Ep. 202 Dawn Pici – Leveraging LinkedIn for Quality Leads

Would you like to gain a 42% closing ratio on LinkedIn contacts? Master LinkedIn trainer, Dawn Pici, will help you create a captivating LinkedIn profile  and shares a few secrets to help you gain better quality leads using LinkedIn searches. 

Podcast Transcript:
Voice over:

Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is The Sales Edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

Joe Pici (JP):

Have you ever struggled getting quality leads? Have you been fishing in the wrong pond? How do you struggle to capture the right person at the right time? Today we’re so excited. We have an expert on LinkedIn. You know for for so many years we struggled and then Dawn Pici was able to learn. Now she does and now she can teach the quality of mastering LinkedIn. This is the sales podcast. I am your host Joe Pici and let me just tell you a little bit about Dawn, maybe some things you don’t know. You know, since 1992 Dawn and I have been partners in Pici and Pici. Which is speaking, coaching, training, consulting. But over the years Dawn has evolved and taken charge of many aspects of our business. She is our marketing expert, she is the absolute intellectual property of sell more virtually.com. She was the one who went in and mastered LinkedIn for us and as I’m looking in my chart from January 1 until yesterday 47% of our closed business has come from LinkedIn.

She’s going to do great job today. So Dawn welcome.

Dawn Pici (DP):

It’s fun to be on the podcast.

(JP):

You know, I have a question for you today doing let’s get right into it. What do you see as the greatest challenges people are facing in utilizing LinkedIn?

(DP):

If I could say it it one little sentence, they have lots of leads. But few really quality leads. They have lots of contacts. They might have five, ten, thousand, contacts and connections, but they don’t know where the real true leads are. And I call this multiplication by zero, multiplication by zero. You know, if you have 1 x 0 you get 0 but, even if you have a million times 0 it still ends up to be 0. And I think most people they set up a LinkedIn profile. I set up a LinkedIn profile back in 2010 and two years later We had gotten nothing. And I remember thinking, you know, I have this LinkedIn profile somewhere out there in the Cyber land, but it’s not doing anything. And I hear that from so many of my clients. I have LinkedIn profile, but it’s just not doing anything.

(JP):

You know and I would say that almost 100% of our clients. Okay after I’ve done sales training with they’re always asking me this question. You know, how do you generate leads? And then I just turn them over to Dawn and she does that. But Dawn, what I’d like for you to do is share with our audience some of the demographic and some of the clients that you have in train them and Linkedin.

(DP):

You know, they come from all different Industries, all different ages. I’ve got professionals. I’ve got large companies bring me in to work with their teams. Business owners, solepreneurs, people. You know Independence, Independent Insurance Agents, anybody who’s you know, who’s working independently. But I also get College grads, people looking for jobs. I have also High School grads who are looking to get into their first job or get into a college. You know college is for really vetting you on social media. What is your social media saying about you? So really all different Industries. Well you know, Joe we just we work with everyone.

(JP):

So in the beginning, we made a lot of mistakes and so over the course of years you’ve been able to help people. But what do you see as some of the most common mistakes people are making today and using your LinkedIn?

(DP):

You know. I think number one is, they underestimate the power of LinkedIn. It’s fascinating. But as of January 2021, there are seven hundred and twenty two million users on LinkedIn. This is up a hundred thousand users from just last year. LinkedIn is growing. It is just exploding with people and its Global. But I think the most important statistic for those of us in the USA, is That now there are a hundred and seventy million users in the USA. And maybe that doesn’t sound that great. But we only have 300 million people. You subtract the people 20 and younger and 75 and older and you’re looking at approximately one hundred percent of the gainfully employed population in The United States is on LinkedIn. Your target market is there and it’s the easiest place to find people.

