Des Walsh

Amplify Your LinkedIn Presence with a Company Page

January 14, 2013 by Des Walsh

I never cease to be amazed by the fact that many companies, small and large, are missing out on the opportunity to promote their company or brand via the LinkedIn Company Page feature.

One of the many recent changes in features and functionality on the LinkedIn professional networking platform is that the company page is now able to be configured and adjusted in various ways that can help us amplify our LinkedIn presence.

And all at no cost if you are a basic member, or no extra cost if you have a Premium membership.

All it takes is a bit of time. How much time depends on how well you want your company or brand to look. But you can do a lot in under two hours, depending on how uploadable and configurable your content is.

It’s not hard to do. In my blog post LinkedIn 101: Company Pages, for the MYOB blog The Pulse, I explain the basics of setting up your Company Page.

In that post I make the point that the “company” does not have to be an incorporated entity, such as an LLC in the United States, a Pty Ltd company in Australia, etc. You can set up a company page just for a brand.

Don’t stop at just a description of the company

A lot of companies, large and small, set up company pages on LinkedIn, then neglect to provide any information under the tab for products or services. That’s like saying, “Hello, we’re here, but we don’t want to sell you anything.”

Put some work into the image

Depending on your graphic skills and tools, the only thing you might need help with is the image at the top of the page.

If you or a team or family member has Photoshop or similar, you will be able to put something together.

I’m no graphic designer, but I made the image below using Photoshop Elements (an ancient version, 2.0).

And in case the Photoshop or Photoshop option is out of reach, in another blog post, Don’t Waste the Picture Space on Your LinkedIn Company Page, I’ve explained about how to set up the image and some options other than Photoshop.

It’s a no-brainer

When you check on what your competitors have done – or not done – about LinkedIn company pages, you might be surprised at how few of your competitors are seizing this opportunity and at how simple a matter it is for you to use this extra way of getting your story out.

Does opportunity knock for you here?

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Des Walsh provides a range of LinkedIn coaching and “done for you” services.

Contact details for Des at this link.

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Image credit: LinkedIn pen from The Seafarer – Sheila S via Flickr CC BY 2.0

How to Close Deals Without Trickery

January 8, 2013 by Des Walsh

One of the toughest challenges for so many professionals setting up their own business is surely the need to become effective in selling.

I’m no exception. I don’t like being “sold to” and I did not like the idea of being seen as a salesman.

Before I go any further, I acknowledge unreservedly that there are plenty of people in sales who are responsible and ethical, and also very successful at what they do.

At the same time, I have to acknowledge that my learning to sell was hampered by my sharing in some common prejudices about selling and sales people.

Prejudices that are frequently reinforced by shock-horror media stories about people being tricked by sales people.

And we all know, don’t we, about those surveys about respect for different professions or avocations that show sales people down at the tail end?

For instance, the 2012 edition of the annual Reader’s Digest New Zealand Most Trusted Professions annual survey shows the last seven of the top 40 as, in order of declining trust: journalists, real estate agents, insurance salespeople, sex workers, car salespeople, door-to-door salespeople, telemarketers

Wouldn’t most of us rather be up with the nurses, doctors, teachers and other more respected categories?

Even bankers are up at 26 in that survey!

But without selling there is no business.

So, unless we have the working capital to engage sales people, we have to learn. And even then, it is surely in the nature of small business that as business owners, for the really strategic, high-profit deals we will have to be the ones who carry the day, or otherwise lose the sale.

Like so many professionals who have started their own businesses, typically small businesses at the outset, I had to learn to a system of selling.

And one of the hardest parts of that learning was about how to close a sale.

Because, as I was quickly to learn, and often the hard way, without closing there is no sale, there is no deal.

Problem was, I found a lot of the traditional ways of closing the deal were just too tricky for me to use with a good conscience – or maybe was it at least partly because I’m not a capable enough actor?

I did try. But it wasn’t me and sometimes I could see that people I was trying to sell to were actually embarrassed that I was making such a goose of myself!

So I was highly motivated to come up with some basic strategies that worked for me.

Four of those strategies are: