Jonathan: I recently spoke to Rhonda Sher, the expert on everything about LinkedIn, about how to get most out of LinkedIn’s platform. Below is an edited version of our conversation:
Jonathan: Rhonda, what makes you the LinkedIn expert?
Rhonda: I have nearly a decade of experience helping clients leverage LinkedIn for business development, and I wrote one of the first books about Linked ("The ABCs of LinkedIn" back in 2009) and I have over 32,000 followers and 200+ recommendations on LinkedIn.
Jonathan: What is the biggest mistake that people are doing or not doing on their LinkedIn profiles?
Rhonda: If I had to pick one, it would be not having their contact information. Having a profile that doesn't tell you their phone number, email, website. You're like, “Wow, I really want to get to know this person. And there's no way to contact them”. Another big mistake is that they don't have any information in their “About” section about what it is they do or what they've done for their clients. It is just all about them and it starts out with “I, I, I”, and the truth is I do care about what you do, but profiles that focus too much on themselves and not enough about what they can do for clients, are not ideal.
Jonathan: For people that are in business development and acquiring prospect and clients, how can they use LinkedIn to find their people?
Rhonda: We all get messages that say, “Hey Jonathan, I just curious, could you use more customers? We have a system that basically can get you 30 appointments a week”…
Jonathan: I get that 10 times a day.
Rhonda: …What has happened is a lot of people, instead of looking at what's possible, they're just looking at the noise of all of these people that are using automated systems. They're what I call “Spraying and Praying”. Well, the truth is that can you make money using LinkedIn. And the way that you do it is with integrity and authenticity and actually getting to know people. I think the big thing is to get business you have to do it in a way that you're not just pitching people.
Jonathan: Assuming one is avoiding mistakes on LinkedIn and doing some really good things, do you find that LinkedIn works better for people in particular niches?
Rhonda: It really benefits more B2B people than those with a brick and mortar store. If you're a an acupuncturist, for example, that only sees clients in a geographic area because people are going to drive to you and you're not selling anything else, LinkedIn is probably not the right platform for you.
Jonathan: What about targeting someone in particular, because you really want to work with them or speak to them? How would you facilitate that?
Rhonda: First and foremost, your profile should position you as the only logical choice. I call that going from “hiding out to standing out”. And then the formula that I recommend is to look at that person's profile. If they're posting, comment on their posts consistently every day. Show up and put a thoughtful comment, like it. If you find real value in their post, repost it and share it with your audience, then go and invite them to connect and say, “hey, John Smith, I've been following your posts. I love your content. Looks like we share some common connections. Would it make sense for us to connect?” They have already seen me interacting with their posts, and what I’ve done is making it a deposit before I'm asking for a withdrawal. Then once you connect with me, what I'm going to do is send you a message that says, “Hey, John Smith, I like to get to know my connections. I really be honored if you would just want to call with me for a few minutes”. And then these are the magic words. “I promise this is a “no-sale zone” call. I won't sell anything to you”. So if I want to get to know you and I tell you I'm not going to sell you and I give you my calendar link, there's a very good chance you're going to get on my calendar. If you do these things you will never have an empty calendar.
Jonathan: Are there any professionals you find either you've either had rates success working with or you prefer working with them compared to other types of professionals.
Rhonda: I have a lot of success with commercial real estate brokers. I've also had a lot of success with attorneys and a lot with executive coaches. This seems to be the sweet spot for me. I think it's my ability to understand who they are with their audiences and give them a strategy that's tried and true that actually gets them appointments. And it's just the fact that I've been doing this for a decade or more.
Jonathan: Is there anything that I'm missing that I should have asked?
Rhonda: When it comes to LinkedIn recommendations, make sure they're current. If they're old, they're not relevant, right? They're probably not even relevant to what you're doing today. So if they are more than a year or two, it's very easy to just go out and get new ones. And the best way to get someone's attention, believe it or not, is to give somebody a recommendation. It's like, “wow, this is so cool. Somebody really appreciates me”.
Jonathan: I would think most people that you're dealing with have been in business long enough where they have more than one client to ask….
Rhonda: …. Yeah. I teach everybody this in my classes, my favorite four words, “I need your help”. What's worst they could say? “No, I'm not going to help you”. Most people will help. “It would mean the world to me if you'd write a recommendation on LinkedIn” It’s not a huge favor.
Jonathan: Rhonda thank you for your time and insights. Rhonda can best be reached on at Rhonda@theshermethond.com, www.theshermethod.com, 760-515-2822, and of course https://www.linkedin.com/in/rhondalsher/