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According to a recent Forrester study, business buyers define a valuable sales meeting as:
If buyers are looking for the above three things from a sales meeting, then don’t you think if you communicate the “value” buyers are looking for on your LinkedIn profile, you’ll attract more key decision makers who want to talk to you? Below is an inside look at how you can communicate through your LinkedIn profile the “value” prospects are looking for.
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. By using Darrin’s story we made 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.
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.
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 nine months and engage with her new fans. She also depicted how she captured 37 percent of her fan's 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.
Inside my profile, you’ll find links to my articles on MarketingProfs, Forbes and Profit Magazine. In my MarketingProfs article, I challenge prospects to think differently about how they position themselves on LinkedIn when they talk about how they are a leading edge, but fail to prove it. In my Profit Magazine article, I provide 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. In 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!
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. Then take a good look at your profile and your marketing efforts—and see where you need to make instant changes.
Kristina Jaramillo is the Founder of GetLinkedInHelp.com
To learn more about growing your SMB with marketing, visit salesforce.com, or download the free e-book.
