On a 2001 New Zealand census, 53,715 people listed their religion as “Jedi.” Shortly thereafter, 390,000 people in the United Kingdom and 70,509 Australians followed suit and listed Jedi on their census forms. Clearly, for some Star Wars fans, the movie and its actors have given them true inspiration.
Star Wars did not win its central place in the world’s heart and culture because the movie, in a manner of speaking, “imitates life” or stands as a symbol for justice, equality and tolerance. Rather, Star Wars became a popular movie around the world because of the philosophical concepts it taught us about life.
To many, following the path of the Jedi and the concept of the Force are sound principles to live by. Both serve as a spiritual and educational metaphor for the convictions and experiences of their fans. For them, the Jedi code lays out a strategy and tactics to follow in order to master their craft.
Recently, I have met a similar group of people that have developed their own code, their own strategies, and their own tactics to follow. They have accumulated a body of knowledge and sales practices that are making a huge difference in their sales performance. They've been able to create their own sales “Force” and they've agreed to share with me some of their best strategies and tactics – or as I call them clever hacks.
Here’s how to become a Jedi Sales Knight:
#2 Geoff Stuhr,
My best sales hack derives from just being able to find the people that you want to get in touch with on LinkedIn. Here’s how I do it:
- Go to LinkedIn’s Advanced Search
- Pick the title of the people that you want to get in touch with, to which your solution can help the most
- Use quotations around that title, and around the company that you are looking for (if it is a specific company) <Click Search>
- If they have a LinkedIn account, you will find the person that is in the right role and the right company.
- Then send them an In-Mail or reach out to someone that knows them for an introduction.
The first thing in any sales role is finding out who can buy your product and the second is getting their attention, then we go into a sales process/funnel, but I feel like if I’m able to find more of my prospects and have a better shot at getting their attention, then I will undoubtedly be more successful in my role.
#3 Michael Hurwitz, President and Co-Founder of Careers in Government
“Don’t waste time with Direct Message (DM) on
#4 Keith Gill, Avisolve
You can organically "SEO" your LinkedIn profile and rank quite easily in Google for specific keyword phrases a lot easier than trying to create a custom site from scratch. Because your LinkedIn profile already has a high authority domain, you can optimize it to show your profile on keyword searches on Google. I have been able to rank my LinkedIn profile for competitive keyword phrases such as "Arizona Telecom," "Arizona Cloud Storage," "Arizona VoIP," "Arizona Cloud Computing" among many others. Most of the rankings are on page one of Google and rank above some major corporations in the same space that have unlimited marketing budgets. To read more about how I did it, I recommend you read Getting on the Front Page of Google in 30 days With LinkedIn.
#5 Lesley Hastings, Director New Client Partnerships at the Members Group
Recently I was at a luncheon which I was able to sign up on through Facebook. That Facebook event invite allowed me to view and connect with more prospects in my area. It sounds simple, but that insight and transparency is a game changer if used strategically. While you cannot replace face to face meetings, the advent of social media and selling in the digital age has actually increased the opportunities for me to meet the right people in person.
#6 Brian Jacobs, International Director in JLL’s Corporate Solutions practice
I like to use online tools and automation to maintain consistency. My favorites are Buffer and Paper.li. As a salesperson focusing on complex B2B contracts, time is a valuable resource. I don’t always have time to engage on Twitter and LinkedIn, so occasionally I’ll automate my LinkedIn and Twitter feeds by creating a catalog of content once a week, then automating the distribution of that content for the remainder of the week. That allows me to maintain an active presence on those important sales channels, which creates opportunities for me.
#7 Jack Kosakowski, Act-On Software, Inc
My secret sauce would be the methodology I use to prospect potential customers on LinkedIn. First I engage people who have written articles on LinkedIn through commenting or sending them a note about their article. Then I share their content on my social channels to help amplify their work. Once I have created high engagement through my promotion efforts, I will connect back with them on LinkedIn in order to share a little bit about what I do. Most of the time, they are receptive to my follow up note because they recognize the effort I put into promoting them.
#8 Jim McGinnis, Leads the Accountant and Advisor Group for Intuit
We’ve been using the “Tag” feature in Linkedin to categorize our contacts. When a new contact accepts an invitation to connect we will “Tag” them as “Partner” or “Potential Partner.” We will then use this information when targeting Linkedin “In Mail” messages about events or announcements. When we search our contact base for people we will want to invite to a Recruiting event we just filter by the tag “Potential Partner” then construct our Linkedin “In-Mail” based on this filter. It’s a great way to send personal emails to a select group of people rather than your whole group of connections that may not care about a CPA/Bookkeeping event.
#9 Dave Stein, B2B Sales Consultant
I’m still amazed at how many salespeople don’t understand the power of Google Alerts. Google will send you an email when anything appears on the Internet containing your keywords or phrases. I use it to track my clients’ competitors. They’re always impressed that I send them articles about their competition with a few sentences on how I would recommend they counter or position against what their competitor has done.
#10 Jessica Voss, Five9 - Cloud Contact Center Technology Guru
I’d rather not give my secrets to my competitors that may be reading this, but one secret is to take the selling out of “social selling,” and replace it with the words thought leader! Lead by example and lead with the image of helping buyers rather than selling to buyers. Be known for someone that has the answers to your buyer’s real problems, then they’ll be coming to you instead of the other way around.
I’ve also helped to compile 33 more sales hacks if you’re interested in becoming an even better Jedi.
