The LinkedIn Sales Experience

Transcript

Opening

Hello, I'm Kerry Guard. Welcome to Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders. Season eight is a compilation around how to market to people and the importance of how we do that as fires shift from reading sales and marketers to tell them what and how to buy to giving them autonomy to make their own decisions. While you don't need to listen to all eight episodes, in order to really understand what this idea is about, you definitely should check all eight episodes out in time.

For this episode, I had the opportunity to chat with Nikki Wilson, Nikki actually started as a programmer back in the 90s. And she actually wrote the very first line of code for the company, she currently works out claims. And she's not a programmer anymore. She runs marketing and sales as the director. And her story and journey from how she became a computer engineer to a marketer is just so cool. It's so cool. My husband's an engineer. And so whenever I hear about women engineers, I'm like, ah, tell me more, and how did they get into it? And what's their story? What's their journey.

So to hear Nikki's was really, really special. And because she's an engineer, she has an engineer's brain. And to bring that line of thinking, to marketing, especially as the landscape has really shifted in the last eight to 10 years in terms of martech. She's in the perfect spot, because she's doing a really brilliant job of balancing, automation, and personalization. And that's really what the marketing rebellion is about. It's about how to make those human connections, and sell to humans, rather than this idea of mass marketing of having the same message blast out to millions people.

Because Nikki's an engineer, she's able to figure out what makes sense in terms of automation, and to take some of the nitty gritty stuff that you do on a regular basis, right, anything repeatable? How can you automate that? And then anything not repeatable? How can you personalize that? Instead of using tools to market to the masses, she actually uses tools to automate her workflow, to free up her time to make really thoughtful connections with people. She does it mostly on LinkedIn. And how she does it is so cool.

That's where we sit today, after we hear her story of what she's been up to, and how she got from being an engineer to a marketer, we then really dig into how she runs LinkedIn, and how she's grown her company in using this line of thinking.

So let's take a listen.

Conversation

Kerry Guard: Hello, Nikki, thank you for joining me on tea time with tech Marketing Leaders.

Niki Wilson: Hi Kerry, good morning. Great to be here. So excited to have you. Before we get into our big topic of today.

Kerry Guard: Why don't you kick us off by telling us your story? What do you do, Nikki? And how did you get there?

Niki Wilson: So I'm the Director of Sales and Marketing for eclaim.com. We specialize in insurance claims management solutions. We also go by click claims, which is our flagship product, but we are branded that way as well, because that's how a lot of people recognize it by the name of our software. And my story is pretty interesting with the company. I started with the company in 2000, which was about a year after it started. And I was a programmer at the time. So my boss worked for a large independent adjusting company specializing in catastrophe claims. He was the director of claims. And this was way back when claims were still being done on paper. And he thought there's just got to be a better way. So he conceptualized one of the very first web based claims management systems. And I was on board for that. So at the time, it was just he and I and we just started building this platform. I was the programmer. He was the claims guy behind it. And by 2004, we were named Best Claims Management system by the people, we won the E fusion award for that. And we were up against a lot of big companies with big programming teams. And it was just he and I but we did it, then the next year after that Hurricane Katrina hit.

So obviously, the software took off a great deal after that. And I remember being in the backseat of the car programming while we were evacuating from Hurricane Katrina. So that's always an interesting part of the story. So we work together.

And I did that for about 10 years, and the software grew tremendously. But I also figured out at that point, that I really didn't want to be a coder anymore, that didn't fit my personality. I really liked the aspect of meeting with clients and solving their problems, etc. So I went out and did a few other things.

And right around when COVID hit, and I was just leaving my previous job. Thomas reached out to me and said, ‘Are you interested in coming back to work at EA claim?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds great.’ I don't want to code. He's like, I don't want you to code. How about you head up a new sales and marketing department? And I just thought, wow, I had never got into sales or embraced sales. But what an opportunity to be able to sell a product that I not only had my hands on the first version of creating, but that I'm very passionate about, I'm so passionate about our core purpose, puree, seen through the impossible to create solution solving problems for clients, which also in the end, makes the insurance bullish, gets them paid faster, it gets their claims closed quicker. So I'm just loving it.

Kerry Guard: It's like, the third time I've heard it, and I still just get goosebumps, just wow. Yeah.

Niki Wilson: And it makes it a lot easier to sell the product, having had that background, as well, having the coding background, having the project management. Makes it much easier to sell it and be able to really dig into what problems that we're solving.

Kerry Guard: So in terms of the role you're doing, you're playing right now, as Sales and Marketing, what's the challenge you're currently facing?

