[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Welcome. This is the Sales IQ Podcast. My name is Luigi Prestinenzi, and I'm on a mission to help salespeople be the best sales professionals they can be. Each week, we'll bring you a different message from thought leaders from around the globe so we can help you master the art of selling.  

Positive change starts with positive thoughts. That's a quote from this week's guest Marcus Chan. Who's going to talk about how you can improve your sales practices and convert more deals. This episode is brought to you by vanilla soft.com sales engagement platform. Like no other VanillaSoft is a platform that helps you engage your leads like a CRM, just simply can't do CRM.

A great. But to engage with your leads effectively to turn a marketing qualified lead into a sales qualified lead, and put more opportunities into your pipeline. You need to get yourself a sales engagement platform. So do yourself a favor head over to vanilla soft.com. Sign up for a free trial and see why so many salespeople are closing more deals as a result of using vanilla soft.

So before we get into today's show, guys just want to say, thanks again for subscribing. And for listening to this podcast, I do this to help you be the very best you can be. Please continue to like write and share wherever you listen to podcasts. And please don't forget to send me a message on LinkedIn.

I absolutely love receiving those messages of gratitude and thanks. So please keep it. Can you believe already in October, we're actually in the final phase of 2020. And for many people, they're probably going to be wrapped to say 2020 go. But unfortunately in the world of selling right, the clock, doesn't say.

The the, the target doesn't just get put on hold. So we're expected to deliver silos are expected to deliver. It doesn't matter what the economy's doing. Doesn't matter what's happening in the world. We're expected to bring in. Sounds results. And that's why we have the best proficient in the world. Right?

Because it is a tough it's, it's a city in Miley, a podcast, uh, mindset Monday. It's a brutal, brutal profession. It's relentless. It has no empathy and it has no compassion, but that is what's great about it because we hold the opportunity. Rodan at hand. That's what I love about this week's episode, right?

We're talking not just about mindset. We're talking about some practices that you can use to drive more opportunities into your pipeline. And it's going to be a really good episode. And I think it's a good time for us to be really thinking about the practices that we need to, to look at the things that we need to be looking at to maybe alter so that we can say different results.

Now. There's a couple of months to go before 2021. And this is the time where it's not just about driving harder to get the outcome for today. It's about planting the right seeds for you. To achieve success in the first quarter of 2021. And this is what I want you to really think about because some of us, especially if we're doing deals, if we're working on opportunities that have a longer sales cycle, you know, that six to nine months we could be thinking, well, it's not going to close this quarter.

So should I just invest my time on current ops and not worry about the opposite of my converting, you know, 3, 6, 9 months. The problem is you're going to be delay. You're going to delay. You're issued. Right. So be really thoughtful and concise. As to where you're going to start to spend your time, think about some of the practices that you want to put in place to grow net new opportunities.

Now that might help you convert into 2021, because everything we do, it's a compound effect. Yeah. So really pumped about this week session. Can't wait to dive in so that we can help you be the very best sales professional. You can be welcome to the show.

[00:04:09] Marcus Chan: Hey, Louise. You happy to be here. Thanks so much for having me

[00:04:13] Luigi Prestinenzi: super pumped to have you on the show, man.

I know that I've, I've been following you on Insta following you on LinkedIn, so it's good to finally get you, uh, on zoom.

[00:04:21] Marcus Chan: Hey, I'm glad to be here. It's my absolute

pleasure. Yeah. Right.

[00:04:24] Luigi Prestinenzi: Well, Mike, thanks again for coming on the podcast. And, uh, before we get into, I think what's going to be a pretty cool topic to talk about how to build relationships on a social platform.

We'd love to learn a bit more about you mate, and how you started in the world of sales

[00:04:38] Marcus Chan: yeah, absolutely. Right. So, uh, I've been in the world that we'll call B2B sales for 14, 15 plus years. And you know, when I first got started in the sales, um, you know, I think actually like many salespeople, I was unwilling to admit I was in sales.

