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How B2B SaaS founders can use social media to create a personal brand and grow their SaaS.

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Below you see the full webinar with Dipak Vadera about how B2B SaaS founders can use social media to create a personal brand and grow Their SaaS.

Looking for something specific, check out the transcript & table of contents to quickly find what you are looking for.

Date of video: 19th of May 2022
Speakers: Dipak Vadera
Host: Joran Hofman

Landing page: https://webinars.getreditus.com/social-selling-for-saas-founders

https://youtu.be/hieRO26AuAE

Intro to Webinar

Joran Hofman  00:00

Welcome. Today, we're going to talk with Dipak Vadera. How b2b SaaS founders can use social media to create a personal brand and grow their SaaS. I know Dipak already. I think for more than five years now we work together. A defeater for me, he was the ultimate digital nomad. Like he was living already from different places. Every time I spoke to him, he was somewhere else. And this was way before COVID hit. So he was the first person, I think, who was, for me, like a true digital nomad. And besides that, he was also always really active on LinkedIn. I know he's been doing gigs in multiple countries already to explain to companies and people how to do social selling. So we get him today for ourselves. That's really nice. If you have any questions, I would like to ask you to put them in chat. I will keep track of that. And I will make sure to interrupt Dipak at that time. So we can ask the question or raise your virtual hand, and then you can ask it yourself, but we try not to interrupt him too much. Without further ado, welcome, Dipak. I'm going to give the floor to you.

We all have a story to tell

Dipak Vadera  01:13

Thank you, you're on. Thank you very much for having me in your show. Cool. So without further ado, let's get started. We all have a story to tell, each and every one of us. Ever since the dawn of our existence as a species, we've told stories. We started sharing stories through pictograms by drawing on paintings and on walls, and then we evolved to put things in writing.

And now, we communicate and share stories online virtually. Whenever we share something, we do it in the form of stories. It's just so ingrained in us that we ourselves don't realize it.

When Joran was setting up this webinar, he reached out to me with an introduction; Hey Dipak, I'm looking to set up this webinar. Would you like to take part? He then shared. That was the beginning. He then shared the middle, which was why he wanted that webinar to happen and why it was so important for him and his brand. And lastly, the end was a call to action, which was, would you like to take part. So we set up a call to discuss further and then dive into all the logistical stuff behind the webinar.

It's so ingrained in us that we ourselves don't realize it, and people have always told their version of a story, whether it's you trying to get a budget from your boss or buy in from your colleagues to do something or try a certain approach. Or even when you're selling them something to a client, you're giving him a good reason to trust you, as an individual, to buy from you.

The beauty of social media is that we can look up absolutely anyone's story and fill in our own blanks. So we can assume who that person is based on their social media profile. So if I want to know a little bit about Joran, I'll look him up on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn and see what he's all about. And then, in my head, I'm building up an image of who Joran is.

Take owners of your story

As someone who's starting off their company, it's imperative that you establish and take ownership of your story. Think about how do you want to be perceived by the outside world. You don't want to leave it to chance. You don't want to leave it for other people to go ahead and tell your story because no one's going to be able to tell your story better than you. And if you're not telling your story, someone is going to share their version of theirs.

So I'm sure you've heard of the game, telephone, or Chinese whispers as they call it in some other countries. So people stand in the line, and someone whispers something into someone's ear. But ultimately, the message that gets relayed or ends up at the end is not the same thing that was said right at the beginning, right?

There's always something that gets mixed up or, yeah, distorted. The end message always comes out quite distorted. And so yeah, that just comes to show how people change or add their own versions of a certain image or a certain perception they have of someone, which is why it's so important that you take ownership of your own story.

Linkedin is the business social network

And when it comes to kind of sharing stories from a business perspective, we all know that LinkedIn is the business social network. And hence, people are going on there to share stories, again, like it, whether it's getting people to buy from them or convincing them that they're the right people to follow.

They're the thought leaders in a certain industry or in a certain space. LinkedIn is a business social network. And LinkedIn as a platform has been changing dramatically over the last couple of years. You can see this in the user interface. And in the user experience, it's trying to become more of a real social network in the true sense of its words.

It's trying to emulate things that Facebook has, for example, where you can react to certain messages or show a little bit more emotion. When you're reacting to something. It's become more media-rich. You can share different types of media, and people are moving on from using it as a platform and seeing it as an online CV. It's so much more than that.

