How BDRS and SDR Should Use LinkedIn During COVID19! The coronavirus pandemic has taken the world by storm. Many industries have been affected, even sales. How do you keep selling at this time? One of the ways is via LinkedIn. This episode will talk about how BDRs and SDRs can use the LinkedIn platform amid Covid-19. Amanda Statton was raised in Virginia Beach and moved to Tampa about a year ago to work for BlueGrace Logistics. She started sales four years ago and she loves it. Jason Behnke is originally from Chicago and came down to Tampa to study at the University of Tampa. Right after college, he worked in sports and event sponsorship and eventually found his way to BlueGrace Logistics. Selling in time of Covid-19 The pandemic has touched every industry. Several manufacturing companies have shut down. People have been working from home for several weeks now but for sales and logistics, an opportunity has been created to transport products and to get help to those in need. While Amanda and Jason are still working the same jobs, how they approach a potential customer has changed. They are focused on building relationships, even more than ever before. These are hard times so they do what they can to reach out, see how they can help and make themselves available. BlueGrace Logistics partners with companies and learns about their supply chain. They look for ways to help them save money and drive out costs within their network. Before Covid-19, Amanda opened a conversation by saying, ‘Hey, I would love to learn more about your supply chain. I want to see if we can help you save money to drive out costs within your network and really get a better understanding of what you’re doing today.’ With Covid-19, the question has changed from wanting to know about a company’s strategies to asking how the company is doing amid the pandemic and how it has impacted their organization. With that information she can then evaluate how her company can help lessen any negative impact. The focus is now helping their current clients ride the road to recovery and offering advice to prospects within the same industry who may be dealing with the same situations. Responding to inquiries People respond to these inquiries in different ways. Some people are very open to having a conversation and understand everyone is in this together. There are others who are frustrated and wonder out loud why they’re still being asked sales questions even under these current circumstances. Prospecting today Salespeople are still prospecting, even today. Amanda and Jason still conduct meetings from phone calls, emails, and LinkedIn outreach. They stick to these basic three because this is how people are still operating. There’s still a need to work on multiple channels to target prospects. Amanda is also getting a number of responses and traffic from the links that she’s sending over email. She’s still seeing activity in clicks-to-links in emails and LinkedIn so these are the people she’ll be reaching out to in the future. People are not as receptive with the direct approach but people are still looking for authenticity. They just want the conversation at a slower pace. This means getting to know the person on a personal level. It’s important for empathy to be the driver from beginning to end and plan to follow up. Make sure you are leaving on a good note. There are various apps that you can use to keep up with the prospects including Sales Navigator but a simple , “Hey, how are you?” works equally well. If you send out a birthday card, include a personal note. Doing this can open a dialogue and will remind the prospects there is a relationship they can look forward to. Sharing content Like other small businesses, BlueGrace...

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