I had the opportunity to interview my friend, Trevor Turnbull, on how to leverage the power of LinkedIn marketing to generate sales and grow your online business.
Trevor is an online sales and marketing expert with over 12 years of experience working in the industry. He is the Founder of Linked Into Leads, a LinkedIn lead generation, training and consulting company that finds, qualifies and connects clients to their target audience using the #1 network for business professionals.
For the last 8 years, Trevor has been speaking professionally on the subject of how to leverage LinkedIn in order to grow your network. He created an amazing training program called, Linkedinfluence that shows you how you can use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website and successfully network with high-profile individuals.
Whether you are just starting your online business or if you already have a business and want to take it to the next level, Trevor’s knowledge will provide you with a lot of value.
Are you ready to master LinkedIn profile marketing so that you can attract new customers and deliver your message to the right people? Trevor is here to show you how.
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Do you want to learn Trevor Turnbull's 7-step process for landing your next client using the LinkedIn Funnel? CLICK HERE to join my LIVE webinar with him on June 28th, 2017!
Below is a sneak peak of my interview with Trevor Turnbull:
Can you share a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the online business and marketing world?
My entrepreneurial journey started in 2003. I have a marketing degree, but didn’t do anything with it. I knew pretty quickly that I had an entrepreneurial bug inside of me. I got into sales right out of university, and after 3 years I got sick of working for other people and taking direction.
Mike Olaski first introduced me to the digital world in 2006. One year later, I quit my job, and Mike and I started a website development company. We built our business up to 40 clients and then sold that company. From there, I went to work for a digital agency in Saskatoon, where I got to work for some multi-national brands and sports teams. This was in 2007-2008, when social media was just starting to become popular. The executives that I was working with were like, “What is this Facebook thing and how can we leverage it?” I had no clue, but I told them that I did. I taught myself how to use it and started facilitating training programs.
The online world transformed into my passion, in particular the social media side of business and how you can use it to build relationships. I quit that job, and started doing consulting around this exact thing. Mike and I reconnected, went out east and launched a 2nd website, which we called Sports Fan Connect. It was just two dudes on the road, attending sports games, leveraging contacts, and documenting what was going on in the social media world of the sports industry. I used that platform to connect with people that I wanted to meet as well.
How can LinkedIn help people generate leads or sales for their online businesses? What are the main benefits of this tool?
LinkedIn has evolved a lot over the years. It comes down to some basic principles.
The starting point is one’s LinkedIn profile. Oftentimes, it gets viewed as an online resume, a place where you dump your experience, but that’s a big mistake. When you think about core marketing principles you need to address what is the pain point of your audience and figure out how to solve that problem. You have to do the same thing with your LinkedIn profile. If you solve a problem or want to for that matter, and you can address those things, your profile should speak to that person. That will compel him/her to connect with you.
I talk about a very simplified buyer journey, which is comprised of awareness, consideration, evaluation, and then advocacy. If you are building awareness to get yourself in front of the right people who might buy your services or products, they have to know within 3 seconds why they want to read more. That’s why it is so critical to master those tiny tweaks to your profile in order to spark someone’s attention.
Can you expand on how else you can utilize LinkedIn in order to generate more leads and sales?
I talk about a 7-step process in my online training program, The 30 Day Sales Machine. Once you’ve established that base of clearly communicating what you do, the next step is for you to be proactive, and to go find the people that you want to work with. In some cases, you need to play the numbers game. You want to reach out to every single person, but with very targeted messaging. It’s such a tiny thing, but when you are asking to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you have to put it in his/her court to make the decision. It’s a psychological thing. With LinkedIn, the more specific you can be, the more effectively you can speak to the person you are talking to.
Can you talk a bit more about the content-side of LinkedIn?
I go through a 7-step process during my live webinar, where I teach people how you can land your next client using the LinkedIn funnel. The first six steps focus on things like messaging, follow-ups, etc., but the seventh step is about how to build expertise and raise your authority through content publishing. You can do that through publishing directly on LinkedIn, because it has a built-in database of your target audience. The more that you build your 1st-degree network with the right people, the more that your content will be seen. You can also message those people directly and share your content with them. You need to be consistent and have processes in place in order to scale what you are doing. In doing so, it raises your level of expertise.
Can you share any strategies with regards to how people can attract more leads or sales to their physical products or Amazon books, via LinkedIn?
When you are selling a service, you are building relationships. In between selling services are people that sell products, but don’t necessarily sell a widgetized product — like a book that provides education, or a physical product like a supplement. You have to take a hybrid approach, where you are making people aware of what you are selling, but always coming from a value first perspective.
Going back to the buyer journey, awareness is always #1. If you are selling a supplement and you want trainers to be aware of it, you are going to target personal trainers by making sure that your profile speaks to what value you offer those customers. Maybe it’s in the form of educational content that speaks to those things (i.e. testimonials, a video, quality pictures), and then start inviting those people to connect. The same thing goes for e-Book publishing. One of the best ways to offer value is to give away chapters of your book.
What advice would you give to someone that has aspirations of starting an online business? What does it take in order to be successful in the online business world?
In 2009, after years of trying to find my way, I landed on my Mom’s couch for 6 months at the age of 35. It was really humbling and uplifting to know that I had my Mom there to support me. From there, it took me 5-6 years to figure everything out.
The turning point for me was in the last two years. I got hyper focused. I know that I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself as just the “LinkedIn Guy”, but I realized that it was my #1 source to be able to establish expertise and then to be able to build trust and expand on what I teach. I recommend to people that they pick something, model other peoples’ success, get really good at what they do, and don’t get distracted. That is my advice for how to grow your online business organically.
Trevor has graciously gifted you guys with a free video training that will guide you through the 7-step process for creating an irresistible LinkedIn profile that will attract clients. Check it out now!
I’m so grateful that I was able to interview Trevor Turnbull on how to leverage the power of LinkedIn marketing to generate sales and grow your online business. I hope this interview has inspired you to start or level up your LinkedIn marketing strategy!
Do you want to learn Trevor Turnbull's 7-step process for landing your next client using the LinkedIn Funnel? CLICK HERE to join my LIVE webinar with him on June 28th, 2017!
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