Niki Wilson: I would say probably the biggest challenge is going to be one that you probably hear every day is COViD has so dramatically changed what marketing and sales looks like. So in our industry, we market to both independent adjusting firms, but we also market to carriers. So when you're dealing with companies that are in the insurance space, trust is a huge thing. When you're dealing with people, you're dealing with that amount of very sensitive and critical data, you're dealing with timelines not only for customer satisfaction with our clients, they are dealing with timelines that they're bound to by law.

So an insured has to be contacted within a certain amount of time, their inspection has to be scheduled within a certain amount of time, you're bound to that by law. So you have to build a lot of trust, and the sales cycle is very long for insurance carriers. So I think during COVID, we're not able to get out there and market face to face, we're not able to go to conferences and get that one on one time to establish a relationship and start to build that trust. So we can bridge from marketing into that sales process. So that's definitely been a challenge. So from a marketing standpoint, we've had to come up with different ways to get in the door and make that connection without having any FaceTime whatsoever.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, I've definitely been hearing that as a challenge for not just you. Especially when events just literally closed down overnight and every one had to pivot their marketing strategy. You know, within days, it felt like what have you found to be which I think might lead right nicely into our conversation. But you know, what have you found to be really helpful in making that change?

Niki Wilson: I am really loving LinkedIn. I think LinkedIn was a very underrated tool, business wise. And I think COViD has kind of forced people to look for different areas to make connections and LinkedIn has been a great way to do it. I've had tremendous success with LinkedIn more than I've had with cold calling more than I've had with trying to send out emails or doing campaigns. Organic placement paid placement. LinkedIn has been a great success for me and for the company.

Kerry Guard: I agree. I know everybody... shock, surprise, dismay. I think I would say the same thing because I think I've been saying it for years, as it’s the place to be. But I feel like this last year especially has just exploded in terms of people being just way more engaged than they ever have been. I think it was looked at originally as your resume. Right. And now, absolutely, it's community. And I feel like people have even figured out how to rig the system a little bit, not even a little bit like they have figured out how the algorithm works. And the do's and don'ts.

Niki Wilson: And I can talk about that.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, I think we should. Because I think it's interesting that people care so deeply about LinkedIn and making it work so hard for them that they actually went and investigated how it works to make it work even harder. Like that's how far LinkedIn has come from just a resume to a complete community where people care so deeply. They want to know how it works.

Niki Wilson: Oh, no doubt.

Kerry Guard: Well, I just know, I'm not alone in that feeling of this because I was worried that maybe I just sort of created this bubble around myself of an echo chamber, so to speak, of people just agreeing with me about this thing, and not being able to break out of that. And it's nice to find someone who is in a completely different space. Now. You're still in marketing and sales, but I'm always talking to marketers, right? So for me, it's like, well, we're just marketers, and we just believe in LinkedIn. But it sounds like it's not just marketers based off of the engagement, you've created. You're not talking to marketers, I mean, who's your audience?

Niki Wilson: I am specifically reaching out and making connections with the decision makers. And my independent adjusting firm and carrier insurance markets,

Kerry Guard: Which are not marketers. So clearly, it's now outside of marketing, which is so cool to hear. Right? So how has it worked for you?

Niki Wilson: It's been amazing. So anything that I can do that has any kind of automation that's going to follow the connections that I establish organically. That's my jam, I even have a T-shirt that says Zapier is my jam. Anything that I can connect and automate and streamline.

So usually I'll start out with Sales Navigator, which is going to let me do really targeted searches for my markets, who the decision makers are the higher ups etc. So then I build my account list and my lead list accounts being companies and the lead list being people.

So from there in Sales Navigator, I make sure to hit that every day. And it's going to specifically outline to me all the activity on LinkedIn for those people. So then I just start immersing myself into those people. And those companies, whether it be liking one of their posts saying way to go on something or way to work in the community, when I've seen they've done a community outreach, or noticing and commenting when they have an acquisition, or just different things like that. So after a while, they start recognizing my name. And even though we haven't had any sort of touch at all other than that, it's still sticking in there. And it's still creating some kind of relationship, which is starting to build trust. So then from there,

Kerry Guard: It's basically top of the funnel awareness.

Niki Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So the aim is to pretty much start a conversation with a prospect and then softly guide them through the sales pipeline. So once I start commenting on a bunch of things on their pages and interacting with them, I'll send a personal message to them about maybe something I've read about their company, something they've done, a promotion they've received, etc. I might throw a question in there. But the aim is to make it as personal as possible. So it doesn't just seem like I'm throwing out some canned message to you that I'm sending from everyone else.