Now LinkedIn currently has just north of 810 million members. A quarter of these are active on a daily basis. Just to get you to think about something, over the last two years, they added 140 million members. And that might not sound like a lot. But LinkedIn was founded in 2003. They've been around for more than 17 years. But yet, they only added an eighth of their user base in the last two years.

People are starting to take LinkedIn, personal branding, and social selling seriously. Despite LinkedIn having so many million members, only 3 million users go on LinkedIn to share content on a weekly basis. If you do the math, that's less than 1% of the LinkedIn user base going on LinkedIn to share content on a weekly basis. It's, therefore, no surprise to me that this 1% or less than 1% of the LinkedIn user base is raking in about 9 billion weekly impressions because no one else is showing up.

So they're getting all that attention. And LinkedIn? Despite having a lot less members and users compared to Facebook and Twitter, they still make up more than 50% of traffic to b2b websites. It's a platform that we should start taking seriously because your leads are coming from there.

Four Pillars to Social Selling

So when it comes to getting going with personal branding and social selling, I like to think that there are four pillars that one needs to nail and maintain to keep your personal brand afloat.

So, on the one hand, is your personal profile; how do you want to be perceived, and what do you want to be perceived for? Then, you know, looking for the right people, growing your audience organically, connecting with the right people at the right moment in time. We then come into the content. So, like the saying goes, you are what you eat. You are what you share, as well. So how your content helps you feel your personal brand.

And again, ensure that people know you for the right things and can trust you for the right, you know, whatever industry you represent. You want to be seen as a thought leader in your field. And the last pillar here is just building those relationships and connecting with the right people. And like I said earlier, growing your audience organically. But getting to know other people in the field, people whom you could ultimately not only sell to but could ultimately introduce you to other people who might end up being your end buyers.

Joran Hofman  07:38

So the question, Dipak. About the other slides, like, maybe I'm already going ahead of things, but it is also related to the social setting index? Are you going to come back to that later? Because it looks really familiar.

Dipak Vadera  07:53

I didn't have a plan to go through that today. The reason being is what we're seeing today is a sneak peek or taster o  an eight-hour, six to eight-hour workshop that I would do. So I've tried to condense it as much as I can. But yeah, the social selling index would play into this picture in the wider scheme of things, but I'm happy to cover it if someone has a question. You know, they're more than happy to bring it up. I'm happy to answer it and go through that for sure. 

Joran Hofman  08:22

Sure, thanks. 

Pillar one; Personal Brand, Profile

Dipak Vadera  08:23

Cool. So let's get started with the first pillar. So if I showed you these two people, let's assume for a minute they sell exactly the same thing, or whatever their offering is, it's just marginally different.

Who would you buy from at first glance? I'm sure we can all agree that it's most likely the person on the right. We are superficial beings, after all. Unfortunately, we do still judge people based on the way they look or how they project themselves. So most people will agree here that they're going to buy from the person on the right.

There's more visual content there. There's an image. We have a rough idea of what he looks like. He has a lot of connections. He seems to be working in a reputable company. And as you know, he's pictured on stage with a lot of people there too.

Your Linkedin Profile

Your personal LinkedIn profile? Think of it as your own landing page. Your personal LinkedIn profile is ten times more powerful than any company page. Why? Because people buy from people, they buy from people they like and trust. So this is how I kind of project your profile coming into play for personal branding. Someone sees your content, whatever you push out there. If they liked that piece of content, they might just end up on your LinkedIn profile. They might click on the avatar or go on your LinkedIn profile. And then either of these three things can happen.

One, they might connect with you perfectly; you know, they're reaching out to you. The second thing that could happen here is that they don't engage with you, in which case, you can hopefully start the conversation manually. If you're using LinkedIn premium, you can get an idea of who's visiting your profile. If you see that someone interesting is visiting your profile. You can just engage with them from an outbound perspective. And the last thing here, they could visit your website, in which case if they are interested, as to what they see on the website, it resonates with them.

They might fill in a form; they might reach out to you inbound. Perfect; if they don't, shameless plug here and use something like Leadfeeder to go after those anonymous web visitors. So, whether they engage with you, go on to the website, and inquire via there, will depend on three things. Do you appear to be credible based on your LinkedIn profile?

Do you make it clear what you do and why you do it and is there a clear call to action on your profile or your contact details present there in case they want to get in touch? Because not a lot of people might drop you a direct message, they might not feel comfortable doing so, or they might think it's going to end up, you know, among other hundreds of messages in your inbox.