It is also the greatest tool for being able to segment people into different groups so that you can really figure out, once you figure out your target market, You can really hone in and focus on them. But I think of another problem, common mistake that people make, is when they set up their profiles. They set them up to look like a resume. And Linkedin is a resume of sorts, but it is so much more. It’s really a client Centric portal. It’s a client centric portal and it’s a portal for profit. Like Joe is saying we get so much of our business off of LinkedIn now. And so setting it up at as just a setting up your LinkedIn profile as just a resume you’re really missing out on everything that LinkedIn can do for you.

How it can really tell your story your way. Another mistake and it goes along with this idea, is they treat LinkedIn when they went to create this resume type profile. It’s focused more on the past rather than the present and the future. That I know that sounds kind of odd, but you You’re looking to create a future focused profile to be effective on LinkedIn. Let me explain what I mean because if you pull up my LinkedIn profile and I invite you to connect with me and Joe, when you pull it up you’re going to see a lot of things you’ve done in the past. It doesn’t mean that I don’t list past experiences. Those are very important, but I don’t depend on them alone for validation.

Because validation is partly what I’ve done in the past, but more importantly it’s about what I’m going to do for that client, that prospective decision maker in the future. To have an effective LinkedIn profile, We have to talk to the benefits, results, and solutions that will be created for that prospective client, for that decision maker. These are called value propositions. It’s not enough to say I’m a good person. You know, I am I do this for a living, I sell this product for a living. Well, what does that product do for the client? Well, I do this, I have this service for like for my clients, well great. What is the result that, that client gains from having worked with your having purchased your product? That is important. For instance, If you take a look at my resume if you take a look at my resume. Just a regular resume. We just have my name and it would list all these different things I’ve done. But if you take a look at my LinkedIn profile and I invite you to go there, you see a banner. The first thing that you see on there is reach decision-makers safely.

This is what I do. Then I put on that, I’m on LinkedIn trainer. But the most important thing, what people are looking to do right now in this age of covid, is they still need to reach decision makers but they’d like to do it safely. And that’s what I am projecting with that, I’m projecting into the clients future. What I’m saying is, I can help you in the future, reach the decision makers safely. If you take a look at Joe’s his says Recapture Lost Revenue. Why? Because people are looking to do that. Last year a lot of companies, A lot of individuals took a hit. And they’re looking to regain what they lost. So to recapture lost Revenue, This is an end result. Yes, He’s a sales trainer, We all know that. But it’s not about what He is, it’s about what he does for a client. What will you do for your client? We’re looking, at we must speak to the results, the client desires. So whether it’s my title, Banner, experiences, about, or feature sections, it’s focused on the results that the potential decision maker is looking for.

(JP):

I’ll tell you something if you just take that and utilize that and when Dawn is working with her clients, the first thing she does is turn that profile into a client Center capturing of people’s attention. So that we’re going to move on to another question. You know, this is I can’t tell you that she could go on and on with this but you know, you can share a few tips with them, please. You know, I would really ask you to give a few of your maybe secret sauces here to help these people capture some leads.

(DP):

Well again, I’d start with value propositions. First consider what you’re doing, what the end result of what you’re doing is for your clients. So number one is, you’re going to start writing value propositions. You’re going to write value propositions about every benefit, result, and solution that you provide. And that you want to take those if you want to use that in your title area, that headline of yours, that’s a powerful place because it captures somebody’s attention. You want to use this in your about section, in your experiences. I title our experiences with value propositions instead of just saying we’re sales trainers because, that’s what I did it for us at first. Sales trainers, sales trainers, sales trainers. Then we eventually learn how to say something like recapture lost Revenue, sales training, that that first value proposition captures their attention. So that’s the first thing I would have value propositions everywhere. The second thing is in the about section. This is a place, I see people make so many mistakes because they’ll start off and basically they feel like they’re about section is their place to say, I’m a good person, worker, trustworthy, Problem Solver. And it’s kind of like that phrase if I have to tell you a lady, maybe I’m not.

