Episode 9: 7 Ways to Start a Relationship Using Information on Lead Profiles

Stan Robinson, Jr.  00:00

Welcome to the Sales Navigator live show with Stan and Brynne. Join LinkedIn expert and sales professional Brynne Tillman, and me, Stan Robinson, Jr, Chief coaching Officer here at Social Sales Link, as we bring you the best tips and strategies for leveraging Sales Navigator for your sales success. Enjoy the show! And there we are. 

Brynne Tillman  00:38

Hello, Hi, Stan, how are you?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  00:43

Excellent. Thank you. Good to see you Brynne.

Brynne Tillman  00:47

Good to see you. I'm excited about all the things you're gonna share with us today. 

Stan Robinson, Jr.  00:53

Yes, so today, we're gonna be talking about the information that you can find on a Sales Navigator lead profile that you can use to help start sales conversations, because Sales Navigator is doing everything that they can to make it easier for you to start sales conversations with people of interest to you. And they're doing that based on their interface, which we'll talk a little bit about in terms of where you find the different information on someone's lead profile, and the business insights that they provide to you. So we're going to go through some things quickly, I know that we said seven. If you're really counting closely, you may see a couple more  but Sales Navigator is really trying to do its best, just to make the information that you need front and center so that as soon as you come to someone's lead profile, you don't have to scroll down the page to look for opportunities to start conversations, you can kind of start right at the top. 

So let's go ahead and jump in here. And starting with when you come to someone's lead profile, right under the messages tab, you'll see a number of different options. Now, if someone was recently promoted, they will show you that right under the message tab, if they were recently hired into a new company, because I was just looking at someone that I need to reach out to and saw that, “Oh, they moved just a month ago.”And one of the beauties of Sales Navigator is is that it shows you that type of information that ordinarily, you wouldn't see because a lot of times these folks will not reach out to you and say, “Hey, you know, I know you're my bestie sales rep, I just wanted to give you a heads up that I'm changing companies.” that usually doesn't happen. 

So you also find things like mutual connections, I know that we've talked a lot about leveraging mutual connections for introductions, and shared experience. And shared experience comes up in multiple places throughout the profile that we'll talk about. So one place that you'll find things, no scrolling required as soon as you get to a LinkedIn profile, just look right under messages. And you'll see what's new. Also, if someone has a team link, possible connection for you, it'll show you that right there. So those are the biggest things I wanted to mention just as far as that section goes because you don't have to go anywhere to get to it.

Brynne Tillman  03:57

Yeah, I love that. Let's kind of chat through some of the strategies around them. So what was the first one you mentioned?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  04:05

So the very first one was if the person's either been promoted, or changed, move companies. Now that's not gonna be with everybody, of course but…

Brynne Tillman  04:16

Yeah, I love this. And this is so important. You might have missed it in the notifications and now you're reaching back out and maybe you go into the CRM and you're typically just got to call them and you know, you're not getting through, make sure every time you're checking their LinkedIn profile because that's self updating. So you can quickly identify that they've moved or are they in another company. So they're right now and we talked about this using this to start relationships. There's two opportunities here. This rep, this prospect is in a new company, so we're going to reach out there but there's probably someone that filled her shoes.So we want to grab the, the title of that person and go back into that company page and, you know, lookup is there somewhere else, and now has that title or that role or someone in that department. 

So I love that. Stan, I love that you pointed out that you can see that right from the top. A lot of us wait just to see it in our notifications, or have it come out in our homepage in our news feed for Sales Navigator but we're missing a lot of that. We can't help it but before you reach out to anyone that you haven't talked to in a while, go on to Sales Navigator profile, because you're gonna get a lot of those things. Give me one or two more that are there and we can just talk about strategy for a second around those.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  06:01

For those that have a team link, it'll show you if they're potential introductions through the team link as well. 

Brynne Tillman  06:11

Yeah, that's great. You can see who in your company is connected and that's always a warm introduction of opportunity, for sure.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  06:19

Exactly. Exactly. And we always talk about mutual connections, and opportunities for introductions through mutual connections, because it will show you that as well.

Brynne Tillman  06:34

So what would you do if you got to a prospect and you saw those mutuals? What is your routine? I'm curious, what's your routine? If you see that there's a mutual connection?

