Mastering the art of social selling

Joe: Welcome to this Lead Forensics webinar, my name is Joe Ducarreaux. I’m the Brand Awareness Manager for Lead Forensics. This is my second week in the job. Thank you for joining us for this Mastering the Art of Social Selling webinar. We’ve got a fantastic panel here today.

We are joined by William Holden, who is the co-founder of Vidu. Give us a wave Will. We have Tyler Witt, who is the Senior Sales Manager at Lead Forensics, give us a wave, Tyler. Tom Alaimo is the Growth Account Executive at Gong, another wave. And Chris Van Praag is Content Creator at Vidyard and if his LinkedIn is to be believed, he was last seen with Morgan Freeman in Shawshank prison.

Throughout this webinar, we are going to be using the question function to take questions from you, the audience. However, with as many speakers as there are in today’s webinar, I’m not sure we’ll have time, if we do have time at the end we will go for it, so please do put the questions in at the end. So I think let’s get started shall we.

So I was always told whenever you are discussing any given topic your first action is always define your terms. So guys, I’m going to ask you generally, could you please define what is social selling to you? And I think we’ll start with Tyler.

Tyler: I’ll keep mine short. It’s just the old school networking, only on a newer platform. So for me it’s just about expanding my network as broad as possible using the different platforms that are out there, in order to increase my reach. Not just as in strictly speaking selling, but just in my networking all in because it just improves all facets of my business life.
Joe: Thank you very much. Tom, what does social selling mean to you?

Tom: I think Tyler nailed it. I think it’s just another vehicle in your arsenal to grow as a salesperson or as a sales leader. So on top of email, phone calls, in-person networking, so on and so forth – social media is just another new amazing platform to connect with people, grow your network, do direct sales, prospect. All the things that someone needs to do to be a successful salesperson.

Joe: Chris? Will? any disagreements, any agreements?
Chris: The only thing I would add is that the social part is the big part of this. I think people can get lost in the selling bit and get too focused on the selling part. The social piece is the really important part. So the filter that I tend to look at is, if you use LinkedIn as a platform to social sell on, you can think of LinkedIn as a networking event or you can think of it as like a networking dinner. So if you’re at a dinner, you’re not pitching. You are adding value, you’re talking, you are understanding people. If you’re at a networking event, you’re probably pitching more. So the social selling part is, in my view, more that kind of networking dinner. It’s more about making connections with real people and then the selling bit comes after, as opposed to the pitching part and hoping to get sales off the pitch part. So that’s my filter when I think about the difference.

Will: I’d say for me and the perspective on it as a founder as well, it’s really about building brand and personal brand and then advocacy. So who I am, what we do…. and ideally, social as this medium is just another way to amplify the impact of everything else you’re doing. So looking at it through a sales lens, if you’re out there calling and sending videos and emails, etc. Having a presence on social, that’s where your audience is; your customers, your peers. Having a presence there and contributing to that brand, building that advocacy can have a really big impact on everything else you do thereafter. So it’s this always ‘on’ thing that needs to be maintained and Chris mentions community and nurturing and adding value, that’s incredibly key. Ideally, if you’re not using it to convert, and we’re not all doing that, it’s amplifying the impact when you do.

Joe: And just tying to the idea of personal brand that Chris and you both mentioned there, how important is authenticity? Because that seems to be the currency on social media, that if you aren’t being authentic, people do tend to be able to wheedle that out of you. Would you agree with that ….or?
Will: Yeah, entirely. I’ve experimented with all sorts of different things on LinkedIn. I wasn’t an avid LinkedIn user when I worked at Intercom. We can talk about that later today, but I was involved in a number of things and to me, in many ways it was kind of a distraction at one point. I think now that I’m doing my own thing, I experimented with, not inauthentic but definitely more kind of cookie cutter type content. The big uplift I see is when I’m just human, when I’m raw, when I’m vulnerable, when I’m asking people for help and advice, when I’m trying to give it to them. Like you said, that social currency that you build up and it might not pay off immediately, in that moment but people sure do remember it. So be as authentic as you can be for sure.