And I think it’s important to realize that when somebody says I’m a good person. I have no I had no reason to believe that about them. And they have no reason to believe that about you. But if you give a short story to tell your story your way, they will come up with those conclusions. For instance, I had a gal with looking for a job. She just come out of college and she was looking at for jobs as a legal assistant. She couldn’t get one and so we start talking about her job experience. Well, she didn’t have any job experience. Well I asked, do you have any volunteer experience? She said well I’ve worked in a soup kitchen. So we started talking about working this soup kitchen and what is a suit being dinner in a soup kitchen have anything to do with being a legal assistant? So it looks like it has nothing in common. However, what I discovered after interviewing her for a while, is that she found a way to get products and foods from the people who were donating them to the end users more quickly. And I said you mean you streamline the process and so she said well, yeah, I never thought of it that way. That’s what we need to put in your about section. I streamline the process for being able to deliver food. I said how much more food, how much more food were you able to deliver? How much less spoilage was there? Well, we figured that out. It was about 18-19 percent less food spoil. We need to put that stat in there. So without even saying I’m a problem solver. I have take initiative. I am a person who really wants to improve your company. She did that with a two-sentence story about what she had done for that company. So what you want to do is you want to take the duties, the things that you have done, and you want to turn those into accomplishments. It’s not that you were a fundraiser for your company, it was that the last time you You were in charge of a fundraising event, You raised an extra twenty percent over the year before.

That says that you are hardworking, you’re a problem solver, you take initiative. These are the things people who are hiring are looking for, they’re looking for Quality employees. They don’t want to make another bad hire. All right, so being able to do that and say things in what I call a client Centric way. Another thing is, and I think this is a place where I see people throw away a golden opportunity. The golden opportunity is with the featured section. The feature section of your profile is so important because on that pro, that is kind of like, I tell people think about it like it’s their billboard. If you were to purchase a billboard downtown, right off the highway, what you’d want to have on it? Well, that’s your feature section, notice the size. And to be able to put things on that featured section. We use that for client testimonials, we use video testimonials. It’s a very powerful thing to do. But being able to use that featured section and use it in a way that is going to show you off is, is is worth a million words. Because people tend to notice that right away, as soon as they start is the eye starts to go down the page. Thing that pops out is the featured section.

Make sure you’ve done your homework there. Another one is to write a few long articles. There are posts that you could put on your profile, but you can also put on articles. And articles show you to be the expert in your field, or your company, as the best resource. Now many companies have created, you know, PDF forms and white papers and different things like that. These are perfect for on that feature section, but however If you’re just a solopreneur or creating an article, that’s between 17 and 19 hundred words. Now the reason why I say that is they just did a study about this. And it seems that LinkedIn has an algorithm that’s identifying these longer articles and what they found was something like forty six percent of the people who are reading These articles are C-level employees. So these this is the place where you could really attract the attention and show yourself and differentiate yourself. This is your uniqueness over somebody else selling the same product. You know more about it, you are the expert. So those are some things in the reason why I talk about your LinkedIn profile first before I even talk about doing searches, is when you attract somebody’s attention. They’re coming to your LinkedIn profile, but they’re only coming one time. They’re only coming one time. Is you profile giving enough wow factor? Is it client-centric enough? Is it speaking to the future of what you can do for that client, for that decision maker? Is it speaking to that enough to hold their attention?

Because let me tell you it’s very interesting Jill Conrad has this has determined that the average amount of time Somebody stays on a website is only 2.3 seconds. I don’t know how they figure that out. I don’t know. Two point three seconds. However, somebody stays on LinkedIn for over five or six minutes. And the reason is, because people are vetting you. When they go to LinkedIn, They’re planning to do some reading, when they go to your profile they’re looking for wow factor. And if they don’t if the image doesn’t appeal to them, they’re gone. But a LinkedIn profile they know they’re going to be reading, they have born there at a time that is convenient for you. And I’ll tell you another thing That’s really cool. When Joe and I connect with them, we will send them up an invitation to connect. We pick up the phone before they’d even connected with us.