Stan Robinson, Jr.  06:44

Yep, normally, I will send the same message to multiple connections, asking if they know the person well enough that they would feel comfortable making an introduction to them for me. So the same message, and then I let them tell me how comfortable they feel making an introduction. The ideal situation and this, of course, doesn't always happen is when some of these are clients because then they can make an introduction based on their experience and working with you.

Brynne Tillman  07:26

So one of the things you said that I love, and I just want to emphasize, if you have seven or eight shared connections, you're reaching out to all of them, assuming you know who they are, but even the ones that you're not close with, you can call the elephant out in the room. And I could just say, you know, “Hey, Stan, we've been connected on LinkedIn for some time. I know we haven't talked yet, but you're actually connected to someone that I'm looking to get in front of. I'm wondering how well you know him?” And then you know, and so maybe I'm not asking for an introduction, because I don't know you well enough yet but I can start the conversation. So I love that. I love that you do that with everyone on the list. Most people don't. Most people if they're even doing what we're teaching will pick one or two. Sometimes you have 20 shared connections, you want to get to the warmest one.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  08:26

Yes, yep, exactly. And only they can tell you how well they know the person. So you may say, Well, I know. You know, “I know Mary really well.” So I'm going to ask her. Well, Mary may come back and say, “Hey, I'm happy to help but I've connected with this person on LinkedIn and we've never talked.” Another person may come back and say, “Yes, matter of fact, I'm going to see her at a Chamber of Commerce meeting next week. I see her every month, happy to make the introduction.” but you wouldn't know that unless you asked them.

Brynne Tillman  09:02

I think that's a brilliant tip. Thank you for that. That's awesome.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  09:08

Yep. So lots of good information, just in terms of the profile, which you'll see. You'll also see in that same place, shared groups and recent posts and all you have to do is click into them. They open up shows you what groups you have in common, what posts there are without taking you off the page, which is really nice. It's something that Sales Nav I know we've been asking for and Sales Nav has been responsive in terms of saying “Yes, that is definitely a woof woof”. because there are things that from a user experience at one time they weren't just didn't seem to get and now they're saying Yep, we'll just open up a new window right within the same page, so you don't leave. 

Now, if you scroll down just a little bit further on the page, you'll actually come to the about section. So I'm basically going down the page as if you're scrolling down the page, on someone's profile. And About is where people have up to 2600 characters although most folks don't take advantage of that, to talk about. 

Now, there are things that we recommend that they talk about, like who they help, how they help them, what business pain they solve, what makes them different from competitors. Most people do structure that more like a resume but the point is, that that's where they're going to give you the most information usually, that they want to share about who they are, and what they're excited about. Which gives you some great business intelligence in terms of starting a conversation with them. Brynne, anything that comes to mind?

Brynne Tillman  11:05

You know, I think that this is an underleveraged section of the profile. And again, you mentioned, a lot of people don't have it, or it's very simplified but if someone has taken the time to really write a thoughtful About Section, as you mentioned, Stan, this is what they want the world to know, this is a wonderful rapport building opportunity. Imagine you go to a prospect and say, you know, tell me what, you know, what is your brand in the world? What do you want people to know? They're not going to be able to answer that nor will they take the time, but they've gifted it to you in the profile. So read through that, look at what you have in common, what aligns what resonates with you? Do they have a core philosophy that you think is pretty cool? These are wonderful relationship building tips that you can use in conversation. 

Now, we have one client, his whole business is Christian based financial planning. So he had said to me, do I put this in my About section? And I said, Absolutely, he's like, Well, I thought you're not supposed to do religion and you're not supposed to do politics. I said, but that's the core of who you want to work with and who you want to attract. So when people read his about section, if they resonate with him, it's a good match. And it's okay, if they don't. 

So, you know, when you look at that, but boy, can you learn a lot about him, just from his about section talking about why it's so important. And by the way, part of his philosophy is that 10% of everything people bring in, goes back to the church. So he only works with people willing to do that. So, you know, it's just, you know, that you can learn so much from him, if you wanted to sell him, let's say, right, and you resonated with that message, how quickly would he bond with you? So, you know, it's what he wants the world to know, if you resonate with that, that’s a perfect relationship building opportunity. I know, I kind of went off on a little tangent there.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  13:35

Yeah, but what makes it great Brynne is that the examples that you use, that are examples of this person and this is exactly how they're doing what we're talking about. So that it makes things specific and concrete for everyone to see. And now in terms of, you know, we've talked about what you see right under the message without even having to scroll and that includes a number of things that you will also see further down the page like recent activity, because scrolling down the page under the about if you want to dive deeper into recent activity, and look for opportunities to engage with the person on their posts. That's where you can find it. And engaging with people on their posts. 

