Here’s a clever little trick that I teach in my LinkedIn Dominance course to keep your connections invitations pristine

Are you keeping your optimizing your invitations sent box? Rumour has it this is one of the areas that LI might look at as part of your SSI score.

Let me know what you think of my little SSI Boost tip. Have a question for me about maximizing your Social Selling Index? Ask it here. Make sure to tag me and use #SSIBoost.

Grab my 15 Minute Checklist to Dominate LinkedIn SSI at https://steverosenbaum.com/lmli15

***** Transcription Below *****

It’s Steve Rosenbaum from SteveRosenbaum.com. I’ve got a little tip for you. I’m working in LinkedIn right now. I thought I’d let you look over my shoulders. You know, when it comes to building relationships, as one of the four categories in your SSI score, you’re going to reach out to a lot of people.

I’m in the midst of an outreach campaign right now. And I want to show you something that you want to keep tidy in your account, because this probably affects your SSI score. And certainly you don’t want to let it get too unwieldy. Here’s what I’m talking about. Let me switch over here to my desktop view.

When you reach out to people each and every day you send them a connection message. And if you go under my network, here’s something you may not know. When you go here to your invitations, you can see that I’m very active right now in this outreach campaign, I have 195 people that want to connect with me.

I’m going through these one by one, sending them a message, something you definitely want to do. Take a look at this tab that says “Sent”. These are invitations you have sent out in the past that have not been accepted. Right now I have 178.

I had gotten up to as high as 305 when I started this. And I thought, I’d show you what I’m doing, because this is important. You don’t want to let these go too long. If you do, you could end up getting penalized. It is rumored, that this is one of the factors that LinkedIn looks into is how many of these connection requests you have outstanding.

Because if you’ve got a lot outstanding, I guess the thought is maybe you’re automating. Maybe you’re doing something that’s not right. Maybe you’re reaching out to people you shouldn’t. So the bottom line is after some period of time, you can see these are I’m at two months.

Here’s what I do. I go to the bottom and then I go to the last page here, which is page two. And I’ll just start withdrawing these. It’s a fairly tedious process, but you can get through it in 15 minutes, not a big deal. You just simply say withdrawal and confirm it. Give it a second to refresh. You’ll see, she goes away. Next one comes up and just repeat the process, go through it.

I’m down to one 76. I’ll keep doing this until I get down to the past few weeks to a month. Certainly if you get up over a couple hundred start withdrawing them. Nobody knows for sure, but I have heard it said that this could count against you in your SSI score.

It certainly could come against you when they’re looking at you. And wondering if you are working LinkedIn authentically. Authenticity is what LinkedIn wants. They want you authentically working here, building your network and not automating it and not doing spam and all that kind of stuff.

There’s my tip for you today. It is keeping your invitations sent clean. It’s an important step to log into LinkedIn right now. And go ahead and go through that process and just know that this is just one of the many things that I teach in my LinkedIn Dominance program, but I wanted to share it with you so that you can improve your SSI score in your own account.

Thanks again. This is Steve Rosenbaum, come and visit me at SteveRosenbaum.com.

Have a great day. Bye bye.

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Don’t worry it all makes sense once you’ve read this short and powerful post and claimed my free gift buried inside. (Another sales lesson lesson I learned by eating Cracker Jack as a kid 😉).

I know a lot of people hate the idea of selling anything. They tell me things like “Selling makes them feel slimy and dirty”.

The trouble is, those same people have grown accustomed to niceties like eating when they’re hungry and having a roof over their heads to protect themselves and their families.

Make no mistake about it… You have to sell, or you perish.

Yup, I said.

You can’t get anywhere in life without selling.

Think about it.

You had to sell your parents on the idea of letting you drive when you were a teenager. When you got your first job, you had to sell your company on the idea of hiring you. You had to sell your spouse on the idea of partnering with you for life. You had to sell the bank on giving you a mortgage so you can buy a house.

Get the idea?

You’re Better Than You Think

The reality is, not only do you do it, but you’re probably better at it than you realize. So, let me give you my secret to beating the pants off my competition and having a ton of fun doing it so that you can stop hating and start loving the fine art of selling!

I’ve got trophies on my wall and cash in the bank from winning sales contests and beating out companies considerably bigger than mine.

