This week during the copier sales roadshow I was able to spend six solid days and log over 6,000 air miles with Larry Levine, Co-Founder of the Social Sales Academy.

Larry is kind of an anomaly. He’s a LinkedIn sales coach that has actually sold something! Even more, he parlayed the sales strategies that he developed into $1.3 million in hardware/software sales in a NET NEW major account territory. That’s some serious damage using LinkedIn as a copier rep!

I’ve been fortunate to participate in many social sales coaching sessions with Larry. (He’s one of the most passionate human beings I have ever met and he absolutely loves what he does to help sales reps.) During this past week, several key nuances of social selling stood out to me. Here are a three of them.

1. Smart Sales Reps Connect To at Least Six People in Each Current Account

This really hit home for me. CEB research shows there are 5.4 people involved in a B2B decision. As sales reps we are often proud that we got connected with one or two people. The reality is we need to go wide in our accounts. Copier reps should connect to as many people as possible including the financial decision maker, I.T. decision makers, end users, accounts payable, and operations managers. How many times have you had a key contact in an account leave and you were toast?

To take things a step further, if a rep has 100 current accounts and connects to six people in each account, they now have 600 connections. That puts just one degrees of separation between that rep and most decision makers they want to meet in their territory. I loved Larry’s simple math problems that showed reps the easy way to get six new sales opportunities in their funnel each month.

2. Using LinkedIn Messages Can Be Lazy, Sloppy, and “Salesy”

Smart sales reps are very choosy about using the LinkedIn message center to prospect. Instead, they use LinkedIn to research the connections of their current clients. Then, they pick up the phone, craft an email, or stop by the current client’s office to ask them to bridge an introduction. Reaching out to someone through the LinkedIn message center has its place, but it should not be the go-to place for reps. It can tend to feel “salesy”. (And we all know that no prospect or client likes reps with sales breath.)

3. Twitter Can Be Huge for Sales Reps

Every company has a Twitter page. Many influential decision makers also have active Twitter accounts. Smart reps follow all of their current clients and target accounts. By building a list of clients and targets, reps can get a daily digest of news and opportunities in their territories. Liking and retweeting interesting posts generates awareness and goodwill. Plus, Twitter lets you direct message prospects. Used with tact and authenticity, this can be a powerful sales weapon.

There are many more things I could talk about.But as I fly home today after the roadshow, I’m amazed at the work that needs to be done to integrate social into our traditional selling skills. When this happens, reps can do amazing things.

Thank you Larry Levine for being a leader in our channel! It’s an honor to work with you. Your efforts this week helped over 150 sales reps up their game. Many of them are ready to take off their “digital diapers” now! The ones that adopt what you taught them will grow their sales, benefiting both the reps and their dealerships.

Thank you to all of the partners that helped us pull this off: Wells Fargo, PrintAudit, Compass, Oki, BTA, MWAi, Polek & Polek, and Dealer Marketing. Stay tuned and maybe we’ll see you at a future LinkedIn Copier Sales Roadshow!