Initial Thoughts on Connect by Josh Turner
When I read books, even fiction, I am looking for information that I can use to help me develop professionally. A while back, I got an unusual email, telling me that I would get the print copy of Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook To Generate Leads, Build Relationships, And Dramatically Increase Your Sales
if I paid for the Kindle version.
The money that I paid for the Kindle version would help to offset the shipping cost. Because the amount was nominal, I pre-ordered the book. The other reason I decided to get the book, is that I want to learn how to use LinkedIn more effectively, and Connect by John Turner delivered in ways that were important to me.
And I say that because there are specific things that I wanted to learn, such as how to grow the membership of my LinkedIn group, Leaders are Great Readers. Additionally, I have known for a while now, that several people are generating qualified leads using the social media platform, and I wanted a systematic way to do that.
I will also be reading The LinkedIn Code: Unlock the largest online business social network to get leads, prospects & clients for B2B, professional services and sales & marketing pros
by Melonie Dodaro and Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business (Ultimate Series)
by Ted Prodromou.
What is Connect by Josh Turner About?
Start a LinkedIn Group to Build Authority
A few years ago, I started a LinkedIn group, which I have since changed the name to Leaders are Great Readers. I started the group, based on the recommendation of a recruiting expert who was hosting a webinar that I attended. I am not looking for a job, but I do attend webinars such as that one because I write for a work and career blog. At the time, the host told attendees that creating a group helps you to build authority, which is true. But now that I have read Josh Turner’s book, I realize that it is much more than that.
For instance, I have always wondered how to grow my LinkedIn Group, Leaders Are Great Readers, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it. Although I post status updates regularly to my LinkedIn profile, for a very long time, I was not very active in my Group. If I were starting the Group today, based on the new information that I now have, I would do things very differently. Starting a group, and reaping the benefits are far more involved than I first thought.
For instance, if you are creating a LinkedIn group to build authority, you have to be very strategic about it. In Connect, Turner recommends that you figure out who your ideal prospects are, what keeps them up at nights, and what their unique needs are, then give them what they need. If you are trying to move into a new industry, and you are not quite sure what the needs are for those operating in the industry, listen in on online forums and related LinkedIn groups, and you will learn what their needs are. Your prospects who are actively using LinkedIn, are already participating in LinkedIn groups, so you can send them messages to join your group, and do personalize each message. You can also find members to join your group by conducting a LinkedIn search.
The biggest thing about creating a LinkedIn group, is to provide value, and based on the needs of your prospective clients, you provide them with useful and meaningful content. Josh Turner goes into great detail on how to find and share content, which is something I already know because I write about it all the time for the work and career blog. Essentially, you find credible sources for articles that your prospects would appreciate, and add it to a Feedly account so the information is in one spot. He recommends using Oktopost to schedule LinkedIn status updates, but I have been using Buffer and I am satisfied with it.
To find useful and meaningful information to update my social media profiles, one of the things that I did, which most people would never do, was to browse the magazines in one of those international news shop. I took pictures of magazines I found interesting, that had useful and meaningful content for my followers and connections, then when I returned to the office, I added their websites to Feedly. What this does, is give me unique, useful and meaningful content to share. If you have a LinkedIn group, and you are interested in growing the membership, here are a few things that Josh Turner recommends:
How to Grow a LinkedIn Group
- Sharing content from the group with your email list.
- Promoting the group on your other social media properties.
- Promoting the group on your website.
- Regularly posting status updates on LinkedIn about your group.
- Sharing discussions from your group in other LinkedIn groups.
- Running LinkedIn ads to promote your group.
- Negotiating partnerships with other group owners to promote your group.
Even if you used only a few of the tips above, you will increase the number of members in your group. Additionally, the author gives many useful tips on how to increase engagement in your LinkedIn group, which to me is priceless, because that piece of information matters to me. One nugget of wisdom, is to recruit someone who is very active in another group, because more than likely, he or she will be the same in your group. But for any of the techniques to work, you have to provide useful and meaningful content, you have to add value to members’ lives.
Based on his experience, and the experiences of his clients, Turner has found that by posting great content, promoting group discussions, and growing your group, you will regularly boost the number of warm leads you’re generating for your business. So, by creating a vibrant LinkedIn group, you are able to generate leads for your business. This is a great strategy. In my situation, I placed the cart before the horse, so now I have to do things the proper way, which means that I have to create a profile of who I want to be members in the group, then reach out to those people.