In fact, I was actually a little bit embarrassed. Right. I was so embarrassed because you know, based on my parents, my heritage, they expect me to be a doctor, a lawyer, a dentist, or somebody like that. And I went to see. And, you know, when I first got into sales, uh, the reason I, I went and shot rolls because it was to build a startup division of a big company.

Right. So really I saw the vision of doing something great and they had zero clients, zero customers. So I saw it as an opportunity to build something from scratch. So not necessarily as sales, even, that's what it was, but it was an opportunity to build from scratch. And that's where I launched into it.

And then from there was fortunate to have some pretty good success in the. Stayed in sales ever since neuroleptic right. Sales, sales, leadership, et cetera, it's all been sales yet.

It's really interesting story. Right. And we hear this so often, and it's funny because there are still so many salespeople that say, well, I'm not in sales, I'm going to count many jobs, you know?

And, um, and so there still a lot of people that are embarrassed by the word or the role of sales, but tell us what attracted you to the.

Yeah. You know, what's interesting. I would say it's probably not what attract, but probably what kept me in there. Right? Like it didn't attract me to go inside the sales.

It was relative build something from scratch. And I love that. I love the concept of simply, um, being able to put my stamp on something. Right. Absolutely nothing, a blank slate and to create something from nothing. And to me that was like, wow, that was like an opportunity to really show the world and make an impact.

Right. Obviously sales is super hard and I made all those normal stakes, but it was interesting was even as I progressed through my career, um, you know what, I end up loving about sales, what really kept me in sales was I learned that sales real isn't. Right because sales really is your ability to influence someone to partway with some sort of research when it's time, money, or some sort of resource, right?

So you realize pretty quickly sales and everything. Whether you are a doctor selling to your patient while you need the prescription or parents on to their kid or a teacher T sound to their student, we're all in sales role influencing. And I realized by being in sales, the better I become at influencing the better I become at say.

And then the course, while being in sales, I realized it wasn't as much about being good at influencing. It's about being a better version of myself, a better human, because you learn all these things, right. How to be persistent, how to, how to discipline, how to have a Bulletproof mindset. How do you, how do you deal with rejection?

How do you work with different personalities? How do you actively listen? You learn all these skills that come about from sales and that's not what I initially. So once I uncovered all those things that took years, it wasn't like overnight, like, wow, I love this over time. As I became better at sales, better at becoming a leader better, I become a human being.

I realized, wow, it's really because of being in sales that led to these results. And that was a really cool thing. That's what kept me in sales ever since. And then once I learned how to teach other people how to do the same thing, I got hooked, I got hooked and I stayed in sales ever since.

[00:07:58] Luigi Prestinenzi: And it's pretty cool.

I love that description, right? Like you're right. Sales is, is in every aspect of what we do. Right. And I've got kids and I'm often find myself in, in, in, you know, have negotiated mean dollar contracts, but I can't negotiate with my child why they need to put the phone on the bench at night. Right. You know, so, and I completely lose my shit, but I think it's really interesting because there are so many elements in.

We know it's 2020. There's a lot of tactics. Now. There's a lot of strategy. I'll say it all the time on LinkedIn, about cold calling tactics, cold emailing tactics, um, guidance. And I love all the tactics, but I think. A lot of salespeople are forgetting the fundamentals of what makes selling so great. You know, the Bulletproof mindset, how to handle rejection, um, you know, how to influence, um, how do we engage?

Um, so it's really interesting. So it might tell us, I mean, I know that you had incredible success over 10 years, you know, your 10 X your career through, you know, pro promotion after promotion hitting targets after targets. Um, what do you do now and how do you help sales profession?

[00:09:09] Marcus Chan: Yeah. Great question.

Right. So odd. So now I found a company about a year ago called Bentley consulting group, and I worked directly with business business sales professionals to help them sell more and earn more through programs, such as like six figure sales academy, other things that I built out. Right. But it's all proven tackle things and help people actually get results and actually puts money into the bank account to help them build the lives of looking for.

