Softscribe Inc. | June 21, 2018

BENTONVILLE, AR – June 21, 2018 – Softscribe Inc., the leading hotel tech PR agency, outlined 7 ways technology vendors and HITEC attendees can leverage their LinkedIn Profiles to close sales leads at the show. HITEC is the world’s largest hospitality technology conference. HITEC 2018 takes place in Houston, Texas, June 18 to 21. #HITECTX. Softscribe Inc. provides B2B public relations to the hospitality technology market and related industries. It creates public relations content, search and social media to help technology companies achieve their business goals.

“LinkedIn is the new knowledge center in the texting age,” said Julie Keyser-Squires, CEO of Softscribe Inc. “Many colleagues now get their newsfeed via LinkedIn before going to individual websites. This makes it a powerful sales tool.” Squires noted the LinkedIn platform constantly changes. Most recently, LinkedIn values discussions more than posts.

Squires outlined these 7 tips to successfully close sales leads from HITEC 2018 with LinkedIn:

  1. Put the relationship first. Always. Be genuinely interested in the other person and listen. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests. This lays the foundation for a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship. “Like” their posts in your feed and make positive, business relevant comments when you know what you are talking about.
  2. Contact prospects on LinkedIn if you made face-to-face contact at HITEC and want to pursue the relationship. At HITEC, ask if you may reach out to them on LinkedIn. If so, customize your “May we connect” InMail follow up.
  3. Once connected, get in touch with prospects as often as you have valuable and relevant content to share. Make your communication organic and natural. Show that you listened to their conversation. Remember, LinkedIn is an indirect sales channel.
  4. Help prospects build their network. Suggest LinkedIn groups, an article or a white paper to help them strengthen their knowledge base. Be sure you are well-informed about what you suggest.
  5. Recommend editors, influencers and thought leaders to follow.
  6. Add a visual component to each post when possible.
  7. Offer resources on your personal LinkedIn page.

Squires also advised attendees to update their personal LinkedIn privacy settings. Otherwise, “If you ‘like’ prospects, you may inadvertently leave bread crumbs for competitors to follow.”

Here is an easy way to tailor your Privacy settings:

  1. Click on your small photo icon at the very top right hand corner of your profile page.
  2. Under 'ACCOUNT' click on 'Settings & Privacy'.
  3. Click on the “Privacy” tab near the top of the page, centered between “Account” and “Communications.”
  4. Click on “Edit your public profile.” Then click the on/off button under 'Edit Visibility' in the right hand column. This provides a menu of options that allows you to control who sees each section of your profile. For maximum exposure, choose "Public". Public visibility displays your profile to everyone online. Other choices add degrees of privacy.

The Softscribe Inc. team will be at HITEC with a group of its best-in-class tech company clients. HITEC is June 18 – 21, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. Click here to contact Softscribe Inc. to discuss how to close sales leads from HITEC, or to brainstorm a few ideas to support your company’s marketing and business goals.