Say on LinkedIn that your offer is better than that of the competitors, but then have no customer recommendations on your personal page. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily say anything about the quality you deliver. But if customers recommend you, it will of course appear a lot more credible. Be honest, how many customer recommendations have you received on LinkedIn? In this article you can read why it is important to collect them and how to start.
Credibility and trust
It is when applying social selling It is important that you appear credible. Only then will you succeed in gaining the trust of (potential) customers. Before they buy from you, they must have the belief and trust that you genuinely represent their interests, without having a hidden agenda.
To achieve this, it is important that you stop giving a sales pitch. Continue to focus on sharing knowledge, communicate in an open manner and show genuine interest in the customer. Have other customers recommend you on LinkedIn to convince potential customers that you can help them overcome their challenges.
Social proof
It is common knowledge that people are sensitive to what others say about you. Are there no or only negative reviews about you? Then there is a good chance that they will purchase your service or product from your competitor. If multiple customers recommend you on LinkedIn, potential customers are more likely to contact you to do business. Before making a purchase, I always first look at how others experience the service. You do that too, don’t you?
Even though we know this, few people ask for customer recommendations on LinkedIn. In order to increasingly sideline your competition, it is important that you let existing customers confirm that it is worth doing business with you. That always works better than saying that you have the best offer. Having recommendations on LinkedIn helps you show (potential) customers that you are a reliable partner.
This is how you ask for recommendations on LinkedIn
To attract customers from LinkedIn, it is important that you continue to work on your credibility to gain the trust of potential customers. But how do you ask customers to write a recommendation and when is the most appropriate time to do so? In any case, don’t do it in the first weeks after you start working together. This is to prevent you from giving the impression that you are trying to score the next assignment.
Personally, I usually only ask for recommendations from clients on LinkedIn after a few months of working together. I always honestly state that I do it to build my credibility on the business platform. Of course you can also choose not to say it. But there is a good chance that the customer will ask for it for this reason anyway.
Bron: Shutterstock
Write your own recommendations for customers on LinkedIn
It is of course nice to get recommendations from customers on LinkedIn. In the context of social selling, it remains important that you do not just use the platform to get something. It is just as important to give something regularly. I regularly write recommendations for customers on my own.
By writing your own recommendations on LinkedIn you show appreciation for the way you collaborate with the customer. In addition to giving appreciation, writing recommendations usually also results in a recommendation from the customer. Afraid to ask? Then start writing recommendations. Chances are that by doing this you will get a recommendation back without even having to ask for it.
Step-by-step plan for asking for recommendations on LinkedIn
By now I have hopefully been able to convince you why it is important to ask customers for recommendations on LinkedIn. The result is that you appear more credible to gain the trust of (potential) customers.
You can follow the step-by-step plan below to ask for recommendations on LinkedIn.
- As a first step, it is important that you have a connection with someone you want to ask for a recommendation or when you want to write a recommendation
- Go to your personal LinkedIn profile and scroll all the way to the bottom
- Click on the + sign, after which you can select that you want to ask someone for a recommendation and indicate which person you want to ask for a recommendation. You can also write a recommendation for someone in this screen
- Then indicate where you know the contact person from, indicate what position you had at the time of working with the client and write a personal message to personalize the request for a recommendation on LinkedIn
- Then click on the send button. If the customer has written a recommendation, you will receive a notification on LinkedIn. After this, you must manually approve the recommendation to show it on your personal profile.
Bonus tip
Never cold send a request asking for a recommendation to customers. I always contact you by telephone first to announce the request. By doing this you immediately have a contact moment to catch up. By announcing the request, customers know that it is coming. My experience is that this allows them to respond to your request faster than if you send a cold request.
Good luck asking for recommendations from clients on LinkedIn. My experience is that it will certainly help you get more customers from the business platform. Thanks again for reading and see you next time!
Source: www.frankwatching.com