Joe: Absolutely. So when was it that you all realised that social selling was then to become a key part of your strategy. Was there a change, a point where you absolutely realised, okay, this is where we’re diverting from traditional sales techniques and adopting social media? Tom, let’s go to you on that one.

Tom: I remember an early sales leader and mentor of mine gave me Jamie Shank’s book, I think it’s called Social Selling Mastery, if I’m not mistaken and that was probably in 2016 … .so it was a while ago. LinkedIn was really a different place back then but I was sold on the concept of Social media networks are going to be more and more important going into the future. So I knew at least having a presence, trying to create a brand, trying to at least learn the technologies was important. But I think really in the last few years, especially since Covid, where the in-person major events were gone, that was a major way to meet new people, prospects, customers, partners, whomever …. and that was gone. I’ve made some amazing connections on LinkedIn. People that turned out to be friends, that turned out to be mentors, that turned out to be customers, that I referred them some customers. Just real true partnerships. Some people I’ve actually met in person recently and some I still haven’t. But that really has opened up my eyes in the last few years. You can create some really deep, powerful connections through the internet and for me it’s mostly on LinkedIn and it’s been an amazing platform for that.

Joe: Okay. I think we’re all pretty heavy users of LinkedIn now. So, Will, you mentioned LinkedIn used to be slightly different and Tom, I think you mentioned something similar. What is it that’s changed about LinkedIn for you?

Will: For me personally, it’s just this recognition that actually all of my potential customers, current customers, peers, anybody and everybody that I would like to engage with at some point in my professional career, they’re all on LinkedIn. A while ago I would have said, well, maybe for particular folks or industries, that’s true. But maybe in the last three years, to Tom’s point, everybody is there now, everyone is there. I think you’re missing an opportunity if, if you’re not cognizant of that, if you’re not aware of that. It doesn’t mean that you go out and you post all about your product and you sell it. I use it almost like a diary sometimes. It’s just this investment that I try to make every day, every other day. and if I don’t post for three days I start to get a bit antsy. It’s just this thing that I continue to go to, to top up. Knowing that the people that I care about, to whatever degree, you could be a prospect, you could be something else. Stakeholders connected to me, they’re all there. I think you need to balance your time investment in it but it should absolutely be now a part of your strategy. Whether that is selling, converting, supporting or just just building brand awareness and advocacy. The last three years it just seems to have exploded in the sense of everyone is on it.

Joe: Chris, as a video content creator, do you find your use of TikTok has increased at all? Because it seems there’s been a real shift in the last couple of years that TikTok was seen as this platform where it was kids dancing and that sort of thing and dance crazes going everywhere. But now it is a very respected and viable selling tool, is that what you found or would you disagree?
Chris: I think it goes to the two previous questions. I think with LinkedIn now it’s more acceptable to post more diverse content. I think historically, years ago it was very much like job postings and maybe new rounds of funding. It was all very kind of high level business information and I think over the years it’s broken down and now people are posting more personal stuff. There’s more fun content, you’re seeing memes and things and it, and definitely the content has warmed a bit. So I think TikTok is a big part of that, with people creating TikTok content and posting it on LinkedIn. I started doing that probably about nine months to a year ago, thinking I’m not sure how this is going to land. Then over the last nine months to a year, there’s more of that happening. Not that I’ve influenced it, but you just see that happening more. It’s become more acceptable to do that. For me, I don’t use it as a place to sell on because with my profile on there I remain relatively platform agnostic. I just post funny stuff about sales, but I use the content to post on LinkedIn to build my personal brand and I think it ties into that authenticity piece. I’ve never been the kind of, I don’t know, the sort of stuffy kind of business that you might view from many, many, many years ago. I’ve always tried to connect with people on a personal level. I think when you talk about authenticity, on your earlier question. For me, as a salesperson, the biggest battle I’ve got is before I’ve met anybody, their impression of me is down here. Because I work in sales, so naturally they’re going to be here. So if I can post authentic content that shows that I’m open to a laugh and I understand how difficult sales can be and the pressures and then that kind of gets through the go. “Actually I feel like I know this guy. I can level with this guy” and that really, really helps in those conversations. So for me, a real powerful driver for my social selling is getting my personality out there and TikTok is a good way to do that.