In fact, recently, while at a 7 and 8 figure mastermind event I was invited to, one of the members stood up and vouched about me…

“This guy’s a BEAST, I’ve never seen anybody drive sales like him from a single promotion.”

Well, that got everybody’s attention!

Almost in unison, the entire room demanded: “How’d you do it?”

Here’s what I shared with them…

Take a look at some of my recent email subject lines and blog post headlines:

• Why I nearly got stabbed on my first sales call
• My Train Ride from HELL
• The Perfect Sales Storm
• The most painful decision I’ve ever made
• Why I got fired me (and what I did to get even)
• The Best Massage She Ever Had

What makes you want to read them more than all that other boring stuff that invades your inbox every day?

Interesting? Yes.

Fun? Yes.

But there’s something even more about them…

Each of these subject lines instills CURIOSITY in the reader even though some of them are only 4 or 5 words long!

Curiosity is VERY POWERFUL.

When people are curious, they can’t move on. They have to engage.

We’re literally wired that way by something called the Ziegarnik Effect.

And the single best way to pique curiosity is by telling a great STORY.

Yes… Stories SELL

YUGELY!!!

Every Day Events Make Great Stories

Everybody’s got stories to tell and they can create more each and every day.

For instance, yesterday at the grocery store, I saw a lady in the parking lot physically move a shopping cart corral, shopping carts and all, so that she could park in a space closer to the store. She grunted, she groaned, she sounded like she was deadlifting a baby elephant…

The kicker was there was a spot literally 4 spots away from her, but that was just too far to walk!

My mind is EXPLODING with story ideas just telling you about this:

• Why work smart when you can work hard?
• How to get your weightlifting done while shopping.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger’s SECRET to getting great parking spots (This ALWAYS works)

See how easy that is?

My Gift to You

Let me help you become a great storyteller so that you can land more clients and sell more stuff.

I usually sell my planner “Tell Your Story, Build Your Brand” for $49. But today, I want you to have it for free as my gift for always reading my stories and sharing them with your friends 🙂

Here’s how to claim your free Story Planner

1. Go to my Facebook page messenger
2. Click the blue “Send to Messenger” button
3. Follow all remaining prompts

Enter the keyword STORY (you might have to press “Get Started” first)
Follow the prompts

I’d love to read your stories, too! Come join the BEST Small Business Marketing Group on Facebook and introduce yourself with a great story!

The post How to outsell competition bigger than you (without actually selling) appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.

Here’s a Lesson from LinkedIn Training Videos for Business course: ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201.

Watch my daily 15 minute LinkedIn routine for generating the highest quality leads, and then put them into my proprietary 5 Step ConnectQualify process.

For a limited time, can get the entire ConnectQualify for LinkedIn Bundle for just $97!

You get all 3 products, including my top-rated Udemy course Command Big Buck: Personal Branding and Status Growth Hacks at 85% of the regular price!

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ConnectQualify for LinkedIn Bundle

Save 85% Today!

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It’s an easily correctable oversight that could reap substantial reward for your company.

Watch this short video titled: “Maximizing Revenue Per Customer Case Study”

It details how a small business in Austin, TX is maximizing revenue per customer.

What would increases like this mean for your business?

Let me know in the comments below, and press the “Blue Button” if you would like to discuss what this could mean for your business.

Note: This video is taken from by Top Rated Udemy Course: “Ecommerce Marketing Strategy: Repeat Sales Email Sequence”

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The post The Simplest Way for Businesses to Sell More and Increase Profits appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.

1. MVP: The Minimum Viable Prospecting Funnel You Need for Success in 2017
2. Gate Crashers 2017 How to Get Past Gatekeepers & Talk Directly to High Ticket Clients That Want to Hire You Now

My  Gift To You

Even though this is totally unrelated to the new content I’ll be sharing, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite lessons about the 80/20 rule. Just knowing this information will give you a whole new perspective on how you should be planning for massive growth. (Sorry about the sound quality, this snippet was taken from an older video).

Enjoy the video above, and make sure you join us Wednesday night!

[thrive_link color=’green’ link=’https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6746315654428145921′ target=’_blank’ size=’medium’ align=”]Register Now[/thrive_link]

The post The 80/20 Rule is Fractal appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.

