Selling Power Magazine (June 2015 publication) featured Lindsey Boggs as a top SSI performer.

1. ®
SOLUTIONS FOR SALES MANAGEMENT
SAP CEO Bill McDermott
How to Handle Setbacks
Social Metrics
(+ Video)
Moving Sales
Forward(AKA Sales Enablement)
Spend MORE
Time with
Customers
6 Steps to
Improved
Productivity
Links in
Your
Sales Chain
June 2015 • SellingPower.com

2. So, you’re on LinkedIn. You’ve connected with hundreds
(maybe thousands) of business leaders and others who
might be interested in connecting with you. You want to
leverage these connections for increasing sales. Where do
you start? How about looking at your LinkedIn ranking?
What? You ask. Is there such a thing? Well coincidentally,
yes there is and here’s how it works. Start with this question.
On a scale of 0 to 100, how would you rank your
LinkedIn profile?
You can actually use science to answer that question,
thanks to LinkedIn’s Social Selling Index (SSI). The algo-
rithm grades LinkedIn profiles based on a composite score
(out of 100 points) that indicates how well each profile
aligns with LinkedIn’s four pillars of social selling.
And the scores aren’t just vanity metrics – they corre-
late to real results. “We’ve seen that reps with an above-
average SSI score find 45 percent more opportunities per
quarter and are 51 percent more likely to beat quota,” says
Mike Derezin, vice president of sales solutions at LinkedIn.
Here’s more information about the four pillars of social
selling, plus four examples of standout profiles in each area.
1. BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
(25 POINTS)
Excellent salespeople have always
been great at building rapport
and relationships. In the social
era, you should cultivate a large
and influential network so you can
sidestep the difficulties related to
cold calling.
If you want to leverage your
network for warm introductions,
your best bet is to invest in the
TeamLink tool (part of LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator solution).
“Buyers are five times more likely to take a meeting from a
warm introduction than a cold call,” says Derezin.
2. PROFESSIONAL BRAND
(25 POINTS)
Does your profile incorporate
pictures and multimedia, such as
videos? The Social Selling Index
loves to see these elements in a
profile.
“Sales reps are taking market-
ing content and embedding it
directly into their profiles, which
can have fantastic results,” says
Derezin. “This means that prospects are already learn-
ing about you based on the content they see on your
profile.”
3. FINDING PEOPLE
(25 POINTS)
If you want to succeed in sales,
you need to connect with the right
prospects, but this is getting in-
creasingly difficult. Research from
both Gartner and CEB indicates
that the average buying decision
now involves anywhere from five to
seven people.
“Because there are so many
more decision makers involved
in the buying process, it’s important to branch out
and map out the organization,” says Derezin. “A lot of
salespeople are ‘single threading’ their efforts, mean-
ing that they have just one key relationship. If that per-
son changes roles or moves to another company, you’re
left hanging.”
To keep this from happening to you, take advantage of
LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator, which provides lead recom-
mendations to help sales reps see who else in an organiza-
tion might be critical to the decision-making process.
4. ENGAGING WITH INSIGHT
(25 POINTS)
On LinkedIn, it’s not enough to
just do outreach. You also need
to participate in the online con-
versation by contributing your
own insight.
Derezin says this is less intimi-
dating than it might seem at first.
If you’re not ready to start writing
blog posts or creating videos,
share the content that other
people have created. “The best social sellers are liking,
sharing, and commenting on articles,” he says. “This
doesn’t have to be about creating content, necessarily.
It’s about curating great content.”
Derezin emphasizes that all four of these elements are
critical to a high SSI score.
“The scores prove what we’ve seen anecdotally,” he
says. “Sales Navigator users get a boost in succeeding in
all four areas. It really helps take sales teams to the next
level of performance.” 
Create a High-Ranking LinkedIn Profile
SELLING POWER EDITORS
social selling
MIKE CHIAPPETTA
LINKEDIN.COM/IN/CHI-
APPETTAMICHAEL
TERI TURNER
LINKEDIN.COM/IN/TER-
ITURNER
LINDSEY BOGGS
LINKEDIN.COM/IN/LIND-
SEYBOGGS
20 | JUNE 2015 SELLING POWER
© 2015 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.
CASEY MCGINTY
LINKEDIN.COM/PUB/
CASEY-MCGINTY
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