Daniele Moreschi: A digital extrovert in the B2B event industry

Now, I Believe you got two choices on LinkedIn. You can use it passively and it's totally fine. Then you will use it for content to learn. You can use it for prospecting, find leads, find out who could be your potential client, but you can't directly sell to them code. So if you want to use LinkedIn as more of a selling tool, you need to join those networking conversations. And I think both you and Ashanti have covered pretty much everything. But here's been my experience, right? So I've been having been very operational for the last four years. I was primarily managing the teams and I wasn't doing much of the selling. Then about 12 months ago, I had a member of the team going on maternity, so I had to take over some of the accounts and I started becoming more operational. And when the lockdown happened, I had a bit more spare time and I thought, well, let me see what this LinkedIn is all about. I can use it a little bit more. And I started posting. And what I've noticed is that LinkedIn, as you described earlier, plays on the algo, plays on your connection. And 90% of the people viewing my post were people in sales, people in the event industry. None of them are people I wanted to sell to. So I started to think, okay, what can I do to reach out to the people I want to sell to? Which my case at this stage were procurement professionals. And I did exactly all the steps you guys described. I started to engage with some of the key influencers. I Googled it. Who are the top influencers in procurement? 50 LinkedIn profiles came up, connected all of them started engaging with the post, started commenting, started asking questions, and started posting regularly every day. And the ranking of how many procurement people were viewing my post started to catch up with the salespeople. Now, I know that if you're a salesperson or if you're even a producer, I know there's a lot of event business people here. You might not necessarily feel like you're an expert. Then you can go out there. And I could never post anything too technical about procurement. I wouldn't be able to be credible. So what I started doing is to engage in conversation, ask question. If I have a good call with a prospect, something is discussed, I might put a statement on my post and ask the audience what they think about it. And I was amazed by how many people started to engage. I think a lot of people use LinkedIn for the very same reason we discussed in here, to raise their own branding, their personal brand. So if they see an opportunity to share their knowledge and their expertise, they will jump on it. So if you're new to your industry, if you're doing the research stage, researching a new product you want to launch, it's a good opportunity to test the market. Put yourself out there, ask question and you'll be surprised how many people will start engaging with that content. Because I think the danger here is that a lot of people will fear that imposter syndrome. They think, well I'm not an expert, I can't go out there and share content. What do I share? Yeah, you talked earlier about articles. I found one of my best posts this week was simply a statement about where the industry is going and asked the audience are you for or you're against? This was about robotics, whether procurements need to be fully automated or still keep some of the human touch. I don't have the answer. I don't know what they should do. But I've asked it. And yet, you know, very good engagement. Lots of likes, lots of comments and lots of views all from procurement professionals. It wasn't from any of my usual peers within the event sales sector.

Yeah, and I think Daniele, one thing that like you said, and I think that when you're talking with someone that is responsible, you're talking with an event business owner, they have certain views, they generally are very, they know lot about their industry etc. When you're talking about someone that's putting conference programs or event programs, they know a lot about it or product directors, they know a lot about the product. But sometimes the sales individual doesn't kind of feel that they, they are experts. And as you rightly said it, but I just wanted to add to your, to your element is you're not an expert but you are very likely talking, prospecting with a lot of experts and you being able to connect one on one or one to many or at least share the voice of an expert, I wouldn't say makes you an expert but entitles you to have a proper conversation about it. And you can have a com. You can just bring in that in. And I just really want to make that clarification because I know that there's a lot of people in sales that will do that. So sorry Danelle, so one thing that I wanted to ask as well like you manage so you're, you're a LinkedIn extrovert. I will call you that. You wouldn't call yourself that. I will call you that. You manage a team of 20 plus individuals. What's I guess is there Any directive from your point of view, is there an encouragement or what would be the tips or how would you train? How would you encourage your teams to engage in social.