I get asked all the time for LinkedIn profile tips and makeover suggestions by people that often find me ranked number 1 on their LinkedIn searches.

But when in comes to finding and converting qualified leads on Linkedin, remember that making connections is just the beginning. That why this is the first post in my series:

“5 Steps To Qualify Profitable LinkedIn Connections”.

Step 1: Grow Your LinkedIn Connections

It isn't difficult to grow your visibility on LinkedIn. If you consistently work my "ConnectQualify" strategy , you will put down a lot of "breadcrumbs" that will literally attract new connections and lead them right back to your profile.

Which means that you have more opportunities to capture their attention and tip that first domino in your fantastic follow up system.

You do have a fantastic follow up system, right?

If not, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered…

Even if you do have a great follow up system, I am about to reveal some clever tips to make it even better!

That’s why you want to keep reading this post and also implement the 5 key steps in "ConnectQualify for LinkedIn". This will ensure that you follow up with every connection you make the right way and uncover hidden gems that are “Ready Willing and Able” to buy from you right now.

Here is exactly how I skyrocketed my LinkedIn profile to #1 in my network…

First Place LinkedIn Profile Views

These methods helped me achieve #1 in just 19 days

LinkedIn Profile Tips and Makeover Suggestions

1: Optimize your profile
My ConnectQualify process makes finding hot new prospects like catching hungry fish in a barrel. But you have to do this right, because you only get a split second for your new connections to decide whether you’re offering a big, fat juicy worm, or a cold-hard empty hook.

Follow my LinkedIn profile tips and your profile is going to help them make that decision real fast!

Make sure your profile is enticing, clean and up to date.

• Does your profile call your target audience by name (i.e. Marketing Specialist for Dentists)?
• Does your headline match their needs?
• Does it have a call to action?
• Does it invoke curiosity?

+ Pro Tip

If: You Need Help Brainstorming Target Connections 
Then:  Look at Your Profile View & Publishing Stats

Target These In Your Profile & Search: 

• Top Industries
• Top Job Titles
• Top Locations

Your headline has one job, and one job only…

To get your reader to want to read more of your profile.

And if you’re fortunate enough to pass that test, then you better treat your entire profile the exact same way. It has to read like an engaging novel that draws the reader in and never let’s them go.

Like your headline, your profile has one job and one job only…

To get your reader to want to connect with you for more information.

2: Visit the profiles of key prospects
Now that your headline and profile are fully optimized, do an advanced search to find your key prospects.

Go down the list and view their profiles one by one.

You don’t need to spend much time on their profiles. The key thing you are doing right now is creating an “alert” for them that you viewed their profile. Success studies have shown that this is one of the first things that LinkedIn members check. When they see that you checked out their profile, they will often click through to check you out (now you understand why we made sure to optimize your profile first, right?).

3: Send a message to people that viewed your profile
Now we’re advancing down the pipeline. This is a key step, and in ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201, I show you the exact messages that I send to people that view my profile. The key to this step is timing. You have to do this within 24 hours of them viewing your profile because you lose the power of recency and familiarity if you wait any longer. Your message needs to entice them to want to dig deeper and connect with you which gives you what I call “The Home Field Advantage“.

4: Send a message to all new connections
When you do these activities every day, you will soon see a steady stream of people that ask to connect with you. Similar to step 3 above you need to act quickly with these new connections and follow up with them exactly the right way. Make sure that your message thanks them and makes them want to take that next step with you.

You know what that is, right? Bring them over to your “Home Field” by offering them a “Lead Magnet” such as a report, or a series of videos and messages that fulfill their thirst for information. Once again, I show you the actual messages I use in my course ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201.

5: Message people that are having events
Everyday, LinkedIn shows you people that are having events such as work anniversaries, new jobs and birthdays.

Do this Daily: Message LinkedIn Connections with Events

Reach out to these people with a short original message. By original message, I mean don’t just used the canned message that LinkedIn offers you. Of course, your message should contain a call to action that piques their curiosity and gets them to click through to your “Home Field”

6: Post updates
Every time you post on your timeline, your connections get notified. Make it a daily habit to create LinkedIn Pulse updates, update your blog and share interesting news items so people see your name more and more. Remember: Visibility is King…

This is just a brief overview of my Linkedin profile tips and the steps I take every day to “Grow My Connections” on LinkedIn.