Yeah.

[00:09:34] Luigi Prestinenzi: Awesome, man. And, uh, what do you find you're working in. Dozens and dozens of salespeople. What do you find separates the top 1% from the rest?

[00:09:45] Marcus Chan: Yeah. You know, what's interesting is like what a great question that is. And there's obviously many, many characteristics, right. And I hate to kind of use a cliche, oh, it's mindset, but it's really, uh, being able to develop the right type of mindset of success.

And that's absolutely vital. Right. And what I find those who are in the consistent top 1%, they just, they don't just work hard at their job because anybody can work hard. You and I. Thousands of people, if not millions, that work hard, but do not shoot great results. Right. So working hard is not part of it.

Right. But all of the mindset and that top 1% they understand by working harder, the job doesn't mean anything, but if they work hard on themselves, that's a differentiator. Right. They work Harlem's. That's how they make a fortune. That's what Jim Rohn's said. Right. So, and when they do that, they become a better version of the self and there's so many different ways.

Right? So for example, like, you know, like it's, it's knowing, okay. No one, like when someone says, Hey Marcus, how can I be have a great cold call session on the phone? And I'm like, Have a great night's sleep. And they look at me like, I'm crazy, right? I'm like, well, here's the reality when you don't get proper sleep, how do you really feel?

You don't feel great when you don't feel great. How excited are you pick up a phone? You don't want to, when you don't feel great, don't want to come home. When you find out how hard do you want to actually make calls and give it your all you don't because you didn't get proper sleep. It's a mindset, right?

[00:11:16] Luigi Prestinenzi: Uh, totally resonate with that. And I'll tell you last week for me, um, I had a big week of training, right? I've got a few clients and for some reason it ended up, I had to, I think. Across all the different sessions between the 150 and 200 people. Right. It was ridiculous. Um, session off decision and obviously on zoom it's as you know, man, it's a little bit different than doing it in a, in a classroom.

Right. And may I was on fire man every day, the sessions were just insane. People were loving it. Um, getting great feedback from people like one of the clients that did in Australia on the Thursday. Then I had one in Canada on the Friday, but man, I was exhausted. Rolling. I was getting up. I get up every day.

I pride myself. I get up about sort of between three and 4:00 AM everyday. Right. But it's probably Friday man, fucking cooked rice. The session just didn't, it didn't flow. I just didn't, you know, I didn't feel it. And therefore the experience for the people that were in that session, even though they gave me somewhat positive feedback, I know that, you know, if I was to look at myself in the mirror and say, did I deliver.

What I expect of myself. No, I didn't. Right. And I think you're right. That whole wrist enabling us to be the best we can be, um, by resting and preparation is absolutely came in. So thanks for sharing that with me. Um, so man, I'm, I'm actually pumped. The last, what is it? Five, six months. We're going on six months now.

Um, where we've been kind of in some form of lockdown. I know where I live. We're in lockdown 2.0, they call it, we an air out of the house a day. Um, but social has had a it's Britt kind of LinkedIn's been reborn again. Right? There's more people on the LinkedIn platform every day. And, uh, there are people that are using the platform in a great way.

And there are some people that probably are looking at. In a way that how can I just find business for myself? So I'd love to talk to you a bit about, you know, what are some of the strategies that you use, not just to find business, but actually develop meaningful relationships on.

[00:13:23] Marcus Chan: Yeah. Great question.

Right. And in, in what I love about LinkedIn is, um, it's, it's a powerful tool, right? And it's like, it's like having, it's like a, it's like a hammer. Okay. You can use a hammer and you can build an incredible house, a couple mansion, a big criminal palace, right. And you can build a thriving business using LinkedIn as the.

However, if you use the hammer the wrong way, you can destroy a house, you can destroy things, right? You can destroy relationships and you can damage your pipeline, you know, use it the wrong way. Right. And, and you and I, we see it. We're just talking about before we see many people use it the right way and the wrong way.