Well, what. First of all, we need to stop doing what we traditionally do and this is posting about your product. You know, discount deadline coming up, last few places left, so and so just registered for a couple of reasons. One is because again it's not giving anything to the audience. You're very self centered to what you want, not what your audience want. And two, because unless you previously engaged with your prospects in a normal conversation, that post would only be seen by your colleagues, by your former uni mates, maybe by your mom and your dad. I used to have, I always used to find amazing, amusing how people would like into someone else's. Some of their colleagues post about the colleague's product and I think, well, why you bother liking someone else's product if you're not selling to them vertical? Your audience will not understand why you're sharing the content. The reality is just keep on doing it because your audience will not see it anyway because you're not engaging with them. Stop doing all of it. Some of the worst posts I had in terms of traction where the posts were copied and pasted a piece of content from one of our events, cold posts, just place it there and nobody looked at it, nobody engaged it. What people need to stop doing is doing the things that we do normally in life, which is networking. If I'm having a good conversation, like you say with you, and then I go and talk to a new prospect, I will mention that conversation on the phone. So nothing stops you from mentioning that on LinkedIn and bringing people together. I had a very good call this morning with head of procurement from big retailers and just by being able to reference some of the conversation I had on LinkedIn and such a very good, enjoyable conversation, he led to a very easy sell because I was talking in his language. But the only way I was able to talk to his language was because I've been listening to his language on LinkedIn from his prospect. So that's the first thing that people need to do is just so you're part of your industry ecosystem, share what you know. It might not be much if you don't know much, ask questions, if you read articles, just post what you read. You gotta become part of that ecosystem online to use that networking platform that is there. If I come to you now and I say listen, five o', clock, you finish working, there is at the bar next door there are 50 procurement people or wherever, 50 industry leaders in the industry, you're serving that, they're having a drink. Do you want to come and network with them? You would and you would go there and you would join conversation. You will listen to what they have to say, you will ask questions. You would do what you normally do in a networking scenario. Now you're talking about a LinkedIn extrovert. A lot of people sometimes are introvert. Not just on LinkedIn by normal life. LinkedIn gives any introvert, and I'm one of them, the opportunity to engage on their own terms. One of the things I drive the most is when my wife comes to me. So we've been invited to a wedding and I'm like I don't know anyone and the last thing I want to do is to sit at table with a bunch of strangers, have to be nice for four hours as the thing I dread the most. And another couple of people on the participant list, including one of my former boss, I'm sure he will share the same feeling. Now on LinkedIn you can network in your own terms. If you're getting bored of the conversation face to face, you can't walk away. I mean you try. Sometimes you're just trying to look for familiar faces and trying to get out of it. On LinkedIn you can just do it, just stop typing, you could be busy. No one expects you to be online 247 so you can unexpectedly stop the engagement. That is your own term, you can control that. So if you are A natural introvert, LinkedIn allows you to network your own rules. And I think that's a very good opportunity that people need to embrace.

I think that's an interesting thing. One thing that I wanted to say like so I love that analogy. If 20 people of your audience are having a drink in the pub next door, would you go yes, even because you have to. And then I think digitally when you're in a conversation, the noise that you're looking at Danielle and nodding or looking at Ashanti and nodding, the digital version of that are likes pauses and you know, it's just the like that just gives you. Lets you know to have that visibility in that front and I think that's kind of very, very. That's very interesting. I think Daniele, one element that you've highlighted, can you explain because you. I like when you've mentioned that before he used to copy your event program or excerpts of your event program or your value proposition and post it on LinkedIn that didn't work. Now how do you still Then, so the million dollar question, how do you sell then on LinkedIn? So if you're being okay, I'm a sales guy, you need to meet your quota. How do you bridge that being seen being visible to selling your sponsorship deal or selling the, or meeting your quota that you need to meet?

