According to a recent Forrester study, business buyers define a valuable sales meeting as:
1) A meeting where the firm’s managing director, sales manager or one of their executives demonstrates that they understand their buyer’s specific business issues and they clearly articulate how to solve them.
2) A meeting that helps the buyer think about how to solve a solve business problem.
3) A meeting where insights not considered before are shared.
If hat’s what buyers are looking to get from a sales meeting – then wouldn’t it make sense to communicate the “value” buyers are looking for in your LinkedIn profile? In this way you can attract the key decision makers who will ultimately affect your bottom line. Here’s an inside look at how you can communicate the “value” prospects are looking for through your LinkedIn profile:
Example #1: Stratavant’s managing director shows buyers that he understands their specific business issues
When we gave Darrin Fleming (Stratavant’s Managing Director) a profile makeover, we started off by sharing his “story”. We showed how he has first-hand experience, with the challenges of homegrown value-selling tools, which make it hard for key decision makers to quickly understand and visualize the business case. We discussed how in his past life, he was an economic evaluator for Dow Corning and he had to rely on data given to him by sales reps in spreadsheets that were often faulty due to wrong calculations, bad values and hidden assumptions. So, by using Darrin’s story, we are making an instant connection with buyers.
But that’s only the first step we took to show business buyers that Darrin understands their specific business issues. Within Darrin’s profile, you’ll find case studies that shows how top B2B brands (like Honeywell, Nuance, Avaya, IBM and SAP) are using Stratavant’s assessment calculators, ROI tools, TCO tools and value calculators.
For example, you’ll learn how a Fortune 100 conglomerate was having challenges convincing pharmaceutical companies that its packaging material delivered more value than the status quo material because it was 5 times as costly as the entrenched material on a per-unit basis. In one case, an account executive was having trouble getting a pharmaceutical company to even consider the material due to its higher cost. However, with the help of a Value Calculator, Stratavant’s client was now able to quantify the value in other areas such as labor savings, less scrap, lower secondary packaging material costs and increased sales from better patient compliance and persistence. The account executive was now able to get the account, close millions of dollars in incremental business and win the Chairman’s Award for closing millions of dollars in incremental business.
You see, Darrin speaks to unique challenges that B2B organizations with complex solutions and sales cycles are experiencing. He’s demonstrating that he understands their situation and how he has helped other organizations like them generate more leads, drive demand, win against competitors and close more deals.
Example 2: How the President of Wizard Media Communicates Her Value by Educating Business Buyers
When we gave Jimena Cortez (President of Wizard Media) a profile makeover, we focused on educating prospects about the problems they’re facing, the reasons their Facebook, SEO and other internet marketing efforts are failing and what they should do instead.
For example, in her experience section, you’ll find a case study that explains why a Neiman Marcus jewelry designer only had 614 fans (after being on Facebook for a number of years) and why she had zero engagement and zero sales even though she was posting several times per day.
Jimena then shares what she had to do for the designer in order to attract 45,000 fans in 9 months, engage with her new fans where she was able to capture 37% of her fans contact info and increase sales.
Because Jimena took the time to educate her business buyers, a prospect came to her ready and willing to spend at least $36,000 per year.
Example 3: How I Share Insights Not Considered Before on My LinkedIn Profile
Inside my profile, you’ll find links to my articles on MarketingProfs, Forbes and Profit Magazine. Inside my MarketingProfs article, I challenge prospects to think differently about how they position themselves on LinkedIn as they talk about how they are a leading edge, but they fail to prove it. Inside my Profit Magazine article, I’m providing sales directors, managers and executives with insights on the ineffective actions they are taking (even though it’s common practice) and how they should be engaging with B2B buyers on LinkedIn. Inside my Forbes article, I provide mini case studies on how professional service firms, consultants and business leaders are mixing content marketing with LinkedIn.
The insights I shared in my Forbes article not only helped me gain the interest of a large digital advertising analytics software company but it helped me win them over to become my largest account!
Your Next Steps…
This is only a small sampling of how B2B sales and marketing leaders should be communicating their value and differentiating themselves on LinkedIn. Connect with me on LinkedIn and see how I communicate my value to you: www.linkedin.com/in/kristinajaramillo. Then take a good look at your profile and your marketing efforts – and see where you need to make instant changes.
About the Author:
LinkedIn marketing expert Kristina Jaramillo, Founder of GetLinkedInHelp.com, helps Fortune 1000 organizations, small-to-medium sized enterprises and professional service firm sales and marketing leaders generate more, higher-quality leads using LinkedIn. She shares her insights along with LinkedIn’s senior content marketing manager in her free LinkedIn trainings. Download them now at: http://www.FreeLinkedInMarketingTraining.com