“Grow Your Connections” is Step 1 of my proprietary Connect Qualify for LinkedIn program. Of course, this is just a brief overview of what is covered in much greater detail in ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 101 and ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201.

In the coming days, I will give you similar overviews of the remaining steps.

Why not increase your visibility right now on all of your social networks? Simply click the button for LinkedIn and all of the social media networks. It’s a 20 second task that will get you tons of visibility, and it helps both you and me… Thank you!

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It's critical that you have a LinkedIn connection request strategy so that you quickly uncover qualified leads and optimize your future conversions.

At the core of this strategy is the mantra:

Control your own destiny... or somebody else will.

Step 2: Capture Home Field Advantage

All of these advantages, and more, are yours for the taking when you "Capture the Home Field Advantage", which is Step 2 in my ConnectQualify process.

But first, it's important that you've read and implemented everything outlined in Step 1, "Grow Your Connections". If you haven't, then go back and read it now.

LinkedIn Connection Request Strategy

Take Ownership of What's Rightfully Yours

A friend of mine contacted me in a panic a little while back. He had been thrown in "LinkedIn Jail". His profile was gone and he had just received a message from LinkedIn that his account had been permanently banned:

Follow these tips to avoid LinkedIn Jail Devastation

POOF!

More than 2000 connections gone in the blink of an eye. (Sadly, he hadn't even protected himself the way I teach in ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201, or he would have been able to immediately spring into action with a back up plan).

His offense?

Somebody that he had messaged and tried to connect with had reported his message as spam.

Something completely out of his control and something that you and I are vulnerable to every single day when we try to meet new people and grow our network.

Listen up... you must realize that when you use social media you don't own anything.

• You don't own your connections.
• You don't own your content.

When you play on LinkedIn's turf, they can take the ball and shut you down at their very whim (and good luck trying to reach somebody to appeal their decision if that happens).

That is just one of the reasons that it is so important for you to take the "Home Field Advantage" away from LinkedIn. The sooner you can seize the relationship and move it to your own website, or your own blog, or your own email account... the better.

+ Pro Tip

If: You Want to Protect Your Valuable LinkedIn Connections 
Then:  You Must Seize Control of the Relationship

Capture the Home Field Advantage: 

• Own your Connections
• Eliminate Competition
• Build Authority & Credibility

There are numerous ways to do this. After years of trials and split tests, I have perfected this process with my proprietary "LEAC Proof Funnel System", which is at the heart of ConnectQualify.

Put Blinders on Your Prospects

LinkedIn currently has 433 million users and is still growing at over 18% per year. One thing you can be sure of is that all of your serious competitors, including ones that you don't even know, are trying to capture the attention of the very same valuable prospects that you are.

All of your efforts. All of your favorite searches. All of your messaging, your status updates... Everything you do on LinkedIn to finally connect with those potential high-value customers and clients is at serious risk. There are so many distractions on a network so vast, that you literally have split seconds before you lose it all to the next timeline update.

But when you swiftly and deftly move that relationship to your own site, you shut out the rest of the LinkedIn world!

That is what "Capturing the Home Field Advantage" is all about and it is an essential step in your LinkedIn connection request strategy.

When you do it the way I teach in ConnectQualify, you gain 100% of your connections attention... and nobody can ever take it away from you!

Gather Intelligence and Valuable Information

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall so you can hear the conversations that reveal your ideal prospects' real hot buttons and level of interest?

Well you can.

One of the biggest secret advantages that most sales people and marketers overlook today is the ability to track activity of your prospects once you capture the Home Field advantage. For instance, if a prospect reads an article about "Product A", then you can "Tag" them and follow up with a message specifically about that product.

You can also direct them to qualification questionnaires like my "RWA Qualifier" that extract valuable information such as budget and decision making processes so that you know this valuable message before you even meet to close the sale.

Armed with this information, you become like a trial attorney that never asks a question that you don't already know the answer!

Use Powerful Tools like Lead Scoring and Re-Targeting

Once you get people over to your Home Field, you can also unleash even more advanced tools.

You can use "Lead Scoring" to increment the value of the contact for each action they take. The higher the score, the hotter the lead.