And Joewill say to them, hey, this is Joe Pici, I just sent you a LinkedIn invitation to connect. Immediately this person’s going where? They’re going to the LinkedIn profile, exactly where we want them to go. And seeing exactly what we want them to see.

(JP):

So Dawn, this has been great. And so let’s move on. I have another question that was written in for us. It says tell our audience how to better leverage LinkedIn searches?

(DP):

LinkedIn searches, LinkedIn searches is really the key. It’s the key to finding those Hot Prospects. Remember when you have a group of leads, Only 20% of those leads usually lead you to a sale. So how do you find those quality leads? And a couple of things, the first thing I want you to know is, people will ask me Should I be on the free or the page program? Just so you understand there are, there’s one free program that you can be on. There’s also a premier career. There is a premier business and then there’s Sales Navigator. So the premier career, the premier business, and the sales Navigator are all, you pay a monthly fee or yearly fee. If you’re a veteran, You can get the LinkedIn career for one year, for free. Just Google that, because that’s a wonderful wonderful thing that We’re doing for our veterans. I’m so proud of all that that’s taken care of. But when clients come to me, and they say to me Dawn, should I get on the free or pay program?

What I tell them is usually start with the free. Start with the free, many of the clients that come to me That’s all they’re going to need. That is absolutely all they’re going to need. But the other reason why I tell people to use the free program first, is because there’s so many bells and whistles on LinkedIn. There’s just so much it can do and we can become overwhelmed. And a lot of my clients when they come to me, It’s that I just don’t know what to do next Dawn. I got all this, you know, all these different things I can do with LinkedIn and I’m just so overwhelmed. And it’s like let’s just pair this down. When I teach people how to use LinkedIn, I don’t have a lot of time for fluff.

I don’t have time to waste. I teach people exactly what they need to do to be successful and I tell them what they can avoid. That’s going to just be a time drainer. So start with the free program. Another thing to do to help you make your LinkedIn more effective when you’re doing a search is, to take a look at another software called Duck Soup. Spelled, Dux – soup. I don’t teach people how to use Dux Soup because there’s many wonderful tutorials out there that can help you. But Dux Soup basically is an online CRM.

And it works in conjunction with LinkedIn, so that when you just pull somebody’s name up, Dux Soup will copy that for you. There’s a lots of different things Dux Soup will do, I don’t have time to talk about here, but it’s well worth looking into. Dux Soup, The paid program is like $15 a month and that the free program at Dux Soup is what most people is probably all that they really need.

The next thing is, So people say. Where do I go? Where do I find? Where do I find these leads? And I tell people, first thing is when you do a search, make it very narrow. Look at a very specific group of people. A thin slice of humanity. And that frightens some people because they think oh my goodness, but I can sell my product to so many different things. You know, let’s say you are you have something to supplement to plumbing supply we have to plumbing supplies, you have plumbers, you have Builders you have builders who do commercial. You know, you have all these different types of people who might want that product. Well if you try to look at all of them at the same time, You’re going to pull up thousands of leads. And it’s just too large of a group to really be affective. So what I have people do, is I’m going to pick up a thin slice of humanity. And we’re going to be very specific. I just want you know, I want Founders or I just want owners, or I just want managers, or I just want the VP of sales, or I just want, I’m going to be looking at a very narrow group and you can work within a Geography. Okay, you could make that so, Let’s say we live in Florida area. We can just just want to work with people in Florida. Let’s say Joe is traveling somewhere to do some training.

We can put it in that area and he can make some contacts there. He’s in another state doing training. He could be looking at other people. And maybe setting up other appointments, so you can be very very specific. So I tell people get very specific and just work away at that thin slice of humanity, for 30, 60, 90, days. Be very specific. Now, let’s say you work it for three, four, weeks and that’s bringing me any business. Well, let’s switch. Switch it, switch it up to find another slice of humanity.

