Episode 179: Bill McCormick
Meet
Bill McCormick
Bill McCormick is the VP and LinkedIn Strategist with Social Sales Link. Bill discovered the power of LinkedIn and social selling when he and his wife started their advertising specialty company over 5 years ago. With only a handful of clients, he quickly became a student of social selling, discovering how to find leads and generate sales. Now, Bill’s passion is to take what he’s learned and pass that on to those in sales, helping them leverage LinkedIn to build stronger relationships, taking connections from the digital space to the face-to-face.
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Bill McCormick has learned to leverage LinkedIn lead generation in a way that is both productive and efficient. In a world where it’s easy to get lost in social media and get distracted by shiny things, how does he stay focused? How does he use LinkedIn as a social selling tool and not a hindrance? Find out in this episode of Sales Reinvented!
Bill McCormick and his wife launched their Digital Sales Course in 2017—geared towards helping businesses leverage LinkedIn to build relationships. Now, he is the VP and LinkedIn Strategist for Social Sales Link. He’s become a master of social selling tactics. He joins Paul to lend his expertise. Don’t miss it!
Outline of This Episode
- [0:20] Bill McCormick joins Paul!
- [1:10] What is productivity?
- [1:45] Why aren’t sales professionals productive?
- [3:40] Steps to improve day-to-day productivity
- [5:30] Attributes of a productive salesperson
- [6:40] Tools, tactics, and strategies to increase productivity
- [9:00] Top 3 Do’s and Top 3 Don’ts
- [11:50] Bill’s favorite productivity story
A lack of productivity is akin to being busy and broke
According to Bill, “We need to put systems in place to be consistent with activities that will lead to desired outcomes”. If you’re a sales professional, that means making sales, signing contracts, and having money in your pocket. If you aren’t doing those things, you’re the equivalent of busy and broke.
Bill points out that there are more productivity tools available than ever before, but unless you use them properly, they just become further distractions. So how do you refocus? How do you make the switch from doing busywork to engaging in productive work?
Improve day-to-day productivity by implementing systems
Bill’s answer is to implement systems to obtain sales goals. He quoted James Clear, saying that “We don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems”. Salespeople are good at setting lofty goals, but productivity will suffer if they don’t have steps in place to reach those goals.
For example, Bill shares some tips from his daily morning routine. His job is selling social selling to other companies (his speciality is LinkedIn). So every day he checks his LinkedIn notifications. He looks to see who looked at his profile or interacted with his content. He makes connections, all the while keeping his end goal in mind.
You must have boldness, persistence, and tenacity to be a productive and effective sales professional. Bill points out that without those attributes, you’ll make it a nanosecond in the sales world.
The largest enemy of a sales professional is inconsistency
Bill further breaks down his systems strategy by setting daily goals that you carry out consistently. You need to get into a rhythm, a cadence. Above all, he points out you shouldn’t wing it. Don’t start your day saying, “Hmm, maybe I’ll do this today”. Write down the goals you want to achieve that day and break them down into manageable chunks.
Bill prefers to set timers for various activities so he devotes a set amount of time for each thing without getting distracted. He does the same things consistently, day in and day out.
Always ask the question, “What system can I put in place to reach my daily goals?”.
Do you do cold-calling? Do you have a system in place to obtain phone numbers and contacts? How will you make those calls? If you nail down each step of your process and create a system, you will become more productive.
Leveraging lead generation on LinkedIn
It’s no secret that Bill is passionate about LinkedIn, after all—he’s made a career of it. When he and his wife first launched their business, they were looking for the best way to get in front of decision-makers. What Bill found was that Linked in was like having someone’s Rolodex. An endless list of connections, online, completely free.
They started making connections and reaching out to businesses on LinkedIn. 30-35% of those communications led to an appt. Of that percentage, they closed 30-40% of those meetings. Bill calculated last year that approximately $450,000 of their closed sales were leads generated on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn was the key to their success. It can be your greatest productivity tool with the right systems and cadence in place. To hear their full conversation, make sure to listen to the whole episode!
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More About Bill McCormick
What was the last book you read?
Making Business Connections That Count by Michael Stawicki
Who / What inspires you?
There are several LinkedIn Trainers I follow that continue to inspire me. Among them Brynne Tillman, Shay Rowbottom and Andy Foote
Are there any aspects of your own productivity skills that you are working on improving at the moment?
Yes, consistency
Hobbies, Interests?
I enjoy traveling with my wife, playing golf and serving with some special people in my church.
How can our listeners contact with you?
Email: bill(at)socialsaleslink.com or connect with me on LinkedIn (send a note)
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