That's something else that's also overlooked and making sure that you tag them when you do but that is such a win-win situation when you bring a relevant comment, relevant, not promotional, relevant comment to a discussion that someone has already started. You're helping them by helping to amplify their post. You're also raising your own visibility with that person in a very light touch. Now you're not emailing them to say hey, are you willing to talk? You're just supporting their content and when you tag them, it makes it more likely that they'll see it. And so it helps them and it helps you as well. 

So recent activity, super, super useful and of course, it's very easy to find. So, that is one Brynne. Anything? I know we talked about recent activity.

Brynne Tillman  15:27

Yeah, I'm gonna ask a question I should know the answer to but I don't, offhand. And I'm going to check it out now live while we're talking. Excuse me but can we see the influencers that they follow? Because that's in the free LinkedIn.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  15:49

It should be in the Sales Nav? That's a good question.

Brynne Tillman  15:54

Yeah, I don’t think so. Actually…

Stan Robinson, Jr.  15:57

Yeah. And it's funny what they've chosen to kind of leave out.

Brynne Tillman  16:03

Yeah, so I'm gonna say it. So we were talking about Sales Navigator but there is one more thing in the profile that I highly recommend. If you go into just view profile on linkedin.com and you scroll at the bottom, you can see the people that they follow, you know, the influencers that are important to them. And that will give you a lot of opportunities to start conversations around what matters to them. You also see companies they follow and even colleges and universities that they follow, like you can learn a lot, who they're intentionally following to help start conversations, but unfortunately, I believe not is not on.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  16:45

Actually, the good news is, if you go down to interest, you'll see influencers, wonder interest, they just have it cleverly hidden.

Brynne Tillman  16:55

Okay, see, this is why I asked you, you’re the… Ohh.. they have influencers, companies, schools and  groups. That's awesome.I mean, I'm looking at a friend of mine and it's so funny, because the example I always use, he's following Brene Brown, Adam Grant, Simon Sinek. These are all people I follow and I listen to podcasts. So this is so good. It is in Sales Navigator. Good job team.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  17:31

Yeah, go to interest it’s in the bottom.

Brynne Tillman  17:35

So when you find, like, for example, I always use Brene Brown as the example because I think she's just phenomenal but what you do is go look at a podcast that Brene was on, or a video with Simon Sinek and start building rapport and relationships. We say, “Hey, I see. We're both fans of Simon Sinek. Have you seen his new y video?”

Stan Robinson, Jr.  18:04

The latest one.

Brynne Tillman  18:07

Right! This is such a great opportunity. So all of these things that Stan is talking about and the little bits and pieces I've thrown in, are really about taking data and using it to start a conversation around what matters to them. That's what this is about. This isn't about starting a conversation with our agenda, that we want to schedule a sales call, what we want to do is build rapport and earn the right to get a sales call. And it's really important that we slow down our activity to speed up the outcome like not so dummy activities, so dummy outreach, like don't, to quickly don't connect, oh, I have a lead. Let me pitch them.

So a lot of folks are like, well, I don't know what to do or say if there's a lead opportunity. And what Stan is sharing today in this really, you know, and I've been very fortunate to be part of is how we can use the profile to start more conversations that our prospects care about and just detach from what they're worth to us and attach to what we are worth to them and what value can we bring to them based on what we have now learned is of interest to that. So that's my ending. Two cents. 

Stan Robinson, Jr.  19:41

Yes! To slow down to speed up. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we were talking about, you know, the shared activity. You'll also find other things that you share in common. We just talked about interests. One thing that almost never comes up anymore are groups and Sales Navigator does continue to show you your shared groups. Now, honestly, one thing I have not looked at in a long time, is whether you are still able to message people who are part of the same group that you are even if you're not directly connected to them and one point you could do that, I'm pretty sure you still can, but I just haven't tested it recently. Now Brynne, we can’t hear you I'm not sure why.

