How to manage direct sales messaging and branding on LinkedIn for B2B Events?

Well, I used to be all for it. And like I said earlier, that's a direct marketing strategy. And you know, if you do direct mail marketing, the closing ratio, I mean, the last time I checked was something like one in a thousand. David here obviously saying, if it's personalized, I mean, would you personalize it on. If you haven't spoken with the individual based on their profile, how much can their profile tell you? You're gonna be making lots of assumptions. But most importantly, again, I go back to the analogy of the pub. You walk into the pub, you can't, you know, people are there to have a conversation. People go on LinkedIn to have a conversation. They don't go on LinkedIn to be sold. So you're gonna be that guy that when somebody's on LinkedIn having a conversation, you go in and pull your prospect aside, say, hey, look at my product. I got a bit of research about you, so it's personalized, but I want to only talk to you about my product. Most people will push away and say, leave me alone, I'm enjoying my time here. Some people might say, you know what, David, thank you very much. I couldn't wait for someone like you to come here today and sell me that product because I was desperate for it. That might happen. You might be in luck that day, but most people will push away. That's why the majority of people will not reply to your messages. You have to then work on volume. You'll have much better chances of joining that group of five, six people having that conversation. Talk to them. And then if you feel like, oh, hold on a minute, you guys might need something that I got, let me tell you what it is, then it will be much more powerful. You will not wasting your time, you will not come across as, you know, the usual pushy salesman, that we've still got that stigma. And you will save yourself some time. Doesn't mean you shouldn't be using your self navigator license to do that. You can still do it because sometimes the person that you're targeting might not be engaging in content. So you might not be able to find them. But if you have, if you have engaged in content, at least when you message them, they will see who you are because they probably would have seen it. They might be that passive user. They will know who you are. So when your message pop in. So, okay, I recognize David. He's that guy that was talking about X, Y and Z on that post the other day. Okay, let me read, let me scroll down. What is he going to Say, why is he reaching out to me? Then you might have a chance, so still do it. But if you only do that, bear in mind that the closing ratio, the conversion ratio is going to be very high. So be prepared for lots of late nights on LinkedIn. Type it away.

Thank you. Danieli Ashanti, what's your answer on that?

So I think this is all about objective. I think first of all, because we've been talking about visibility. So if you want high visibility where there could be a number of outcomes and benefits, then you don't need to necessarily do direct messaging. If you just want to be visible, build a strong network, build relationships, then you don't need to direct message because you'll be achieving that, you know, aim of being visible by not, you know, by putting into practice some of the principles we've all discussed here today. I would say the only thing I'd say it probably depends on your industry and what you're selling. So I think people who sell products, there's probably a way to do that. Because I sell a service, I have found that combining the two, so being hyper visible on the platform, adding value. But also there is that thing that Daniel said. Some of the prospects of the people I know that we can work with are not active on LinkedIn. So sometimes I have to pull them into my world. And how I would usually do that if I choose to direct message them is by leading with content. So what will happen is sometimes I'll share a post that I know is highly relevant and valuable to them. So I'm not really messaging them and saying, hey, buy this. I'm saying, hey, I saw. I don't know if it's Orange plc. I. I'll say I saw Orange PLC was in the media last week. You know, you've got this great thing going on. I thought this would be really useful to you. So I think it's the way you do it is probably what matters. And when you do it, because there are some prospects, as Danielle said, who aren't active on LinkedIn but you still want to reach out to them. But then I always reach out with content or value added content and usually they always respond at the very least and then we start to exchange with messages.

And my contribution to that, David, was that is that again, in my case, I am selling a service. I am selling kind of thought leadership. I'm selling kind of particular product and service. But like the way when I have used the direct messaging element to someone, one is personalized, I either use. I notice that you're having the conversation about this, it would be great to learn more about that particular aspect. Are you okay to expand on that? Can you expand on that through here to this message or I'm happy to have a chat about it, but again, it's not a sales conversation. Then I also say for those that are like the deeply introverts, that don't engage but are like passengers, they're literally on LinkedIn, browsing, everyone reading everything. So I might say Dear Mr. Prospect or Dear John, there's a big discussion going on about this industry, about it. I probably haven't seen you around, but I know that you're an expert in or that you might have a lot of experience based on what I see on your profile. Your career has a track record on it. And I put a link to the discussion. Probably it might not be mine, it might be someone else's, but I just put in that link in that discussion. And sometimes the person more likely decides to engage in conversation within the messaging tool, not necessarily openly. So I think that would be the answer.