And if you advertise, you can skyrocket the ROI of your ad-spend by dropping "Re-Targeting" pixels and ramping up your ads to your "Custom Audiences" that have already demonstrated interest in your product.

"Re-Targeting" is a very advanced and sophisticated technique that you've seen used by companies like Amazon. Once somebody visits your page, you're able to follow them around the net so that your ads appear everywhere. This technique makes your company look much bigger and gives you a lot more exposure which often leads to much higher conversion rates. Yet because your ads are only targeting your most interested prospects, your effectiveness and ROI increase greatly.

Of course, you're not able to do any of this on LinkedIn or any other social media site. These powerful techniques are only available to you when you "Capture the Home Field Advantage" the way you will learn to do in ConnectQualify 201.

Gain the Edge Over 88% of All Other Companies

Two recent studies of buyers and sales people uncovered some amazing statistics.

First, the study of buyers showed that over 80% of their purchase decisions came after the fourth contact from a company or sales person.

In the second study by Dartnell Corporation, it was discovered that fewer than 12% of the sales people had systems and processes in place to contact prospects more than 3 times.

That means that if you want to gain a significant advantage over 88% of your competitors, simply follow Step 4 and Step 5 of ConnectQualify where I show you exactly how to "Ignite the Relationship" and "FollowUpForever™" so that you tastefully and continually contact your prospects and never let another valuable lead fall through the cracks.

I can't go into all the details of "Ignite the Relationship" and "FollowUpForever™" in this short post, but I will cover them in an upcoming post. Plus, you will see exactly how I do it and what I say in ConnectQuaify 101 and ConnectQualify 201.

Be on the lookout for my next post, where I will tell you about a friend of mine that was drowning in new leads, but was unable quickly identify the hottest and most qualified ones that were "Ready, Willing and Able" to buy from her right now. You'll hear all about it when I introduce you to Step 3 of ConnectQualify, "Filter for RWA".

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The post 2. LinkedIn Connection Request Strategy To Capture The Home Field Advantage appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.

Step 3: Filter for Qualified Leads

But first, let's make sure that you have fully read and implemented what you learned in the previous ConnectQualify steps: Step 1 Grow Your Connections, and Step 2 Capture the Home Field Advantage.

It's important that you do things in the right order, or else the LEAC Proof Sales Funnel I'm helping you build is going to be more like a sieve with valuable opportunities flowing right down the drain.

Formula for Failure?

The other day I was speaking with a friend of mine that is doing very well connecting with people on LinkedIn. In fact, she was doing so well that she had made over 3700 1st Tier connections which quite frankly puts her in the top 2% of all LinkedIn users (Most people have between 500-1000 connections which is very important for what I'm teaching you today.

Her typical day consisted of reaching out those connections and trying to get them on a phone call. Her feeling was that once she got them on the phone, she had a very good chance of closing a sale. Typically, she spoke with about 6 people per day, and closed about 3-4 new deals per month.

Let's break down those numbers:

3700 connections divided by 6 calls per day = 616 days to contact all of her connections just once.

200 work days per year = 3.08 years to speak with every connection she has just once.

Of course, this doesn't take into account:

1. Leaving voice mail messages and suffering missed appointments
2. Needing to have follow ups and multiple calls with interested prospects
3. Making new connections that will make her waiting list even larger

Not only that, but by closing 3-4 sales out of a projected 120 calls per month, my friend was closing at a clip of 2.5% - 3.3%. These are pretty typical closing rates for a salesperson speaking with cold, unqualified leads.

But when you apply Step 3 of ConnectQualify, and immediately filter for people that are "Ready, Willing and Able" to buy from you right now, you might find your closing rate skyrockets to 50% or even greater.

Now, of course, the FTC requires me to tell you that there are no guarantees and that your results are likely to vary, but I'm sure that any reasonably intelligent professional with an ounce of sales experience knows that it's much better, and a whole lot more fun, to be sitting face to face with somebody that has a burning desire to do business with me then it is to "Smile and Dial" until I accidentally stumble upon somebody that doesn't flat out reject me.

as Homer Simpson would say...

Brain Pickers and Tire Kickers

If you're a professional, then two of your most valuable assets are your time and your proprietary knowledge. You need to jealously guard both of these because there is a never-ending supply of thoughtless and selfish people that will gladly rob you blind and steal both away from you.