And there's those people right in the middle who are just kind of trying their best, but they don't have. Strategy to approach it. Right? So let's talk about some really tactical ways to actually utilize LinkedIn in a way that's actually going to well develop great relationships that will lead to revenue and, you know, money you can make.

Right. So I think the first thing is, um, you know, you, we need to view LinkedIn as a whole approach. Yep. So it's not just like, okay, I'm just gonna be like sending DMS and sending people messages and that's gonna be my only thing. Well, well, reality is as you have, it all starts to really your profile, right?

Number one, like if you think about this, when you are going to interact with anybody. The first thing they do is they check out your profile. That's the first thing they do. And some of the has to be connection requests. They have a good comment. Or I see, I see a post that someone else in my network liked or engage with.

The last thing I do, we all do is look at the profile. Right? And is their profile properly optimized for the target? Yeah. And that's like the first big mistake I see people make is they don't optimize it for their audience. They optimize it for themselves. And what I mean by that is when you look at your profile page, that really should be, you know, it should be, I hate to say it, but it should be bait issue baked for you target market.

Right? Because the first thing is, if you want to build relationships with prospects and anybody else. You got to get their attention first. Yeah. Okay. So, so your Bates is really, really important. So that goes from what your tagline is, right? Your tagline is the first hook they see. Right. And you can, you can put like, you know, account executive at, you know, XYZ communication or whatever.

That's right. You know, Right. What's the big, introduce your personality and make it clear about what you do. Right. So for mine, I have a pattern interrupt. Mine says for, uh, you know, from selling Speedos to seven-figure contracts, people,

[00:15:53] Luigi Prestinenzi: and then I'm going to scroll all the way down to see where you're selling Speedos.

Yeah.

[00:15:57] Marcus Chan: Right, right, right, right, right, right. It's just a pattern interrupt. Right. But it gets you all looking at it. Right. They're like, okay, what's this. And then of course, even my profile picture is a little different from the most people, right? So I intentionally chose a different picture, different angle, a different color suit.

It's a full body, I'm laughing. So hopefully I look approachable. So already that Bates, hopefully bringing people and say, oh, you know, Who's this guy who's commenting or doing whatever. So they're already hooked, right? And then of course your banner that you have in there, you can go on to canvas, create a whole new banner and you can, you know, it can be a call to action.

It can be some credibility, it could be some social proof for mine. I've got some credibility and some social proof. And I also have a call to action. So wherever people want. Right. But it's gotta be alive to your, your goals of using the platform and that everything else on your platform from your bouts.

Right. Like either you're your BounceX and just like, you know, you know, like, is it boring or is it a story? I would write a story about my background from, you know, where I came from to who I become to results. So people that are really like, wow, it's, it's all designed intentionally to track. Right. Yes.

And then the rest of my profile is really a more proof and it's things that I know my target audience would want. Right. And because I work directly B2B sales professionals, I know BB sales professionals, they want to make more money. They want to get promoted. They want improve their skills and they want to build the life they want to build.

Right. So. Profile, literally showcases all that from the wards. I want things I have achieve rankings. All the things are really important to them. Right. And then of course your feature section kind of stuff as well. And then of course, on top of that, because of what I do, I know anyone interacting with me, um, you know, that potentially looking to use me.

They want to minimize their. They want to know I'm not a scammer or sleazy person and that's really for anyone out there, people don't want, people don't want to get strict. So if you look at my profile, I've always recommendations on there that are legit detailed recommendations from other people, clients, and customers, et cetera.

So if they're all my profile that are attracted in, they're going to look all the way down, like, okay, this guy looks

[00:17:59] Luigi Prestinenzi: so your social proof it to create a bit of trust with the prospect in. Yeah. So this is good. So what I'm hearing is you treat. Treat your profile page is kind of like a landing page. That really wants to attract, engage and help tell a story about how you can help them and, and, and obviously make sure the message is clear to the audio customer profile or your buyer persona that you're trying to engage with a hundred

[00:18:24] Marcus Chan: percent because, because once they're, once they're there they're bought into you, right.