Joe: I think it’s a very effective tool for that sort of thing, absolutely. Tyler, I’m going to come to you for the next question. Do you measure your social selling impact and results and if so, there are so many things you could measure which ones are the most important to you in knowing you are spending your time correctly and in a worthwhile manner?
Tyler: I’m one of those where I post more just on my own branding. So to some of the other panellists here, they’re absolutely right. 2014, 2015 it was sell. You were on there and you could get contact information. You knew if your prospect was on LinkedIn, they were forward thinking and therefore, you know, especially in the MarTech space, they’re open to a conversation and it was pitch, pitch, pitch. That’s all it was. Now, like you will ruin your brand by doing that. Your personal brand, your company, whatever it is. You’ll just run it right through the mud if all you’re doing on the platform is pitching and not giving back to the community. That’s what it’s about. I think all social media, regardless of what it is and what your area of expertise is, have to be giving something back. Whether it’s cooking or fitness or sales or marketing, it doesn’t matter. So for me, the only thing I’m measuring is the vanity of it. Which is how many people are following connections. I do measure that kind of stuff and how am I growing my network, how many month over month, year over year, how many engagements did I get? Likes, re-shares, comments, that kind of stuff. More so because I want to make sure that I’m continuing to provide content that’s going to help my network. If I do that right, even doing the old Zig Zigler, whatever. Help enough people get what they want, you will get what you want. From that of course I get introductions, I get to meet amazing people, I get prospects from it, I get introductions into prospects, those kinds of things. But I don’t measure that, a little bit maybe, but not really. My biggest measurability is just simply how is my network growing? As long as that’s growing, that means that the content that I’m delivering is relevant. It means that my brand is moving upward. It means that I’m not pissing off my employer by ruining their reputation, so I get to keep a job. So that to me is really what it’s all about. Likes, shares, comments…I am measuring that, as long as that’s going up I feel like I’m doing at least an okay job.

Joe: I think something that we have hit on is that this moment of change dates between 2014- 2016. What is it in buyer behaviour that changed at that juncture then? I think we’ll come to each of you with that, but let’s start with Tom.

Tom: I think it’s pretty well documented that before social media and before the internet, sellers had a lot of the power, so to say. They could do the research and people might not be able to do that reverse research on you or your company. So I think that’s where a lot of the negative stipulations and reputation of sales comes from. That power has flipped. There’s so many resources for a prospect or a customer to go about and do their research before they talk to you. So LinkedIn’s certainly one where they’re absolutely going to check out your profile. They want to make sure that you know what you’re talking about, that you’re trustworthy, they’re going to check out your competition. There’s a lot of third party resources with intent data and review sites and things like that, that they can check out how you stack up compared to your competitors and things like that. We’ve been talking a lot about posting content, creating your brand and things like that, which I think are really important. But even if just let’s say you’re not doing any of that, at least have yourself buttoned up on your own profile. Because I know if I were to go out and spend thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a product or a technology, I’m absolutely going to look up the person that is trying to sell that to me and trying to form a relationship with me. I want to see if me and that person are on the same wavelength, if it’s someone I can trust, do they know what they’re talking about? Or, do I not feel comfortable taking a bet with this person? So I think there’s a lot more power in the customer’s hands and having a, a dialled in LinkedIn profile, for example, is just one way in a lot of different ways that you can build trust and show that you’re someone that can be a true consultant to their business.

Joe: That’s some great stuff there. Will? Same question. What is it, do you think, that changed buyer behaviour? Has buyer behaviour changed?