How many times has somebody just wanted to "Pick your brain"?

Why don't they just ask you to open up your wallet and start grabbing $100 dollar bills from you like Jane does to George Jetson?

That's why on my website I offer the ability to pay $500 for an initial consultation with me which I call the "Pick My Brain" option.

When somebody asks if they can "Pick My Brain", I tell them "Absolutely" and send them a PayPal link where they can pay for and schedule their appointment.

Of course, most people tell me that they really didn't want to pay for anything, they just wanted as many freebies as I was willing to give them.

That's OK, I tell them, I have plenty of freebies available on my Blog and my YouTube page (another reason for you to start blogging right away). Of course, I also make sure that they are subscribed to my ForeverFollowUp funnel so that my automation can continue to supply them with valuable information that will help them and nurture them until they are ready, willing and able to hire me.

Note

---

I'm not telling you to ignore people that aren't RWA. I'm saying that you need to have a process set up that can handle their needs and requests automatically.

Let the system do the work and provide them what they want and need right now.

They don't want and need you. They want and need information. They will be eternally grateful to you for supplying them the information, at the same time that you are saving your precious time and knowledge for people that are RWA to pay for it right now.

That just makes sense, right?

Besides, when their situation changes, and they are prepared to pay for your services, who do you think they're going to call?

In most cases, you will be the only logical solution, because you have educated them, earned their trust and kept in touch with them better than anybody else.

Qualified Lead Generation Shortcut

I hate to do this to you, but I have to bring up a painful scenario that I'm sure you've experienced...

Have you ever reached out to a prospect, only to have them say, "I wish you called me last week, I just bought "X" from your competitor"?

I know it's painful, right?

Well the reality is, when you operate like most sales people, and blindly work your prospect list with no real sense of their preparedness to buy, then you are likely passing up somebody that is "RWA" while you speak with or try to speak with somebody that isn't.

+ Pro Tip

If: You Let Your System Nurture Leads Until They Are Ready, Willing & Able
Then:  Reserve Your Valuable Face-to-Face Time for Qualified Leads

Filter for RWA Leads: 

• Monitor for "Sales Ready" Actions
• Use Lead Scoring to Identify Best Prospects
• Gather Intelligence Through Your Process

Think back to my friend that is converting somewhere around 3% (a typical closing ratio).

That means that 97% of her conversations are fruitless.

So let's say that you're 3 time better than her and close at 9%.

Well then 91% of the time, you're speaking to the wrong person...

Get my drift?

In Step 2 of ConnectQualify, I introduced you to the concepts of "lead scoring" and the "qualification questionaire" link to the "RWA Qualifier".

These are just two of the important concepts that I reveal in the ConnectQualify courses that provide your qualified lead generation shortcut so that you spend your time with people that are "Ready, Willing and Able" to buy from you right now, while also becoming a "Superstar" to your other prospects by fulfilling their wants and needs for more information.

Summary

---

Just by filtering your contacts, and using this qualified lead generation shortcut, you can expect to greatly increase your conversions, and turn more prospects into paying customers, while also freeing up more time to do whatever else you'd rather be doing!

​Create an automated system that:

• Nurture Prospects
• Educates Prospects
• Engages Prospects
• Entertains Prospects

Only spend valuable face-to-face selling time with qualified leads that are "Ready, Willing & Able" to buy from you  right now.​

In my next message, I'll show you how to the light the fuse and "Ignite the Relationship" with every new prospect you meet.

Be on the lookout for it...

​In the meantime, why not create some social media riches for yourself by sharing this post with all of your connections on the social media networks below? Your followers will love you for it (and so will I!).

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When it comes to sales prospecting tips, one of the most important things to consider is the initial impression you make upon your contacts.

Step 4: Ignite the Relationship

ConnectQualify Step 4 of 5

---

In this post, Step 4 of ConnectQualify, I will show you my proprietary follow up strategy (aka the Ignition Funnel) that lights the fuse and "Ignites the Relationship" of every new prospect you meet so that every first impression you make sets you above your competition.

