Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Sales, Networking, and Social Media with Brynne Tillman

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Bridging the Gap Between Traditional Sales, Networking, and Social Media with Brynne Tillman · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
• 0:08
  Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
• 0:17
  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
• 0:21
  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Everson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Elaine Emerson, the small biz lady, and I wanna invite you to enter the small biz chat
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  become your own boss in 12 months or fix your business, or you might even get a chance to win
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  one of my limited edition small business chat podcast t shirts.
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  Don't delay.
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  Subscribe to the small British Chat podcast today.
• 1:14
  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I am excited to welcome you tonight to small
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  biz chat Now you guys know on small business chat, we're all about ending small business
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  failure.
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  Not tonight's show would not be possible.
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  We're not for our wonderful sponsor.
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  Bumble Biz, which is a brand new section for the Bumble app.
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  Yes.
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  So Fumblebees is a great way to build your network.
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  your network.
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  Alright.
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  Now we have an amazing show for you.
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  I have sales expert, Brent Tillman.
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  She's gonna be here talking about how to leverage your network and how to use your
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  network to build some warm lead.
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  So with that, I am so excited to bring to you guys.
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  She is a long time friend of mine.
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  She and I met way back in the day when I was teaching people how to become a Twitter ninja,
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  and she was teaching people how to become a LinkedIn demon like her.
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  And I'm so excited that she's here with us tonight.
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  Because she is a top sales expert and networking pro.
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  She is the author of the Amazon bestseller.
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  The LinkedIn sales playbook a tactical guide to social selling.
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  And as a career sales professional herself, Brit Bridges the gap between traditional sales
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  networking and social media.
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  So she is an amazing expert.
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  So, Brent, I wanna welcome you to small business chat.
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  This is so much fun to be here you, Melinda.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Alright.
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  Now I just wanna jump right in because I just wanna get all the nook and crannies out of you
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  that we can tonight Now I know that everyone says that your net worth is your net worth.
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  Right?
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  But but but you still have to cultivate your network.
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  Right?
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  So what is the difference you think between networking online and offline for small
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  business owners?
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  Well, that's a great question.
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  Typically, I'll tell small business owners.
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  I want you to look at online very similar to offline and real world, because there is a
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  person at the other side of those profiles.
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  And I think it's absolutely vital that they treat it the same way.
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  For example, on LinkedIn, if you connect with someone and never start a conversation, that's
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  like walking up to someone in a networking event handing them a business card and walking
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  away and barely even saying hello.
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  So you wanna really think about what is it that makes networking work and it's really about the
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  relationships that you're building, and you wanna think about that online as well.
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  So at the end of the day, it's about like no withdrawals no matter how you're meeting
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  people.
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  Is that what you're saying?
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  Well, so there's no like and trust for sure, but then there's also on social you want to
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  attract, teach, and engage to get them to
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  no one can trust you.
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  Okay.
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  Attract, teach, and engage.
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  I like that.
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  So now when it comes to how you use technology to connect with your network, I mean, so I went
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  to
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  a networking event I met you.
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  What should I do next in terms of how I leverage technology to, you know, link up with
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  you better?
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  Well, obviously, the first thing we wanna do is follow them on Twitter, connect with them on
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  LinkedIn, but I typically go to a networking meeting looking for the next referral source
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  where I can find someone that I can make introductions for them and they can make them
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  for me.
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  So once we've identified those people and it won't be everyone that you meet, but maybe a
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  couple at a meeting.
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  We want to then connect with them on LinkedIn, set up a coffee meeting, and invite them to
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  look through our connections, make a list of they might know, that I know that they might
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  want to meet.
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  I can make a list of who they know that I might want to meet.
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  We can review them when we're together, and make some real strategic introductions for one
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  another.
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  And to me, that's the ultimate use of leveraging social, and networking.
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  That's really good.
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  I mean, whenever I go to a networking event, my goal is is five people.
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  Like, once I make 5 quality connections, I'm good because the real deal is you don't have
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  time to follow-up with more than five people after an event any So that's always, you know,
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  my goal is is 5.
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  Now whenever I go to a networking event, though, and I have some sense of who might be
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  there, I also strategically go looking for people too.
