Mark Smith
We help sales professionals master LinkedIn for social selling. We start buy converting their profile from a resume to a resource, teach social listening so they can learn about their prospects, guide them to share and engage on content their prospects care about, nurture their connections and leverage their clients and partners to get referrals.
Tell us about yourself?
I started my sales career in 1990, right out of college. As a bored inbound order-taker for a Fortune 1000 company, I began to ask my callers questions about their transactions and why they were purchasing specific products. I learned a lot about our clients’ needs and how they used our solutions. I began to offer more appropriate products for their specific needs, that in many cases had a huge impact on their businesses. By the time I was 24 I was training an entire call center on how to evolve from order takers to a sales solutions team.
I was soon promoted to the field when I fell in love with sales. I loved interacting with my prospects and clients and I got great joy from helping them succeed. What I didn’t love was the cold calling.
I recall sitting across from a client, staring at his overflowing Rolodex, thinking if I could get my hands on it for 20 minutes I could identify who he knew that I wanted to meet, ask for introductions and never have to make another cold call. But in 1992 it wasn’t politically correct to say “Mr. client, can I thumb through your address book”.
Three decades later, that is what we have with LinkedIn. The ability to search and filter our network’s connections, identify who they know that we want a conversation with, and leverage our relationships for introductions, referrals, and permission to name-drop.
And that is just the tip of the iceberg!
There is no better, more effective tool for your sales efforts than Linkedin, especially in today’s remote working environment. And, my team and I are excited to guide you to Master LinkedIn for Social Selling to grow your business. (Both the free version and Sales Navigator)
If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Believe in yourself, your vision and your ability to accomplish your dreams!
What problem does your business solve?
booking more sales conversations without being salesy
What is the inspiration behind your business?
Most sales people will say the hardest part about growing their business is scheduling the first call with prospects. We help them do that better and at a higher level of credibility
What is your magic sauce?
We teach people to sell from an authentic place of serving – providing value, being a resource, understanding that the sales will come when the time is right
What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?
Help even more people, grow our membership, bring on incredible trainers, scale the corporate training business and have work life balance at the same time.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?
Converting non-Techy seasoned professionals to see the magic of LinkedIn
How do people get involved/buy into your vision?
We want to help as many people responsible for sales master LinkedIn, so we have created a free membership with hundreds of resources https://socialsaleslink.com/library