It doesn't necessarily mean they're going to buy them. It's not pick that way. It's really your goal is to get them to just to hopefully like him to trust you and see you as potentially an expert. Right. That's really it. Right. So. If you're engaging with them, you can remember when you start to reach out to something engaged.

If they see, think you're a scammer, like they're not going to interact with you. Like those Bitcoin people that create a profile like three months ago, right. You look at like immediately. Red flags are going off.

[00:18:56] Luigi Prestinenzi: Forex, Forex, traders, Bitcoins, you know, um, I was thinking, I said to you earlier, like I haven't got, I haven't got called Madam.

I'm like, come on, man. Surely my profile picture. I don't look like a Madam. Right. But you know what I love about what I love about you, man, is, um, we connected and you send me a video message and it was hyper-personalized. Um, it spoke to me and, uh, it really engaged with me. So. Tell us why you take the time to, you know, take the time to put it.

Cause you obviously get, you know, hundreds of introductions all the time. Um, tell us why you take the time to send a personalized video message.

[00:19:38] Marcus Chan: Yeah. So, um, you know, this very much fits my style right. In, in old world. This is the mistake I see. I see many raps and companies really make is they are so focused on his buzzword robe scale let's scale, scale, scale, scale, scale, let's scale, the scale that well, and, and they, they bank on it, you know, all we're so happy could be a, be a 20% open rates, you know, when a 10% response rate, like those don't matter.

Like they don't matter what matters is, how can you convert? Like open rates don't matter as much as conversion, right? Like conversion is how you build a business. It's how you generate revenue. Right. So when people, when I send a, hyper-personalized a video message, because I know number one, most people are unwilling to do it.

Yeah. That's the first piece. Right? Most people are very scared of. They're like, oh, you know, they find all these reasons not to do, to do it. Right. Oh, uh, lighting is bad. Uh, I'm not camera ready. Uh it's whatever, you know, X, Y, Z, right. You know, like I want them to scale. Right. But here's the reality. You're better off sending, say like 50 messages and getting half them responding back to you.

A hundred template messages and getting five, we could get back to you, right? Like, like you are better off with a personalized message. So I do the video, right. Uh, and I know what stands out, which is number one. Right. Uh, but also number two, it also allows me to build trust much faster. Like it it's. When, you know, it's a real person behind the camera and behind the phone, the laptop, you trust them more in a world where people are so scared of getting scammed, like everyone's scared of getting fooled.

Right? If you think about this, the number one reason a sale does not go through is simply because of buyer's remorse. That's really it. Yeah. You're making a bad mistake, right? So if you can eliminate it that minimize the risk as much as possible from your profile to that video. DM, that video is very powerful on top of that with the video DM, even when, not as, as we're recording this podcast, I'm literally looking directly into the camera.

So hopefully they feel like I'm talking to. Right. And I'm not just talking to a camera, I'm talking to them. It's like, I'm exposing my heart and my soul through that. Right. And they can also see my, my body language. They can hear me, they can hear my tone. They like, it's not perfect. I'll, I'll, I'll mess up and say things and I won't, I won't even rerecord it.

I'll just let it go. Yeah. And it's very human and I, I grew up with a speech impediment. So even if I had. I will let a flow regardless and I'll keep it in there and the humanizes, everything. I

[00:22:29] Luigi Prestinenzi: love that man on the, you know, and I'm very similar to you mate. Like when I talk it ain't perfect. I've got grammar issues, right.

Um, uh, grew up in a household. My parents spoke Italian, so there was always a little bit of broken English going, but that's who I am and people don't pay me to teach them how to do. They pay me to teach them how to sell and they pay me to make more sales. Right. Um, and that, that stuff works every single time.

Right. And I think you're right. People don't want, you know, something perfect. That's coming on. The other end of the video. They like the authenticity. They like the realness. They liked. Hi this guy or this girl or this female, sorry, is someone that's real. And, and, you know, they they're just like me. Right.

