Customer Success and LinkedIn Activity Leveraging Social Selling

BenB

Wanted to start a conversation around Customer Success Managers leveraging social selling tactics like frequent posting on LinkedIn. In sales it is heavily encouraged (if not mandatory) to stay active on LinkedIn, not just for prospecting but to stay top of mind to all your connections.

If a CSM is connected with their customers, frequent posting on LinkedIn could be a successful way to deepen relationships/trust. Their customers seeing them every day on LinkedIn sharing and bringing up interesting topics could have a major impact on the ability to get their customers on the phone.

I see lots of recommendations to message POCs on LinkedIn if they're non-responsive to emails/calls, but I'm not sure how much talk I've heard around social selling and customer success in general. If if we want our customers to accept and respond to our LinkedIn messages as a back-up plan, we might be better off staying more active in general.

Does anyone make social selling or LinkedIn best practices part of their CSM training (beyond just connecting and messaging when you need to find them).

PiperWilson

Hi @BenB

I see lots of recommendations to message POCs on LinkedIn if they're non-responsive to emails/calls.

As a customer, I can promise I would never do business with someone who "stalked" me on LinkedIn like that. Connecting is one thing. Using LinkedIn as an end run around accepted channels is not okay. The only exception would be if I suddenly left the company and they were touching base to check on me, not for a sale.

Whether or not a company trains its employees to build a personal brand, I recommend you do it and counsel others to do the same. Let that be your first step in creating your own personal brand.

A personal brand doesn't have much to do with sales directly, although sales could be a side benefit.

Building a personal brand makes people feel more comfortable, as if they know you! It establishes trust to your audience, employees, potential prospects or anyone else who you come into contact with. Having a personal brand also clearly defines what your genuine intentions are...

Lovlyn Andawey

Heya @BenB , thanks for starting this thread. I am curious about what other people would say as well. When I was in sales (very briefly), social selling via LinkedIn was encouraged. However, I shied away from it because I was so early in my career and I didn't want my LinkedIn influenced by the company/industry I am employed in. At the moment, I am a CSM exploring industries. 😁

It would make sense for me to share industry insights if I am super confident and excited about the field/industry. I would personally use LinkedIn to build my own brand because that would bring me joy and I would not feel pressured by the organization I would represent. If there are customers following me, I hope they can see me (the person, not the business I represent) as a fantastic consultant, and a strategic partner.