55: How to Book Demos on Auto-Pilot

Yo! Before we jump in, catch me and several other GTM leaders on HYPCCCYCL’s GTM games this week.

We’re sharing recession-proof sales methodologies to use during an economic downturn.

I’ll be sharing my Jedi Method (I’m not even a Star Wars fan but the name’s too good)

Sign up here. See ya there!

…

My team of three and I have booked 91 outbound meetings in the last 2.5 months through the content strategy I’m sharing today.

This should go without saying but keep in mind this strategy won’t work for everyone.

I sell sales software to SMB/Mid-Market SaaS orgs - a demographic that’s very active on LinkedIn. Your success will largely depend on the type of product you sell and how active your ICP is on LinkedIn.

Now let’s jump in!

Agenda:

1. Understand that you’re the expert

2. Create content on your expertise

3. Prospect the engagement

4. Make your profile a lead magnet

5. Additional resources

1. Understand that you’re the expert

You’re an industry expert whether you know it or not.

Whatever product or service you sell, you have conversations about it and the problems it solves every day. Meaning you know more about the industry than 95% of people.

If you share that knowledge publicly people will follow you to learn more. Eventually, those followers turn into meetings.

Let me explain…

At Mailshake we sell a tool that helps with email deliverability and domain health.

This is a technical and confusing topic for most sales reps. But it’s important.

My team knows all the tips and tricks for optimizing email deliverability because we sell it every day.

Same thing when I worked at PandaDoc - I became an expert in proposal strategy and eSignature.

Ask yourself, what have you become an expert in by selling your product?

2. Create content on your expertise

Got your answer? Great. Time to start creating content.

But before you click away thinking “I’m not an influencer” or “I’m not a great copywriter” I’m here to tell you that doesn’t matter.

Yes, it helps. But you don’t need it right away.

Remember, our goal is to create content that educates our ICP which drives them to engage with us and fill our pipeline.

We want to make Presidents Club. Not LinkedIn’s top 100 sales influencers list.

Here’s how to do it:

Step 1: Set a goal

The LinkedIn algorithm favors consistency. Aim for 5 posts a week.

If this seems like a lot, keep reading. I’ll explain why it’s not.

Step 2: Create content

Here are 3 ways to find content inspiration:

• Your company’s blog & marketing content

  • This is how I created my 7-post series that resulted in 25+ outbound meetings (keep reading). There’s gold in your company blogs. Find relevant snippets that you can copy/paste into a post

• Share customer conversations

  • How did you educate your customers this week? Share findings from the convos you had.

• Polls

  • Ask questions related to your industry that encourage dialogue.

Step 3: Schedule your posts

One of the biggest reasons people don’t create LinkedIn content is because they think it takes too much time.

I agree.

I don’t want to worry about having to create a new post every single day during the work week.

So I don’t.

Instead, I block off one hour on Sunday mornings to create my 5 posts for the following week.

Then I schedule that content to auto-post each morning using Buffer. A free content scheduling tool.

One hour of deep work frees up my mind to focus on more important problems during the week.

…

Here is a series of 7 posts I created that resulted in 25+ meetings:

1. Poll on open rates (setting the stage for my series)

2. Sharing the results 

3. Email delivery tip 1/5 

4. Email delivery tip 2/5 

5. Email delivery tip 3/5 

6. Email delivery tip 4/5 

7. Email delivery tip 5/5 

Post #7 went out while I was on PTO. I returned to work the following Monday to find 8 new meetings on my calendar.

I share this to show you the potential.

These results come after staying consistent for a long time. Follow the above process for 1-3 months and you’ll be well on your way.

3. Prospect the engagement

Now that you’ve blocked off 1-hour to create and schedule all your content for the week. Create an additional 30-minute daily time block to go through your new connections, profile views, comments, and likes to find qualified prospects.

Put them into a “social selling sequence”.

For me, this sequence has one manual step every day for 5 days. Each step is a reminder to continue the conversation with that prospect on LinkedIn.

Two tips for social selling:

#1 Seek to educate. Not book a meeting

When I reach out to people who engage with my content, it sounds like this:

“Hey [name], saw you liked my post on XYZ. Here’s a free resource with more info on that [usually a link to a blog on my company’s website]. Any other questions you had on XYZ?”

Then, when the timing is right, I offer to jump on a call to discuss further.

#2 Have conversations with people who aren’t decision-makers.

But why waste your time talking to someone who doesn’t have budget???

Because it’s time well spent…

I talk to end users (SDRs, AEs, and SDR Managers) all day long.

I help them with my expertise (email deliverability) and if there’s a need, they connect me to the appropriate decision maker.

Or, at the very least, they give me relevant info that helps me book the DM.

Win, win.

Besides, VPs and C-Levels are typically not as active on LinkedIn. So if that’s your expectation when “social selling” you’ll have a much harder time getting results.

4. Make your LinkedIn profile a lead magnet

Congrats! You’ve recognized that YOU ARE the expert. You’ve started creating content and prospecting the people who engage.

Now it’s time for the best part: booking meetings on auto-pilot.

Think of your profile as another landing page for your company. If you set it up right, it’ll book inbound meetings for you 24/7.

Let’s break down mine:

Step 1: Create a banner that drives action (I used Canva)

• Line one explains the problem (low open/reply rates)

• Line two is the call to action (book time or free playbook)

Step 2: Create your header

• Basically a shorter version of what’s on your banner

• Your header is visible without even opening your profile. So it will help drive people to your profile.

Step 3: Add a Calendly link or free resource to your header

• Mine is a Calendly link. When you click it, the landing page does three important things:

  • Further educates on the problem of email delivery

  • Frames the meeting as a consultation call (NOT a demo). Even though it is a consultation call, prospects typically end up wanting to see a demo anyway!

  • The sign-up form asks qualifying questions so that I’m prepped for the meeting

• The playbook I offer is one that my marketing team created. People DM me asking for it > I share it > We start a conversation that might lead to a meeting.

• Bonus: add your meeting link and free resource to your featured section as well

Every SDR and AE on our team has this set up on their profile. We book an additional ~15+ inbound meetings per week as a result.

Additional resources

These are three courses I highly recommend for creating your LinkedIn content strategy.

I’ve done all three and they inspired this post:

1. The Operating System - Justin Welsch

   1. An in-depth course on finding your niche and driving traffic. He shares a process for curing “writer’s block” forever.

2. Content Strategy for LinkedIn - Devin Reed (use code “REEDER” for 20% off)

   1. Literally, everything you need to create your brand and content strategy in under an hour.

3. Social Selling Sprint - Landon Meyer

   1. 20 slides that will inspire you and give you the tips/direction you need to get started with content on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading!

Jed

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