Without a face to face meeting, how can we know the personality of a new customer or prospect? In this week’s Short Attention Span Sales Tip, Bill Farquharson reveals the best source of information. Read on or watch the video here.

Good morning!

“A website is a window to the soul of a company.”

I have used those words many times when talking with customers about how to do research prior to the start of a prospecting process. From this information, you can predict the kind of relationship they’ll have as a vendor and find out how a company’s attitude towards marketing. And if you read between the lines, you can also tell if they buy on price.

All before you walk in the door.

Last week, I held a workshop for Sales Vault members. The topic was Selling to Different Personalities. (Vault members can find the replay on the website, by the way.)

Anyhow…

The core message of that Vault workshop was to discuss ways to quickly identify a prospect’s personality type and adjust your sales approach accordingly.

One of the best and easiest ways to accomplish this task is visually. There are clues in facial expressions and present as you look around someone’s office.

The problem is, we aren’t making the face to face calls we once did.

How, then, does one size up the personality type of someone without seeing them? One idea is to look at their LinkedIn profile.

Read what they’ve written about themselves.

Read what others have said about them.

Look for awards or special skills.

Check out their notifications and see what is important to them.

See how many connections and/or followers they have.

I think you can get a pretty good idea of the kind of person you are looking to sell to if you spend some time reviewing their profile page. And one added bonus: They will be able to see that you’ve visited their profile page. It shows you’ve done your homework.

A website truly is a window to the soul of a company. And LinkedIn is a window to soul of a potential customer.

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Love Sales? Want to learn sales best practices? You’ll find answers and ideas inside The Sales Vault. Join Bill and others at SalesVault.pro. Bill can be reached at 781-934-7036.