Will: I think to Tom’s point, that is exactly it. It’s this democratisation of information, but also access to other people that have that information. You don’t sell in a vacuum. LinkedIn is this big connected mesh. All these folks that know each other, you’re only one or two degrees of separation away from the last person that Will or Chris or whoever sold to. So I think it’s about information and ease of access. But it really is about reputation. It’s every interaction you have, whether it’s through a direct message or more publicly in comments or on a post, it’s about just oozing that credibility. Not manufacturing it, but just trying to be humble, true, and honest. Because that’s increasingly a part of, like Tom said, the buyer’s decision making. They’re going to check you out, they’re going to look you up. They’ll look for cues that indicate that they can trust and you respect their time. But they’re going to go to their peers and they will find the last person that you sold to and they will ask them, and they’ll do it publicly or privately. I think just being aware of that’s very, very important. The other thing I’d mention on that real quick, is that sellers sometimes can …and it’s not their fault…..they can sometimes get that bit wrong and they can,…. we’ve all heard of the dreaded pitch slap. People coming on to LinkedIn and just self-promoting and trying to sell in a very overt way. And I see that, more often than not, in a lot more junior or less tenured sellers doing that. Maybe we’ll talk about this later, but I really believe that’s the role that they’re within. Those are the metrics and the measurements placed upon them. If you know you have a target to hit that month, it can be very difficult as a rep to step back and say, I’m going to build my brand for four months. I’m not going to expect an immediate return and I’m going to be very careful and deliberate with my time and I’m going to invest in that. We’ll probably talk later on about it, right, Joe? This kind of leads back to my Intercom days. I’m the manager at times that said, “what are you doing on LinkedIn?” I said that because I think the structures that we put in place in businesses, in teams, especially in sales, don’t really incentivize what we’re all talking about here. Which is just like really credible, authentic, honest behaviour on a social platform and that investment in the bigger picture. So I think something needs to change in terms of how we comp and report reps for this sort of stuff. Maybe instead of just having a quota, if companies really care about social, we ought to have a parallel quota that states, “well, I’m not going to measure you on apps. I’m going to measure you on the number of creative posts or authentic posts” …..and that forms a part of your performance review because it does roll up and it does impact the brand as a whole. So maybe we’ll get into it later. I just think that there are a lot of sellers out there listening to this thinking “I’ve got a target to meet”….. that’s not your fault.

Joe: Let’s go for it right now then. So guys, your thoughts on Will’s idea then of being judged not on opps but on creative posts. What do you think about that?
Will: Well, opps Plus. As a subset of target in that performance review. It’s not how you get paid, but it’s a part of what…., and this is if a company says that we care about social. We’re getting into all sorts here.

Chris: The only thing I…… and I know where Will’s coming from with that. Again, I definitely see the value and I’ve met people who have said, I want to create content like you, but my company won’t allow it. I think that when it’s done best, it comes from a really genuine, honest place. If you want to do social selling, you want to use LinkedIn as a platform, you want to build a personal brand for whatever reason that might be. Because you’re going to carry your personal brand with you, business to business depending on where you go. So I think you need to be genuine and truthful. My only kind of challenge, I suppose, on a model like that is if you incentivize people to do posts the quality is potentially going to go down. It doesn’t necessarily come from a genuine place. I don’t think that’s where Will’s coming from, but I think that’s the balance. If people are listening to this go, “okay, cool, I’m just going to tell my team they need to post every day”. Then the quality isn’t necessarily going to be there. So I think it needs to come from a really genuine place and I think what I’ve definitely noticed…. I was barely on LinkedIn at the start of 2020, to be totally honest. I can’t really speak about this shift in 2014-2015. It was really interesting to hear Tyler’s thoughts and what he was saying about what it was like and pitching it, super, super interesting. The thing that I have noticed, and the thing that you will and everybody will see, is that it’s just personalization is key. Everybody is talking about being human and being personal and it feels like that’s doubled up because everybody’s been stuck at home. So we’re finding ways to be personal. You can do that when you meet people face to face naturally, you’re going to pitch, but you’re just going to exude that personal touch. And that’s, I’m not going to pitch Vidyard, but all about that kind of video outreach as a way to show who you are and deliver your personal touch whilst also delivering the business piece. I absolutely think businesses should encourage people to use LinkedIn. But I think that it’s important that its people are keen to do it. It needs to be self-driven and they need to have a passion to be able to create the content that they want to create and find a way to dovetail that with what they’re also trying to achieve in their role.

Joe: That one, or, oh, sorry. Carry. No, that’s what I’m saying. I mean, I’d add in there.

