Social Selling & Relationship Marketing

Kevin Knebl
Speaker & Trainer
Knebl Communications, LLC
eWomen Network
Colorado Springs Country Club
Colorado Springs CO

Kevin Knebl (@kevinknebl) has made a career of teaching people how a positive and outwardly focused online presence will help you become better known, liked and trusted, and that that is the foundation for profitable business relationships. I have followed Kevin's career since he was teaching LinkedIn clinics here in town. Since then, he has developed an international speaking and writing career getting his message out through presentations in a different cities every week, his well reviewed book The Social Media Sales Revolution and, of course, his ebullient social presence.

Kevin Knebl described his background as a piano-player turned reluctant salesman who found success as LinkedIn arose. Since then, he has helped clients earn $250mm in revenue using social strategies. His advice: don't overthink things. He credits a God-given gift for being able to break complex things down into simple, easily explained concepts. In 1993, he heard Bob Burg say "all things being equal, people will do biness with and refer business to people they know, like and trust," and this has been a guiding philosophy.

In earlier presentations, Kevin would begin by clarifying to the audience that social media is not a passing fad, but now it is so well established that this is no longer necessary. (He recommends treating Facebook like a giant 24/7 cocktail party and eWomen Network members seemed to agree.) There are only three steps to succeed with social media.

1. Identify the individuals or organizations you would like to work with
2. Start a conversation in a manner that doesn’t get the door slammed
3. Nurture and deepen the relationships so that they want to do or refer business with you.

As simple as this sounds, it involves unlearning what American culture has taught us about sales where people move too quickly into pitches instead of taking the time to develop the relationship first. "Since money is just an expression of value, we need to remember that making more money involves delivering more value," according to Kevin.

LinkedIn, which now has 600 million members and acquires 2-5 new users every second, is a useful database to building relationships. Making a good first impression is even more important in the social-media era, and LinkedIn enables users to accomplish Task #1. Kevin demonstrated its many search filters that allow users to target ideal customers and the accomplish Task #2 and Task #3.

If you're interested in more information about Kevin's social strategy, stay tuned for the forthcoming Social Boot Camp to be posted after his afternoon session's deeper dive.

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