Introduction: 

Imagine a movie producer meticulously crafting a film. Every scene, every dialogue is designed with the audience in mind – what will engage them? surprise them?, resonate with them?. 

For years one of my lessons has been about the art of presenting to different audiences, built on having spent hundreds of hours in front of small and large audiences all over the globe.  

In that training – ‘knowing your audience’ is literally on slide 3 – I use an image like this one to illustrate that you wouldn’t use the same language to talk to these different audiences – one audience is full of self obsessed, ego driven, childish, badly behaved brats – the other is a classroom of kids.

OK, it’s a corny gag, but in sales and marketing, it’s a similar approach to becoming successful. 

Understanding your audience isn’t just about knowing their name, the company they work for and their title – you need to know where they spend their time and what captures their attention.

It’s about knowing what they care about, what they are working on, what trends they are capitalizing on, what pressures they are under and what competition they have.  

Know this and you can get closer to your customer and build on that all important focus you need to be successful – a relationship built on trust.

The ‘Social Selling’ Misconception: 

Social Selling is often hailed as the cornerstone of modern sales and marketing strategies – I see hundreds of sales ‘experts’ giving advice on sales techniques on LinkedIn, telling you (who’s most likely in sales) how to approach your role.  

Some of it is relevant, but remember that they offer a skewed perspective, shaped by their experience that is most often illustrated with examples of selling to an audience that uses LinkedIn extensively – YOU, in sales, in your role.  They are selling their experience to sellers, and sales leaders.  Is this who you are selling to?

The truth is many professionals (and likely the one’s you sell to) – those in IT, finance, cyber security, operations, or government roles – do not actively engage on LinkedIn. I don’t remember many CISO’s outlining what cyber security strategy or technologies they are interested in adopting.  I don’t recall seeing an operations or IT leader revealing their plans for the year.  I don’t remember a government employee explaining their approach in their LinkedIn timeline.

They might have a presence, but it’s not where they are having industry-relevant conversations. It’s not that people in these roles are not ‘social’ – it’s just that their network isn’t active on LinkedIn, so it’s not the same ‘platform’ for them, as it is for you.

This misconception can lead to misguided strategies for those trying to reach your prospects.  In short, that advice you get from sellers on LinkedIn – is it really applicable for your market?

Are your tools helping your sellers reach their audience?

Another point to add here are the ‘engagement’ tools you will use – how many of them consider sequences that assume LinkedIn is the best platform to engage socially with your prospects?  

In my previous roles we’ve sold to restaurant owners for example, and trust me – they are not engaged on LinkedIn – and the tools offered didn’t’ cater for building engagement on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.  

I’ve listened to sellers explain this to their sales manager, who has to then work out how to ‘show the evidence’ of activity to the senior leadership because the platform they use doesn’t have the right dashboard view.

It’s awful to hear a seller be told that they need to use and show they are using the platforms the business has invested in, when the seller knows it’s total bullshit and won’t help them sell more.

The Reality of Audience Engagement: 

In reality, many of your potential clients and customers are probably mere ‘lurkers’ on platforms like LinkedIn. 

They might like a post or offer congratulations to a colleague on a new role, but they are not there to engage deeply with content.   Most people that I see who like other’s announcements are their colleagues or former colleagues, and when you inspect who they are, they are usually 1st or 2nd degree contacts to you. In other words, they are contacts of the people they know – their colleagues and ex colleagues.  It’s an echo chamber for most users.

Almost every post I see that’s been sent out by my contacts are re-posts of the corporate marketing and messaging that they have been asked to amplify.  A product launch or announcement for this latest widget – delivered to my feed 6 times? This is not engagement – and to consider it as such is ridiculous.  

I will wager that it’s a poor strategy for your organization to rely on this approach, your sales and marketing efforts might be focused on a platform that your target audience merely scrolls through in their spare time.

Knowing Where Your Audience Truly Engages:

Take one example – if you’re selling to retailers, LinkedIn is most likely not your best platform to meet buyers.  

Our research shows that retailers for example, frequent over 30 different online spaces where they actively engage and discuss industry topics. Will a LinkedIn first approach work here? Do your sequences reach audiences outside LinkedIn?  Are you asking your sales team to show activity in a platform for the sake of it?

Knowledge about where your audience hangs out is power, and knowing where they truly spend their time to engage in meaningful conversation is critical for effective outreach. There’s no point shouting about your solution to an audience that isn’t there, or interested.

Nucleus AI : Audience Understanding: 

At Nucleus, our technology goes beyond the superficial scanning of platforms like LinkedIn.  By learning about knowing you, your solution and your market our AI identifies the likely places where your prospect does look for community, engagement and support.

We delve into where your specific target market congregates – which events they attend, which forums they discuss in, what trends they follow. This is not about chasing vague signals; it’s about understanding the ecosystem of your audience. It’s knowing where to look for what they care about, and how to identify  clues relating to what they are working on, and crucially, summarizing what’s important for you.

The Next Evolution in Sales: Precision and Understanding: 

The future of sales is not about bombarding inboxes or LinkedIn profiles with generic messages. It’s going to be about precision – identifying what your market and prospects are engaged in, and reaching out to your prospects where they are most receptive, with messages that resonate with their current challenges and needs. 

At Nucleus, we’ve seen how a targeted approach leads to better engagement, more efficient outreach, and significant growth for businesses – it’s trans-formative and will change how we identify and engage with prospects.

As we move forward, the key to effective sales and marketing lies in precision and personalization, facilitated by advanced AI-driven insights. 

We’re absolutely dedicated to this delivering this, and changing how we sell – we hope you want to know more about how we do that.

Lee Fisher

CEO and Founder, Nucleus