Tyler: I agree 100% with Chris. I love Will’s thought on it but I think a lot of junior people in the businesses can get excited. I just think of some of the maybe not so business related stuff they may want to post about here and there, that could get us in trouble. But, I think there’s a comment in there, Chris made about some companies, almost prohibit some posting and they really handcuff their employees, that practice has to end. I do think this should be something where you promote that kind of behaviour or it should be part of your company culture. You should even go so far as to maybe have some courses. Maybe you should have them join some awesome online panellist webinar like this, where they learn how to social sell and learn that behaviour. I think that is important for a company because that message…. hey, it teaches them a skillset they’re going to need. Because part of your job as an employer is to give people a skill set, not just so they’re successful at your company, but so they’re successful in life. Ultimately that’s what I want for my employees. I hope they stay here forever, they’re not going to and I want them to be successful regardless of what they’re doing. If I do that and externally people, prospects, other companies, candidates will see I have the culture of that, where people are posting, people are enjoying. That’s going to help me recruit the best customers. and have the best talent to work for me. I think it actually does kind of feed into each other to ultimately get what I want. A successful, happy, business and customer base. We go back, like we said earlier, it’s not selling anymore, it’s social. You have to focus on the network and then that selling will start to, well not the selling aspect, but the lead generation aspect of it should start kind of taking care of itself to some degree. I agree 100% with Will in the sense of letting your employees, let the people of the business do it. Teach them how to do it and then to Chris’s point, there’s got to be some sort of training, accountability around it. Otherwise it could get a little wild especially during certain topics. So we do want to have some constraints there because some people aren’t as conscious of their brand as maybe they should be or the business’ brand and that still does have to be a consideration, I suppose.

Will: Some extra context behind the statement if I can. Oftentimes when I’m speaking with people, it’s really binary. Either they don’t do anything or it’s like, we need to manufacture this, everyone needs to do it. Then they get hung up by three months later the ops aren’t coming from it. That’s the way they measure and attribute success to reps. I agree, we don’t want to just blindly encourage people to post but I can guarantee there are one or two people within your team right now that are good at this, that want to do this but in some way feel inhibited because they can do it and at the end of that performance review period, if they’ve not beaten their competition, if they’ve not done better than their rep. Well, I don’t care that you’re on LinkedIn. You know, you didn’t hit your number. Maybe we’re all saying the same thing here. I think that’s what needs to change. It’s not that it becomes a formal expectation. We don’t mandate that people do that but we find ways to really lift up and reward people that do it in an appropriate way. I see some of the best SDRs and salespeople out there. They do this, they do it really well but there were so many stories I hear where the rep really had to fight and there’s been friction and they’ve moved onto a PIP or they’ve been in a period of underperformance…..and then the social selling really starts to pay dividends. The brand really comes alive. So it’s more this idea that businesses talk a lot about, we need to be on social, everybody needs to be on social. I think we need to find better ways to encourage the right types of reps to do it, that’s what I mean.

Joe:, I think you’re absolutely right because then the content that is created is more naturally and the quality would be there for that, absolutely.

Will: Yeah, it’s a skill and it’s a learned skill and not everyone’s going to be able to do it. I think the best that can do it ought to be rewarded for it in a meaningful way, not just “well, if it pays off and you start smashing your numbers because of this, great”. There are a lot of additional benefits to being represented on social as an individual. This is more my comment about me being a manager in Intercom. I didn’t recognize that and to this day, I feel we missed an opportunity there and I think I was an inhibitor in a way.
Joe: But an important lesson then though. This is quite a tricky question, I think. Chris, you touched on this with how you use your TikTok. Is it best to focus on one platform or across multiple? This is a sticking point for quite a lot of people, so if we go for Tom, I’d like to hear your thoughts on that, would you reckon?.

