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Why LinkedIn Invitations Need To Be Purposeful

December 14, 2011 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Social Media

LinkedIn is about creating and nurturing relationships. It’s a marvelous tool for researching and connecting with people and helps you forge genuine relationships based on substance and value.

I’ve been on LinkedIn for many years now and have been steadily growing my network. I only connect with people I know personally or have connected with via an event or activity. As much as I am for prospecting and building new networks and business I draw the line at sending out impersonal LinekdIn requests, random or otherwise to people that I don’t know.

LinkedIN Standard Invite

LinkedIN Standard Invite

So why do so many people send out LinkedIn invitations with no explanation as to why they want to connect with you, no personalised note introducing themselves and no obvious reason for linking in?

In the last six months I have received more LinkedIn requests from people I don’t know with the standard line, “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” They neglect to provide any explanation or valid business reason (VBR) for connecting with me.

I’m at a loss to explain this lazy and careless approach. My view of this practice is that it appears insincere and grasping for business. On the other hand, a friend of mine says he accepts these random invitations to grow his database. He doesn’t send them himself because he agrees it seems unprofessional, but happily accepts invites from those he doesn’t know. While I see his point of view, I’m not convinced it’s worthwhile. Many people I speak to are expressing similar frustrations with impersonal LinkedIn requests. Is frustration of the recipient really the aim? In my opinion, sending impersonal LinkedIn invitations is the equivalent of spam.

I treat LinkedIn invitations like prospecting calls. How you position yourself is very important. You need to think about why you want to contact and connect with that person and develop a Valid Business Reason (VBR). A VBR must be meaningful and relevant to the LinkedIn contact. It should be a reason why the LinkedIn contact should want to speak to you further. It must be of value and important to the LinkedIn contact and answer the What’s In It For Me (WII-FM) if they connect with you.

If I contact anyone I do not know via LinkedIn it would be with a well thought out message first seeking permission to speak with them to ascertain if it would be beneficial for us to connect/ meet/ work together.

So how do you deal with these potentially unsolicited LinkedIn invitations?

Benefit of Social Networking

Benefit of Social Networking

I have developed a strategy to test how genuine people are that ask to connect with me. Firstly I look at each person’s profile to see if I do know them and if I can see some sort of benefit from our connecting. Secondly I send out the following message after I have received the “I’d like to add you to my professional network.” invitation.

Hi XXXX
Thank you for your invitation. I must apologise if we have met before however I am not sure where I know you from. Are you able to let me know how we are connected and how you think we would both benefit from our shared association?

Cheers Sue

It is very interesting what happens next. One of 4 things usually occurs:

  1. I never receive a response and I delete the invitation.
  2. I receive a detailed reply from the person stating how they know me and how they would like to benefit from our association. I usually accept the request if everything seems ok.
  3. I receive an apology that they may have made a mistake.
  4. I receive a ‘snippy’ or ‘hurt’ reply, upset that I would actually question their invitation.

I do not take my LinkedIn invitations and connections lightly. In the earlier days I probably accepted more LinkedIn invitations from people I didn’t really know. Today, however I see much more value in developing a real network of contacts who are seeking mutually beneficial outcomes and support from their peers. Like any relationship, LinkedIn relationships have to start somewhere. So if you are thinking of using the festive season to build your LinkedIn network, consider starting off a new relationship on the right note, keeping in mind that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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Age Old Lawn Bowls Turns New With Social Media

September 6, 2011 in Attitudes & Behaviours, Sales Culture, Social Media, Strategy, Success

Lawn Bowls clubs are innovating to attract new members, even running bare-foot bowls and speed dating bowls for new and existing members. If the sport of Lawn Bowls can embrace the internet and social media to reinvigorate its brand, increase participation, grow its members and lift revenues, then so can we all.

Ben McArthur JunChamps 2008

Ben McArthur JunChamps 2008

Lawn Bowls has been around for hundreds of years with its origins supposedly dating back to Ancient Egyptian times along with its cousins, Bocce and Pétanque. It’s often been seen as a traditional sport for older people with rigid rules and recognisable but rather unattractive white uniforms. I can remember my grandmother, Clare playing bowls for years all around Victoria and South Australia. As a child and teenager it appeared to me to be a rather stiff and formal pursuit, certainly not aimed for youth participation. We were in fact actively discouraged from pursuing it as a suitable sport. You would think this perception as a recipe for a dying brand, yet Australian Lawn Bowls is seeing a strong resurgence like never before at both the elite and social level.