So, they might decide to call you, or they might want to drop you an email. So, just make sure you have the right contact details there.

What do you want to be known for?

So, the first step to ensuring that you define what you want to be known for? Think of it as this framework that I have over here. If you don't know how to get started, this is what you should think about when you're defining what it is that you want to be known for. So, we have the verb audience and the result. Who do you help? What do you help them to do?

And what is it that they're going to be able to achieve as a result of that? So think about this framework. I have two examples here from my colleagues as to how they've done this. So I like to ask you to focus on Phil. Here. He's used this framework. Exactly. So he said, whom does he help? He helps b2b organizations.

What does he help them with? He helps them with turning their web visitors into sales, and sales being the result here. As well, if you look at their profiles, they have our company logo at the top along with the mission statement. It's very much on-brand, with professional-looking headshots as well. Like I said, we are superficial beings. So it's a good way to get someone's attention with a lovely photo if you have one.

And then my calling tastes up there; he's using an attention-grabbing headline. He's actually used the headline how it's meant to be used. Instead of just pointing out his role, because if he just added his role, their business development manager. There'll be nothing to kind of set him apart from his counterpart.

Our competitor, for example, you know, they look like the same at first glance, but he's used this as a headline in the true sense of its words. To captivate someone's attention and bring them into their profile. He can then list his job title in the experience section. That's where it belongs. That's your experience where you're going out of your role.

Leveraging Linkedin SEO

But in the headline, use it to reel those prospects in, reel them, hook them in. I just want to go through something that's very much underrated, LinkedIn SEO. You want to try and make it easy for people to find you. And it's not very easy when there are a lot of other companies providing a similar sort of thing. Regardless of whatever industry you're in, there are going to be other competitors.

Other people are offering marginally different solutions like yours. And you want to make it very easy for people to find you for what you want to be known for. So these are three very simple steps that you can incorporate to get going to help your profile stand out among the others when someone's conducting a search for something that you provide.

1. So you can start off by naming your profile photo in this format. So think of three things that you want to be known for in three keywords,

  • and add your name
  • plus those three keywords

and then save the file in that format, and then re-upload that photo, that picture. So, download what you currently have, rename it, and re-upload it.

Then do the same thing with your background banner, that cover photo that you have, above your image, do exactly the same thing. And, look at the things, look at other keywords that you also want to be known for. So there are three that I want to be known for there.

But I'll think about other topics that I also want to be known for when someone's looking for my profile. And these are things that, for instance, my prospects use in conversations on a day-to-day basis. I speak to people on a day-to-day basis.

Importance of having the right keywords

I know the right keywords that they use when they're engaging with me or relating to my field. And I'll kind of. I'll take advantage of those keywords and use them throughout my profile, thereby increasing my chances of being found when someone's looking for me. So, a good way to kind of find what those keywords are?

Speak to a lot of prospects and clients, speak to your colleagues, and ultimately look at what your competitors are doing. What sort of keywords do they have on their profile? Maybe I've missed out on something, or maybe I know there's something that they could be doing; maybe I can do even better.

So think about those keywords and use them throughout your profile. I'll show you where this has really worked for me. So, a lady called Elena reached out to me out of the blue. She said that we don't know each other, but she asked me to fill in a certain survey. And I was quite curious. So reading this, I could relate; I'd been a student before. I had asked people to fill in surveys. I was happy to do so I was like, good luck with your studies.

I'm happy to fill out this survey. But out of curiosity, how did you come across my profile? All she did was search backpacker on LinkedIn, and she came across everybody who had this listed throughout their profiles, including myself. It shows that the right keywords will land you the right results. I have a little checklist.

Something for your audience, Joran, something that they can walk away with. Here are some quick tips, quick things that they can incorporate. Like I said, this is still a very condensed bit of the full workshop, but hopefully something that they can start improving, after this workshop, after this webinar, sorry.

Pillar Two: Content

So now, let's move on to the next pillar. So that's the content. Like I said earlier, you are what you eat; you are what you share. Content makes your audience smarter. It helps you educate your audience in the field you want to be known for, in the field, and in which you claim to be a thought leader.

So, if you can help your audience with challenges that they're having on a day-to-day basis, on issues that they might encounter or already going through, they're more likely to trust you as a result. Hey, Joran seems to know a thing or two about affiliate marketing. Therefore, I can trust him because he's constantly showing up every day, giving me pointers, tips, and best practices on the topic.

