Episode 256: Viveka von Rosen
Meet
Viveka von Rosen
Viveka von Rosen is Cofounder of Vengreso, the largest provider of full spectrum Modern Digital Sales transformation solutions. Known as the @LinkedInExpert, she’s author of the best-selling “LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day” AND “101 Ways to Rock LinkedIn”. She’s been named in Forbes (4 years running) as a top social media expert and is a regular contributor and has been featured in Forbes, BuzzFeed, Inc, CNN, Entrepreneur, Selling Power and the Social Media Examiner. Her business mission is to help sales professionals and business owners create more quality and qualified conversations on LinkedIn.
Our Mission Is To Change The Negative Perception Of Sales People
Our Vision Is A World Where Selling Is A Profession To Be Proud Of
When you’re selling on LinkedIn—or any other social platform—you’re creating conversations. Maybe you’ve made a connection, had a Zoom call, and take the relationship to a trade show, conference, etc. With virtual selling, you may do the entire sales cycle online. The B2B buyer is at a point where they prefer this. So salespeople need to be primed on social selling skills and able to take it to the next level. You have to learn the best way of engaging with customers if you continue to sell virtually. Viveka von Rosen shares some great tips in this episode of Sales Reinvented!
Outline of This Episode
- [1:34] Social selling versus digital selling
- [3:42] How to improve digital selling capabilities
- [4:53] Viveka’s digital selling strategy
- [7:57] Necessary attributes + characteristics
- [8:49] Tools + techniques + strategies
- [10:33] Top 3 digital selling dos and don’ts
- [12:35] Understanding the pain point you solve
How to improve social selling capabilities
Digital selling isn’t going away. Viveka emphasizes that you must move beyond “Let’s get on LinkedIn” and “Let’s shoot a couple videos” to teach sellers how to be charismatic online. They need to learn how to move past images and insert their voice. You can do video cover stories that play where your cover photo would normally go. You can record voice introduction videos. Your profile needs to come to life. But your sellers need to know how to use those features. Viveka points out that your competitors will understand the necessity and are becoming savvy.
Viveka’s digital selling strategy
Before you reach out and engage with people to fill your pipeline, you need to make sure you look good. Many companies in the social selling space need help. Anyone customer-facing needs a good strong brand. From there, they need to be taught how to engage—not connect. You need to learn how to build face-to-name and top-of-mind awareness so when they are invited to connect they’re more likely to say “yes.”
Then you need to prove value before you try to take the person home. People somehow think they can get on LinkedIn, connect with someone, and start selling their wares. LinkedIn is about creating strong conversations and building know, like, and trust. You nurture those relationships by sharing valuable content. You need to put this all together in an easily repeatable cadence.
What are the attributes + characteristics necessary to succeed? Listen to hear Viveka’s thoughts!
Tools, techniques, and strategies to embrace
Viveka always recommends that you use LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Unfortunately, she points out that a lot of salespeople don’t understand the best ways of using the tool. She also recommends a good CRM—whether it’s Salesforce, Hubspot, or Nimble—that works. Viveka is a huge fan of selling with video. They use OneMob but there are many great email video tools out there. Using video in messages, emails, and texts gives people a great sense of who you are. There are strategies that you can put in place to be more charismatic online. With a little practice, you can use it well and be effective. Listen to hear Viveka’s top 3 digital selling dos and don’ts!
Your buyer needs to experience the pain point you solve
When Viveka started training salespeople how to sell on LinkedIn (in 2009), most people didn’t even know what it was. They didn’t understand the value in it. She had flown to New York to speak to a law firm. She can still see them staring at her with their arms crossed, brows furrowed, questioning the validity of selling on LinkedIn. She started to explain the features and watched their eyes glaze over. She finally just told herself to stop talking. She switched gears and asked them how they would buy a car. They all said that they would do research first.
So she asked them to Google their names. The first thing that came up was the company website. But halfway down the results page would be LinkedIn. So she pointed out that a potential client will look at their profile to make sure they’re a good fit. So she asked them to click on their profile. What they saw was the most bare-boned pathetic example of a profile. She could immediately see their walls come down. Everyone started to listen.
The moral of the story? You need to get your buyer to experience the point of pain that you solve, to physically experience it. That will move you toward the sale more than anything else.
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Resources & People Mentioned
Connect with Viveka von Rosen
Connect With Paul Watts
Audio Production and Show notes by
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Learn More About Viveka von Rosen
Are there any great Digital or Social Selling books that you highly recommend? My latest book! “101 Ways to Rock LinkedIn” Another book I am obsessed with is not necessarily focused on Digital or Social Selling, but I am loving “Brand Bewitchery” by Park Howell.
Who do you most admire in the sphere of Digital or Social Selling and why? There are SO many great influencers, my Vengreso partners for one. But I always go back to my mentor and the man who set me on this path, Bob Burg (and his book “The Go Giver”)
Are there any aspects of your own Digital or Social Selling skills that you are working on improving at the moment? Listening more and then telling better stories. I loved Donald Miller’s “Building a StoryBrand”. And to take it to another level, “Brand Bewitchery” by Park Howell
Hobbies, Interests? I’m SUPER excited to be traveling again which means I can start Diving and Hang-gliding again!
How can our listeners contact with you? Google “LinkedIn Expert” and please invite me to connect. (Just let me know you heard me on the podcast). And of course you can find me at www.vengreso.com
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