So I think that's awesome, man. And that's what I loved about, like, when I saw your video message, it was hyper personalized. So if you're listening to this particular episode and you're sitting on the platform, I saw some incredible data that, you know, there's whatever, seven, 800 million people on the platform, but there's only a small amount of people that are actually producing content still.

Right? If you're one of those sales pros that they're on the platform, but they're kind of still just using it as a social stalking platform. And they're not actually harnessing the opportunities that sit in the platform, where should they be starting?

[00:23:54] Marcus Chan: Yeah, so great question. Right. So I already mentioned the profile piece.

So the first thing is ICER profile. Just like I mentioned earlier, but let's just say, for example, now you're like, you know what? I want to produce some content. Here's the thing just saying, here's the why you want produce content when you produce con. Uh, consistently you'll start creating, uh, expertise for yourself, but also you start generate inbound leads.

I typically average between eight to 12 inbound leads daily. Wow. Every single day right now, it didn't start that way. I've only been really active on LinkedIn for about 10 months because I was still working in a corporate job before that. Yeah. So, um, but I've been very intentional in my strategy and how I do it because I knew if I did a run.

It will, it might be a little trickle up first. There's nothing. Yeah. And then a little bit of trickle and now it's much more consistent as long as I maintain consistency now. So, um, with that being said, if you watch a Creighton content, the first thing you want to do is you want to make sure you are creating.

Content for your target audience. So the mistake some people make is they say, listen, I love cats. I'm going to ride my cats. Okay. That's cool. I'll worry about sales. That's cool too. But if your target audience, let's just say the it directors, they will not care about that. Right. They won't care you're right about that.

Right. And unless your goal is as vanity metrics were used on likes and comments, et cetera. You can do that if you want. But if you want to actually build a business and a brand in that target market, you want to write for your target market and here's how you do it. Because often when people are like, I don't know what to write.

Super simple. Let's say for example, you write your target audience. It drives. You go, you literally go, go hash and look them hashtags, hashtag information technology. Look in there for the most relevant posts. First, see what's on there and look for who are the micro and macro influencers, lows with a decent sized following who are trending and they can be people in that industry that actually like, or that they're actually in that role, or they could be experts in that.

And here's the reality, chances are pretty good that the comment threads on those are of your target market. So you go in there, you start looking at the current. What are they saying? What kind of questions? What are the conversation go? What are the pain points? What's important? What the desires, you start looking through that way.

Right? You can also go filtered by the most recent as well. Right? And then on top of that, once you find a couple of micro macro influencers start digging into their past posts, look for the same things. Right. And what you're looking for are content ideas. If you hear a pains or whatever, that can be great opportunity for you to solve it doesn't matter if your solution does not solve it.

It doesn't matter. Your goal is you get some content ideas because you can create some content on LinkedIn. And as you start engaging with people, they're going to see them like, oh, you know, I love this person's perspective on something about it, like a specific thing, an issue, a hot button, right? Here's a real, super ninja hack.

Go on Amazon and look up that industry specifically. So it's the same, for example, information technology, or maybe get more specific. What are the top 10 Amazon bestsellers on there? Right in that specific field, go into the reviews. Look between you don't count with a one and a five star reviews. Look for two to four star reviews.

Almost guaranteed. The comments are body target audience. Who's buying those books and writing their thoughts on there. The thoughts in there are going to be their pains or concerns what's missing and you take those ideas and that's what you write about. That's

[00:27:45] Luigi Prestinenzi: cool, man. You know that it's actually, you just insert, I'm just, you just, actually, I think one of the things that I've really noticed is that research piece that you talk about.

I have noticed a lack of research. Like I'm not that old man. I mean maybe 38 to a lot of people is bloody old, right. Because a lot of SDRs in their young twenties years. I think, you know, when I first started in sales, like we didn't have the luxury of, of Google, the power of Google and LinkedIn man. And we have to do our research on boys.