You know he seems to be the go-to person. I'm more likely to then refer to Joran when I need something when I need an answer rather than going on Google and trying to look it up myself. Because I know if I contact Joran, he's most likely going to respond within the hour with the answer I need.

Whereas if I go on Google trying to look it up myself, it will take me countless hours. Your content will help you generate awareness as well as helps you essentially put yourself out there in the world. People reading that content may interact with that content, and ultimately, more people will get to see it if it's a good, valuable piece of content.

There is always something to talk about

Your content helps you maintain your personal brand; think of it as the fuel for your brand, and keep your brand alive. The minute you stop posting, people will forget about you. It's just how it is. There's so much more content posted in the last 20 years than ever before. So, I get asked this quite a lot. What should I share? What should I talk about on social, and there's absolutely always something that you can talk about.

The key here is don't just make it about you. Think about your prospect; think about your clients. What are the issues and challenges that they're having? What are some of the things they're looking to achieve or get better at?

So, your goal should be one of these three things, educate, engage or excite your prospects. You don't need to do all three things at once, but at least be able to take one of them when you put a new piece of content out there for the world to see. Just think about for a minute why people come to social media in the first place.

They come on there to take things a little bit easier to escape the monotony of day-to-day life to, You know, see what other people are getting up to, to be entertained, to be educated to be excited. They don't go on there just to read academic essays or, you know, long-form content that maybe doesn't really give them any, any anything.

They go there to be entertained and educated as well. The content you put out there will never replace prospecting, don't just expect people to suddenly fill your inbox. With inquiries wanting to buy from you, it might get to a point where that could potentially happen.

But ultimately, it's down to you to start reaching out to people once you build that thought leadership. Use it as a basis for people to trust you. If you're showing up, you're delivering content; when you reach out to someone, and they take a look at your profile, they're more likely to, you know, trust you for what you want to be perceived for because they're used to seeing your content, your content will speak for you, your content will do the selling for you, I will help you do the selling.

But it's still ultimately down to you to reach out to that end-user and sell to them or start a conversation with them. So this is how I build my content. I use a tool called Notion. There are a lot of alternatives out there, I'm sure. But I use Notion. I essentially plan a lot of my posts in advance.

This is what I refer to as filler content, content that I can use pretty much anytime it's not time-sensitive. And, when I'm not feeling inspired, or I simply have so much on my plate that I can't craft something from scratch in the moment.

I'll just resort to what I have on Notion, use that, and that way; I can ensure that I'm consistent on a regular basis. I'm happy to share this with anyone, by the way. If anyone would like to take a deeper look at my content calendar, my content repository, I'm more than happy to do so. I can show you my structure and how I plan my content.

Joran Hofman  19:58

And, do you schedule your posts, or is it like you place them manually on LinkedIn?

Dipak Vadera  20:05

I always post them manually. You know, LinkedIn discourages the use of third-party tools when it comes to posting. And I know the minute I go to post manually, I'm more likely to also engage with other people as I'm doing so.

When I start engaging with other individuals, they're more likely to see my content as well. My content will be displayed in their news feeds, too. So it encourages me to go on there and start sharing content in the moment and engage with people as well.

Tips for Linkedin improvement engagement

So a couple of tips on things you can do to help improve your engagement level. Like I said, interact with other people's content before you post your piece of content or after you've posted your piece of content.

Any action that happens within the first hour of posting will help you impact that organic reach. That's because it's going to showcase that there's a lot of action, a lot of movement going on in that post. And hence, it's more likely to be displayed to other people as well. So at Leadfeeder, we have a channel dedicated just for this; it's called a social media channel. And yeah, everybody shares their pieces of content. So others can go in and interact with that piece of content and give it some love as it's, as it makes its debut and start interacting with it.

And hopefully, that then starts displaying it to other people in their own networks, who can then go and start interacting with it too. So it helps you really improve that engagement. When it goes live. It's just a little psychological trick here; you can like your own post as soon as it goes out.

I like to remind people of this scenario. Think of you being in a nightclub; there might be the best DJ playing some really good tunes. But if there's no one else dancing on the dance floor, you're not going to be the first one to make that move. You know, you might think of yourself as being foolish by being the first one. So help people out; no one wants to be the first one.

