How to get Sales team to post on LinkedIn

As marketers, we know the power of content.

We know that brand, in the long run is the key to getting our target audience to see us as the preferred choice.

But, we also know that getting consistent reach into our target market without PPC is a tough gig. You either go all in on content and blow the budget or you do the power play and try to mobilise the team to help you gain reach by using their profiles.

Sales and marketing has always been tough to align but on LinkedIn marketers need salespeople because they are closer to the target market and their content can reach places only a company admin can dream of.

Marketers salespeople can give you reach!

Repost please, please please, please

The classic way (which rarely works) is to get your team to repost the company page content. Marketing teams flood teams chat and emails begging to get people to repost.

And....the pleading will work.....but, reposting has limited effect, a mini lift but it doesn't really change the game or help drive any progress.

So we need another way, we need a way for salespeople to see that posting is in their interest too.

Over the last 10 years, we've been working with marketing teams to leverage organic social at a corporate and sales level to engage decision makers. Once a seller see's the opportunity for them, they see that content really does impact their success and opens opportunities.

Sellers need to see the value

So, a typically, sellers will tell their marketing team "I don't have time to post". If you've had this experience, you are not alone, all sellers say this. This is because first off, they don't realise how it can impact them or benefit them, so it falls to the bottom of their list, if it even makes it onto the list in the first place.

So, here is the kicker. If you talk to any seller right now, they will tell you two things... prospects aren't as open to talking as they used to be and outreach response rates are just above zero.

There is no doubt the sales environment is tough and sellers are doing more outreach to try and overcome the lack of response and resistance to even have a conversation.

But this is where you can have an opportunity to help them see how content makes a difference.

Content and Cold Outreach

Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of cold outreach, sellers have to do it. Emailing, Calling and sending messages is part of the daily duties of seller with a target on their back. They are throwing the kitchen sink at hitting their target.

Their flogging themselves and the marketing team want them to throw some pretty pictures on LinkedIn? You having a laugh?

This is how they might be thinking.

They don't see an opportunity for them, they see an obligation being pushed onto them by leaders and marketing teams.

Content drives open and response rates

I was participating in a panel at LinkedIn talking about social selling and I explained to a group of sales leaders that they are missing a trick with cold email.

Here is what I shared....

Everyone is focused on the SUBJECT LINE.

We play all the game.

Do all the gimmicks and tricks

Try to find the best time

The secret to cold email success is not the subject line, it's the FROM NAME.

Whilst we are say trying to optimise the subject line, we forget how humans read their emails.

They triage their inbox based on the from name, not the subject line.

They look at the from name first.

How does content help with that?

In my workshops with sellers I teach them how to create a mix of content which convey the value prop, builds personal familiarity and builds the brand. It's a 3 part strategy which breaks down content into Attract, Nurture and Convert content.

As sellers implement a deliberate rapport building process on LinkedIn, they are building name recognition with their prospects, so that, when the email lands in their inbox, they get opened.

The open rate is a catalyst metric that drives results. No opens = No replies.

So a simple strategy is to use LinkedIn as a warm up tool.

Content, Engage and put out content BEFORE you go to email.

That simple strategy increases open rates by 47%.

Which in turn means you get more replies.

You can send the same number of outreach messages and get a higher response.

Once a seller can see they can get leads and get more conversations as a result of the content, they are HOOKED.

Inside our workshops, I do real-time demos how to get leads from content with a very simple post structure. Many are sceptical, however, when you do it in real-time they that a 'oh my god moment'.

They realise that the key to success on LinkedIn is not in perfecting the outreach message, it's how you engage them before the message.

So, in one workshop, we had a bunch of die hard cold callers, it was a nightmare of a session. They had zero interest in LinkedIn.

Then we did the exercise. There on the post one of the prospects that had ignored the calls had noticed it, within 10 minutes a conversation had started. As soon as the sellers start creating content that isn't propaganda, is personal and speaks to what matters for the prospect, they pay attention.

Content is has always been seen as a marketing function, now we need sellers to be involved because they can put the content in front of the prospects more easily than a brand or company page can.

Sellers can get you free traffic.

As soon as sellers see their gain from that, real tangible gains, they dive in...

Marketers, if you can mobilise the sellers, your site traffic, pages views and inbound leads all rise.

But you have to show them the opportunity not just an obligation.