Tom: I think it depends on what your goal is. If you are a salesperson that is using this as a way to build out your network and let’s just assume that your customers are on LinkedIn in this scenario….. because some industries they’re not and maybe there’s a better place for you to be spending your time. I personally find that you want to spend as much time on that platform as possible, if that’s what your aim is. If your aim is to grow your reach more and to create a bunch of different types of content and grow your audience and things like that, then maybe it’s right to go and experiment in TikTok, in Twitter, in other places. But I think it all depends on what the end goal is. I think if I were to go on TikTok for example and stick there, I don’t think that the VP of Sales who I’m trying to sell to is probably spending a lot of time there. If I create videos and then I post them to LinkedIn and you make it accessible I think that that’s wise. It’s a way that you can break out and stand out. But I think it’s all about trying to keep the end consumer in mind and what the end goal is there. So for a salesperson like me, selling to sales leaders… LinkedIn is really probably one of the best ways I can be spending my time, on top of emails and cold calls and things of that sort.

Joe: I think if nothing else we can surely send this webinar to LinkedIn as an advert for “Hey, LinkedIn’s great. We really like it”. Tyler, anything to add on that? Multiple platforms versus one?

Tyler: It’s kind of what the other points were. You never want to force yourself to do anything. I primarily stick to LinkedIn just because that’s for me from a business standpoint, for prospects, for candidates, for growing my office, growing my team, that’s kind of where that universe is. I do a little bit like through Instagram, Twitter. I don’t use Facebook, other than to support other people, I do go on there. But I think if you’re good at TikTok and you’re comfortable there, use it. If you really like Twitter, and you like the way that that platform is set up, use it, absolutely. I think it’s like anything in life, don’t force yourself to do something if you’re not comfortable, if you don’t want to do it. But understand that the more limited platforms used,, the more limited your reach is going to be. Then understanding the difference of how each platform works. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, they’re all used differently and how you kind of approach the content. So starting out, I’d say probably go where it’s comfortable because it can be tricky between different platforms to create the different content that still doesn’t dilute the message or whatever it is. Personally, I do stick on one, more so for my sales and then my personal life and other things go into other platforms. That’s typically my approach and my advice on it,

Chris: I think you’ve got to be really careful because ultimately social networks are designed to keep you on them. They’re designed to keep you scrolling. So if you are trying to manage and say, “well, I’m going to social sell on Twitter and TikTok and LinkedIn”. You are going to lose your day to that. So I think they’re all perfectly viable channels to sell on. I know some people that are really successful on TikTok, more in the B2C space to be totally honest with you. But I know that it works in the B2B and I know that there are some amazing sales tools that integrate natively into Twitter. But I think you have to be really strategic if you’re going to use multiple channels. I would say multiple channels probably work best if you’re looking to speak to a specific person. Like if you know, Tom to your point, you’re looking to speak to a VP of Sales at one of your target accounts, you want to find them everywhere and ultimately. You want to tap them up on Twitter and then eventually they’re going to be like, “who is this guy?” and then they can’t say no. But I don’t think you can say, I’m going to social sell everywhere because you are just going to be battling against too much other noise and you’re going to lose you. It’s not going to be a great use of your time. So absolutely use all the channels when you know what you’re doing and who you’re targeting but ultimately stick to the one that works best..

Joe: Excellent. Okay, so guys, just to wrap up then, if there’s one key takeaway that you would like everybody to remember from this webinar, from your perspective on social selling at all, what would it be? Let’s go with Will first, please.

Will: Oh, lots of them. It’s piggybacks off of what we were just talking about, Don’t spread yourself thin. Ultimately, whatever network you choose to go deep on, you could go deep on it. Especially if it’s your first time doing this. Don’t spread yourself thin. Don’t dilute your focus. Don’t get distracted. “Well, where do I start?” Start where your audience is, where your buyers are, where your stakeholders are. Just go there. At Vidu, we’re a two-person company. It’s me and my co-founder. I don’t have time to be everywhere all at once. I had to make a decision to be on LinkedIn. I shut down our Slack community the other day because I just don’t have time to invest in it and I want to do it in a meaningful way when we’ve got a community manager. So I think there’s nothing wrong with you saying no to things and really going deep on the platform, like LinkedIn or whatever it’s going to be and then taking 12 months to figure it out. So time is not against you. Take it, go really deep, just pick a lane and just start posting, start interacting. You can really do no wrong, provided you don’t say anything you shouldn’t, like Tyler said.