Go ahead, and interact with your post. And then you can always unlike it after, when it starts getting engagement from everyone else. When you start getting comments, try not to reply to all of them at once. Within the first hour, you want to try and respond to all these comments in one go.

You want to try and showcase that there is a lot of movement, a lot of action taking place in that post, and there's a lot going on. And then that way, it's going to be shown to more people. Now, after the first hour, you want to gradually respond to these comments. Just because when you do so, the minute you respond to something a few hours down the line, that post will come up at the top on someone else's news feed because there's something that happened at the moment.

So after the first hour, you want to try and tone it down a little bit responding to comments, gradually it just to show to other individuals that that is still trending, there's something still happening in that post, it's not dead after the first hour.

I get as well asked, you know, hashtags? Are they important? How many hashtags should we use? Which hashtags? There's no right or wrong answer here. But the whole purpose of using hashtags is to help make your content a lot more discoverable, making it easy for people to find you. Now I like to say three is the magic number; you want to try and use two hashtags that are somewhat popular or have a high search volume; people are interacting with those hashtags or people are using those hashtags.

And so, they have a higher potential reach because a lot is going on around those hashtags. And then you want to try and have one niche hashtag. One that is perhaps not that well known yet doesn't have a very high search volume. But at any point in the future, somewhere down the line, it's likely to become trending. If you do it this way, your posts will still live on ages after you initially posted them.

A good example here is my using the prospecting hashtag. I started using this like three years ago when there was barely any movement with that hashtag; only a few, only a handful of people were using it. I started posting, and to this day, when I still go on there and I sort by top posts, I still find some of my posts from ages ago still there.

So again, just making sure that you know, you never know what some of these niche hashtags are, whenever people can find you. And you guarantee yourself, you know, future-proofing that piece of content. People at some point can still approach you. And again, you never know when a hashtag is gonna become trending somewhere down the line. But ultimately, when it can, one thing I don't know if you want to mention it, but we use hashtags.

They will be in the URL as well. So you mentioned searchable like this is going to be a huge one for later down the line, as you mentioned. Absolutely. So you should only stick to hashtags relevant to the content you're pushing out. Because ultimately, that's what you want to be known for. Right? So you want to limit yourself to the hashtags that really matter. I see a lot of people adding like ten hashtags, thinking that's going to help improve their chances. But LinkedIn only indexes the first four.

So you adding ten is not going to make a difference. And it's going to actually backfire in the sense that people are going to look at you as someone who's just screaming out for attention, was desperate to get some attention. So just limit yourself to three; it's important to have them because you want your content to be found. But you want to have them at the end where they don't bother anyone.

Because, when people read a post, and they read hashtags between words, this is how they're reading them in their heads, they're reading it, you know, this is hashtag sales tip of the day. So, that doesn't sound normal; it's not normal. So have your hashtags at the end of the posts, they don't bother anyone, but they still ensure that your posts are found.

Third Pillar: building a network and audience.

The third pillar is how to build a network and audience organically. It's not what you know, but whom you know, that's the thing, right? So the average CEO on LinkedIn has about 1000 connections. Now, none of us in this call are CEOs, maybe the exception of Joran here, but no one else.

It's now what you know, but who you know.

And you don't want to connect with someone. This is a scenario that I always project to people. When I speak to them, you don't want to connect with someone who has less than 100 connections; they're only on LinkedIn sporadically, maybe once a month, and the last time they shared something was a few months down the line.

That's not someone whom I would consider to be a valuable connection. Because if they're not on LinkedIn, they're not likely to interact with my content; they don't interact with my content, so fewer people will see it. That's not someone who's maybe going to get value from my content, either.

So when you're connecting with people, think a bit beyond that person's profile. Think about whom they are connected to because I want to be able to tap into their connections and the connections of those connections as well. So, the second-degree and third-degree connection. I'm thinking way ahead. So, for example, if Joran sends me a connect request, I'll check his profile.

Hey, this looks like a really solid profile. It turns out he knows 500 People in the Netherlands; cool; I'm targeting the Netherlands as a region. Whom does he know in the Netherlands? it seems like there are a lot of marketing decision-makers, perfect. I'm targeting marketing decision-makers. I'll go in and have a look at a few of those. See how active those individuals are. Cool. It seems like a couple of these marketing directors are turning up on LinkedIn every couple of days.