Brynne Tillman  20:32

That’s because I double muted, so no one heard me coughing. Sorry. So. So you do, you can message people in the groups, it comes the receiver of the message, it doesn't come over in focus. So it's actually almost like an advertising or an InMail, potentially and it says you're receiving this because you're both part of a group. So it's got to be really good, or people are going to see it as spam and I'd highly recommend if you're doing that, that it's something really focused, really valuable. Zero pitch. Like it's really, really important because you do not want a bad reputation inside of a group because it spreads quickly.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  21:29

Yeah. Yep. Good deal. Good deal. So I'm just about at the end, because as you scroll down further, Sales Nav is also going to show you share work experiences. So if you're alums of the same company, like way back in the day, I have to look up the years Brynne and I both worked at Dun and Bradstreet at different times. And I said what do you know? So both shared experiences in terms of work experience, and also education because it's so easy to start a conversation with.

Brynne Tillman  22:08

Yeah, because like I went to Harvard and Princeton too. I'm kidding, only Stan did. But if you went to Harvard or Princeton, I bet he'd love to chat because even when we went to Nashville, you looked up your alumni, and had dinner.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  22:24

Yeah! That was awesome. Yeah, that was awesome. It was always good reconnecting with folks. Always good. Now, I do have it's funny, Brynne, you were asking about one feature and we weren't quite sure okay. So it's still there,influencers. The one I cannot find on Sales Nav total transparency are recommendations, and I'm probably looking right at them and missing them.

Brynne Tillman  22:49

Oh, interesting. You would hope that that's such a big deal. All right. So I'm checking out my buddy who has got to have I mean, he was cognizant in lots of things and I knew –Well features, skills and endorsements if we go “show all skills.” That's it, just skills –No, that's a mistake. Wow. So you have to go to linkedin.com to see the recommendations. That's insane. Not smart. I will tell you one thing that I would recommend, you can upload media like links or PDFs.

I might say, even have like a little thumbnail that says on Sales Navigator question mark, visit my linkedin.com profile for my recommendations. I didn't know just a thought underneath your company page. But they had featured skills and endorsements, but no, I do not see recommendations. So darn interesting.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  24:13

Yeah, I thought they might be super well hidden, because sometimes that happens but recommendations are a great source of business intelligence, when you can see what other people are saying about the person that you're looking at and the flip side is if you can see the recommendations that they have written about other people, because then you can get a sense of what's important to them. If you see patterns, they talk about this person's, you know, punctual or well organized, analytical, and you see that in multiple recommendations. You get a sense of what's important to this person.

Brynne Tillman  24:51

Yeah, I love it. All these things are just so wonderful. To start conversations. I'm going to leave this one last thought which is the other thing you can find on the profile, we may have said, getting a little bit of those shared connections, which I think are really, really important. When you start to do this, this is so you find a shared connection that you're going to reach out to and ask about these folks. This is now my recommendation, go do a search whether you're using Sales Navigator personas, or the ideal search. And if you don't have to do that you can go listen to an earlier podcast that we've done, and stick that person's name and connections of, 

So if you're gonna reach out about that one person, there might be 7,8,9, 10 people like that person that they know. And you can reach out and have a conversation about all of them. So that's like the opposite of I'm reaching out to all, which is a great idea. I'm reaching out to everyone how well you know them. But if there's one person that you know, really, really well in that list, even before you reach out, see if you can get more on that list to talk about. That's where I'm gonna end that now.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  26:05

That is a great bonus content. I was in a coaching session today and we were literally talking about “Connections Of” and how powerful a tool that is. And the last one that I'll wrap up with is a timeline, which you'll find in the right rail, if you scroll halfway down the page that just lets you know, kind of your interactions with the person that you're looking at. So it makes it very easy to see. Okay, when did I, you know, even though they show you at the top, when you last message the person, you can quickly see your communications back and forth.

Brynne Tillman  26:44

I think that's huge, especially like maybe you met at a trade show a couple of years ago. And you'll remember that and you can build rapport on the fact that you met them in person and you might have forgotten about that. So I love that and Stan you did beautiful. You did good. This was great. I learned some stuff.

Stan Robinson, Jr.  27:03

Yes, yes. And me too, as always. So Brynne, thank you so much. This has been awesome. These are always great for me. I love doing these together. And yes, and we look forward to seeing or speaking with everybody in the coming week. All right. Bye, y'all.

Brynne Tillman  27:29

Thanks, guys. Have a great week.

Outro.  27:01

Thanks for listening and join us again for more insights on Sales Navigator and social selling strategies that will differentiate you from your competitors and accelerate your sales success. In the meantime, you can go to socialsaleslink.com/library for free content on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and social selling.