Let’s get very specific. So that’s an important thing. Another thing is to join groups. Okay, but groups that have your target market. But when I say join groups, it’s a place to find leads Joe, but it’s not a good place to get bogged down with discussions and comments. Those are places People are not going to purchase from you because you wrote this glowing comment of five-word sentence. And they’re going to go wow I want to buy something that a person. That’s not really what’s going to build your brand. I want to talk to you about identifying your customers also. Do you know who your target market is?

Joe can you speak to that because Target marketing is a critical area. Where have you been successful in the past? Because when you look at LinkedIn, it’s like the Pacific Ocean. It just goes on and on forever. Speak to that.

(JP):

Well, I think this is very important. And I think that that’s why sales and lead generation are hand-in-glove. You’ve got to know who would be most receptive to your offering. And I think one of the things about Target marketing is, if your messaging is clear, if your value propositions are clear, that within 90 to 120 days your target market will emerge. Because they’re going to be the ones that are finding you. We’ll do some future podcasts on the Dynamics of getting Target marketing, but it’s so important that you don’t sell to everyone, you sell to a target.

(DP):

Yeah, I can’t, I can’t stress that enough, that it’s really important on LinkedIn because you could get so lost in the weeds. I think in the finally the last thing you need to do is you need to have a system, a process. Once you find a lead, What is your process? Do you have a process? You know, some people just willy-nilly about this. How are you leading people from your first Contact through Your Discovery sections, through your through the presentations, to finally having this person at the point where they’re going to make a decision to purchase. And that’s one of the things that we teach at Pici and Pici, Joe is the best in this. And once you get that lead what you do with it is so important.

(JP):

Yeah, so so Dawn this has been great. But I really do need you to tell these people how they can work with you. What are the different ways that you can help them with really punching up that LinkedIn profile, capturing quality leads, and so tell them how they can find you and what you offer.

(DP):

Well, there’s two ways you can work with me. The first one is to call 407 947 2590 and that’s where you’ll get a hold of Joe and we will schedule you for 2-hour private LinkedIn training, where I take over the controls. We do a screen share. I work, I write this out for you, get it all typed up so that you’re in good shape. That’s a 2-hour customized LinkedIn training. And that’s available to you calling Joe. Another way to work with me is to take my virtual course. I have a virtual course where you could, it’s a do-it-yourself kind of course. I take you through 11 modules, there’s actually 11 modules. I take you from Soup To Nuts and that is obviously less expensive than the personalized coaching. My coaching, My 2-hour coaching is $499, but you can get my online version for $197 by going to w-w-w dot SellMoreVirtually.com. Click on the sales Institute in the toolbar and that will take you to a page and you will see the LinkedIn training right there.

(JP):

Well, you just got a seminar and I can tell you this, that I was just looking at our numbers, as as Dawn was giving you some information. I’m looking at my my proposal whiteboard. Okay, and my my goal every month is to get out 25 to 35 proposals. But January 1 to last Friday. We closed 32 proposals that went to contract and deposit. Of that, 24 of them came from LinkedIn, that shows you the power. This has been The Sales Edge podcast. Take out your phone type in the word, one word, sales edged. Make sure it stays one word. Send it to 5 5 6 7 8

It’ll take you to a link Piciandpici.com. Take you to a splash page, on that Splash page there’s 5 e-course videos. Recapture lost Revenue virtual selling. There’s also a link to our SellMoreVirtually.com platform that you can check out. You can also get that e-course from Dawn. There’s links to our podcast and free downloads. So this has been podcast number 202. Thanks a lot.

Voice over:

Thanks for listening. New episodes will air each Tuesday and Thursday. So make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and give us a five star review. The Sales Edge is sponsored by Pici and Pici Incorporated. A firm which provides training, consulting, and keynote presentations. Empowering corporations and individuals to attract and retain quality clients, for higher revenues and growth. Make more money in sales, speak with Joe in person by calling 407 947 2590 or visit www.piciandpici.com