By Darrell Amy – Last week I wrote about how LinkedIn can help support one core sales skill: driving conversation. There is another similar core skill that LinkedIn can facilitate: creating commonality.

CREATING COMMONALITY

Throughout history sales people have looked for a common connection with prospects. In the face-to-face phase of sales you are trained to quickly survey the prospect’s office:

  • Where did they go to school?
  • Is there sports memorabilia?
  • Are there pictures of their family?
  • Who’s in the photo at the non-profit golf tournament with them?
  • What about the achievement plaque on the wall.

Smart sales reps look for ways to make connections. Tom Hopkins called it “commonality.”

— USE LINKEDIN TO DISCOVER AREAS OF COMMONALITY

Here’s what’s great about LinkedIn. Along with being a free database of virtually every business person on the planet, LinkedIn gives smart sales reps cues to establish commonality:

  • WHERE DID THEY GO TO SCHOOL?This week I was on the phone with a prospect who went to Michigan State. Even though I am a Michigan fan, we have a common disdain for Ohio State. That equals commonality.
  • WHO HAVE THEY WORKED FOR?A few weeks ago I connected with someone that I noticed also worked at Lanier the same time I was there. We talked about people we both knew. That equals commonality.
  • WHO DO THEY KNOW THAT YOU KNOW?
  • WHAT ORGANIZATIONS TO THEY SUPPORT?
  • WHAT THOUGHT LEADERS TO THEY FOLLOW?

Smart sales people use information like this to create commonality and then drive conversation.

LinkedIn isn’t a magic pill. It isn’t a fast lane to InMail people and automatically get appointments. It won’t meet people for you. It won’t close the deal. You cannot throw out all of the sales skills you learned up to this point.

However, if you are a smart sales rep, you’ll see LinkedIn as an opportunity to learn about the people you want to meet. You’ll see LinkedIn as an amazing tool to learn about your prospects. And you’ll use this information along with your good old fashioned sales skills, phone skills, email techniques, social savvy, and common sense to establish commonality. That leads to appointments which leads to sales.

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