Joe: Chris, your thoughts? One final lesson.

Chris: Very much to Will’s point. Focus on what you want to post and be honest and genuine about it. I think posting is a really good place to start. Because I think social selling, we’ve covered it all. Tom was talking about getting it right, getting your profile in order, all that stuff. But do create content and I get asked all the time…… I create a lot of video content, some of it’s quite heavily edited and I learn how to do that over a long period of time and people will reach out to me and say “ I want to make that video that you did. I’ve got no experience making video whatsoever, but I want to make it”. And I’m like, I can teach you, but you’ll spend an unreasonable amount of time learning how to do it and it is not going to be a benefit. So, what do you want to do? If you’ve got great ideas or even you haven’t got great ideas, like post about that. Be engaging. If you want to start posting, write about what you should start posting about. Engage with people, look at what people are talking about creating types of content. So put yourself out there, be transparent, expose yourself a bit if you don’t know what to post about. But just be visible, be there. Again, going back to that kind of networking dinner. You could be the person at the side with the free drink, watching people networking because you’ve never networked before. Or you could be the person just in the middle of the room going, this is weird. I’ve never done this before. How does this work? and talking to people and people will engage you. It’s just a great place to start. So just get out there and do it.

Joe: Thanks very much, Chris. Tom, final takeaway?.

Tom: I’d say to play the long game. We’ve all probably got a lot of years left in our career and like I was saying earlier, LinkedIn or social media is just another thing on top. When you think about a personal brand, it’s really just your reputation in the digital world. I think Will mentioned it earlier, if someone is considering buying from you, if they’re considering hiring you, if they’re considering partnering with you, they’re going to do their due diligence. They’re going to ask around for mutual connections and people that have bought from me or hired me in the past and say, “what, what’s Tom all about?” So everything that you’re doing, uh, you know, digitally adds up to what your reputation is. So what you’re posting. Are you pitch slapping people? Are you connecting and pitching them or are you being thoughtful? Are you asking questions? Are you trying to treat it like the dinner that Chris mentioned, which I think is a great analogy. So I think you just want to represent yourself well, it’s not about trying to close someone the first day you connect with them but if you treat it as a 30 year process versus a 30 minute process, I think that’s when you know a lot of benefits start coming to you.

Joe: Absolutely. Tyler, last final thought?

Tyler: I really appreciate everybody coming on here. I definitely stole some ideas from you guys, so I appreciate that. I love what Tom was saying there and Chris as well about just buttoning it up and Will’s point about how people are going to search for you. Get your customers to engage, make it look good, put some stuff, put some collateral in there about your business. Kind of know what your product does, add that in there, engage with other people. But for me, the biggest challenge is, okay, where do I start? And as somebody said it earlier, and I don’t remember if it was Will or Chris, but I think it’s dead on where it’s almost like a journaling. So an easy way to start with I think, especially for LinkedIn posts, is use it as like a gratitude journal or a debrief end of the day journal and just put some simple stuff down and you’d be surprised. I think for most people you’d be surprised how universal your, your accomplishments and your challenges really are. People relate to that almost immediately. So, you know, you won a deal today. Post about it.”Hey, I got this big deal today and here’s why it meant something to me”. Lost the deal. “Hey, I lost this deal today. Here’s why”, whatever it is. And two things. One, you’ve got to get your posting going, but number two is something everybody should be doing anyway – kind of journaling. Over time you find your voice. Obviously, as everybody was saying, is you get better at that practice. Just get in there, clean it up and if all else you can’t think of anything, just kind of do a quick one or two sentence journal type posting and that’s a pretty good place to start. Everybody, I think, would be surprised how universal the human condition really is.

Joe: Then once you’ve done one or two ideas like that, I imagine it’s surprising how free flowing the ideas will then come for later content.. Well gents, this has been absolutely fantastic. So, Tyler, Tom, Will, Chris, I appreciate you taking some time out of your day to join us for this webinar.
I’ve been Joe Ducarreaux, the host of this webinar. Gents, it’s been a real pleasure and we’ll see you all again soon.