Memberships are growing, participation is high across a wide range of age groups and revenues are strong. So what have they done to reinvigorate their brand?

I came across this good news story while listening to ABC radio on one of my early morning walks which coincidentally passes right by our local Lawn Bowls club. I was delighted to hear the Chief Executive of Bowls Victoria, Peter Hanlon telling us that the sport of Lawn Bowls now has a whole new lease of life: especially in attracting a much younger demographic from teenagers to Gen X ‘s & Y’s. In fact some of their current national champions and elite players are teenagers and Gen Y’ers.

Lawn Bowling Tim Mason

Lawn Bowling Tim Mason

Bowls Australia and its state entities realised some time ago that the sport wasn’t growing and this was largely due to its brand perception; ‘strict rules, old person, white uniform’ image. They commissioned extensive research and found that there were many people of many ages and abilities who wanted to play Lawn Bowls and the beauty about the sport is that almost anyone can play. So the answer was simple: communicate with the people that want to play.

Australian Lawn Bowls clubs quickly flung open their doors to people of all persuasions; people with disabilities, teenagers, families, community groups, even speed dating agencies; providing a venue and activity great for introducing people to one another. Corporates and businesses were also quick to see the benefits of lawn balls as a team building exercise and social outlet for out-of-office activities. The sport read the signals right and embraced its new members. So much so, clubs have even introduced Barefoot Bowling to make it even easier to participate.

There are no longer barriers to playing Lawn Bowls now. Anyone can play and anyone is welcome.

Here is what Bowls Australia now stands for:

Our vision
BOWLS – THE SPORT FOR ALL AUSTRALIANS
We will stimulate innovation of the business and sport of bowls so that peak bodies and clubs become known for their delivery of excellent services and resources and facilities become contemporary community venues and the game attracts people of all ages and backgrounds.

Our mission
To provide leadership and facilitate a collaborative approach for the growth, development and success of the sport and business of bowls in Australia.

Core values

  • Teamwork – national unity through constructive relationships;
  • Autonomy of state and territory associations;
  • Professionalism – demonstrated through integrity;
  • Progressive – adapt to the changing needs of society through the coordinated efforts of BA, state and territory associations and clubs;
  • Innovative – proactive culture attuned to environmental changes within and outside the sport.

‘A new game plan’
In March 2009, Bowls Australia released the strategic plan for 2009 – 2012 entitled ‘A new game plan’. No longer considered an old person’s pastime, the sport now has a whole-of-community approach. Other sporting bodies have taken Bowls Australia’s lead and done the same, an example of this flow-on effect is Swimming Victoria, now ensuring everyone, at every level has an opportunity to participate.

Once the signals were read, it was time to communicate. Social media has been a large part of Bowls Australia’s strategy for connecting with its new members and potential new members. The organisation embraced the online phenomena. Social media tools proved to suit its needs and Facebook, YouTube and Twitter proved to be the best way to connect with a new audience, promote events and report results, all the while bringing people together to share in a revitalised sport and social activity. By embracing new media, the brand breathed new life into what was becoming a tired and tried age-old activity. Check out their website to see how they did it.

Lawn Bowls is now one of the most socially inclusive sports across all levels across Australia. It gives people of all persuasions a place to socialise, participate and compete. As the Chief Executive of Bowls Victoria, Peter Hanlon said ‘it takes five minutes to learn and a lifetime to master’.

Thanks to Peter Hanlon, Bowls Victoria and Bowls Australia, my husband and I are now looking at getting into the sport much earlier than we would have otherwise anticipated and who knows we might just get the whole family involved too. Bring it on.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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The New Age Customer

August 4, 2011 in Customer Service, Procurement, Sales Leadership, Social Media

In a world still recovering from the GFC and grappling with the buzz of social media, we are now in the midst of a war between retail and online shopping facing daily decisions about purchasing locally or overseas, and B2B sales teams challenged with moving from selling product transactions to being business people who can sell value and ideas.

