build a lookalike audience for your team to reach out to. These are now your “high value targets” (HVT).
You’re looking for ways to improve customer retention and reduce churn rate (or attrition). Your BI dashboard tells you that 20% of customers that churn do so in the week before their renewal date; therefore, it might makes sense to come up with a strategy to contact customers in the period and remind them of the value you provide.
Business Intelligence for Sales: Tools
Now we know what business intelligence is and how it works – let’s dive into some of the tools you can use to achieve these results. I’ve included tools to suit different teams sizes, from those with the biggest budgets down to the startups and SMEs.
Salesforce Einstein Analytics is a cloud-based business intelligence tool that allows users to analyse their CRM data in real time.
As you might guess from the name, Salesforce Einstein is an add-on to the ubiquitous Salesforce CRM, which means it can be accessed through the same interface as your existing Salesforce account. Because it connects directly with your Salesforce CRM, there’s no need to prepare your data or transfer anything. Einstein’s AI will automatically look for patterns and apply the correct models to the data you have, providing predictions and suggestions without the need for input. It’s like having a small BI team integrated into your firm.
If you’re already using Salesforce, this is a great option for you. Like Salesforce, though, it won’t be cheap!
Sisense
Sisense is a business intelligence software that allows you to gather and analyse your sales data from various sources.
So for businesses with multiple products and channels, Sisense collects, analyses and visualises you BI data across multiple departments so that everyone has access to meaningful information at their fingertips. Where Salesforce Einstein works with the data you enter into Salesforce, Sisense will gather that data from almost anywhere your users interact with you – website, socials, email, CRM etc.
Tableau
Tableau are the gold standard in data visualisation.
You can use Tableau to create beautiful dashboards and data visualisations, to share with your team, board of director, investors etc. If you’ve watched presentations at board meetings, trade shows or meetups – chances are you’ve seen a Tableau visualisation!
Lix
This is the Lix blog, so it would be remiss of me to leave us out! The Lix tool is used for two primary reasons – lead generation and data gathering. When we’re talking business intelligence for sales, the latter should precede the former! If we think back to the example of growing revenue by finding top spenders, once you have a list of traits for your high value targets, you could use Lix to find those individuals and export their data.
Lix, as its core, is a LinkedIn data extractor. It works by exporting information from the world’s single largest store of business data – LinkedIn! LinkedIn is perfect for mining BI data because firms and individuals alike stay on top of updating their profiles. Often more regularly than they would their own websites.
Lix is great for smaller teams who perhaps don’t have access to some of the other tools listed here. You can even start for free with 1,000 rows of data every month.
Mixpanel
Mixpanel is another great tool for smaller teams. In fact, we use Mixpanel here at Lix.
It allows you to build dashboards and visualise data from your website and other sources in real time. I can use Mixpanel to see if my users are having errors with the Lix tool, how many of them are exporting, which cities have the most usage and so on.
It’s a really easy way to start getting actionable insights on the data you’re amassing – often without realising!
With the right tools and processes, sales teams can use business intelligence to improve decision making and increase their bottom line. Sales data can be used to pinpoint problem areas that need attention, identify opportunities for improvement, and make smarter choices about how to allocate time and resources. If you’re not already business business intelligence for sales, I hope this blog has inspired you to start!
The term “sales engagement” is used to describe a sales team’s ability to engage buyers with personalised interactions, across multiple channels, during their buyer’s journey. Engagement has become an increasingly important topic for many businesses, particularly those in high-growth markets where competition is fierce. If your business wants to grow, it needs a strong strategy in place to nurture its customers through the buyer’s journey and lead them to conversion.
Sales engagement is a combination of marketing and sales. It’s a process of nurturing prospective buyers with personalized interactions across multiple channels to lead them to conversion. The goal is to increase sales, revenue, and customer lifetime value.
The first thing you need to know about sales engagement is that it isn’t just one thing—it can be used by many different departments in your company, such as marketing or customer success teams. Engagement can also be done across multiple channels like email, phone calls, live chat or video calls (including virtual meetings), social media posts and landing pages.
What is sales engagement management?