You can find links to the other steps and the end of this post

Sales Prospecting Tips: Effective Follow Up That Gets Fast Results

First impressions are critical. That is why I have developed the "Ignition Message". The Ignition Message is a proven, proprietary way for you to introduce yourself and follow up so that every new relationship you make accomplishes all of these tasks, and more:

• Makes a professional first impression that captivates your reader and sets you up for success.
• Filters every new prospect by taking their pulse to see if they are "Ready, Willing and Able" (RWA) to do business with you right now.
• Takes control of the relationship and places you in a dominant role so that your hottest prospects follow your directions.
• Creates anticipation and set expectations so that your reader looks forward to future communications from you and gives your messages special treatment.

Here's the BEST way to follow up with new prospects that want to buy from you right now

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Businesses and consumers today like to research on the web when they are getting ready to make purchases. That is why it is critical for you to create educational, entertaining and engaging content that they are likely to come across as they perform their research. Of course, as we've shown in Steps 2 and 3, you can gain significant advantages by delivering this valuable content on your own website or blog, which I call your "Home Field".

If you are doing it correctly, the way I show you in ConnectQualify, then your new prospect will request new information from you which activates your "Ignition Funnel" (your Ignition Message, plus a cleverly designed, brief automated sequence of follow-up messages that generates impressive results).

Remember, because these prospects are actively searching for a solution, there is a good chance that they may already be "Ready, Willing and Able" to buy from you, so you want to make sure that you follow up immediately, take their "temperature" and set the tone for the future of your new relationship.

Make a Professional First Impression

People will request information from you in the form of completing forms on your website. The first message they receive from you is so important, that we have a name for it. It is called the "Ignition Message" because it lights the fuse and launches your new relationship like a rocket to Mars!

The Ignition Message also fulfills your promise to deliver them valuable information. If your prospect has responded to a "Lead Magnet", make sure to give them a link to access that information in this message. If your Lead Magnet was a series of videos or messages, then now is the time to introduce your prospect to the first message in that series.

Note

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Studies show that most businesses and sales people are terrible at follow up. The "Ignition Message" is designed to exploit this weakness in your competition and give you an immediate edge by following up immediately and professionally. Your prospects will notice this and appreciate that you have put a system in place to serve their needs.

Filter for RWA

Even though you may be meeting your connection for the very first time, it is very possible that they are extremely close to making a buying decision. That is why we immediately take their "buying temperature" or "pulse" to see if they are Ready, Willing and Able to buy from you right now. This ingenious filtering step will help you immediately find your hottest leads so that you can quickly close more sales while letting your automated follow up system professionally take care of those that don't require your personal attention at this time.

The most effective way to do this is by giving them a "Call to Action" in the form of a link to your "RWA Qualifier" page that we discussed previously in Step 3. Be on the lookout for contacts that complete this form and also show other signs of interest such as clicking on links, visiting multiple web pages and reaching out to you with requests for more information. You will see many more examples of this in ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 101 and ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201.

+ Pro Tip

If: You give your reader links in your Ignition Message
Then:  You can monitor interest and gain intelligence from their actions

Use Calls to Action in Your Ignition Message To: 

• Monitor Interest
• Segment Leads
• Advance Lead Scoring

Advanced Technique: In ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201 I show you a clever little way that you can use "Calls to Action" in your "Ignition Message" to measure their interest, collect valuable intelligence, segment your leads and even apply Lead Scoring. This "A-List" marketing secret is hardly ever used by the majority of businesses, but savvy companies like Amazon do it all the time because it is so effective at closing immediate sales.

Take Control of the Relationship

Buyers and consumers are looking for help solving problems. They are looking for you to take them by the hand and lead them to solutions.

If you provide them a "Buyers Path", people that are "Ready, Willing and Able" will follow it. Do this by giving them directions, and showing them exactly what to do next.

Make sure that the tone of your messages is polite, but authoritative. Every message must also contain at least one "Call to Action", which could simply be a link to an article or to your "RWA Qualifier" page.

Create Anticipation and Set Expectations

It's critical that your email messages actually get opened and read by your prospects. The easy way to make sure this happens is to create a bit of suspense and drama so that people can't wait for your next message to arrive.

Clever Email Trick You've Seen on TV...

You've seen this done on television when a nail-biting episode ends with:

"To Be Continued..."

You can create that same sense of anticipation by simply telling your reader what to expect in your next email message (The best place to do this in the P.S. statement).