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  Like, you know, I I I try to get there earlier.
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  If you get there late to a networking event, or get about it.
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  Or if you show it without your business card, boo.
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  Forget about that too.
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  Like, that's like, you know, leaving home without putting on Dealtorick.
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  Like, you should not do that.
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  Right?
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  So you know, that's how I approach networking events.
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  But, you know, what would you say is like your number one working tactic, like, when you go to
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  a live networking event?
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  Like, what's your number one thing that you're doing when you get there?
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  Well, I never go alone.
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  I actually o will always go with someone that is not in my company, not a colleague per se,
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  but someone that I can refer and that I appreciate.
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  Sometimes it would be a a client or a vendor even.
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  And we go prepared with the goal that I will be introducing her to other people, and she'll be
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  looking for me.
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  So when I'm talking with someone instead of talking about me, I will talk about her
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  business where she and then say, you know what?
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  I've gotta introduce you.
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  So that's one of my favorite tactics because it really brings people together in a way that
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  feels we're not pitching our own stuff.
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  And when you come in referred like that, people really listen.
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  That's that's an excellent excellent idea.
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  Now, let's get back to that networking online stuff.
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  So, what are your top 3 go tos for networking online.
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  That's an interesting question.
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  I so all top 3 would probably be on LinkedIn, but using it differently.
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  So for networking online, the first one, we sort of talked about a little bit, but I meet
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  with at least one person a week and exchange warm introductions for one another.
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  That's my number 1.
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  Number 2, I go to my clients once a week, once every other week, I'll make a list of the
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  people that my clients know that I wanna meet and ask them if I can review those names by
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  them and, you know, run them by them.
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  And eventually, If I have 7 to 10 names, I'll get 2 to 3 introductions from those.
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  And the third thing is to engage on content.
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  And now LinkedIn is using hashtag Thank goodness.
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  It's about time.
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  They're using hashtags, so you can find content based on hashtags, and you can get into
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  conversations around content, and I think that's a fabulous way to network.
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  Yeah.
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  I I definitely agree with that too.
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  Now if I had to give you my top 3, clearly you know I'm all about Twitter.
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  So I always start with Twitter, then I go to LinkedIn, and I really like BumbleBiz.
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  Like, I'm I'm a newer user to BumbleBiz.
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  But I actually like it, and I've been getting some interesting sales leads, you know, from
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  using bubble biz or finding a vendor that I'm I'm looking for.
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  So I
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  actually really like bubble biz.
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  I'm excited to download that.
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  Yeah.
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  So now let's talk about social selling because I think there's a misnomer out here about what
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  social selling is and I've seen some really bad practice out here too, so I wanted to know if
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  you could kinda really drill down for us what is social selling because in my world, nobody
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  wants to be sold to.
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  So how are
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  we doing it now?
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  So so I love that and and really we start with the high level goal, and your high level goal
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  is to have more meaningful conversations with targeted buyers.
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  But we need to do that in a way that's relevant to them.
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  So social selling to me really covers a few things that all lead back to the goal of more
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  conversation.
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  So I know we don't wanna be sold on LinkedIn, but we do need to close for the phone call.
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  And we have to keep that in mind because we're never gonna sell anything, and then it's just
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  social media.
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  It's not social selling.
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  Now there are four things that you need to focus on, your brand, and how you show up.
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  How you engage your network, how you are prospecting, and the thought leadership and
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  content that goes out there.
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  Once we have that in place and we are being seen as thought leader and a subject matter
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  expert.
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  And and by the way, that's the goal of your profile.
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  Anything you put out there is provide insights and real value to your network so that they're
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  begging to have a phone call with you and that you set up phone calls by, really, you have a
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  real authentic conversation and then say, hey, I'd love to share some insights specific to
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  your Organization, let's hop on a call.
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  Even if we don't work together, I'm gonna provide some real value.
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  And then that call has to be full of real value, not a sales call.
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  Right.
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  Right.
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  I I love it.
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  I love it.
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  But listen, Brent.
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  We're gonna put a pin in that right now because we've gotta throw the brake.
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  And when we come back, We're gonna talk about engagement engagement engagement.
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  So it's gonna be great.
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  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
• 10:25
  I know you might be thinking about quitting your business and going back into corporate
• 10:28
  America, but wait.