Sales engagement management usually refers to a tool, or online platform used by sales teams to develop a strategy and deliver coordinated, targeted messages at key points in the buyer’s journey.
Increase your pipeline velocity by targeting buyers when they’re most receptive to new information or products.
Improve your conversion rate by making it easy for prospects to get started with a demo or trial of your product.
Sales engagement strategy
The first step in developing a sales engagement strategy is to conduct strategic planning. Strategic planning involves setting goals and objectives, understanding the market and your competitors, and understanding the buyer’s journey.
Strategic planning allows you to plan out what needs to happen before any execution takes place. Without this step, there may be no way to measure your results once they come in!
Personalised engagements
The most successful engagement strategies create personalized engagements across multiple channels. It’s important to leverage technology, data and strategy to personalize the customer journey in a way that will resonate with them. The most successful sales engagement strategies are flexible enough to respond to the needs of your customers at every stage of the buying process, while remaining strategic and aligned across channels.
Sales engagement planning
A sales engagement plan can incorporate content marketing, social selling, email marketing and even traditional face-to-face meetings.
Content marketing is just what it sounds like—using content you create (such as blog posts or videos) to attract prospects who are interested in what you have to say. Social selling refers to networking with potential clients through social media channels like LinkedIn and Facebook. Email marketing involves sending personalized messages through email to build rapport with contacts who’ve opted in by providing their contact information. Face-to-face meetings occur when you reach out directly through phone calls or in person at events such as trade shows or conferences.
Sales engagement for leaders
As a sales leader, you need to help your team understand the importance of engagement. It has become an essential part of business operations for companies that want to grow in today’s competitive markets.
As a leader, you also need to develop a strategy and process for engaging with your customers. This should include:
Having a clear understanding of what your company does, who its audience is, and how it can serve them better than competitors.
Putting together an effective team that includes representatives from all departments throughout the organization (including marketing).
Building relationships with potential clients by offering relevant content on social media platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter.
Engagement is a critical component of any sales strategy. It can help you develop new leads, close deals faster and create long-term relationships with your customers. However, it’s not just about having a great strategy in place; you also need tools to manage your outreach efforts and track the results of each interaction. That’s why we developed our platform with sales engagement at its core—to help you develop personalized interactions with your prospects and customers across multiple channels, while giving you real-time insight into performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates. These insights are invaluable when it comes time for planning future outreach activities based on what worked (and didn’t work) before!
Cold emailing can be tough. With so many other reps and firms in your prospect’s inbox demanding their attention, cutting through the noise isn’t easy. So when I see a cold email that does just that, I take note! A few months ago, I received a cold email that really grabbed my attention – and it has changed the way I do my outreach.
The email was from a market-leading CRM provider (no, not that one – the other one). It went like this:
Hi Alfie, I made you a quick video (60 seconds), click here to watch:
Below the to-the-point opening sentence was a gif. A gif taken from a video of the CRM rep looking at my website.
I was hooked in. I needed to know what was being said in the video! I immediately clicked through and watched it. The video was less than 60 seconds long and in it, the rep talked about how his company could help us achieve our goals. They did so using specific examples, related to the content of my site. I responded almost immediately and booked in for a call.
Personalised videos can be a powerful tool in your outreach arsenal, but it can be hard to know where to start. Never fear! That is exactly why I wrote this blog. Let’s get started.
Why Use Personalised Videos in Cold Emails?
It could be tempting to save time and just send a demo or explainer video to your prospect. After all, it’s going to take a long time to make all those individual videos, right? Well – yes it would be faster, but it won’t work!
A video that isn’t personalised is just another friction point. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. You’ve already interrupted their flow with an email they didn’t ask for, now you want them to go and watch a video about your product. Their first thought is probably going to be “why can’t they just tell me what they’re selling?”.
Personalisation is important for two reasons. Firstly, it builds a connection with the recipient. Being able to see your face and hear your voice will allow them to connect with your words and your energy in a way that text can’t. Secondly, it allows you to tailor your message so that it addresses specific details about their situation or company.
