sales navigator | She Owns It

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

It’s a great idea to fill your sales funnel over the summer when everyone is more relaxed. Sales are all about making connections with people in your target customer group. Sales don’t happen the first time you meet someone. There is a process for sales that takes time. During the summer people are on vacation, spending time with their families and generally having a good time. But that doesn’t mean they take the whole summer off! Well, a few people have that luxury, but for most of us, we are still working. It’s important to keep that in mind so you can still work on filling your sales funnel over the summer because what you are doing is building relationships for later on down the road, perhaps this fall or winter?

How can you fill your sales funnel over the summer?

Invite your prospects to coffee on a patio or if you don’t have time for a physical meeting, why not schedule a coffee date over Zoom? Convenient for you and convenient for your contact.Attend networking events where your prospects are hanging out. If your target audience is golfers, then go to fundraising golf tournaments. There are plenty of opportunities to spend quality time building relationships when you are spending the whole day with like-minded people
Seek out connectors – connectors are people who meet you and then offer to introduce you to other people who might need your services. They are usually introverts, really good listeners who want to understand you and your services, so be very clear what you and your services are all about. They don’t necessarily need your services themselves but are only too happy to introduce you to people who could.
Tee up speaking engagements. Some conveners are looking for speakers up to a year in advance, so make contacts over the summer when it is less busy to seek out opportunities for later in the year.
Strategically plan your fall and winter by mapping out how you are going to deliver value to the people already on your mailing list. You can prep for your courses, ebooks and maybe even map out your first book of authority and get started over the summer. Did you know that writing a book is the best way to give value to prospects? It is the best business card you can have, it will help you fill your sales funnel over the summer and all year long.
Seek out collaborators – These are people who you know and maybe work in a similar field but your services are complementary to each other. You can even collaborate with trusted competitors if you decide that you can work together and carve out different sections where you agree not to compete.

Elaine Slatter

Elaine Slatter is a Small Business Expert, founder of XL Consulting Group and author of the popular book, “Fabulous Fempreneurship”, a complete business guide for women. XL Consulting Group helps entrepreneurs with market planning, strategy, branding, web design and social media. She has over 30 years of executive business and marketing experience and is ready to help you rocket your business to success. Elaine is passionate about mentoring women to become successful women entrepreneurs. To find out more, visit XL Consulting Group or join the Fabulous Fempreneurship mastermind.

xlconsultinggroup.com/

by Donna Amos | Featured Contributor

It seems everyone is looking for ways to expand their brand and increase sales. With all the strategies and sales tactics available, it can be difficult determining which direction to go and what platforms are most useful in reaching your desired goal. LinkedIn has significantly expanded its outreach to help you succeed in your business. Although it may be easy to overlook this social media platform and the potential they hold, you will find it is useful, user-friendly, and results-oriented.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has been designed with a multi-faceted approach, and will aid in whichever marketing strategies best fits your needs. If you are not familiar with this feature, LinkedIn has made it simple to explore and understand this beneficial product, as their business section features the highlights of Sales Navigator. This is outlined in the goal of targeting, understanding, and engaging business prospects. Additionally, they offer a free demo and free trial to play around with the options.

Don’t let the endless possibilities overwhelm you when you explore Sales Navigator. It may be easy to rush through, or get lost in the expansive selection of filters and tools. When using a valuable resource, a little planning can go a long way. Even if you are already seeing the benefits of Sales Navigator, you can always find ways to make it work even better for your business and sales with these tips.

A Little Planning Goes a Long Way

The first tip to using Sales Navigator is to start with some planning and set a strategy. This tool makes achieving sales incredibly attainable, but it does take some consideration on your part. The best feature is that this product can generate a tremendous amount of leads that you may not find anywhere else. The important part is to plan how you will sort and take advantage of these leads.

Regardless of your time using Sales Navigator, ensure that you have set a realistic lead criteria. Take some time to think through the ideal lead, start with generic qualifiers, then add more specifics to essentially have a few sets of criteria that would best fit your niche.

Use Filters to Your Advantage

Start with Top Filters to narrow down the leads that Sales Navigator will scan and produce. This is the time to play around with how specific you need to be to get the leads you are seeking. A top tip is to start with the basic filters and see what results you get back. If it is vast and you find you need to be more specific, employ the advanced filters to get the desired results.

Some of the top filters to adjust are keywords and geography. Keywords can fluctuate, and it may be helpful to look for synonyms of common keywords that are bringing quantity over quality. For advanced filters, you may want to narrow down to postal code and look at company type.

Utilize Your Resources

If you have felt frustrated or think there is more that Sales Navigator has to offer, you’re probably right. Often, it is easy to let limited time take away from all that a program has to offer, which leads to missed opportunity. Fortunately, LinkedIn has developed an extensive variety of resources for you to utilize within Sales Navigator.

The Learning Center is an extensive set of resources developed to help users maximize what Sales Navigator has to offer. There are modules, webinars, video tutorials, eBooks, and simple guides to support your business and expand potential within Sales Navigator. The more time put into learning about what the program offers and how to best use the tools, the better leads generated and outreach you can have on LinkedIn.

Strategize Communication and Connections

A theme that LinkedIn has found strength in, is making connections through people, places, careers, companies, and interest. Sales Navigator draws heavily on this and makes using LinkedIn even more effective for generating leads, and the filters are such a benefit to streamlining an outreach. However, this tip moves away from having Sales Navigator do all the work.

Once the leads have been provided, it is on you or your liaison to prioritize and build on the connections made within LinkedIn. Although Sales Navigator has a private messaging option, it may not always be advantageous to rely on in-app messaging. It takes a little more time, but employing an excel spreadsheet and doing a little research can go a long way when it’s time to reach out and communicate with your generated leads.

It can certainly pay off to see if you have mutual connections and reach out to that person to the lead. This creates a more personal outreach and can make the person feel more comfortable or open to what you have to offer.

If you have no mutual connections, another tip is to do some research and send emails in addition to messaging through LinkedIn. For the right person, an email may generate a quicker response. This may end up being a bust, but it also may bring a higher response rate than only one type of outreach.

How have you found success using Sales Navigator? Please share your experience and any tips you’ve found to work to your advantage in the comments.

Donna Amos

Donna Amos is passionate about helping Solopreneurs grow their business using everything digital and publishing. She has 30 years experience in sales and marketing for small business. She believes the best gift you can give another is a word of encouragement.