The Hidden Costs of LinkedIn for Your Enterprise LinkedIn. The platform has become the go-to for modern businesses.  It is indispensable for recruitment and brand visibility, but is it delivering when it comes to building lasting client relationships and your company’s sales goals? Most leaders are not aware of the hidden costs of LinkedIn.   As decision-makers and sales leaders, have you ever paused to truly question if LinkedIn unequivocally serves your organization’s unique growth ambitions and operational needs? Or have we simply accepted its ubiquitous presence without fully scrutinizing its true cost? Because behind each connection your team makes, LinkedIn is littered with unseen costs – in time, in money, and in vital business relationships – particularly when translating those in-person connections from events, conferences and live meetings into actionable business. The Silent Erosion of Your Team’s Productivity Let’s start with something subtle, yet powerful: the silent drain on your team’s time. Imagine your sales reps returning from a bustling conference or a productive client meeting. Their LinkedIn profile is full of new connections and potential new business. But what happens next? Your sales reps are constantly on LinkedIn, aren’t they? Every minute an employee spends navigating LinkedIn’s interface, writing a chat message, chasing engagement, or performing tasks that could be done more efficiently elsewhere, is a minute not directly invested in your core business objectives. Think of it as a silent tax on your team’s day, a steady trickle of lost productivity that, across an entire organization, can amount to a significant hemorrhage of valuable work hours. This isn’t about shunning all external engagement; it’s about recognizing that this collective effort could be channeled more directly into proactive customer engagement, or even strategic deep work that truly moves the needle for your company, especially when those precious in-person connections are still warm.    And that is just one of the hidden costs of LinkedIn – lets look at another.   The Data and Relationship Leak: When Your Enterprise Doesn’t Own the Data This is perhaps the most critical hidden cost, particularly for sales-driven organizations. Let’s imagine Tim, one of your top sales performers, just had a fantastic conversation with a promising new prospect at a conference. They exchanged pleasantries, some key insights, and connected on LinkedIn. Later, Tim sends the requested materials. A few days pass, then he follows up. Eventually, the prospect responds, interested in continuing the discussion. Tim needs their actual contact details – email, phone number – to move this relationship forward efficiently. It’s a cumbersome dance: a polite chat message, a request for information, another wait, and then, if he’s lucky, a manual copy-paste of information into your CRM. This isn’t a seamless sales process; it’s a digital scavenger hunt, delaying the lead from turning into a concrete opportunity. It took time and many resources to get actual contact information and then enter it into the CRM. His lead might just turn cold. Now, here’s the crucial part: Tim hands in his notice three weeks later. What happens to all those valuable leads, the nascent relationships, and the nuanced insights from those conversations that never fully made it into your CRM? They often remain on Tim’s personal LinkedIn profile, essentially lost to your company. The core problem is this: LinkedIn is designed as an individual-centric platform. Your company doesn’t own those connections, that rich interaction history, or the direct contact information. When an employee departs, so too often does a significant chunk of your relational capital and pipeline. You then face the additional, often costly, task of trying to re-establish connections and rebuild relationships that should have been yours all along. Even an expensive Sales Navigator subscription, while offering insights, won’t hand you those actual contact details needed for seamless CRM integration and enduring relationships.   Ask yourself, what would it mean to your organisation if it could avoid the above scenario, and get this instead: Centralized contact details for every lead and client. Seamless, real-time CRM integration, not manual data entry. Organizational knowledge sharing about every interaction. The retention of vital relationships, irrespective of employee turnover. A consistent, branded representation of your company, not just an individual’s resume. If you are like most companies, that would make a significant difference on the bottom line. A Better Way: Reclaiming Your Data and Relationships Imagine a world where the friction described above simply vanishes, particularly after those valuable in-person meetings. A vision where your company truly owns its data and its relationships. A platform designed to empower your sales team and your entire organization to build and maintain professional connections, with all the data residing firmly within your enterprise.   Consider how Stinto’s professional networking solution and a digital business card directly solve these challenges. At conferences, client meetings, or any real-life encounter, your team can effortlessly exchange contact information both ways with anyone, regardless of whether they have the app or not – all they need is a phone. Your team instantly receives their details directly in their app. But it doesn’t stop there. With a single click, those new contacts, along with any future voice-to-text notes, are seamlessly added to your CRM. This means by the time your sales rep leaves a conference or event, all their new leads are already logged, complete with contextual information, ready for follow-up.   This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about accelerating your sales cycle. With such a solution, your sales reps can immediately shift from information gathering to relationship building, striking while the lead is warm. More importantly, when an employee moves on, those leads, those relationships, and all the associated knowledge remain securely within your organization, ensuring continuity and protecting your pipeline. Your people truly represent your company, and all the fruits of their efforts are assets your organization owns and controls, helping your sales team win and your business grow a robust network of relationships.   Imagine a world where the friction described above simply vanishes, particularly after those valuable in-person meetings. A vision where