To go back to my example in the intro – it was seeing that rep on my website that captured my interest. It was them relating their pitch to my site and my business specifically that prompted me to respond. If they had just sent me a video of their product, I probably wouldn’t have watched it.
With that out of the way, let’s get down to business.
How to Add Personalised Video to Your Cold Emails
Now we know why personalisation is important, it’s time to get into how we make it happen.
In a nutshell, you are going to:
Record a short introduction video that explains who you are and why you’re a great fit for them. Make sure it’s not too long – 30 to 60 seconds is ideal. Anything more than a minute and you’ll lose their interest.
Craft some email copy that provides everything they need to proceed after they’ve seen the video.
Start sending those emails!
Step 1. Do your research
In order to make personalised videos for cold emails, you’re going to need a list of prospects and some research around them and their business. Lix can help you to find the email address of anyone on LinkedIn, plus enrich your prospect lists with their profile data – if you need a headstart for this step!
Once you have your list read and you understand your prospect’s, it’s time to move to Step 2.
Step 2. Make a short script for each person.
I know what some of you are thinking right now. “Script? I don’t need a script! Communication is what I do!”. I get it. I was the same when I first started sending videos to prospects. I soon realised that having a script, even just some bullet points, helps you to stay on track.
Remember, these video are supposed to be short and to the point. There isn’t room for you to ramble while you remember your points! You need to communicate who you are, what you’re selling and why they specifically are a great fit using examples from their website or social media – all in less than a minute.
If you can do that off the cuff with no notes, hats off to you!
Step 3. Choose your tool
The best personalised videos show the recipient from the outset that it is, in fact, personalised. For this, I advise recording using something like Loom. Loom allows you to record a video on top of a web page – with your face taking up a small circle in the corner. This allows you to showcase their page as the main attraction.
Here’s a example of me using Loom on the Lix homepage:
Step 4. Record
Unless you’re an avid videographer or an actor in your spare time, this part will take some getting used to. Most people don’t like recording themselves, and I get it. It’s just about practice. The more you make, the better you’ll get and the less nervous you’ll be.
When recording your video, make sure that:
You have a good camera and lighting.
You are in a quiet place where no one else will disturb you while filming, so that you can focus on what is being said in the recording.
Step 5. Craft Copy & Send
When your video is ready, it’s time to prep the email. Remember, the personalised video is the star of the show. Your email content exists to drive recipients to the video and support your message.
If you’re comfortable with technology, it’s great idea to turn a section of your video into a gif (you can do that here). If not, provide a screenshot from the video. That way, your recipient knows what to expect when they click the link – they also know it’s not a virus!
For copy, I would advise keeping it short and sweet, just like the example at the top of this blog:
Hi {First Name},
I made you a quick video (60 seconds) click to watch
Then below the video, if you want add some links to testimonials or make a (short) supporting statement then do so. Most importantly however is the call to action.
Give your reader a clear, guided next step. Whether that’s a link to your Calendly, or asking them for a reply – make sure it’s in there!
Personalised videos can make a big difference to your cold emails
Personalised videos are a great way to connect with your audience. They can also increase your conversion rate, help you stand out from the crowd and build trust with your audience. And if that’s not enough, personalised videos can also help you build relationships with people!
Remember that when we talk about building relationships, it’s not just about one-way communication—it’s about two-way communication. You don’t want to be seen as just another company or brand; you want to be seen as an individual who is willing to go out of their way for their customers.
We hope that this post has helped you understand the importance and value of personalised videos. Video outreach is no longer a passing fad, but rather an integral part of your brand’s overall marketing and sales strategy. By using video to connect with your audience on a personal level, you can build trust in your message and reach out to new customers.
Posting content on LinkedIn can be powerful tool that can help you grow your business, reach customer and close deals – but if you’re not posting at the right time, it might not be working as well as it could be.
If you’re not posting content on LinkedIn yet and this is part of your initial research, here’s a video I made that might help you with getting started:
The act of posting is fairly straightforward. There are two ways to share content on LinkedIn: you can either link to external content, like your own blog or YouTube video; or you can post natively to LinkedIn by writing a blog directly in LinkedIn Pulse, or uploading video directly to your feed. As with most social platforms, it seems that native content is preferred in the algorithm. Don’t worry too much about this, though. If your blog is on your website, it’s best to share it direct from there. Remember to never copy and paste your content into LinkedIn – this will hurt your SEO!