Once I made that connection, another tool that I absolutely love, it's called LinkedInHelper. It's cheap. I want to say it's $15 a month because I know Sales Navigator isn't cheap, but I still think it's worth every penny. But LinkedInHelper helps you can import your list. You can then set up automations to like their post and to endorse their skills. So by this point, they’ve already recognized your name. So when you're putting that automation in place, it's still you.

Kerry Guard: This is the developer in you

Niki Wilson: Yes. Automated. So you can also send automated requests for connections through LinkedInHelper. And also, you can do scheduled and triggered messaging. So I don't do the automated messaging, usually until I've already personally reached out to them via messages.

Kerry Guard: And listen, as you said, you'd like to make that personal. So how would you make that automated? That's hard to do. Right?

Niki Wilson: So I've already done it. So we've already established some sort of report, they've already accepted my connection at this point.

So then I start to send an audit, send some automated message that kind of pinpoint on some pain points for people in claims in the insurance industry, as far as claims management, by a message might be, you know, how did you all do with these ice storms? You know, what did your triage look like, for those claims coming in from an ice storm? This is a way maybe my system could help you streamline your triage solution by incorporating text messaging, mobile forms, and a robo call center all together to make sure you can reach your insurance five times quicker than you're currently reaching them. So just things like that. But those can be set on a schedule in LinkedInHelpaer. And you can even do your second and third touches. So I can automate it to say that if I send that message, and they respond back to me in any way, it's going to send a follow up message maybe three days or four days later. Oh, my gosh, I have to take another thing. Another thing I love about it is linked out link to helper to you can connect to multiple LinkedIn accounts, you can't run them simultaneously. But you can flip back and forth. So I'll run all of this on not only my account, but my boss's account, because he said his LinkedIn account for years and as established far more more connections in the industry that I have.

Kerry Guard: That was gonna be my next question, because that's the hard part that I find with LinkedIn is that I have me my business partner and our sales person all who I'm trying to balance between, as well as our business page. And I'm trying to balance between all four of these accounts are pages. And so like I use a buffer to do some of that automation in terms of sharing content. But right, when you're talking about actually being on the inside, creating connections and messaging, you do need to like literally log into these accounts. So you're using linked helper to to actually, so are you doing everything I've linked helper to then? Or are you doing a sales now or both?

Niki Wilson 18:09
I'm using Sales Navigator to search and really drill down to build my list. That's where Sales Navigator really shines. Because I can search by industry, I can filter down to C level executives. So that's really helpful to build my list.

Kerry Guard: Okay, and then you're using linked helper to to actually do all the all of the messaging, the automation piece of it. Yeah. When you're when you're making connections, and you're having that initial conversation, or at least that initial piece of communication, that you're kicking off something that's personalized. Is that also in the helper too, or is that in sales enough?

Niki Wilson: I'm doing that in LinkedIn. Okay. When I send those initial personalized messages that are specific to something I've read about that person or about the company,

Kerry Guard: I like to do those in LinkedIn too. Because I know when I say LinkedIn, you're going to tell me how you feel about this, Nikki. But when I say LinkedIn, I don't mean sales now like to file I go to the person's profiles, and now they know I've seen their profile. And then I request a connection. I always add a note. And then hopefully, they'll come back. And yeah, except, hopefully even better write you back. They don't always which makes which hurts the heart a little bit when that happens. But anyway. And then from there, that's what you're saying after that, once you've made that connection, then that maybe there's some back and forth personally and then there's that automate. Yeah.

Niki Wilson: Yeah. So I don't actually in you know, carry I'm not sure why. Maybe you know why you do it. I don't send any messages and Sales Navigator. I do them all from their page. And then I jumped into linked helper to. And the other tool that I use in LinkedIn is link match. It's fantastic. But they're I think they're just starting. So they're only connecting to a handful of systems. And luckily, they're connecting to mine. So link match is a browser plug in, and it puts a button on each LinkedIn profile. And I can click a button, and not only will it send that profile into my Zoho CRM, it's also going to copy all of our back and forth messages and put that into my CRM.

Kerry Guard: What So what now because right? Do you have to be using Zoho to make that happen? Or do you know if it works with other with other CRMs?

Niki Wilson: It does. Let me see it it's only a handful, but I know I know they're growing. Okay. I also imagine you could do it with Zapier as well. It's so Whoa, pipe drive HubSpot Insightly, PC recruiter greenhouse close IO. Okay, they have a whole bunch in there. That's awesome. It's cheap, we're talking $10. And if you want to add on $10 a month, think it's 10 more dollars, if you want to add on to also dump your messages in.