Yeah, that is a valuable connection; I'm gonna go ahead and accept him to my profile, be selective as to whom you add to your profile; it is your profile at the end of the day; having more does not mean better. So focus on that quality, not the quantity.

Again, I want to take advantage of your network; I know that if a feed interacts with my content, my buyer personas are likely to see he's connected to my ideal customer profile. If he interacts with my content, my buyer personas will likely see my content as well. And I know you're and post a lot of valuable content; if I connect with him, I'm also going to learn a thing or two; maybe he can teach me something about content that I don't know in the field we work in. So by consuming better content, I also become a better writer, hopefully, myself.

Just advice, if you haven't been putting yourself out there and connecting with people, try to aim to connect with one person per day. It should be very straightforward. Connect with one person, but don't just leave it there. Don't just leave it at the connect. Actually, go ahead and start a conversation with them.

Fourth Pillar: Engage (with insights)

Have a meaningful two-way conversation? And I think that's a perfect segue into the fourth pillar we have: how do you engage with people? How do you start a conversation with people? I think people have forgotten to do that. Now. We're so used to commuting and communicating with people digitally that it's a bit awkward when we meet someone in person, right?

Like we don't, we often don't know what to say; we've certainly become a bit more shy interacting with people in person. Except for Joran, he's not like that. So you found the right person. What do you do now? Well, I said it before you connect with them. But please, please don't pitch to them right away; you're ruining it for the rest of us in sales.

You found the right person, what now?

Not all salespeople are like that, you know? When you do connect with someone, aim to get something out of that, but aim to give something back first. So, aim to give, and then hopefully, you can get something in return as well. You are reaching out to them; you are intruding, you know, show them that you value their time; no one's just going to give you their time freely. It's a finite resource, after all.

So, when you are reaching out to someone, please give them a good motive to connect, or at least do your research. And at least you know, break the ice with something funny, perhaps use a bit of humor. And just like the report, the statistic that I have there, you know, 36% of consumers want to buy something specifically personalized for them. And, 48% are even happy to wait, you know?

Stalking 101

I'm happy to wait until someone comes about with something relevant to me. So this is my strategy; this is something that I employ when I'm reaching out to someone; let's say I'm gonna I want to reach out to Jaakko, Jaakko is my boss, CRO at Leadfeeder. And he's made it very simple, super, super simple. If I go to his about section, he has their specialties.

These are the things that he likes to talk about or things he wants to be known for. So what I could do is simply drop him a message, use one of those topics, and research those topics; if I don't know anything about them, ideally, I want to stick to things that I do know.

So sending them may be something of value relating to those topics, or if I know a thing or two about those topics, I can ask him a question. Something very real relevant, or very specific to some of those personalities. And that way, you're already going in showing that person, hey, I'm trying to earn your time, I deserve your time, I've done my research, you know, I'm a valuable connection to have.

Linkedin Wrap Up

Just to wrap up, this is what you should do. If you haven't really done any work on your personal brand. Define Your Niche. Think about what you really want to be known for. And then build your profile around that centered around your niche. Once you've done so, start connecting with your ideal customer profile, the people whom you think at some point will ultimately end up buying from you. And when you do connect with them.

Think about what your buyer personas are interested in consuming? What sort of content do they go out on social to consume? So do some research on those individuals. start engaging with them? offering some of them something of value, commenting in a person and manner don't just comment random things or send random messages, you know, try and provide value where, where, when you can? And yeah, answer any questions that they have.

If you see them posting about something they're not sure about, people are more likely to ask their network because they know that they're more likely to get a response in a shorter period of time;  then again, having to do the research themselves.

So people will happily ask their network, does anyone know a thing or two about this? Or what's the best CRM platform that I should use based on my use case, you know, started giving value where and when you can, and then give value through the content that you push out, you know, what your audience likes consuming?

Now that you know that start building content on the back of that to answer the questions that they have a great strategy that I employ as I speak to our customer service team. They handle all these objections and queries every single day. They're, you know, jumping all these hurdles every single day.

So I asked him, Hey, what are some of the most commonly asked questions in the last two weeks? Or in the last month? Or send me a list of things? I know, okay, these are the challenges that my buyer persona seems to have this month? Great, I'm going to start preparing content to answer a lot of these questions because chances are, more people will have the same questions. And, last but not least, position your offering based on something that's gonna make them tick, that's gonna get them to consider that messaging.