Ok, enough fluff, let’s get into it…
Best days and times to post on LinkedIn
A good starting point here is to get into the mind of your ideal customer, the end reader or viewer for your content. Think about when they are using LinkedIn and have the time to engage with what you post.
According to a study performed by Sprout Social, the best days to post are Tuesdays to Thursday, with the highest engagement coming between 10am and noon:
This makes sense in context. On a Monday, people are usually getting back into the week, catching up with the weekend’s correspondence and kicking off their projects for the following days. On a Friday, people are wrapping up their work (or they have one eye on the weekend!).
Where this becomes a little more complicated, is when you factor in time zones. The beauty of social media is that you can reach customers all around the world. It may even be the case that a large portion of your users are based in another country. For example, most Lix users live in the USA, whereas we’re in the UK. If I post content at 10am UK time, it might be 4am – 6am for my US audience. It’s better for to me to post at the tail-end of the high engagement, at say 2-3pm, so that I can maximise my engagement in the both the UK and the US at the same time.
If you’re not always available to post content at these times, check out this short piece I wrote on LinkedIn automation tools and content scheduling – this can help you to prep your work and have it post at at time that suits you.
In short – the key to finding the best time to post on LinkedIn, is to think like your customers! Put yourself in their shoes and adjust for time zones. I hope that I’ve been able to give you some insight into when it’s best to post on LinkedIn. I know that everyone has their own schedule, but if you can stick to these guidelines, your posts will likely reach a wider audience and generate more engagement than they would otherwise.
B2B sales can be daunting, especially if you’re just starting out. When a problem seems large and daunting, my trick is always to break it down. Which is exactly what this blog will do for you. Sales is part art, part science. If you can nail the processes, focus on your customers and get into the right mindset, sales success awaits.
So, whether you are a budding salesperson embarking on a new path, or a seasoned pro looking for some inspiration, stick with me and together we will take on the task ahead! With that said, let’s get stuck in.
Understand your customer
Whether you are a business owner, b2b sales rep or b2b marketer, if your job is to sell then you understand the importance of determining exactly who you want to sell to.
I’ve put this step first, because getting into the mindset and understanding the needs of your prospects will form the bedrock of your sales. After all, good sales is about building relationships and helping someone to solve a problem. To solve a problem, you must first understand it!
If you’re working for a company with an established audience, then deep dive into the customers you already have. Talk to them, meet with them. Look at what they buy and when.
When you’re starting from scratch with a new product, it’s all about market research. Go to where your potential customers are and learn all you can about them. How do they currently solve this problem? How much do they spend? Who are the market leaders?
You should also determine what factors might prevent these people from buying your product or service. Are there too many requirements for them to remember or use your item? Does it offer enough benefit over other options?
These questions are important because they can help you to really get into the mindset of your prospect. When you know this information and really understand your clients, you can reach out to them with a truly solid pitch to try your product or service.
Whether you are selling a software subscription, or providing business services, your prospect needs your help to solve a problem. Keep this in mind throughout the sales journey. Your goal should not be to close a deal and gain some commission, but to help them solve this problem.
If you can demonstrate to your prospect that you can alleviate them of this problem and make their lives easier, or more fruitful, half the battle is won. This can take a few different forms, depending on the market and position that you’re in.
A B2B sales rep in an SME or above will often have a team working around them, including (usually) a marketing person or persons. When this is the case, often the top of your sales funnel will feature content (blogs, white papers, webinars…) to educate and inform. By the time a lead reaches the sales team, the prospect should be aware of exactly how you can solve their problem and it’s your job to convince them that your firm is the one to do it.
Smaller teams, startups and solopreneurs have to wear all these hats at once. If you own the entire sales journey from first contact to close, then its your job to educate and inform. If this applies to you – never fear! Your superpower is your ability to connect with your clients, one to one. There is no passing between teams, they will have you and only you to focus on.
