I was talking to a salesperson the other day, they started life selling to the C-Suite, then they sold photocopiers, which they enjoyed "for the money" they are now back selling to the C-Suite.

There is a difference, as selling to the C-Suite needs to be far more business need driven, it needs to be business outcome driven and it requires a different pace of life.

This salesperson wanted to have all of those attributes .... but wanted them on-line.

He told me about how today, people check you out on-line.  They do.

How people find you on-line (they do) and will judge you based on your on-line profile (they do).

So what was my advice?

Get a personal brand.  Fill out your LinkedIn profile, not as a CV (this isn't about getting a job) but as you would want C-Level people to see you.  Take a look a mine, if you want an example.

Build a strong network. When you connect to people, they can see mutual connections.  You want to have a strong network, where C-Level people will be impressed and want to connect.

Don't just connect, always send a note.  This is about building a network, not building contacts.

Finally, you need strong content.  While this sales person's company creates great content.  I pointed out this was unusual, most corporate content is crap.  We also talked about him creating his own content.

Let's not forget that business leaders want to see you as a business leader, an expert, so lead!

One of the companies we are working with, Adam Gray, my business partner was training them this week.

One of the people on the course, let's call him Ben.

Tuesday he was trained

Wednesday AM he updated his profile. 

Wednesday PM he sent out connection requests.

Thursday AM he got his first piece of inbound.

Boom.

So the moral of this Christmas story is the DLAignite Social Selling Programme works. It works for everyone…as long as they do EXACTLY what they are told!