So after you've given value, after they're used to seeing your content, you know, don't just rush in for the kill, give it some time, and then position your offering. And you know, if you've done your work, if you've shown up consistently through your content, people will be more receptive to your messaging, they'll be more inclined to take your call or respond to your message because they know, hey, you're on seems to be showing up often about this, I can trust him, you know, more than happy to take his call because he's definitely going to give value to me. And ultimately, if you play your cards right, then you might end up landing or securing the business or the deal.

There are no shortcuts to building those valuable, long-lasting relationships; you do have to show up, you do have to engage, and interact with those individuals, and don't expect them to suddenly go ahead and buy from you and from you in a minute. You need to show up every single day, interact with people connect with people. And just being there, essentially. And just like to remind you of something I mentioned earlier, we're so used to sharing stories.

If you're not sharing your story, you're almost doing a disservice to yourself because nobody hears the stories that aren't told. And that's your legacy. That's what you're going to leave behind in your story, what you want to be known for. I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but that's it is right, like that's what you're leaving behind for the world to see your own story. And everybody has a story to tell. And everybody's stories and paths are unique and different. So don't do a disservice to yourself.

Share your story; someone out there will listen. That's all I had in store for today. Thank you all for tuning in. And yeah, be sure to follow me on LinkedIn. If you have any questions, drop me a message there. I'll be more than happy to respond.

Joran Hofman  34:57

Thank you. Thank you, Dipak. Let me ask you maybe one question, and maybe some other people have one as well. Like you kind of already mentioned, you have to stay personal, right? But nowadays, a lot of messages you're going to get are automated. And often they want to get like a 15-minute meeting with me, or with somebody. What is your opinion on the LinkedIn automation tools?

Dipak Vadera  35:22

I'm not a fan of automation on LinkedIn; again, it's people running with an agenda. They don't care for you as an individual. They're just running with what they have in mind. So if someone reaches out to me through automation, and it's blatant automation, I will just not respond to that message. If someone pitches to me upfront, though, I will pitch back. And depending on how they react, I will give them a chance, those 15 minutes they asked for. But yeah, it depends on the individual, of course, as well.

Joran Hofman  35:53

Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. And maybe my final question, what is the biggest mistake you see people are making regarding social selling?

Dipak Vadera  36:04

I would say that's the mistake; using automation. Yeah, it doesn't do anyone any favors, and it just ruins it for everyone else. And you know? People always say that salespeople have a bad name. It's got that reputation, right? And by doing so, you're just ruining it for everyone else and everyone who's trying to make an honest buck and just showing up and doing their work. And we're trying to change that perception that salespeople have; it is not doing them any favors. And like I said, you're just doing it for all of us.

Joran Hofman  36:35

Thank you. And I guess like other than that, people who aren't running any automation, the biggest mistake you probably can make is not to actually be consistent? Be out there and start sharing your story?

Dipak Vadera  36:47

Yes, exactly. The minute you stop showing up, people will start forgetting about it. Yeah.

Joran Hofman  36:54

Cool. Thank you, Dipak. We borrowed 45 minutes of your time. This is a short part of the bigger workshops you do for companies, right?

Dipak Vadera  37:06

That's right. This was just a taster. So, if anyone would like to learn more about my workshops, just drop me a message on LinkedIn. I'm happy to share more information on those.

Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dipakvadera/
Website Dipak: https://www.dipakvadera.com/

Joran Hofman  37:15

Cool, we will drop the recording, we're going to post it on YouTube, we're going to embed it in our blog, and we're going to put the transcript there as well. So, I know people tune in a bit later; you will see the beginning as well. Soon, we're going to send an email about that. And sure to include all Dipak's details, so you can reach out to him if you need more info, and make sure if you invite him on LinkedIn, make it personal. I think that's the key here. That's it. Thanks again. Oh,

Dipak Vadera  37:46

thank you, Joran, for having me. Thanks.

Joran Hofman  37:48

No worries. Have a good day, everybody. Bye. Bye-bye.`

Joran Hofman
Meet the author
Joran Hofman
Back in 2020 I was an affiliate for 80+ SaaS tools and I was generating an average of 30k in organic visits each month with my site. Due to the issues I experienced with the current affiliate management software tools, it never resulted in the passive income I was hoping for. Many clunky affiliate management tools lost me probably more than $20,000+ in affiliate revenue. So I decided to build my own software with a high focus on the affiliates, as in the end, they generate more money for SaaS companies.
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