If you’ve taken the time to understand your customers, demonstrating how you can solve their problems will be much easier. If you’re struggling with this step, go back to step one and start again!
Be human and tell stories
Human beings are wired to respond to storytelling. For many thousands of years we have passed on our histories, cultures, thoughts and feelings via the medium of storytelling. It’s a very powerful tool.
The power of storytelling in sales is demonstrated in case studies and testimonials. A well-crafted case study or testimonial will have your prospect putting themselves in the place of the featured client. Imagining themselves having the positive experience, imagining themselves having their problem solved by you and your business.
The problem with case studies and testimonials is that people might skip over them, not having time to read a thousand words or watch a video. This is where you come in. Tell your prospect that story, make it comes to life. Use your energy and enthusiasm to help a story connect. Build that mental bridge for your customer by highlighting the similarities between the case study subject and themselves.
It’s all too easy to get stuck in the habit of selling with jargon and using price charts. This is especially true in B2B sales. For some reason, so many us forget that even business to business, is actually human to human. If you get on a call, or send an email to Apple, or Google, or whoever if may be – you’re not talking to that company. You’re talking to the human at the other end of the line!
Of course there’s a right time for both, sometimes a smattering of jargon shows your client that you know the industry terms, and crunching numbers works for some buyers. Use your intuition to know what works and when. If you’re new to selling, this is a skill you will develop over time.
Your brand and your stories are what make you unique. What experience do you want people to have when they think of you?
Experiment
If you start a new job, or begin selling a new product, and you get everything right first time – congratulations, you’re the first person in history to do so.
A good salesperson, marketer or entrepreneur is always experimenting, honing and perfecting their craft. That may not be a conscious effort for many. Lots of us do this every day without realising it. My advice to you however is to make this. a conscious effort. Try new things, work out new approaches and record your results.
Think of it like working out. Only measuring the outcomes, like how fast you ran a 5k or how much weight you lifted, will only take you so far. It’s understanding the factors that lead to these outcomes – how much sleep did I get? What did I eat? – that will take you to the next level. It’s the same with sales. If the only thing you’re measuring is meeting’s booked, or deal’s closed, you will hinder your progression. Understand the factors that went into both successful and unsuccessful pitches. What worked? What didn’t? Take notes, lots of notes, and review them. Over time you will have a playbook to follow that works for you specifically.
Be memorable
The real magic of sales lies in forging connections. See yourself as someone who engages and builds relationships. The salesperson who engages, educates and guides will always be more successful. Every interaction is a two way street, a conversation. It’s about engaging with, rather than talking at, your clients.
I have been on the receiving end of hundreds of pitches. I remember perhaps a dozen of those. The ones I remember, are the ones that engaged with me. In fact, some of those salespeople I have connected with on LinkedIn and still talk to from time to time!
Asking questions and really listening to the answers is your superpower when it comes to building rapport. When people feel heard and understood, then open up. When they open up, you can find common ground. Also – and this is important – remember what they say to you! If you don’t have a great memory, reach for that notepad. Ask them about the holiday they told you they were going on. Check in on them if they say they’re off sick. Once again – remember that you’re both human!
Choose words carefully
Words are powerful. Using the wrong one at the wrong time, can provoke a negative emotional response – often subconsciously for the receiving party.
This excellent Forbes article details some words that you should try to avoid and is well worth a read. I was guilty of using these words far too often. Words like “just” – a word that diminishes whatever comes next, or “I’ll try”, demonstrating a lack of confidence in your ability.
It can be tough to do this during a conversation when you’re in full flow, but over time it will become second nature. Start by being more careful with the words you use in emails – this will train your brain to make better choices!
Focus on your customer
If I were to sum up all of the advice given in this blog, this is it. Focus on your customers.
Understand who they are and what they need. Solve their problems. Engage with them. Be memorable. Understand what works for them and what doesn’t. Choose words that inspire them.
If. you can shift your mindset away from chasing a sales and towards helping your customers to succeed, then you in turn will succeed.