Kerry Guard: That's pretty easy, because I have to I always wait till I get them to the website and then have them you know, fill in a form for some reason, whether it now come on the podcast, or whether that's a download an asset or you know, it's always me trying to get them like, okay, I made a connection. Now I need to get them to the website, like, right, next field, but it sounds like with something like link match. You don't really like you don't need to like, you just continue the conversation until you're able to work them off. Oh, my gosh, we're gonna bring their picture over never. That's amazing. What so how do you use? So let's just talk about this because I want I'm curious, because if somebody comes to my website, and they sign up on my website, chances are, they're going to know that I'm going to start marketing to them through email, like that's just Sure, everyone that's just like the contract. You're all sides, because you come to what did your email address? Right? Because you're taking their information from LinkedIn. Not necessarily. I mean, we I wouldn't get into privacy later. I don't want to dig rat hole there because that's a whole other can of worms. But you know, I can you start do you start immediately dropping them into like newsletters and email marketing? No, okay.

Niki Wilson: absolutely not. Because at that point, they've not opted in at all. I'm just using it as a way to track because once I have a conversation going, if we're messaging even on LinkedIn messenger, to me, that's a lead. I've, I've touched them. So I want them in my CRM, so I can track what's going on, when I've talked to them what my next steps are, my next steps might be just to give them a call, or a lot of time, once I establish a back and forth, they'll say, Okay, yeah, I'm interested, we have an RF p coming out for a new claims management system at the end of q2, can you reach back out to me then. So once I put them into my CRM, I can create my follow up task from there, which might be to give them a call back that they like they've asked, or they might say, hey, go ahead and send me some information on blah, blah, blah, which then is giving me permission. So it's just a way to track my leads without having to re enter all of that information into my CRM. Magical, but now I'm never going to email someone that's not given Express. Yeah, permission for me to do that.

Kerry Guard: No, that's, that's good. I want to do a sound check. Because I would agree with that. And I don't I don't think that I would, I wouldn't do the same for sure. Um, oh, my gosh, okay. So how does this I mean, it sounds like to me, you're going to correct me here Nikki, it sounds like to me that either this is your full time job. And or you just don't need to be talking to that many people at once.

Niki Wilson: I'm talking to a lot of people, but also the nature of our business. It ebbs and flows, because because we cater to high volume events, especially catastrophe claims. hurricane season starts in June, it gets really in full swing, probably around August, September, October area. So the beginning of the year is when I need to talk to people. I've got to be talking, constantly marketing, building my leads. Just doing everything I can to get those people in the door, because they're going to want their system set up and get on boarded, preferably before storm season. So then once we're in full swing on storm season, I'm usually marketing our upsell stuff or add on stuff customizations to our current client base. So it just ebbs and flows, where the focus is.

Kerry Guard: But it sounds like it's all happening in LinkedIn. I mean, are you doing all your upsell stuff in LinkedIn as well then? Or is that happening through more of your email and CRM,

Niki Wilson: it's usually going to be email CRM phone calls. Yeah, to our current client base, which I can which I can reach out to them, you know, via email.

Kerry Guard:
I find LinkedIn as a nice, I'm actually think, baby, baby, I, I use this with you. I find it as a nice if I if I lose the person in any way, like through email that I go contact them on LinkedIn and and remind like, Hey, remember, we're gonna have that amazing podcast episode. Alright, you know, I find that it's just like an amazing backup to reconnect with people? I'll tell you

Niki Wilson: absolutely, absolutely. I mean, I might have a current client that's, you know, full swing and storm season, and they, they can't make time to talk about an upgrade or an add on or whatever. But they'll engage with me on LinkedIn to talk about a new learning management system they put into place. Yeah, absolutely. I'll take it. Yeah.

Kerry Guard: Yeah. I mean, any, any engagement is engagement. Right? Absolutely. And you learn and people, and it's just, I totally, totally love it. Um, so here's my biggest challenge with LinkedIn. And I think where you're totally going to school me and I can't wait, is I feel like I'm stuck in the friend zone. Like, yeah, I reached out, I've made these connections, even had people on my podcast, like, they're perfect for people we'd want to work with in terms of, you know, from a company standpoint, but I just can't figure out how to because it's never my intention, you know, yes, it's my intention to to garner that misleads, and then to, you know, let them know, we're here, right? Like, oh, by the way, I'm teaching over here, like, we love to work with you. Through through all of our marketing efforts, automation standpoint, right. Like our newsletters and our, you know, our, the stuff we share on social and those sorts of things, but I, I don't know how to make it out of the friendzone. From like, a chatting standpoint, I always feel really weird being like, oh, man, so great having you on the podcast, by the way. Like, come hang out with us, though. Like I struggle with that.