Bridging the business buyer gap By Niels Wee // 30th of October 2024   One of my very first jobs was in telemarketing, selling ad space in themed newspapers. The daily grind was a numbers game where the mantra was A-B-C – Always Be Closing. Getting people to talk was central to our strategy, but only to create a false sense of commonality and sell ads at inflated prices – not to ensure buying from us would bring them value. Honestly, I don’t think I made a single happy customer there. It felt awful to sell like this, but I only now realize why. We did exactly what you shouldn’t do as salespeople – selling hard by creating urgency and using psychological tricks, rather than seeing the person in front of you, understanding their issue, and advising them on the best solution. There was a great divide between me as a salesperson and the clients’ needs and expectations. This is what I call the business buyer gap.        Unfortunately, there will always be a gap between the buyer’s needs and expectations on one hand, and you on the other. But it is your job to minimize the gap to pave the way for long-term client relationships. Failing to do so makes the prospect uncomfortable in the relationship because the gap prevents trust from forming between you. And whether you are aware of it or not, your organisation is suffering from it. This article will explain the business buyer gap, why it is important, and what you should do about it.   Let’s dive in. 🤿   What is the business buyer gap? For all the talk about being data-driven in your business, many companies seem to forget that they are dealing with real people with rich and complex lives – this is especially true on sales calls. I know. Being your charming best self at all times can be hard, though. You likely have way too much on your plate and you may be worried about hitting your OKRs and so on. I have been there. I get it. Nevertheless, there is still a clear expectation from the business buyer that you take the time to engage with them and understand them. They want to be treated as a person, not a number (and so do you); they want you to be an advisor on their issue and if you want their business you want to make sure that you understand their goals. The stats from Salesforce are clear about how important it is:     While few would admit they treat prospects as simple numbers, or that they don’t understand their goals and therefore can’t advise them, the experience from buyers is quite different. The majority don’t feel understood, but find sales to be impersonal.   This is exactly the issue that the business buyer gap describes: the lack of understanding of the client or prospect from the employee. It hurts not only the immediate sale but also the long-term relationship your organisation has with them and hence they might churn quicker, than if you took the time to establish the relationship of the long haul.   A lack of good and personal understanding of the buyer’s issue and unique situation, and seeing them as whole people, stands in the way of building rapport, empathy and trust with you as a representative and your organization. Use empathy and context as leverage   I wholeheartedly agree with Sean Ellis that empathy and truly getting where your customer is coming from, are overlooked opportunities for sales. Why? Only then can you show them exactly how your product is the missing piece to get the job done.   “…sustainable growth lies in something more fundamental: empathy. Truly understanding your customers’ context and needs enables you to deliver a solution that feels indispensable in their lives.” Sean Ellis Source In other words, if the person in front of you doesn’t feel seen, heard, and understood you are fighting a losing battle as a sales rep. Simply selling harder rarely works, but often results in a greater divide. If, on the contrary, you can put yourself in the shoes of the prospect (that is empathy), you can also navigate their reality, and show how your solution fits the bill. Saying yes to the deal all of a sudden becomes an easy decision.   You may be thinking that it takes too much time and effort to do right. Yes, it is correct, that closing the gap doesn’t come easy. But the sooner you get to a place of trust and understanding, the quicker you can reach an agreement or move on to a more promising conversation. Of course, that is not the reality for many reps, who tend to forget that people buy from people. However, if your team manages to create and sustain empathy and understand the reality of the client, you have an amazing leverage at your disposal.     But one thing is the sales aspect of the business buyer gap. Do other customer-facing teams, not to mention the organization as a whole, need to know about the client? Yes, if they’re interested in keeping them as customers. Surprising stats on sales professionals 1 in 5 of high-performing sales teams highly rank the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing. 70% of sales professionals say their sales + marketing teams are not strongly aligned. 82% of sales pros say building relationships + connecting with people is the most important and enjoyable part of selling. Source: Hubspot.com Importance of internal customer alignment Alright, so sales have done amazingly landing a big client after careful attention, countless meetings, and advising them based on their unique situation and pains. What then? The answer should be internal customer alignment, but all too often it is not.    Even sales reps who manage to get to a place of trust and common understanding tend to throw it away in the next instance. The reason? They