Revenue Hotline: Turn your Sales Team into LinkedIn Revenue Generators with Melissa Gaglione

LinkedIn has evolved beyond a resume repository into a powerful sales platform. Done right, social selling can transform how your team finds leads and closes deals.

In a recent Revenue Hotline webinar, social selling expert Melissa Gaglione shared strategies that have helped her generate over $15 million in revenue. Let's explore her approach to LinkedIn success.

"I started in sales as a Sales Development Representative, and as much as I loved cold calling at the time, I soon started learning and loving that LinkedIn was a really great place for me to find my buyers."

The Social Selling Framework

A successful social selling strategy begins with an audit – understanding what's working, what isn't, and what's holding your team back. Many salespeople experience imposter syndrome on LinkedIn, feeling they lack valuable insights to share.

"It starts with an audit. I think that in order for us to get started, we need to understand what it is that we have been doing, what has worked, what hasn't worked, but also an audit of how we are feeling when we were either posting or commenting or engaging."

Next, develop content pillars that represent your authentic self. Don't copy successful LinkedIn influencers – authenticity builds trust and helps you stand out.

"When you're not being yourself and you're being someone else because you're seeing that 'Oh, this really big sales guy gets a bunch of likes and comments,' and you start acting like them. That's not you. People catch onto that."

The framework continues with strategic engagement through comments – something many people overlook – and finally moves conversations to direct messages, "where the magic really happens."

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Converting Engagement into Meetings

To turn LinkedIn activity into sales meetings:

1. Know your audience: Distinguish between regular community members and new connections
2. Track website visits: Use custom UTM links to see who visits from LinkedIn
3. Study browsing behavior: Notice which pages they view (pricing, competitors, etc.)
4. Personalize your approach: Use this information for relevant outreach

For community members who regularly engage with your content:

"If they're my community, I have most likely already been in their DMs because I do encourage people that if people are in your community, they're constantly showing up for you, you should be building a relationship with them."

For new connections, quick personalized videos or voice notes work well. Don't beat around the bush, but acknowledge specific interests without being too pushy.

"I don't think it should take you days to get to a pitch. Buyers kind of wanna feel seen. So if you see them and you acknowledge it without such a hard ask, then they'll be receptive to it."

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The Business Case for Social Selling

While building a following takes time, social selling delivers value beyond just booking meetings. Think of LinkedIn as a billboard constantly working for your company – with better reach than expensive ads.

"The return on it is so much more than just meetings booked. You're casting a wider net. You're getting more people to view and understand and see who you are. And exposure, like LinkedIn is this big billboard all the time."

When your team builds personal brands while representing your company, they create transferable trust. It's similar to B2C marketing:

"What works in B2C works in B2B. It's so funny. You think it's so different. Like the mind buys the same way. It buys based off of influence. It buys based off of value. It buys based off of the problems that they're currently facing."

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Implementing Across Your Team

Start small when rolling out social selling – choose 5-6 people for a pilot program rather than forcing everyone to participate.

"I have them start with a small group. Anything, any type of project, any type of experiment, you always start with like a smaller group to do a big rollout."

As this initial group sees success, others will want to join. They'll notice how consistent posting leads to real business results.

"Those who weren't in the group start to be like, I wanna be in the group. They start seeing that, 'Oh, John, who's been consistent for three months, he's sharing his wins on how this meeting came in, how this dead opportunity came back around.'"

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Balancing Branding and Authenticity

During the webinar, audience member CEO of Venatas, Steve Reid asked an important question: "Often when companies want their employees to join the LinkedIn tribe, they'll create a banner image and some other assets and say, 'Hey, everybody, use this.' But you've also talked about authenticity. Where do you think the lines need to be drawn?"

Provide branded resources without forcing uniformity, Melissa advised. Remember that LinkedIn profiles belong to individuals, not the company.

"Obviously the LinkedIn profile is owned by the employee. It's not like you're taking someone's Facebook and telling them to change their profile picture to have the company's name on it."