It’s no wonder that businesses are grappling with the new age customer who has emerged looking somewhat different in this new climate.

New Age Customer

New Age Customer

 

Sales leaders often struggle with the changing dynamics of the customer relationship. The Sales Industry has spoken for years about the importance of aligning every aspect of sales, marketing and the whole of an organisation around The Customer, yet we see sales forces and organisations at large consistently missing the mark.

That is why CSE11, Asia Pacific’s Premier Sales Leadership Conference is focusing on getting customer relationships right. As part of the conference program I am speaking in concert with a leading procurement professional about The New Era of Professional Selling: The Pathway from Supplier to Partner which is an industry first.

Conference or not, we need to adapt and improve our relationship dynamics. Sales leaders need to ask key questions such as: ‘how do we change our customers’ perceptions around the type of relationship we have with them and the value we bring to their business?’ and ‘how do we move away from being seen as a vendor who ‘sells stuff’ to that of a ‘hard to substitute’ Business Partner who adds critical value to their business?’

Today’s customer is smarter, savvier and more socially aware. They know what they want and can easily find where to get it. They have access to information at the click of a button and are mindful of price. They’re not averse to discussing with strangers the merits of a product or service online and they’re not afraid to name and shame. Competition is high and expectations even higher. The changing role of the customer means that sales people and business people need to adapt or get out.

For business, it’s six times more expensive to acquire a new customer than retain an old one so it is critical that businesses educate all their people on how to work with clients even if they are not in touch with them every day. Interestingly 68 per cent of customers stop dealing with a business because they’re upset with the treatment they received from the sales people, customer service person or someone else in the business.

Prior to the internet most used to suffer in silence and simply go elsewhere. Now customers are making themselves heard via the internet through social networking sites and blogs. Prior to the internet studies revealed that one unhappy customer told 11 others, who in turn told five other people. With the Internet and the variety of blogs available, the flow on effect of an unhappy customer could number in the thousands and be devastating to your business.

The new age customer expects more than ever before but this doesn’t mean you can’t keep up and deliver. It doesn’t need to cost you more but you will need to take time out to revisit your business strategies and reevaluate the way you deal with your customers.

Key areas of importance are:

  • Customer service
    Are you delivering quality customer service both online and in person?Many businesses don’t take enough care with online customer service believing that as a quick and effective communication tool the job is done. Untrue. In fact, more care needs to be taken. By communicating online with your customer, you lose the personal phone or face-to-face opportunity. You therefore need to make more effort with your presence online. Responding quickly to customers with the right information they need is key. Handle queries simply and easily. Make sure you clarify and solve people’s problems and communicate in a positive, professional manner. In some markets you have less than two hours to get back to people before they move on.
  • Listening
    Listen to your customers. Stop talking about yourself and your business. What do your customers want and need? Are you giving it to them? Listening doesn’t need to just be one-on-one. Take time out and explore the web. What is being said about you and your brand? Or what is being said online about your competitors? By reviewing the web you will gain insight into customer’s expectations and will find it easier to give them what they want.
  • Consistency
    People don’t like change but we are resilient creatures and we do adapt to change. We much prefer it if we know it’s going to happen and can prepare ourselves which is why businesses should communicate potential change to their customers and give them time and help to adjust. If you aren’t planning change, make sure your sales team and your customer service people know your processes and are all providing the same advice. Your customer wants to know what to expect when they deal with you and doesn’t appreciate a sudden change of service.
  • Dialogue not monologue
    I always encourage sales people to have dialogues rather than monologues with their customers. The new age customer doesn’t have time to be preached to. They want to talk and they want to be heard. They’re in touch with you because they’re interested in what you have to offer, but they probably have others waiting in the wings to take their business. Long gone are the days of sales monologues, today’s new age customer has completely outgrown this tactic and now want to be listened to. Let your customers do the talking, ask them questions, find out what they are after and then work with them to give them what they want and/or need.

Smart businesses and sales teams know there are many ways to work with our customers and develop deeper value based relationships that are based on true partnerships.

