Episode 277: Walker McKay
Meet
Walker McKay
Walker McKay is the principal and founder of McKay Consulting Group, an outsourced sales and business development consulting firm. He believes in the power of intentional transformation. He believes everyone is capable of dramatic improvement in business and life if they are committed and know the steps to take. He guides people in taking those steps.
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
According to Walker McKay, a salesperson’s actions, attitude, and approach can lead to digital improvements. What should those actions look like? What characteristics do you need to embrace? What approaches are successful? Walker McKay answers these questions—and more—in this episode of Sales Reinvented.
Outline of This Episode
- [0:53] The difference between digital and social selling
- [2:07] Improve digital selling with your actions, attitude, and approach
- [3:37] Walker’s ideal digital selling blueprint
- [5:26] The attributes or characteristics of a great digital seller
- [7:27] Tools, techniques, or strategies to improve digital sales
- [8:42] Top 3 digital selling dos and top 3 digital selling don’ts
- [11:04] Digital selling opens up a whole new world
Actions, attitude, and approach = digital improvement
Digital selling is important because it’s nearly impossible to get face-to-face with people anymore. People are working from home and you can’t just show up at their “office.” So you have to find other ways to connect with people and hold conversations. Organizations need to create expected behaviors around digital selling regarding:
- The actions you take
- The attitude you have
- The approach that you take
You have to start with the actions. What is the expected behavior? How many LinkedIn posts should somebody do? How many times should you reach out per week? Companies need to get comfortable that this is the way things are being done. So it’s time to build behaviors around getting appointments via text, phone, social media, and video.
Walker’s ideal digital selling blueprint
Where should you go to find business? If it’s on LinkedIn, you can download your connections onto a spreadsheet. You can match it with your client list and make sure you’re connected with people you’re already doing business with.
Secondly, Walker would take that list and look for some low-hanging fruit you hadn’t talked to yet. How will you get in touch with them? You can send LinkedIn messages, DMs, text messages, phone calls, and emails. You need to touch people 6–7 times using different channels to get their attention. The goal is to set an appointment, right? Set a meeting over Zoom or a similar channel.
The attributes or characteristics of a great digital seller
Old school B2B salespeople might be in their 40s, 50s, or 60s. Even so, an openness to technology is key to their success. Secondly, salespeople need to have a strong why behind their success. You have goals you want to accomplish and achieve in life. Are you disciplined enough to reach out to people, send messages, and keep track of it? It is discipline and a desire to win being put into place.
Are you posting things on different channels? Walker has found posting a video or a how-to on social channels to be effective. If you’re selling insurance, you might post “5 Ways to Make Sure You Get the Right Insurance.” You have to be able to write well and teach people with your posts. If you’re seen as a teacher, people will come to you for help and you’ll become the professional in your space.
Digital selling opens up a whole new world
Walker is always looking for sales experts to be guests on his podcast. He was using LinkedIn to reach out to people but wasn’t getting a great response. He was reaching out to 5 people a day. But he connected with someone named Casey Jones. She didn’t respond. 3 days later, he messaged her again and they started a conversation. Turns out, they had a great connection. She was one of his best podcast guests and they’ve since collaborated on three different business deals.
There is a network outside of you through the digital world that is much bigger and better than what you could have face-to-face. Work to build your network and ask for what you want. There’s a tremendous world of business out there.
Connect With Paul Watts
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Learn More About Walker McKay
Are there any great Digital or Social Selling books that you highly recommend? The Transparency Sale & To Sell is Human are both 2 great ones.
What do you most admire in the sphere of Digital or Social Selling and why? This is new(er) territory for me! I’m getting more familiar to the digital selling space.
Are there any aspects of your own Digital or Social Selling skills that you are working on improving at the moment? I’m working on leveraging and engaging my LinkedIn audience.
Hobbies, Interests? Hunting and fishing!
How can our listeners contact with you?
- Phone: 803.917.2817
- Email: walker(at)walkermckay.com
- Podcast: No BS Sales School Podcast
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