We need to have a talk about LinkedIn

Friends, we need to have an honest conversation about LinkedIn. LinkedIn was once a place full of valuable information on all sorts of interesting topics. The best part about LinkedIn was seeing smart people in your industry vertical post about things outside of a your "salesperson knowledge center". It was an endless stream of research, interesting communities, ideas... all fodder for building new relationships and engaging in a new community. But, today, LinkedIn is Zig Zigler's greatest hits. It's a funhouse mirror -- I, a salesperson, look at LinkedIn and a significant portion of the content is simply other salespeople trying to sell me courses. The irony that I've voluntarily walked into a sales trap, an inescapable timeshare of mindshare... as a fellow salesperson who was looking for potential clients. Yet, that is what I've done, and yes, this is where we are.

Now, you might appeal to logic and tell me that some of those sales gurus have good advice and have merit. Indeed, I'm sure they do. But it's a drag to sign in everyday and see the same 6 people giving me their "top 5 tips on not to suck" which inevitably end with something clever like "Congrats, you suck, buy my course so you don't suck anymore loser".

Why does this upset me so much? Because sales is an art form and there are dozens of "influencers" on LinkedIn destroying the art of sales for an entire generation of salespeople. They offer a framework - a pre-packaged lunchable of shortcuts designed to get you rich. A set of rules and procedures like starched shirts ill fitting on 95% of salespeople.

Here's the secret that these salespeople don't want to tell you: every single one of you can find success in sales by being genuine, being persistent, being consistent, and most importantly, delivering value for your prospective clients as fast and as furiously as possible.

I'd love to tell you I've tried one of these courses so that I can actually have credibility in my opinion. But the truth is, I haven't because I can only suffer through hearing how important multi-threading is one more time before I feel like I should go back to law school and move into mom's house.

The truth is you can do this on your own grit and persistence, and all the books have already been written. Learn reciprocity. Learn about value alignment. Be honest. And get in the middle of value and your clients, learn how to deliver that value, and just BE YOU.

Starched shirt sales clones be damned.