If you work in sales -- or if you want to keep your company's sales strategy up-to-date -- there's no better person to seek for insights than business guru Daniel Pink, the best-selling author of "To Sell Is Human." So when word emerged that LinkedIn was cooking up powerful new ways for salespeople to tap into its 313 million-member database for new leads, I went hunting for Pink's take on the matter.
Bear in mind that LinkedIn already has upended the talent-hunting business, becoming a remarkably fast, smooth and powerful way that recruiters look for job candidates with particular skills and backgrounds. That's just the beginning. In a conference call Thursday, July 31, with Wall Street analysts, LinkedIn's chief executive officer, Jeff Weiner, indicated that he wants his company's upgraded new Sales Navigator service to assume a similarly crucial role in salespeople's tool kits.
LinkedIn clearly is eying a huge market, with a new product that could be quite effective. But there's concern that aggressive sales people could go overboard, turning LinkedIn into such a high-voltage prospecting tool that the site might become unbearable for ordinary users. Wanting an expert's assessment of the pros and cons, I fired off a series of questions for Pink, via email. Here are the highlights of his replies.
- Good salespeople have been building low-tech versions of Sales Navigator for decades. As Pink observes: "Many old school salespeople had index cards or physical notebooks that aimed to accomplish the same function. What’s different is how powerful and easy the tools are."
- We've seen such tech-driven transitions before. "There’s an analogy to bookkeeping and accounting. Small businesses always did those things, of course. But QuickBooks and Excel made it much, much easier — allowing businesses to find new insights in the information and free up their time to do other, more productive things. It’s similar here."
- Sharing personal networks will be controversial. "In theory, it makes sense to have a company-wide social graph. That’s got to be better for the organization. But if people have devoted time and effort in developing a relationship — and then someone else benefits from that without the investment — there’s going to be resentment and strife."
- We may need to rethink how sales people get paid. Traditional commission systems focus on individual successes, rather the power of teamwork. If the old, solo-star approach is out of date, then "this might be an argument for moving away from a commission-heavy variable compensation system to higher base salaries."
- We'll know soon enough whether LinkedIn's $1,200/user annual pricing makes sense. "This is the easiest question. If the service creates more than $1,200 of additional return, then it’s worth it. If it doesn’t, it’s not worth it. It’s probably a better investment than another trade show or a bunch of steak dinners. Or at least sounds promising enough to try."
