I think LinkedIn is a wonderful tool. I've met so many interesting people through LinkedIn and established valuable relationships. It's a key part of our marketing and visibility strategy. As great as LinkedIn is, it is provides an interesting microcosm or case study about many of the challenges we see in sales.
One of the great things about LinkedIn is that it is a tremendous research tool. When I call someone, I always check their profile. When I'm looking for ways to enter an account, LinkedIn is a great research tool. I use LinkedIn to make me smarter and more effective in connecting with people.
But like any tool, it can be misused.
Today, for example, I received an email from someone who, based on their profile is a sales and marketing expert. It was unsolicited, but it was a nice note, thanking me for accepting a connection request. The person wanted to demonstrate how open and helpful he was, and in this email he suggested how he could be helpful. He highlighted a couple of areas with thought leaders in those area, saying, "it would be my pleasure to introduce you to these people."
"Hmmm, I thought. What's this about?" If he had looked at my profile, he would have learned that I was already connected to one of the people and the other had frequent discussions with me in several groups. So I was already knowledgeable and "connected" with those individuals. Why did he send me this nice note-it could have only been one of those mindless form letters that doesn't display the person's expertise, but demonstrates some of the worst behaviors and uses of the tool.
I do get a small amount of unsolicited SPAM. Things that are addressed to me through LinkedIn, which are unwanted and unappreciated, in no way correspond to the things I've said I'm interested in. Clearly the sender has no idea who I am and what I am interested in, but is able to connect with me, therefore SPAM me in LinkedIn. For those that do that, if they are connected to me, they soon become unlinked. I don't want connections who merely want to SPAM me and don't want to develop a relationship.
I actively participate in discussions in a number of groups. Usually, I link those discussions to a related blog post (before you protest, I only do this when it fits the group's discussion guidelines). For some reason, these seem to generate a lot of discussion. The interesting thing is that much of the time, the respondents are reacting to the title, rather that reading the discussion points. Very often, they are completely off topic. They are reacting to the title and have not taken the time to look at the discussion.
It's funny, these behaviors are things we tend to think of as unacceptable in sales situations, yet sales professionals and other people who should know better exhibit some of the worst behaviors on LinkedIn.
One of the valuable things about LinkedIn is that it gives people insight to better connect with and relate to others. We argue that each new contact should be well research and the initial contact should be personalized. Yet in the spirit of "being helpful" and "connecting," we get these "Dear Occupant" messages.
We want sales people to be informed, we tell them they should question and research. We talk about the importance of listening and understanding. We don't want people to pitch until they understand what customers need. Yet, all it take is a provocative title in a LinkedIn discussion, and people are off to the races, expressing their own opinions and views, even though it's irrelevant to the original theme of the discussion.
LinkedIn and many of the other Sales 2.0 tools are indispensable to sales people. They enable us to get deep understanding, give us some insight, helping us more effectively connect with our customers.
As powerful as these tools are, used stupidly, they make the user appear even more mindless and foolish. Any tool is only as good as the person using it. Let's use them smartly.