If you can, join us at this year’s CSE11 conference which brings global and local industry case studies of organisations getting customer relationships right. The conference will focus on uncovering the enablers and blockers that will either derail or enable the acceleration of sales performance in today’s market. Over 200 industry sales leaders will be sharing their insights supported by keynotes.

This will be an incredible learning experience with no doubt a few gold nuggets to walk away with! Barrett will also be hosting tables for our clients and contacts to ensure you get introduced and connected to key stakeholders and international speakers. If you would like to attend please download the registration form or please register your interest and we will get an information pack sent to you ASAP.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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Are you letting online leads go cold?

June 30, 2011 in CRM, Social Media

Middle of last year I wrote about sales training and social media and in particular the impact on car dealerships and their sales teams. In particular, their tardiness in responding to online leads. Well it seems this is still a problem – only the other week one of my coaching clients told me about his dealings with a prestigious car brand where he contacted a dealership to arrange a test drive only to have someone get back to him 7 weeks later, well and truly after he had bought another car from another brand elsewhere.

The feedback I received from car sales industry sources in 2010 was that if a warm online lead was not followed up within 6 hours they were lost to that dealer. Well how things have changed. This isn’t just an issue for car dealerships, it’s now an issue for any business who is generating online customers leads. Harvard has highlighted this issue in their article – The Short Life of Online Sales Leads.

So are you confident that your company is effectively handling potential customers’ online queries? Think hard. Harvard research shows that most companies are not responding nearly fast enough.

This issue is not just a problem for automotive sales; it seems to be an issue for software, health care, banking and financial services, professional services and many other industries. With many companies now using the internet and other associated technology to generate warm customer leads via ‘push and pull’ prospecting strategies such as direct and targeted online advertising, discussion groups, community forums and the like, as well as online brokers offering consumers group buying opportunities and access to a range of companies in the B2B and B2C space, warm lead generation has never been hotter. New businesses are emerging that help other companies turn leads into sales by providing technology and services that help maximize this space.

However despite all of these wonderful sales opportunities, the sad news is that many of these warm to hot leads never get followed up by the sales people and companies who seek them out in the first place.

Harvard’s research showed that many organisations are too slow to follow up on these leads. Here are some of their findings:

“We audited 2,241 U.S. companies, measuring how long each took to respond to a web-generated test lead. Although 37% responded to their lead within an hour, and 16% responded within one to 24 hours, 24% took more than 24 hours—and 23% of the companies never responded at all. The average response time, among companies that responded within 30 days, was 42 hours.

These results are especially shocking given how quickly online leads go cold—a phenomenon we explored in a separate study, which involved 1.25 million sales leads received by 29 B2C and 13 B2B companies in the U.S. Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead (which we defined as having a meaningful conversation with a key decision maker) as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later—and more than 60 times as likely as companies that waited 24 hours or longer.”

This was a big wakeup call for Barrett as well. This research has certainly put us on notice because we are seeing a steady increase in the number of enquiries we are getting from the web. Have we missed the boat because we were too slow in responding to online leads? Probably in some instances, especially if we have been out on assignment and working on other projects and do not get to back to people quickly enough. Working out what is the right time frame to follow up on is challenging and responding immediately can be problematic, for instance receiving an overseas inquiry overnight and not having a 24 hour helpdesk or customer service line.

So what do we need to do to capture these important sales opportunities?

If companies are making big investments in order to obtain customer queries from the internet and the expectation is that they should be responding at internet speed then why aren’t they? Harvard states: “Reasons include the practice of retrieving leads from CRM systems’ databases daily rather than continuously; sales forces focused on generating their own leads rather than reacting quickly to customer-driven signs of interest; and rules for distributing sales leads among agents and partners based on geography and “fairness.”‘ Harvard states it is conducting further research to more fully understand the causes and identify possible solutions. But it’s already evident that most sales organizations need new tools and processes to meet the demands of the online age. With companies making huge investments in online marketing and lead capture we need to work out how we need to respond. Watch this space.

Remember everybody lives by selling something.

Author: Sue Barrett, MD of www.barrett.com.au

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