A good rule of thumb: For every four posts, about two should relate to your company while the others can be more personal. Personal posts build connections that make company content more effective.

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The Power of Video

Another audience member, Enterprise Sales of SAP LeanIX, Geoffroy Nasset, asked about the effectiveness of personalized videos in LinkedIn DMs. "Many people right now emphasize the importance of personalized videos in DMs on LinkedIn. Do you have any experiences with these? People are talking about sending 10 personalized videos to get one meeting booked."

Melissa confirmed that personalized videos in LinkedIn messages convert at high rates by showing prospects specific challenges and solutions.

"It is for me and from what I have found, the highest way to convert, to show and tell someone to walk them through a problem, to put something in front of them where they cannot deny."

When creating videos:

• Show specific challenges they can't deny
• Highlight relevant information from their company
• Offer a clear path forward
• Keep it brief and focused

"The point of the video is not to just say, 'Hey, we help companies do X, Y, Z.' The point of the video is for you to put it in their face of like, 'This is why you need to talk to us today.' They can't deny the facts when it's on their screen."

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Using AI Effectively

AI tools can speed up content creation significantly. Create a "content engine" by feeding AI tools with your templates, writing style, and content pillars.

"I have on my quad what's called a content engine. It's one of my projects where I have ingested it with top pieces of content templates that I've created, other people's flows that I've liked, just fed this model, having it analyze each piece of it."

This can cut content creation time from 30-40 minutes to about 10 minutes per post. However, always review and personalize AI output.

"I think where people stop is the tweaking... It's okay to use AI. Just still make it your own, like still adjust it to who you are and what it is that you really wanna say."

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The Three Buckets Strategy

To stand out on LinkedIn, focus on these three engagement "buckets":

1. Comment on your prospects' posts
2. Comment on thought leaders your prospects follow
3. Engage with people who comment on your content

"These three buckets: you're commenting on your prospects posts, you're commenting on thought leaders of your prospects. And then the people that are showing up for you in your comments, even if it's two people, whenever they do anything, you are showing up for them."

Consistent engagement creates a flywheel effect – you give value, others return the favor, and the algorithm promotes your content.

"You just have to keep that going. And that's where, okay, now you keep giving back. People are gonna keep giving to you and that's how your post is gonna stand out and be bumped up."

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The Right Tools Make a Difference

While LinkedIn serves as the engagement platform, you need tools to track and manage results. Tools like Warmly help track website visitors, while solutions like Recapped help manage the sales process once leads convert.

"You guys [Recapped] have also built a really great product. I said it a million times, especially during the onboarding process, but you guys are helping us make money, so thank you. I appreciate it."

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Key Takeaways

1. Be authentic: Your real voice stands out more than copying influencers
2. Use personalized videos: Show effort and research that prospects want to reciprocate
3. Focus on engagement, not followers: Success comes from meaningful connections
4. Balance company and personal content: Mix professional insights with authentic personality
5. Use AI as a helper, not a replacement: Technology should enhance your voice
6. Start with a small team pilot: Create internal champions whose success inspires others
7. Engage in your three buckets daily: Create a virtuous cycle of engagement
8. Invest in the right tools: Track engagement and manage opportunities effectively

LinkedIn social selling isn't just about posting content – it's about building genuine relationships through consistent, authentic engagement.

"LinkedIn is where buyers are going to chit chat and to talk. And so they start seeing those wins and then they start seeing like, it's not so scary."

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Connect with Melissa

Want to put these LinkedIn networking skills into practice? Join Melissa's LinkedIn networking event for sales and marketing professionals on May 23rd in Tampa, Florida. The event will take place on the Starship Yacht and include dinner, dancing, sailing, and valuable networking opportunities.

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Want to learn more about effective sales strategies? Follow Recapped and check out our upcoming Revenue Hotline webinars featuring experts like Melissa Gaglione.