I think that, I don't think you can go on LinkedIn with that end goal. Can't be too specific. I think it's LinkedIn is like a marketing strategy for the person. For the person it's a pull marketing rather than a push marketing. I mean you can still go and try to sell your product, but only after you had a conversation. So again, if you're in the pub networking with your audience, you're not going to go in and break the conversation. Whatever they're talking about, they might be talking about the currency fluctuation, you're going to say, oh by the way, I got a solution for that. You're going to follow that conversation. Then you're going to follow up with your product or services either later on offline or if the situation allows it, then and there after a couple of drinks. And the same would be on LinkedIn. So you just follow the conversation and when the time is right, you pre qualify your audience by talking to them. And when the time is right you will start probing a little bit more and find out if they're ready to buy. Now I had people on LinkedIn and only been there for two months. I've been invited to join a vendor demo which then led to them inquiring about sponsoring one hour events. I had two independent consultants contacting me about sponsoring one hour events. I had a situation where someone just been promoted to CPR. I congratulated this person on LinkedIn. You got that facility, you got the notification, so it's been promoted. Just one simple message, congratulations. She replied, thank you very much. Asked her a question, listen, I'm hearing that you know, in your market everyone now is facing this challenge, what are you doing regarding to that? Are you feeling the same? She replied, we engaged in a conversation and then I felt I had the solution, mentioned what I was doing, very interested. She asked for more information and eventually she became a client. But if I went in with the objective to get a client within a week, within a month, again, I would have been a bully in a china shop. I would have been that kind of guy. That goes in, here's my brochure. Please buy, please buy. You know, think sales leaders, managing directors here, what is your producer? What is your sales team. I would be careful whether to give them too many metrics on what to achieve on LinkedIn in terms of sales results. That's going to be organic. It will happen. It will happen organically all the time. But it shouldn't be the main objective to be on the platform. You come from a marketing background, you got your direct mail strategy, that's fine, but that's not what LinkedIn is for. LinkedIn is for branding, LinkedIn is for poor marketing. And the same from a sales point of view. You want to go and message 50 people a day, do it. But you know from experience if you do a direct marketing campaign, the ratio is not in your favor as a salesperson, you don't have the luxury to see that and copy and paste the same message hundred times a day. And even if you do that, it's very impersonal. You can have three, four powerful conversations. You build relationships and when you feel that the bias is ready, you present your solution. My gamer fails. But for me, what's been very powerful is actually being able to speak the client's language on the phone. The conversations I'm having now on the phone are much more powerful. I feel much more competent to talk about the industry with prospect, with very senior people than I was ever before. In our industry we get briefed by the producer, we've been told, listen, this is what the product is about. They're brief gives you 1% of what two weeks on LinkedIn will give you to understand how to position your product, what the pain points for the clients are.

And I think you mentioned something very good when we were doing the pre webinar conversations where you said I might have connected with certain amount of people on LinkedIn and I might have not necessarily been a situation where one guy connected and then I sold him a delegate place or a sponsorship deal. But when I'm having a conversation with someone completely different, they would have seen all my behavior that I've had on LinkedIn and that has definitely helped me and helped build that trust with that person as a person of influence. So your activities and I think it's very clear for sales individuals, LinkedIn is not about prospecting and copying. As you said, KPIs 50 people sending outreach emails in the same way that you would do, or emails in the same way that you would do email. It's about being visible. Because by the time you have some sort of conversation with someone, that person would have seen you or if they have not seen you and if that conversation was good, they're going to go and check you out on LinkedIn and then they're going to go and check you out on LinkedIn. They realize that, oh my God, this guy is kind of proof. So this guy knows what he's talking about. But I think that's an important element that I wanted to kind of. To highlight.

Yeah, Trust is the key word. I think you become a person of trust. It's a brand that people recognize. I mean, a lot of the audience here I believe is UK based, probably London based. If you look up for a plumber and you hear pimicro plumbers, everybody knows who they are. And you probably think, yes, it's a trusted plumber. If you get someone knocking on your door that you've never seen before, asking you do you need any plumbing, you probably must be a dodgy individual. No badge, no uniform. Yeah, what's the difference?

Yeah, I think that that's an important. The trust and that's kind of what will make you or any person in sales or any actually person putting a program together is when they know that you are actually connected with other people in the industry, then that's what's going to kind of. That's what sets you apart from the many people that are trying to be kind of doing cold outreach now. Daniele, just the same question that I asked Ashanti, what do you think didn't work and what do you think does work?

Well, so we touched earlier about copy and pasting from a brochure from a brief. And I think the reason why that didn't work is because it wasn't me. I think Ashanti has her own business behind you. Got your own business behind you. Using it from sort of like a business point of view. I'm using it more as an individual. But still when you go on it, you're going to be you. People need to know Ricardo, People need to know. Shanti need to know me. So the conversation has to be personal. The same way again, if we go back to the analogy of being on a normal networking opportunity.