Accelerate 2021 is a 2-day virtual summit that features 15 speakers, including some of the most respected leaders from the sales tech industry and the most loved sales coaches we have all admired and learned from. Accelerate is on Dec 14th and 15th. Click here to register.

This is a blog series where we examine speakers from Accelerate. Today’s featured speaker is Daniel Disney - also known as The King of LinkedIn and Social Selling.

Daniel Disney is the author of the best-selling book called ‘The Ultimate LinkedIn Sales Guide.’ He is a master of using LinkedIn to its best capacity and has closed and won millions in revenue from LinkedIn-generated leads.

Here’s an interview with him where he speaks about his sales journey and shares some wisdom for new beginners.

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Q. How do you think sales has changed over the past 5 years? What do you predict will happen in the next 5 years?

‍Sales has changed a lot in many ways over the last 5 years, primarily in the way we can communicate with our prospects and customers. Gone are the days when just phone and email were the only tools that salespeople had. Now, they have social media, LinkedIn, video, text, and I'm sure many more are yet to come.

The biggest changes that I can see happening over the next 5 years is the growth of video throughout the sales process, from prospecting, meetings to closing. Social media platforms used for B2B like LinkedIn will continue to evolve and create new opportunities. Plus, the rise in the personal brand will become a core part of every salesperson

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Q. What is the one piece of advice you'd like to give to people who are just starting out in sales?‍

The one tip I would give is to learn and practice. Learn how to do your job from the best people out there, internally and externally, and then practice, practice, practice! The only way you'll ever master any part of sales is from experience and knowledge combined.

Always keep learning and always keep practicing. Make more calls, send more emails, send more LinkedIn messages, the more you do the more you'll learn.

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Q. Can you tell us a bit about your greatest win in sales, something that still motivates you to date?

Every win, every sale to me is a great achievement. But for me, the one thing that motivates me the most is what happens beyond the sale, and that's when the customer is satisfied with what I've sold them. When the customer is happy, that's when I truly feel successful and that is what motivates me to work harder than anyone else out there.

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Q. Okay, let’s pretend this is a cold call, what’s your go-to cold calling opener? :)‍

I'll be completely honest, I haven't made a cold call in nearly 6 years now (all of my sales come from LinkedIn & social selling) so I'm a little rusty!

If I were to make a cold call now to sell my LinkedIn training programs, I'd probably start it like this -

"Hi <PROSPECT NAME>, I was just looking through some of your team’s LinkedIn profiles and noticed quite a few of them were missing some key areas that could help them quite a lot (I'd then name a few folks of their team that I'd found on LinkedIn), do you have a spare minute or 2 and I can share them with you quickly?"

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Q. Can you give us some tips on how to create an impactful LinkedIn profile? How to stand out?‍

Now, this is my area of expertise! There are a lot of ways you can level up your LinkedIn profile, but the few that are the most important are your profile photo, banner image, and summary. Here are my top tips:

Profile photo - Ideally have it taken by a professional photographer, or get someone to take it on a decent smartphone, ideally against a plain colored wall.

Banner image - This is your own personal billboard and should tell people straight away what you offer and how you help people.

About section - There is a lot of room here to write, but the focus shouldn't be on you, it should be on THEM. Tell your prospects what it is that you can do for them, what problems do you solve, how do you solve them, and how you can help them.

Here's a bonus extra tip, a new feature came out in 2021 yet the vast majority of people still haven't used it. You can now upload a 30-second cover story video into your profile photo. For salespeople the is the PERFECT opportunity to tell people what you do and how you might be able to help them.

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Q. What will you be talking about at Accelerate 2021?‍

I'll be sharing my top 10 LinkedIn and social selling trends for 2022, the key areas I think salespeople and sales teams should be focusing on to get the best results next year.

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Q. A book that you recently read and would recommend to others?‍

5 Minute Selling by Alex Goldfayn. If you’re in sales, then this is a great read for you.

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Daniel Disney is all set to speak at Accelerate and dive deeper into social selling for 2022. You don’t want to miss this session. Catch it in time by registering here: Save my seat!