How to turn LinkedIn from time waster to sales machine: 3 insights from Tomas Wesander
Welcome to a new season of We Love Sales People! In season 3, we're broadening our horizons and inviting outside experts to share their sharpest strategies. First up is Tomas Wesander, co-founder of Stella Sales and one of the voices in the Star Sales Podcast.
Many salespeople find LinkedIn a time-suck - an endless stream of corporate bullshit that rarely leads to concrete business. But what if the platform, used correctly, could reduce your meeting booking time from 20 hours a week to just 3? In our latest episode, Tomas shares his journey from hating LinkedIn to building his entire business model around it. Here are three crucial insights for success:
1. The secret sauce of visibility: Dare to be personal
The biggest reason why companies fail on LinkedIn is that they communicate like impersonal press offices. Engagement is not created by logos, but by people. Tomas Wesander's recipe for success is to reflect the person you are in a face-to-face meeting, even on LinkedIn.
"We talk about choosing three areas that you alternate on LinkedIn where one of those areas is more about passion, you as a person, and then two other areas that are more about your expertise."
By combining expert posts with content that shows your personality and interests, you build a genuine relationship with your network. It's not about going private, it's about being personal and building the trust that is crucial to all B2B sales.
2. From PR to meeting booking: Visibility is only half the battle
Publishing one valuable post a week is the basis for building your brand and creating 'PR inside' - a positive image with your target audience. But 97% of people who see your posts will never contact you on their own initiative.
"If only it's visible. Then we're sort of in the PR marketing compartment. [...] The second part of two is to book meetings. And the most effective way is to write to your contacts on LinkedIn and ask if they want to meet."
Going from visibility to sales requires an active marketing effort. Tomas himself sets aside an hour every Monday to write to between 100 and 300 of his existing contacts, resulting in 3-5 booked meetings. When you combine a strong personal brand (PR) with proactive appointment booking (marketing), things really happen.
3. "Sparkle and shine": Success is about doing the job
By far the most common pitfall is doing too little or nothing at all. Many people know what they should do, but very few do it continuously. Tomas and his colleagues use two keywords: "rubbing and star shine". Star shine is about daring to be yourself, while grind is about having a system and the discipline to follow it - every week, without exception.
"This isn't about doing something, a bump in the road, sometime. [...] If you buy us in for a lecture or two, you will get inspiration. It's not going to change any behavior once in a hundred. That's the way it is."
Success on LinkedIn, just like in all sales, is not complicated. It's about having a clear process and actually doing the work.
Want to hear the full conversation and get more concrete tips?
Listen to the full episode with Tomas Wesander to dive deeper into how you can maximize your sales using LinkedIn.
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