As a former sales trainer and personal producer, Brynne adapted traditional sales techniques to the new digital world. She now guides professionals to establish an expert brand, find and engage their target market, and leverage connections for warm introductions to qualified buyers. In addition, Brynne is the author of The LinkedIn Sales Playbook: A Tactical Guide to Social Selling.
Brynne and I were introduced through our network several years ago. In fact, I was told I needed to follow Brynne on LinkedIn so I could learn from the brilliant content she shares about LinkedIn. We connected and I reached out to her with an invitation to get to know one another, or perhaps it was the other way around. All I know is that she invited me to visit her office to get to know one another and discuss the type of introductions I would like and who I could introduce her to in my network.
I love following Brynne and even after all of these years, anytime she offers a training or is speaking somewhere I try to support her in her work by showing up. She is extremely generous about supporting her network and the LinkedIn community with amazing content, training, and insights. The bonus is that I ALWAYS learn something new to implement on my page and share with my clients and connections when they have questions.
As a producer and a sales trainer, Brynne was teaching people how to grow their businesses with networking, prospecting, and client referrals. She shares that more than 8 years ago she recognized that LinkedIn was a much more powerful tool than just a job seeking tool which how people were using it at the time. She started teaching it in Chambers and other places as a lead into other training.
Realizing she didn’t want to teach cold-calling or overcoming objections, she really wanted to teach people how to leverage this new tool to enhance our in person networking, client referral opportunities, and position ourselves as the subject matter expert. LinkedIn has become our online footprint. Brynne shares that even if you aren’t actively leveraging LinkedIn, everyone you meet goes there to looks you up after any networking meeting. She says you’ve go to be positioned well and earn the right for people to want to have follow up conversations with you.
Brynne is very intentional in mentioning that LinkedIn is a way to enhance your networking, not replace it. Yes, you can meet people online and take it offline, and vice versa. You can network with people all over the world and video conferencing is a huge help as more people get comfortable with it. Brynne shares that ultimately her networking begins in person, whether attending or speaking at an event meeting new people, she then connects with them on LinkedIn.
If the people she connects with have a complimentary business or are well connected in the area, she will set up a follow up meeting with them. The focus of the meeting is to help make introductions for one another, to Brynne this is the ultimate networking relationship when we can start to refer business. The way LI enhances that is before the meeting, once rapport and trust have been established, Brynne will invite her new connection to take a look at her connections, pull out 20 – 30 names of people they might want to meet, they’ll review them when together and after the meeting she’ll make 4-5 introductions. They will most likely invite Brynne to do the same. This is the technique that Brynne has been teaching audiences for years.
Yes, that is what she did with me more than 5 years ago when we met. Instant trust!
With this LinkedIn process Brynne share, networking relationships become powerful. It’s not just who do you know and then they have to think about it, we’re doing our homework in advance. Now they make this introduction and this new person is going to check you out. It’s really important that you’ve positioned yourself to earn the right to have the call.
You want to convert connections to conversations, but it often takes content to get there.
Content starts with having your profile as a resource, not a resume. When they get there, you want them to be learning, thinking differently, creating curiosity so when you do ask for that phone call or meeting, they already see the value in meeting with you.
Brynne does a tremendous amount of speaking and networking. She obviously meets a lot of people when she does and connecting with people at events is very important to her. There are a couple of ways to connect with people on mobile and Brynne share two features that she loves.
- When connecting with a room full of people she uses the Nearby Here feature on LinkedIn. Go to the mynetwork tab, select the blue circle on the bottom right with the symbol of a person and a + sign, then select find nearby. If everyone turns that on at the same time all of their profiles pop up. Be sure
- In the same tab is the Scan QR Code If you are standing next to someone, you can have them turn this feature on and scan each other’s QR code. Brynne takes the extra step of having a pre-written message she can send to them with the “more” option once they have connected.
Be sure to watch the video, Brynne shares some great personalized messages you might want to write down to help you connect.
We talked about how to be purposeful in connecting with people and staying connected when you have a large network. Brynne shares her own personal management tips about downloading connections into an Excel spreadsheet, creating columns about what she wants to do with them, and how she will engage with them. She loves using video messages which are a quick easy way to stay in touch.
She also talked about people who don’t respond. She suggests finding a different way to reach them. It may depend on how they like to communicate and the social platforms they prefer. Brynne talks about how she uses Facebook as her outlet and keeps LinkedIn for business, but business owners may choose other social media platforms depending on where they can reach more of their target audience.
“Figure out where your prospects are hanging out most and hang out there most.”
Brynne shares a story about how she was introduced to TD Bank. She did what she always does, she asked one of her LinkedIn connections who was connected to someone at TD Bank to make an introduction for her. Within 20 minutes of the introduction, she received a response and had an appointment. When she got there, she was met with an interesting response. “Why are you here?” her response, “Why am I here?”. He told her that when the gentlemen who introduced them asks for a favor he accommodates his requests. Her response, if I could show your commercial bankers how to get in the same way, would you be open to that? He looked at his book, told her they had a meeting in two weeks and said, “Oh by the way, how much”. She says it was the fastest sale she has ever made.
Creating connection and staying in touch with your connections leads to more business. Asking for introductions offers tremendous value. Reaching out to clients and asking for referrals is a huge opportunity. Clients are more than happy to share you with their network and they can speak to your work. Reaching out with integrity and empathy makes a huge difference for the people in your network.
Brynne feels fortunate to be in partnership with a lot of large sales training organizations developing e-learning, membership sites, and other training programs. At Social Sales Link, they are currently focusing on helping people have the right thought leadership presence through video and content, showing up and leveraging their network to grow their business. They currently have a deeper emphasis on video because it is having a big impact.
In our time together we talked about how to use LinkedIn to connect with your in-person network, deepen relationships, and how to ask for referrals that will help you grow your business. Brynne is the go-to person for all things LinkedIn. Her deep focus and passion for helping people optimize LinkedIn as a sales tool to grow your business is evident in her work and in her heart.
Brynne offers a 15-minute call to anyone who needs a little help with LinkedIn, just mention you heard her talk with me here on 30 Second Success Connect.
Connect with Brynne Tillman
Website: https://socialsaleslink.com/
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