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LinkedIn Training: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Amar Sheth
Amar Sheth

Linkedin Training: The Good, The Bad And The UglyWith the rise, curiosity and gaining popularity of social media in the B2B sales process, LinkedIn has become the behemoth of the new “Social Selling” industry.

From tips and tricks to feature explanations, LinkedIn training covers an entire gamut of options.

There are now a lot of choices that B2B buyers have for LinkedIn training. And while some aspects of this are great, others are murky at best. So in this blog I wanted to explore my views on the good, bad and ugly of LinkedIn training.

I hope you find this guide useful in helping to narrow down what’s right for you and/or your organization as you consider LinkedIn training.

The Good

Firstly, let’s all agree that training is a great thing. Especially around LinkedIn as the platform has incredible features and benefits that sales professionals can use to help with their core job.

As you look for LinkedIn training solutions, make sure you find the following for your team:

  • Support: the training solution you find shouldn’t be a workshop where after a quick session or few, you expect your sales professionals to learn and apply it all. There should be continuous and ongoing training.
  • Integrate with your sales process: work with your training provider of choice to ensure that she/he can do a great job in understanding your current sales process and customizing how LinkedIn (and other social media tools) can be integrated into the overall sales process and daily activity cadence.
  • Don’t just stop at LinkedIn training: you want to be able to take advantage of learning all social media platforms that are proven useful in B2B sales today.

The Bad

One of the things you should avoid – at all costs – is static training curriculum. Unlike traditional sales training, social media is a living and breathing organism. Changes to features, workflows and concepts are happening almost daily.

Don’t get stuck with learning a curriculum that will (in high probability) become obsolete within months. Your provider of choice should have the ability to top you up on the latest learning to make sure that your sales professionals aren’t missing a beat.

It’s hard enough to change the mindset of sales pros to take training, now imagine that something they’ve learned doesn’t work in 6 months or less! You’ll have a mutiny on your hands.

The Downright Ugly!

Many LinkedIn training solutions are a compilation of tips, tricks and tactics. And while those are good to arouse interest, the worst thing you can do for your sales team is introduce a formal training program that’s a smattering of tips.

Treat this investment into LinkedIn and Social Selling training very seriously. Evaluate the curriculum thoroughly and talk to references at the bare minimum. Learning from workbooks and traditional training materials on where to point and click will only take you so far.

In short, use tips and tricks to generate preliminary interest amongst your sales team but when you invest cold hard cash into the program, ensure that it’s a formal training program with multiple ways of learning and awesome support.

The Bottom Line

And there you have it. It need not be more complicated than this!

Investing in LinkedIn training is a smart choice for your company; now, make the investment stretch to ensure that you are receiving maximum benefit from this.

Let me know if you agree with the good, bad and ugly assessment by tweeting me @AmarSheth or connecting with me on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn no doubt has risen to the top networking business site for creating the fastest lead connections. LinkedIn is a powerful sales tool that connects and builds relationships with buyers. However, in order to be more successful in business to business sales, investing in LinkedIn sales training is a great idea. The continuous LinkedIn social sales training will best help the sales professionals target the right prospect.

LinkedIn plus LinkedIn digital sales training means profitable sales to business connections with more quality networking leads.

Till then, happy LinkedIn training!

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