Now – get out there, and put this into practice! Good luck and happy selling.
LinkedIn is one of the most effective channels for B2B marketing and lead generation. With 800m+ users and 33m+ companies listed, it’s the digital networking event of your dreams! With so many users and companies though, it can be a lot to manage. That’s where LinkedIn automation can help you to save time, increase productivity and eke the most out of this powerful B2B sales tool. In this article, I’ll explain what LinkedIn automation is, how to automate different tasks on the platform, and how to maximize your activity on LinkedIn.
Looking for something in particular? Use these links to skip to the right section:
Automating LinkedIn can come in many different forms. You can automate posting content, sending connection requests and messages – even data collection & lead generation. Let’s look at some of the most popular LinkedIn automation applications and our favourite tools for each.
Automated Content Sharing
If you’re using LinkedIn for B2B marketing, or even building your personal brand, you’re likely sharing content regularly. If you’re not – it’s time to start! LinkedIn is a great place to share content and have it reach your target audience.
Looking to get started with LinkedIn content – or just up your content game? Here’s a video I made showing you how:
If you are sharing content regularly, then you’ll know that the time at which you post has a big impact on your reach and engagement. The more engagement your post receives early on, the better it fares with the LinkedIn algorithm… this then means it gets seen by more people, receives more engagement and so on. This is how virality works!
On the flip side, if you post at a low-activity time when not many people are online and ready to engage, your post will likely not have great reach. Without going too deep into posting times (that’s a blog in itself!) here’s my tip: think about when you’re free to use LinkedIn, when your ideal customer is around and adjust for time difference. For example, if you’re UK based like me, but you have users in the USA, it’s a good idea to post later in the day. The US is around 4-6 hours behind the UK, so posting at lunch will help you to reach the lunchtime UK crowd and the pre-work US browsers. Posting in the evening will reach the UK commuters on their way home while catching the US during their lunch break.
It’s not always possible to make yourself available at all hours of the day to post your content. That’s where LinkedIn automation comes in. Automated content posters will allow you to prep your post, crafty your company, insert your hashtags and schedule your post for the time that suits you.
In my opinion, the best on the market is Buffer. They’ve been leaders in the field for many years now and their service keeps on improving. Plus, you can use Buffer to schedule content for other channels too.
Lead Generation
Full disclosure, this is the Lix blog so I will be talking about Lix here, but don’t fear. Where a competitor does something better, I will recommend them instead! This blog is all about helping you to choose the best option for you. With that in mind, let’s break them down and dive in…
Automated Lead Generation: Emails
LinkedIn is jam-packed with lead gen potential. Millions upon millions of professionals, all neatly-listed with their job title, organisation, education… It’s like Yo-Sushi for salespeople!
Reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn is one thing (and we will get to that soon!) but what if you want to find and export their email addresses? That’s where something like Lix comes in. In short, the Lix tool will find, test, verify and export 98% accurate email addresses for LinkedIn prospects in minutes. Here’s a short (40 second) video showing you just how quick and easy it is:
Automated LinkedIn lead generation in just a few clicks
If you want to know a bit more about how it works, I’ve written a blog on LinkedIn emails that explains everything! If you’re ready to try it out then sign up at lix-it.com and get 50 free emails every single month.
Automated Lead Generation: Contact Numbers
Cold caller, as opposed to a cold emailer? Then Lix isn’t the tool for you (I told you I’d be honest!). When it comes to finding phone numbers, you can’t do better than ZoomInfo. Their database of contact numbers is unrivalled and they’ve been industry-leaders in this field for a very long time.
ZoomInfo also offer email addresses – so why go with Lix instead, I hear you ask? Really it comes down to price and speed. ZoomInfo is the market leader and they charge a hefty (but justified) price to match. It also takes a long time to get set up and running. If you’re a large organisation and can afford the time and money, go for it. They offer a ton of other cool features too!
Automated Lead Generation: Connections & Messages
I will start this section with a warning. Although this can be a great way to expand your network and generate leads, automating your connections and messages is the riskiest of all the methods on this list. It is really easy for LinkedIn to detect what you’re doing and they will stop you wherever possible. That doesn’t mean you can’t do it, but exercise some caution. With that said, let’s move on.
