The Digital Selling Handbook by Bill Stinnett

Author:Bill Stinnett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw Hill LLC
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Pre-Conversation Phase

Now, let’s further explore how to advance your relationship with prospective customers. We’ll start by looking at a progression of steps of the pre-conversation phase that are designed to move prospects from complete strangers to active opt-in email or text subscribers.

1. Stranger: No Relationship

A good example of a stranger would be users of a social platform whom we have not yet connected with. They could also be people actively browsing YouTube or Spotify who have yet to subscribe to our channel or podcast.

Of course, you can choose to simply purchase names and contact info of target prospects from a variety of sources and go straight outbound with telephone and email outreach. That’s fine if you are planning on calling a high volume of people where you can’t take the time to warm things up with an e-relationship before you reach out.

For a more focused approach on a shorter list of targeted prosects, I prefer to attempt to proactively connect or at least communicate with as many as possible on LinkedIn first. One way to start would be to look up a refined target list on LinkedIn Navigator and start just cold-inviting people to connect. Unfortunately, your response rates will range from “OK” to absolutely terrible, which may include being reported for asking to connect to a person you don’t already know outside LinkedIn. (Yes, that happens. I’ve been there.)

To increase your odds of success dramatically, start by looking at the profiles of target prospects and reading some of their recent posts. Add a like or a comment to some of their posts as a first step. Maybe even share one of their posts on your timeline if you think it’s good and that your own customers would benefit from it.

You can start a conversation with literally anyone on a social platform, even if you are not “connected” with them, by leaving a comment on their posts. I’ve been doing this for years. Often, I’ll even make mention of something that impressed me about their profile in a comment I leave on a post.

Here’s a great suggestion that you can use immediately . . .

Learn to use comments on other people’s posts as a way to start a dialog the same way you’d mingle at a live networking event. Simply join the conversation your prospect is already having with other people online.

Social platforms have become a hotbed for predatory sales tactics. LinkedIn is teaming with a zillion people trying to figure out every way possible to coax and cajole people into a “quick 15-minute conversation” the instant they connect. If you’ve been doing that, stop it! You’re burning opportunities to actually build quality e-relationships. Earn the opportunity for a conversation if it makes sense. But start with a legitimate connection first.

Leave some friendly comments for the people you want to meet. Engage with their content. Ask them some questions. Show them some love. Almost everyone will eventually acknowledge you. Then you may choose to send a request to connect once they know you are a human being.

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