Like most of people on Linkedin, I check the details of the Linkedin profile views. It’s always interesting to see the variety of people curious to see more than the headline. But what do you do when people look you up on Linkedin? If the person is someone you never met, do you wonder why she or he looked up your profile? Are you feeling flattered? Well, when these is a question to be asked, I believe there is value to simply ask it. As it could lead to a conversation and, as we know, in sales, it all starts with a conversation.
So I don’t let these occasions go to waste. Maybe the person is looking for some help and isn’t as confident reaching out to a stranger. Maybe she hasn’t got the paid for version of Linkedin that enable her to send InMail. If we end up talking and sharing what we both do, maybe we will work out that we can help each other out? In short: too many maybes that can be addressed by asking a simple question. Can I help? Here is a screen shot of what I usually send.
A few points on this. I most always get a response. Rarely the question: “Can I help?” is being left ignored. Also, I state that I assume there was no conversation to be had. So I am really not super enthusiastic. I am just being thorough. And I state that,whether or not I can help, he/she shouldn’t hesitate to let me know.
Some people call it social selling. Effectively, if you “pump out” interesting content, this content might have been the trigger for the look up. But whether it’s called “social selling” or something else, I have found it useful. And have indeed initiated a handful of interesting conversations (not 100s but a few).
What about you? How do you handle these LI look-up? And anything useful came out of it?
