If You’re In Sales, Influence is Your Job w/ Peter Winick [Episode 475]

In this episode, we talk influence, persuasion, and effectiveness of sales reps.

Peter Winick, Founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Leverage, joins me on this episode.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Thought Leadership Leverage works exclusively with authors, thought leaders, and speakers that typically have content with business applications. They build strategies, brands, platforms, solutions, and business for their clients.

Peter discusses personal branding and its history in the corporate environment. That is your table stakes. Influence, or thought leadership, is an enhancement to your brand. What perspective can you share with others that benefits them?

Influence is your job, when you are marketing or selling. Peter describes influence, thought leadership and differentiation. Influence is not manipulating people to do what they don’t want, but guiding them to do what they want.

Personal brand online is a precursor to influence. Have a little courage to be human and transparent, but a stakeholder at a Fortune 500 Company you are targeting for SaaS, does not to see your posts on irrelevant personal topics.

LinkedIn will be searched, and so will Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If there are pictures of you on social media drinking and doing silly things, that’s not smart. You can post personal family photos, but don’t push them to people.

Peter talks about the spectrum of posting content. Some corporations control what you can post; regulations may be involved. Some corporations give leeway. Original content, such as comments on events you attend, is good.

Content you share is not an ask. It is value you are offering, to build your relationship. Providing value is a mindset and a habit. Keep building the relationship after a sale. Play the long game. Keep in touch.

Don’t let content marketing be in charge of your relationship with the buyer. Build your influence with sharing, and do not stop when discovery begins. No buyer self-identifies as a sales-qualified lead. Don’t treat them like it.

Add your original thoughts to anything you share. Comment on other people’s threads, especially by responding to a question, or add a question yourself, to start a discussion.

Leave your anxieties behind. Not everyone will agree, but if your contribution is worthwhile, it will be appreciated and discussed. In professional forums people use decorum.

If someone disagrees with your comment, it is an occasion for a discussion. It is valuable to challenge your own views, and for others to examine their own, thoughtfully.

Managers promote people when they’re already doing the job. Don’t wait until you are told to develop content. Do it now, within compliance issues. The tools exist for you to add thought leader value to your buyers, that leads to sales.

The Sales Enablement Podcast with Andy Paul was formerly Accelerate! with Andy Paul.