It was Grady Booch the American software engineer who said

"a fool with a tool is still a fool"

What's the best lead generation tool in the world?

This week I was on a LinkedIn webinar, of course if you are on a Linkedin webinar it's going to try and sell you Sales Navigator.  After all, if I was on one of your webinars, you would try and sell me your product or service.

The speaker from LinkedIn is telling us how amazing LinkedIn sales navigator (sales nav) is and in the chat somebody comments, that they had "tried sales nav and it was rubbish".

I should point out that I am not paid by LinkedIn, or Microsoft and I am not on any commission.  But, by far, LinkedIn sales navigator IS the best lead generation tool on the market.  

But only if you know how to use it

What I mean by "know how to use it" is you need to know what it's takes to be social, otherwise you can become the world's most advanced spammer.

Think of Sales nav as a Formula 1 car.  I've been driving for years on normal roads, but I would crash a F1 car at the first bend, because it's a highly sophisticated tool. You and I would expect to be trained on driving a F1 car first. Yes? The same with Sales Nav.

A fool with a tool is still a fool

Checking out the Linkedin profile of the person who said it was rubbish, her Linkedin profile was rubbish.  Her summary title was in capitals, which made it look like she was shouting, she had little to no network and she hadn't posted any content.  From a Linkedin prospective, she didn't have a pulse.  No wonder she didn't find it any use.

If you got any message from her you would assume she was a spammer. 

For Sales Navigator to work for you, you have to know what it means to be social, otherwise, you are wasting your time and your money.  This has always been Linkedin's problem with selling Sales Navigator, they sell you how to use the tool, but not what it means to be social.

It's about like me teaching you how a car engine works and then telling you to drive a car.  One is being trained on the technicalities of using the tool, the other is the process of using the tool in real life.

The same, same

We have a client that uses an employee advocacy tool, which is a great tool, but again, people are being trained how to use the tool, but not why.  We have data that shows that the people that use this tool get nothing from it.  But, actually if you use this tool properly, you would get a massive response from it.  It's actually so simple (which is good) and so powerful. 

So why sales tech?

My advice on any sales teach is to understand what you want to achieve, sales tech for sales tech sake will just mean you spending money and getting no benefit. 

My advice, before you invest in any sales tech is to make sure your people are empowered to be digital, be able to walk digital corridors and understand what it means to be social.