Of course, creating this anticipation, also sets the expectation that you will deliver on your promise. Fulfilling promises is a powerful trust building action. But not fulfilling promises is a fast way to kill your new relationship. So make sure that you already have your follow up messages ready and scheduled to be sent.

The "Ignition Funnel" is your first sequence of messages to your prospect after they request information. The entire Ignition Funnel should last between 5 and 14 days. A great way to achieve this is to offer a "5 Step" solution as a Lead Magnet and deliver each step one at a time. If you stagger your messages two to three days apart, you'll be in great shape.

There's a good chance that you will find a certain percentage of your new prospects are "Ready, Willing and Able" to hire you, or buy from you, right now!

That's great news because you will gain valuable intelligence that will help you close the sale quickly.

But the majority of your prospects will not be at that stage at this time. They could get their tomorrow, next week, next month or next year. Whenever that happens, you want to make sure that you are right there with a new message and "Call to Action" so that you become only logical solution to solve their problem.

This is the purpose of Step 5 FollowUpForever™ which I will show you in a couple of days.

Summary

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Following up quickly and effectively with new prospects will enhance improve your closing ratio and enhance your sales.

This post introduces you to my proprietary "Ignition Message" which is designed to ignite new relationships so that you close more sales more often.

"Igniting the Relationship" is Step 4 of my ConnectQualify process.

Why not create some social media riches for yourself by sharing this post with all of your connections on the social media networks below? Your followers will love you for it (and so will I!).

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The post 4. Sales Prospecting Tips: Ignite the Relationship appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.

The "Fortune is in the Follow Up", and that's why today's critical lesson is going to set you up for success where most others fails because I will introduce to you my proprietary follow up system that closes more sales and prevents leads from falling through the cracks.

So far in this introduction to ConnectQualify for LinkedIn, you have learned the first four steps to my proprietary lead qualification and sales conversion system. If you have missed any part, you will find links to the previous lessons at the bottom of this post.

Several years ago, I pioneered my FollowUpForever system to professionally touch base and follow up with all of my contacts every 45-60 days.

"Your follow up system is the best, I've ever seen... I want you to build one just like it for my company".

Mark Edmondson
Southern Shutters and Blinds

The results have been astounding!

1. Many of my prospects actually converted themselves into my highest-paying clients by replying to FollowUpForever messages.
2. I have received testimonials calling my system the most "personal and most professional", even though my clients understand that it is fully automated.
3. Opportunities turned into sales without any additional time, cost or salesmanship on my part.
4. Leads never fall through the cracks because the system works 24/7/365 without any additional effort on my part.

It's easy to understand why FollowUpForever works so well when you take a look at the results of these two studies side by side:

That means that you can rise above 88% of your competition simply by following up more than they do.

When you compare this to the results that author Drayton Bird found in his study of how sales people follow up, you see that 88% of the sales people never make it past the third contact.

Furthermore, for you to make the sale follow up messages must meet 3 important criteria. They must be:

1. The Right Messasge
2. The Right Marketing
3. The Right Time

All three of these must occur for the sale to happen. Since you never know when a person's situation will change, it's important that you follow up consistently so that your message has the best chance of arriving at exactly the right time.

+ Pro Tip

If: You follow up incorrectly
Then: You run the risk of dropping the ball, or worse, alienating a good prospect 

Make Sure You: 

• Segment Your Follow Up Appropriately
• Immediately Respond to Calls to Action
• Be Assertive At The Right Times, But Not Over-Aggressive

Next Steps

Congratulations!

You have now learned the 5 critical steps to successfully meet new prospects on LinkedIn and convert them into paying customers and clients. Of course, there are many important details that are beyond the scope of these posts which you can learn and implement in my ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 101 and ConnectQualify for LinkedIn 201 courses.

I fully recommend that you invest in these courses if you are

• A business that would like to find more qualified leads for your product or service.
• An author, speaker or trainer that would like to uncover more qualified leads.
• A sales person that would like to close more sales with less effort and differentiate themselves from the competition.
• An entrepreneur that understands the importance of having a proven prospecting system in place to find and convert more qualified leads.

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The post 5. Eternal Email Follow Up System appeared first on Steve Rosenbaum.