6 Ways to Take Advantage of LinkedIn at Various Stages of the Sales Life Cycle

6 Ways to Take Advantage of LinkedIn At Various Sales Life Cycle Stages

ü Speaker ü Author ü Educator ü Social Media &

Digital Marketing Consultant

ü 15 yrs. in the financial services field

ü KPMG, CPA2Biz, my clients

© Penheel Marketing 01.07.14

Becky Livingston -‐ Bio

Agenda

1.  6 ways to use LinkedIn in the sales life cycle 2.  Research and Generating Leads 3.  Firm/Company Pages Tips


Why LinkedIn?

ü Research ü Prospecting ü Relationship Building


61.4%

LinkedIn Stats

•  238 million users •  27% visit via mobile •  200 countries & territories • 40% check daily •  3 million business pages •  1.5 million groups

2 new members join

every 2 seconds © Penheel Marketing 01.07.14

Traditional Sales Cycle

Sales Qualified Lead

Requirements Definition

Value Demonstration

Proposal

Negotiate

Close

Awaren

ess

Evalua

tion

Purcha

se

Simple Sales Cycle Education Solution


Use LinkedIn To:

•  Identify multiple points of entry into an organization •  Find people who are involved with the decision-‐making process •  Identify and forge common connections • Establish mutual interests to form the foundation of a conversation • Unearth new prospects that meet your ideal customer demographic


6 Ways to Use LinkedIn 1.  Awareness

①  Create a professional presence a)  Action: Highlight the accomplishments you’ve helped

customers obtain. Emphasize specialties, knowledge, or vertical industry expertise. Keep it up to date. Consider adding multimedia, videos, slides, and links to your blog.

2.  Make Connections ①  Connect with existing clients, use their profiles to

identify potential contacts a)  Action: Use the “request introduction” feature on

LinkedIn to connect with potential prospects. Leverage search functions to explore titles and positions. Find multiple points of entry to organizations.

Example – Jim Bourke

Partner in charge of internal technology at WithumSmith+Brown. Frequent speaker on CPA Firm technologies. Author on articles related to CPA Firm technologies. Member of AICPA. Member of NJSCPA. Member of AICPA Council and Current Member of the AICPA Board of Directors. Current Chair of the AICPA Tech+ Conference, Past-‐Chair of AICPA CITP Credential Committee. Past President of the NJSCPA. Licensed CPA in NJ, NY and NC. Specialties: CPA, CFF, Technology, Internal Technology, IT, CGMA, IFRS, SOC1, SOC2, SOC3

6 Ways to Use LinkedIn 3.  Research

①  Increase common ground a)  Action: Monitor connections’ status updates, activity,

e.g., blog posts, group discussions, queries, etc., to uncover their pain points and business problems they are trying to solve.

4.  Prospect Lists ①  Use the Search function to generate

“saved search” lists, including by geography, industry, title, etc. a)  Action: Use the search functionality. The free version

allows 3 saved searches, while the paid version allows for more.

Video

6 Ways to Use LinkedIn 5.  Recommendations & Endorsements

①  Trusted Advisor Status a)  Action: Complete your profile to list expertise and

specialties. Encourage clients to endorse you for those services by including your LinkedIn profile link in all email signatures and communications.

6.  Participate ①  Join groups, answer questions, post updates.

a)  Action: Deliver insights that are helpful to the sales cycle. Post whitepapers, offer links, post and answer questions, demonstrate industry knowledge.

Buyer Persona

1.  An understanding of customer needs/interests

2.  Knowledge of where customers spend time 3.  Better quality leads 4.  Consistency across your business 5.  Richer closed-‐loop analytics 6.  Better product development


3-‐Step Strategy to Increase Referrals

1.  Promote your best clients: • Put top clients in a position where they will be asked about your firm. •  Invite clients to participate in conferences, webinars, or panels.

2.  Avoid being a firm that offers everything 3.  Content marketing


43% of Accounting clients have not provided a referral for their provider because they have not been asked to. ~ Hinge Marketing

DISCLOSURE

The AICPA Code of Professional Conduct says, “firms can reveal names of clients without permission, but if disclosing the client name allows a third party to ascertain other facts that are confidential, that would be considered a disclosure and would require the client’s permission. And, members should always check with their state board of accountancy to ensure that its rules are not more restrictive, in which case the member would need to comply with the more restrictive standard.”


Company/Firm Page Tips ü  Add a hero image to the page ü  Complete Products and Services

page/tab ü  Complete the Summary with

some personality ü  Publish updates regularly

66% of the financial institutions studied by The Financial Brand didn’t have a hero

image.

ü Use ‘Featured Updates’ to highlight your best content ü  Add a video to the Products & Services Page ü Utilize the Career tab ü  Promote the page on your website ü  Follow your page, encourage employees to follow it ü  Create and use a content calendar/tools for daily posts


Example – Hunter Group CPA LLC

Banner / Hero Image

Updates

Example – Hunter Group CPA LLC

Listing of the Firm’s Services

Example – Urbach & Avraham, CPAs LLP

Updates

Example – Urbach & Avraham, CPAs LLP

Listing of the Firm’s Services

Who is Penheel Marketing? Social media and digital marketing consulting firm for CPA firms, small businesses, and non-‐profits.

Visit www.Penheel.com for more information.

Marketing Analytics Website analytics, online advertising analytics. See which sources are generating the most leads.

Email Send personalized, segmented Emails based on any information in your contact database.

Search Engine Optimizations Improve your rank in search engines by finding and tracking your most effective keywords.

Lead Management Track leads with a complete timeline-‐view of their interactions with your firm.

Blogging Create blog content quickly while getting SEO tips and best practices pointers.

Social Media Publish content to your social accounts, then nurture leads based on their social engagement.


Resources •  “How to boost business through referrals.” Lee Frederiksen www.CPA2Biz.com/browse/print_articles_landing/jsp •  “How to take advantage of LinkedIn at Various Stages of the Life Cycle.” Hubspot •  “Capturing Clients on LinkedIn” CPA Practice Advisor •  “3 Strategies to Get More Sales Referrals with LinkedIn” Hubspot • http://www.linkedin.com/company/cnbc • http://www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin •  “How to Map Lead Nurturing Content to Each Stage in the Sales Cycle” http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31406/How-‐to-‐Map-‐Lead-‐Nurturing-‐Content-‐to-‐Each-‐Stage-‐in-‐the-‐Sales-‐Cycle.aspx •  “6 Core Benefits of Well-‐Defined Marketing Personas” http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29583/6-‐Core-‐Benefits-‐of-‐Well-‐Defined-‐Marketing-‐Personas.aspx •  “12 Steps Financial Marketers Can Take to Get The Most From Their LinkedIn Page” http://thefinancialbrand.com/28429/12-‐tips-‐for-‐bank-‐credit-‐union-‐linkedin-‐pages/ •  “Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code” http://www.jillkonrath.com/Portals/110248/docs/Cracking-‐LinkedIn-‐Sales-‐Code-‐Ebook.pdf • How-‐To: Advanced Search for Lead Prospecting [video] http://penheel.com/whitepapers/


6 Ways to Take Advantage of LinkedIn at Various Stages of the Sales Life Cycle

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