When you send a prospect an email or leave them a voicemail what do many of them do?
They Google you (as well as your company.)
As you know, buyers are seriously concerned about burning their time these days. If you happen to pique someone’s interest with your brilliant email or voicemail they are likely to vet you before they call you back and invest their precious time.
People buy from people
People buy from people. We buy from people we know, like and trust.
Linkedin’s 2019 research found that 51% of decision-makers consider trust in the relationship with the sales person as the biggest reason to ink a deal.
We really prefer buying from people than logos. There are not many logos that inspire that much love and trust these days. The chances are good that your prospect has never even heard of your company anyway.
Buyers want to hold you accountable. They want to figure out if they should trust you.
Buyers want to know about you personally as well as the outfit you represent. Many of them will Google you or look you up on Linkedin.
And what will they find?
Your personal webpage
Whether a buyer types your name into Google or looks you up directly on Linkedin there’s a very good chance they will find your Linkedin page.
What impression does this page give? Does it convey a clear message and benefits to your prospect? Does it provide them with educational content and resources?
You can think of your Linkedin page as your own personal website. You should give it the same thought and attention you give to your prospecting emails and the content on your company website.
Companies spend a lot of time figuring out the wording and content that goes on their website. If you’re out there selling, you should consider your Linkedin page the same way.
No embarrassing photos please
When I Google your name what else shows up on page one of the results?
Take a look at this stuff too. This represents your “web presence”. This is what your prospect will see.
Can you optimize some of these other pages too? If you active on Twitter, your Twitter page will probably show up. If you hang out on Pinterest, expect your Pinterest page to come up.
We all have a life outside of our sales job but realize that these other search results are going to paint a picture for your prospect.
Take a look and make sure they won’t see anything too off-putting. I’ve seen some personal photos of people surface when I’ve Google’d them that I suspect were not part of their go-to-market plan, at least not for the type of product I thought they were selling…
I’m not going to do a deep dive into optimizing your Linkedin profile here. Here’s an article from Linkedin themselves on this topic.
Make sure the search results when searching your name convey the message you want to give. Type your name into Google now and see what you see. Do you need to tweak a few things?