Now with me, you never know how I will approach a review and summary of a book – I jump in at any point that interests me. In this case, because I am so excited about learning how to grow my LinkedIn group, I started my review and summary by pulling content from the middle of Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate Leads, Build Relationships, and Dramatically Increase Your Sales. So let’s backtrack now to the beginning of the book.
This is a mentoring moment here: Although I tend to read books from the beginning to the end, and that's what I did for this one, you do not have to read books that way. Review the Table of Contents, read the information on what the book is about, flip through the chapters, then dip into the sections of the book that have the information that you need.
Advanced Ways to Use LinkedIn
Most people who actively use LinkedIn, know that to be effective, they need a complete profile, have keywords in their profiles so they are findable, provide regular status updates, join groups and participate in them, see who are checking out their profile to possibly reach out to them, and so forth. But LinkedIn is so much more, especially for business owners because they can leverage the social media platform as a powerful lead generation tool, and Connect by Josh Turner teaches you how to do that.
The purpose of Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate Leads, Build Relationships, and Dramatically Increase Your Sales by Josh Turner, is to give the reader a system to develop relationships with thousands of cold prospects, converting them into warm leads over time, by using readily available online tools. The system outlined, incorporates social and psychological principles to convert prospects into clients. Turner’s system does the following:
Josh Turner’s Lead Generation System
- Identify prospects: You have to figure out who your ideal customers are, and they have to have decision-making authority over large purchases.
- Create a community to appeal to those prospects: This you can do by creating a relevant LinkedIn group that serves the needs of your ideal customers.
- Reach out to them in a strategic way: You have to figure out what you have in common with your prospects, then figure out a strong reason for asking them to connect.
- Bring them into your network: Once you see a potential entry point for a connection request, send a personalized LinkedIn request to connect.
- Develop a relationship with them: Every three weeks or so, send a personalized message with useful information to start building the relationship, and do not try to sell them anything. Turner has some suggested messages to use.
- Establish yourself as a leader they can trust: When you provide useful information, prospects will start to get to know you, and you start to build a trusted relationship with them.
- Keep your name in front of them on an ongoing basis in a way that creates value and comfort for them: If you become known as someone who provides value, when you ask a prospect for a short telephone conversation, he or she will likely say yes.
- Gradually work them through a messaging process that culminates in a call to action.
Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate Leads, Build Relationships, and Dramatically Increase Your Sales is a how-to guide that walks you through the lead generation process. Since it is a how-to guide, you will have to refer to it if you want to implement the information. Turner provides case studies to demonstrate solutions he provided to his customers.
A big part of the book, is that he provides the tools that he uses every step of the way in the lead generation system. The information is straightforward, and delivered in an easy to understand manner, so that if you are up to the challenge, you can implement the system yourself. But let’s not kid ourselves, one of the unstated reasons why Josh Turner wrote this book is to get new clients, and there is nothing wrong with that, because most people are unwilling to invest the time it takes to successfully implement the lead generation system. He is offering a well-needed service and that's one of the reasons why he and his company are so successful.
A large section of the book is dedicated to conducting webinars because that’s one of the ways that Josh Turner generates leads for his business. The section is very well done and he tells you everything you need to know to host a successful webinar, with timelines attached to the activities.
Steps to Host a Successful Webinar
- It takes time and testing to find a topic that will most appeal to your prospects.
- You have to research, write, create, and produce your webinar content.
- Determine your goal for your webinar, then plan your strategy and call to action so that at the end of the webinar the attendees will become paying clients.
- Market and promote your webinar so people will show up. You don’t want to do all that work and have only two people in the audience.
I am wary of webinars because there are too many of them, but the book also provides information on when a webinar is not appropriate.
Final Thoughts on Connect by Josh Turner
I recommend Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook To Generate Leads, Build Relationships, And Dramatically Increase Your Sales because it is chock full of good content, but recognize that it is a sales tool for Josh Turner to get more clients. He doesn’t hide it, all through the book he lets you know how his business can help you. When you think about it, it’s brilliant, since he is in the business of lead generation. He certainly practices what he preaches.