Even if you’ve never automated your connections and messages before, you’ve certainly experienced the receiving end. Those connections you get that come with a message, followed by a second and third message that feel a little robotic? Those have likely been automated. The reason they’re so easy to spot, is that they’re often not very well executed. My tip, if you’re going to try this particular flavour of LinkedIn automation, is to go lightly. Perhaps send connection requests with a broad opening message, then follow up with those who accept personally. Automated responses, especially when they’re not associated with triggers (if person says X, reply Y) just come off as robotic and insincere.
If you must try such a tool, then the best out there is probably Octopus – but be warned, I used it and my account was temporarily limited by LinkedIn for doing so.
Data Gathering
LinkedIn is a treasure trove of data. Whether you’re in marketing or business intelligence, competitor research or academia, there are millions of data points to seek and extract.
The two best tools on the market for this are Lix and Phantom Buster. The difference between the two? Speed and ease of use. Phantom Buster have been around a little longer than us and do offer a few data points that we don’t, but getting setting up is a little complicated and it will take some time to get started.
Data gathering with Lix works in much the same way that lead gen does (see above). Just perform your search, add your filters and export!
LinkedIn automation can help you stay connected with your network, grow your audience, and save time. This guide has outlined the basics of automating LinkedIn so that you can get started doing it yourself. If you have any questions about automating your LinkedIn account, leave them in the comments below!
A B2B sales funnel is a visual representation of the customer buying journey. It helps companies to understand their customers and how they progress through the sales process. A typical funnel starts at the top with the broadest audience, moves on to those who are interested in your business’s products or services, then narrows down further to qualified leads and finally, prospective customers.
Understand your funnel
Know your funnel:
The first step to creating a B2B sales funnel is to understand what a funnel is in the first place. A B2B sales funnel is essentially a process that takes your prospects from being unaware of you or your product/service, through various stages until they become customers.
The shape of your B2B sales funnel will vary depending on how you want it to look and what steps your customers take. For some, it will be marketing-driven and heavy on content. For others, it’ll begin and end with the sales team doing outreach and closing deals. Here’s a typical sales funnel:
A typical sales funnel (from Monday.com)
Understand why your team needs one: Funnels are useful because they allow marketers and salespeople to track their leads as they move through different stages of engagement with their brand or product/service. They also help organisations understand where there are opportunities for improvement. If you can figure out where your funnel has a leak, you focus on improving those specific areas.
Measure what matters most: Having a funnel in place allows you to segment your data, with each stage of the funnel having its own metrics to track. In breaking your data down this way, you can identify which metrics matter most. Are the people who read your blogs most likely to convert? Best get more blogs out, or improve the reach of your current work. Do cold emails work better than calls? It’s time to ramp up your cold outreach!
Develop buyer personas
A buyer persona (also known as an Ideal Customer Profile) is a fictional character that represents your ideal customer. It helps you to understand your customer better, and it helps you create better content—from landing pages to sales pitches. If you’ve never created one before, it can be daunting at first, but the payoff is worth it.
You don’t have to wait until after the initial meeting or conversation with a prospect in order to get started on this process; developing buyer personas can help guide your conversations from the very beginning of any interaction with customers or clients.
With your persona in place, it’s time to start marketing (and selling!) to that persona…
Develop a content strategy
Content strategy is the process of planning, creating and distributing content. If content is part of your funnel, this is needs to become an essential component of your marketing plan.
The goal of a content strategy is to create a cohesive marketing message that resonates with your audience, increases brand awareness and drives conversions from prospects into paying customers.
Content strategy includes:
Creating editorial calendars for video production, blog posts, articles, social media posts and more
Defining which topics are most relevant to your business sector or industry – then creating content that addresses those topics in an engaging way that helps you connect with potential customers
Lead magnets can generate new leads
A lead magnet is an incentive offered to potential buyers in exchange for their contact information and/or email address. This can take the form of an ebook, webinar, or other valuable piece of content that you create specifically for your target market (and which they’re not likely to find elsewhere).