Um, it was, it was, it was, it was pretty fucking hard luck. You

[00:28:21] Marcus Chan: have to do it. You have to get in there yet to where we're getting. Right. Encyclopedia, Britannica

books.

[00:28:31] Luigi Prestinenzi: But do you know what I mean? Like he was actually really either by Ibis reports was in old, you know, the Dubai report, 80 bucks. I ended up buying a gold membership in, so I could at least download the reports or I had to look at the company reports and, and you'd have to put a bit of research into kind of get an understanding of the prospects or who's the decision makers.

And I think now salespeople are kind of spoiled. You got ZoomInfo, you've got tools that would just give you people's mobile numbers instantly. And we forget of the power. Of research and how it enables us to better serve our prospects and better cater for their needs. Right. And I think that just that what you've just spoken about, I know that I don't do that enough.

I do the research piece, but I'm going to spend time. I've got to write that down actually, because otherwise it won't get done. I'm going to spend time on the hashtags. I'm going to do that more and I'm going to. And then to look at the reviews, because I actually really liked that you've got an engaged audience.

That's actually giving feedback that I can then take that feedback and create content. That's going to compel them to take action. A

[00:29:36] Marcus Chan: hundred percent and here's, what's crazy about it, right? So the mistake many people make, especially if they're selling to industry they're not familiar with right. Is they want to speak their own language, right?

Lots of huge mistake. You need to uncover the language of your target market, right? So when you read the two to four star reviews, or you go in the hassock or you go into the Facebook groups of your target market, or the LinkedIn groups, wherever your fish are hanging out, Take a look at their language, how are they describing their pain?

Like if you're saying stuff like, you know, like this will give you this, this ROI, but they don't speak that way. You sound like a dummy. So to what words are they using to describe their emotional pain? Right. And those are the words you need to utilize in your copy from your posts to your content, to when you interact with them.

It's not about sounding smart. It's simply about using. How do they talk? If they speak Italian, you need to speak Italian too. Absolutely.

[00:30:36] Luigi Prestinenzi: This is good, man. So, um, for any sales pros is sitting to this, right? It's very simple. Um, optimize your page. I'm just going to reflect on this, on their conversation. So optimize your page and treat it as a place.

Just like a landing page. It's it's first impressions. Um, engage with them. Social proof. It puts some stories that tell them a bit about what you do that builds trust, because we know the data is really clear, um, that there is a lack of trust between buyers and sellers. And I think HubSpot has a report that shows something like 60 or 70% of buyers still don't trust sellers.

They don't trust press releases and they don't trust social ads. So they've come to your program. They've made an impression, use it as a mechanism to engage with them, tell a story, social proof, and share with them why they should continue to engage with you. Then do some research about your buyer.

Really understand what the buyer's feeling, what they're trying to achieve. What are they. How do they talk? What's the language research so that you can create some content that's going to compel them to take action. And then might just before we sort of get to the letter into these podcasts, now that they've done that they've researched.

They've got a really good optimized page. You know, what are some strategies that salespeople or anyone utilizing the LinkedIn platform can do to create engagement with other people? So they've done that research. How do they engage? Is it personalized messages? Is it, is it, you know, do I comment on their posts?

Where should I.

[00:32:06] Marcus Chan: Yeah. So the easiest one is probably first starting off with engaging with their posts. That's the easiest one, right? So it's like, obviously when you look at the profile there, you're probably going to see that they check that right. But go on to their posts and take a look. What is your target market posting?

All right. And here's a, here's a little ninja hack here, right? It's very easy just to hit like, okay. That's really easy. Okay. But there's like five or six different other things you can do. It's insightful. You'll love it. Whatever. Choose the one that is least amount used. Cause they will stand out. All right.

The second thing, drop a very insightful comments. Right. And if they don't have any comments on that, you'll stand out, but you want to be insightful. Don't be like, I agree. You know, like, be very specific about what you would agree with or opinion you have, or fact, or whatever you want to add, but it's got to be a value.