• 10:29
  Before you give up, my new book fix your business could give you a whole new lease on
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• 10:52
  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, and welcome back to small fish chat.
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  We are talking with Brent Tillman sales expert LinkedIn expert networking pro extraordinaire,
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  and she's gonna talk to us about how to leverage, you know, trust online and
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  engagement, LinkedIn, all that good stuff.
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  So, Brent, I wanna jump right back into you and and really just go after, you know, how do we
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  build trust online?
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  Well, the first thing you have to do is stop pitching.
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  So as long as you're pitching online, you're you're losing all kinds of trust.
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  The real way that you build trust online is to provide value and to really come at it from the
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  buyer's perspective.
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  Understand what's important to your buyer and provide insights around that.
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  There's a a a saying from challenger sale that you wanna make sure that you lead to your
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  solution, not with your solution.
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  When you lead with solution, you're telling them why you should buy from me, why you should
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  hire me.
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  When you lead to your solution, you're dropping breadcrumbs with great tips and strategies and
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  insights and and things that really make an impact, really a vendor agnostic impact.
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  So meaning they don't have to hire you to get value from it.
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  And that's how you really build trust when you can help someone even if
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  you never talk to them.
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  That's awesome.
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  So let's let's just flip over to LinkedIn.
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  Like, what is the right way to introduce yourself on LinkedIn?
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  Cause I know I have almost 10,000 connections on LinkedIn, and I kinda tell you how many
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  times I, you know, I I accepted someone, and then 2 seconds later, I get this, like, you
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  know, that made me, like, try to learn to figure out how to unconnect from somebody on
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  LinkedIn.
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  So can you talk about the right way to introduce yourself to a new contact on
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  LinkedIn?
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  Well, don't connect to someone just because you want to sell That's the first thing.
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  I mean, this is networking.
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  Do you go to a network in thinking I'm gonna sell everyone in this room?
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  We don't.
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  You know, we're we're excited if we meet someone that there's an opportunity, but that's
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  by chance.
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  Typically, we go to a networking meeting to meet people to build your network.
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  To build trusted partners that can ultimately refer business.
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  That's the way I look at networking where we could be referral partners back and forth.
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  So you wanna look at that online.
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  You also want to provide value pretty quickly.
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  I have a couple of welcome messages that I send people It's all it's got a blog post or some
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  kind of real content that has nothing to do with buy from me.
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  It's pure value.
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  If they like that, I mean, I get thank yous for leading them to my content.
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  And that's the way you start to build the trust that we talked about before.
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  Start to build those relationships and ultimately build a network of people that
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  really see the credibility and the value that you can bring to them and to their network.
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  So I I I really appreciate that because that's really helpful.
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  So do you use, like, some kind of automated auto responder to to send information back to
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  people?
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  So I I actually think I well, first of all, auto responders break the LinkedIn user
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  agreement so we can't do that.
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  But I do have templated messages that I customize occasionally.
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  Okay.
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  So
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  and I use a Chrome extension called auto texting spander, and it stores all my templates
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  so I have short codes.
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  And on my phone, did you ever type, like, something that says I'm in a meeting, I'll call
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  you later.
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  You can control those short codes.
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  So you can go in there and paste all of your welcome templates and and links to great
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  resources And with just a couple of short codes, you can welcome people into your network
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  right from your phone.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Alright.
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  This is my last question because I've gotta go move on, but tell me, what is the best LinkedIn
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  tip that you have for people out here?
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  The best LinkedIn tip, I would say, 1st and foremost, is move your profile from a resume to
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  a resource.
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  Nobody cares about your years in business, your mission, your passion yet.
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  What they care about is how you can help them.
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  And so if you can be a resource, you're gonna move them closer to you as a vendor, of choice.
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  Thank you so much, Brent.
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  That is actually really, really helpful.
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  I am know that I'm I'm ready to to use LinkedIn smarter myself.
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  This is small fish chat.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson.
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  Can't wait to see you next time and remember this.
• 15:14
  You never lose in business either you win or you learn.
• 15:17
  We'll see you next time.
• 15:20
  Thank you for listening to smallbizchat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 15:25
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 15:32
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.