Lead magnets are nothing new, they have been around since the dawn of online marketing. By now, users now the deal – they’re aware of the fact that by signing up for your webinar, or downloading your eBook, they’re likely to be contacted. With so many companies contacting them daily, their guard is naturally up. You need to really offer demonstrable value in order to overcome this hurdle. A half-assed lead magnet will yield no results!
Include incentives: If you want your lead magnet to be effective, it needs to be attractive enough to encourage people who would otherwise ignore or delete it without a second thought. This means providing value through information that helps them solve problems they have and/or helps them save time or money in some way. While this can mean more than just creating something new from scratch—you could also repackage existing resources into something more appealing—it’s important not only that you make sure there are benefits but also that these benefits aren’t lost on readers because they’re buried under layers upon layers of fluff text or poorly-written copy (which will turn people off faster than any other mistake).
Find ways to distribute your content
Now that you’ve got your lead magnet or other content pieces ready, the next step is distribution. This is often easier said than done. If you already have popular marketing channels, like a great mailing list, high traffic blog or socials with great engagement – these are your first stop! If not, it’s time to get creative. Think about your ICP hang out, what spaces do they occupy and how can you best reach them? Advertising your lead magnet can sometimes be a good option, but be aware that you’re playing a long game with ROI.
Here are some common methods for content distribution:
Email marketing Whether your own mailing list, or one that you can get your content onto (either by paying for a slot, or perhaps exchanging a share for share with somebody) emails are a great way to distribute content. An engaged list, being sent relevant content, will reap rewards.
Cold email Content can be a great way to open a cold email conversation with a prospect. Asking someone to read a blog, or watch a video, is often an easier ask than requesting a call back! Just be sure to follow the correct protocol for cold emailing and keep the content super relevant to the receiver.
Social media marketing ( including Facebook ads, Instagram ads etc) If you’ve already got social channels with plenty of engagement – great! Those users are your first port of call for distribution. Those engaged brand-advocates will often share your content for you, plus their likes and comments boost your content via the social channel’s algorithm. It’s a win-win. If you don’t have social channels with enough traffic, you can opt for ads. My advice if you’re new to ads, is start small with experiments and then hone in on what works.
Search engine optimization (SEO) & link building: This is a mammoth topic for me to sum up in a paragraph! If you’re reading this, you likely either know some SEO or have someone on your team that does. If not, great reading! SEO is the slowest option of those listed, but it is both free and powerful. Once you begin to rank for a term, you’ll reap rewards. The sooner you start, the better!
Send those leads down the funnel
This point is where the collaboration between sales and marketing becomes super important. There is no use in marketing filling the hopper with potential leads that never make it to the sales team – there’s also no use in sales team talking to unqualified leads from marketing.
It’s important that leads are nurtured through the process, hitting the correct steps and being gently pushed in the direction of a close. Here are three ways of doing that.
It’s important for sales and marketing to sit down together and decide at what point in the journey, leads are considered qualified. Everything up until that point, is marketing’s domain. It’s their responsibility to provide and deliver upon a strategy to nurture users down the funnel, to the point of qualification. Then, they’re passed to the sales team to begin the closing process. The steps required for each team to do their job will not be alien to either! Driving traffic and generating interest should be bread and butter to a b2b marketer, and closing is the driving force of sales. The funnel simply serves as a framework to join these forces together.
It’s never too soon to start working on your sales funnel.
It’s never too soon to start working on your B2B sales funnel. You can begin now by identifying the steps of your sales process, from prospecting through closing. From there, you’ll need to determine how much time each step takes, who will do them and how much they cost or earn for you.
You can then create a rough outline of what each step looks like and determine how much time each one takes (i.e., what happens in step two). After that, you’ll need to determine whether that’s enough information for someone at the next level down—or if there are more details needed at this stage before proceeding with the next actionable item listed in their pipeline management software (PMS).
With the right sales funnel, you can ensure that your company is well placed to find and close customers who may be looking for your solutions to their problems. Provide a seamless journey for your leads to follow, execute the steps well and you will increase the number of deals you close.
