Sales Navigator Archives : Live Conversations with Teddy Burriss

We all want referrals.

We spent countless hours networking in real life in the hopes more people will get to know us and what we do and will refer us to others.

We invest time on social networking, sharing, and engaging on LinkedIn with the same hope, someone will see us and our content and refer us to others.

Doing these steps routinely can create what I call organic referrals.
However, organic referrals alone are never enough.

However, we need to execute another process – Creating Influenced referrals.

Influenced referrals are purposefully asking the influencers of our target audience to introduce us for a conversation.

We can’t create influenced referrals unless we are building our networks with both our target audience and their influencers.

This takes time and a constant set of activities of networking, engaging, and inviting these influencers into conversations.

These conversations must be focused on the influencers. Ask questions, listen, and learn about them, their roles, experiences, and anything else they are willing to share in order for us to get to know them better.

We also must be willing to help these influencers. Helping them in different ways is one of the tactics that create relationships with people who may be willing to help you. Maybe with a referral.

As you get to know these influencers and they get to know you more, in time you’ll uncover the opportunity to talk with these influencers and ask them if they could help you. You must ask if they are willing to do so.

Their positive reply is a statement not only to you but to them as well that they will help you, where relevant, appropriate and possible, by introducing you to the person you want to get into a conversation with.

Once someone introduces you to your target audience it’s important that you return to the influencer and thank them for the introduction.

Organic referrals are truly fabulous things.

Influenced referrals are also fabulous things. And, you are more in control of the frequency and the results.

How often are you seeking influenced referrals?

Should I subscribe to LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Watch the YouTube Video that answers this question, or read below:

Here is my written response to this question:

The quick answer is this:

If you are serious prospector who needs an application to do focused searches and track prospecting activities, you should consider LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

A Serious Prospector uses LinkedIn Search tools multiple times every week and wishes there were just a few more filters available and features available.

Hitting the Commercial Use Limit too early in the month is not a reason to use Sales Navigator. You could use Business Premium to overcome that limitation.

If you think you need Sales Navigator, I recommend committing to a two month evaluation of the application, subscribing month to month rather than for an annual plan. You’ll get the first month for free if you do a 30 day eval. Give yourself two months to validate your needs and that you will consistently use the application.

Then become highly familiar with the application.

Here are a few features you will want to experiment with to get the greatest value from LinkedIn Sales Navigator:

Saved Accounts – If your prospecting focuses on businesses, save accounts and then focus on the people in the businesses you are tracking.
Saved Leads – Research the people in accounts who are relevant to your prospecting. Save the ones you want to pay attention to in Sales Navigator.
Build structured Tags – Do this up front. Having a tagging philosophy helps you manage your prospecting activities easier.
Experiment with Sales Navigator navigation. It is somewhat different than LinkedIn and you will need to switch back and forth between the two. There are also cool functions hidden behind windows and the various three dot menus (…)
Experiment with Sales Navigator Filters and the integration of Boolean Strings in appropriate filters. Building powerful search strings is one key value of LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Experiment with Saved Searches in Sales Navigator and LinkedIn. You can have up to 3 saved searches in each interface. Create unique saved searches across both platforms. Use the search results.
Experiment with Sales Navigator and LinkedIn messaging. They are currently still stand alone systems. Messages sent via SN do not show up in LI, and visa versa.
Experiment with the Mobile Apps. You’ll want to be able to efficiently use these apps. Learn what you can and should do using them and what you should not use them for because of compressed functionality.
Build the use of Sales Navigator into your sales processes. You should be using Sales Navigator and LinkedIn within all of your sales processes, including calling and emailing targets, prospects and/or clients.
Pay Attention to your Social Selling Index. Yes, it’s primarily a sales tool to get you to subscribe to Sales Navigator, however your SSI Score and other LinkedIn KPIs are a good measure of your activities.

If you want to discuss the benefits of using Sales Navigator as a prospecting tool and how I could help your sales team create success using these tools, grab a slot on my calendar and let’s talk about your goals.

Teddy