So when they see it, they're like, huh, this person, what's the house pretty inside because that takes time. And they're going to look at your profile and potentially engage with you. Now if they have a lot of comments, because maybe they're a hyper engaged prospect on LinkedIn and you can use any social media platform, then you want to share it because shares are even less likely to be done.

And your goal is not engagement. Your goal is to get attention. Right? You share it. Hey. Luigi's most recent post on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was super awesome. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing, you know, Luigi, boom. They're going to get notified and they're like, who is this person? And if you've already sent a connection request, which by the way, leave a blank, no notes in there.

We have blank, higher acceptance, right. Then they're like, oh, this person is sharing my stuff. They must like my stuff.

[00:33:58] Luigi Prestinenzi: It's really cool. Now.

[00:34:00] Marcus Chan: Very Israeli strategic, because now they're more open to like, who is this person? They're not, they're not just like pitching me that are liking my stuff. They feel good about.

Well, yeah. When someone you don't know is give me compliments basically, right? Subtle compliments. You can't not help unlike them now. You're right, man. The conversation you cannot help it. It's what happens, you know?

[00:34:24] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. This is really good. I think for me, where I, where I fall over is on. Very disciplined with how much time I spend in the platform, because I'm working on working with clients, I'm coaching, I'm selling.

And so I spend a certain amount of time in the morning and a certain amount of top at night and our thought, I think one of the mistakes, I think I've made of the realization that you've helped me see. So the aha is I'm rushing through. And, you know, there are, there are moments where I'm very, very engaged, I'm insightful and looking at stuff and I'm providing value through my comments.

And there are other times which I'm kind of just rushing through the emotion to tick the box. And so I think for me, the other activity that I'm going to take is I'm going to be, I'm just going to take time to be more. And really consider the impact that my comments are going to have on somebody and how that's going to make them feel.

So this has been awesome, man. And I think the reality is we're definitely going to get you back for a second episode ban because we haven't even scratched the surface. And so really appreciate your time today. But mate, before we sort of, I ask every guest, this it all, and sometimes I'll be forgetting. So I've got to make sure I asked, but I ask every guest, this question, man, when your opinion is sales an art or a science

[00:35:35] Marcus Chan: while Alex was bullied a black and white, right?

I mean, yeah. I mean, obviously it's, it's a mixture as peoples, you know, I usually say, but, um, the way I've always picked your sales is simply this, right. Um, you know, there is a science part of the actual process and fundamentals, right? That's typically what you yourself and what you and I, we teach it's. I call it the skeleton.

We teach the skeleton, right. And the human being, the person that is working with us, they are the. Right now you can't be y'all skeleton, but you can't be all muscle and you need both. And we're combined together. That's a beautiful mix of the art and science that makes sales so beautiful. Right. And because it's, it's always one plus one equals two.

It's a combination together that harmonious blend together that makes someone truly great. Because if you're one versus the other, then you, you won't be able to have a repeatable result. But when you combined together, That's when you have that beautiful, uh, you know, collaboration of really? Yeah, that's

[00:36:32] Luigi Prestinenzi: good.

What an answer man. And mate, that's good. I actually got lost in the answer, but, uh, so where can, where can our listeners, um, find more about you and engage with. Yeah.

[00:36:43] Marcus Chan: Awesome. So, uh, you find me on LinkedIn super easy to look up Marcus Chan I'm the only guy with Speedos in the tagline. Uh, you can also head over to MarcusChan.io/resources, tons of free resources in there as well.

And you get a hold of there as well.

[00:36:59] Luigi Prestinenzi: Well, look, I want to just say thanks for the contribution you make to ourselves community, because I think we need more people like you that are elevating our professional to helping sales professionals be the best they can be. And thank you for coming on the sales IQ Podcast.

[00:37:12] Marcus Chan: It's my absolute pleasure. Thanks so much.

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This episode was transcribed digitally, some errors may be present.