Niki Wilson: So you're really just prepping me for these conversations we're gonna have later right?

Kerry Guard: Like, I don't know, because I just don't know how to make those. I don't know how, I, I just really love having these conversations with people on the podcast and on LinkedIn that, you know, maybe they just will eventually come around and want to say hi, and hang out or like, do I wait for that to happen? Or do I need to make that step where it is sort of like, by the way, just to let you know, like, this is what we do. And here's how we like to help you? Or do I just wait, like, I have my systems now I have my automation happening? Do I wait?

Niki Wilson: I wouldn't wait. It's hard for me to say in the marketing arena versus I'm marketing to, for software as a service, which which is really different. Because I think in a way, it's a little easier for me because when you're selling software, the way you get out of that kind of chitchat. friendzone is okay, let's talk about what I'm going to solve and how I'm going to save you a lot of time. How are we going to get your cycle times down? How am I gonna save you money and make you money? So it's a lot easier probably to address that from a software standpoint.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, I think that's great, though, cuz I think most of my listeners aren't in my boat where I'm, like, I'm, you know, I'm talking to mark I'm doing marketing and marketing, which is unusual for the, for the people I'm talking to. So I think that's, I think that's great to say how it works for you. And, and it makes it feel easy for you to, you know, bridge that gap a lot quicker. Mm hmm. so to speak, because I think it's, it's like, for me, it's peers, right? Like, I'm talking to people, we're we're all we're all in the same industry, we're all doing similar things. So it's really easy to make it a friendship, essentially, where for for what you're doing and for what I think a lot of listeners are doing is it. There's, there's no, I'm reaching out to you and I'm connecting with you and I'm making this happen, because gonna say something you at some point that's going to be that way, this opportunity for us to work together. Like I think there's Yeah, they're standing.

Niki Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's a fine line and you just have to figure out when it goes from okay relationship established, to bringing value. So that that's a big thing to me, I'm never a fan of just stepping back, or you're just gonna end up forgotten and that relationship that you work to establish is gone. But at some point, any touch that you're doing with someone, you have to be offering them some kind of value, other than just trying to obtain their business. So it might be, hey, you know, take a look at this white paper that we wrote that has to do with blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, or, you know, just different things that you can do to bring value to them.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, that value piece is so important. I agree. So how in terms of skit you know, we talked about this, you're talking to people all the time, isn't just you do you have people helping you out, like I'm just thinking about in terms of scaling something like this is this, and is this for the marketing team to do or the sales team to do who in within an organization would normally take on.

Niki Wilson: So we are our sales and marketing department only started last year pre prior to that we were only selling by word of mouth, we weren't actively engaging to build a marketing funnel. actively pursuing sales, it was just all word of mouth. So right now it is me. And I also have a marketing and operations analyst. And they're fantastic with automations. And they definitely embrace innovation and building all of those processes and systems up with me. So they do a lot on the marketing side and putting these automations into place with me and helping build my lead funnel and then passing them on to me when it gets to the point of having that direct communication.

Kerry Guard: That's awesome. But it sounds like jority of your marketing is done in LinkedIn. Absolutely.

Niki Wilson: Yeah. We've done some other things. But like I said, it just has not done as well as LinkedIn. So I'd rather just, you know, leave the focus there. What have you tried, we've done some email campaigns, and it's okay. I just rather that personal touch that I feel that LinkedIn brings.

Kerry Guard: And it's easy to do in LinkedIn, because you have their profile and their information right there. It's hard to make it personal when you don't know anything about the person. Right? Exactly. And then if you you know, use that fancy plugin, poured everything into your CRM, then you have other information there as well, which is just when you do create that, once they are a client, or once you have established being able to email them, you can still make it so personal because connection between email and LinkedIn.

Niki Wilson: Yeah, absolutely. And I love conferences as well, that that's, that's, to me a big marketing opportunity. Being a subject matter expert doing presentations that have to do with streamlining claims management, that that's always been a good success for us. But again, COVID. So we can't we can't do that right now. So that removes that ability to get out there in front of a large audience and talk about what we do with the system does and what problems that we're solving. So we're trying to do that virtually. But that's only going to have you know, certain amount of success. It's not going to have the audience that the in person does.

Kerry Guard: Yeah, there's energy within person to that you just can't get no matter how hard you try to create that, you know, certain ways, but when especially with chat, you just you don't have the voice and inflection and all of that. So I agree, I think I think it's all going to come back. It's just going to be it's going to be revamped and it's going to be cool to see Yeah, absolutely. LinkedIn listening it's like okay, well thanks for thanks Nikki for building me a system I now how know how to roll this thing out much appreciated. We'll have it all written down on our blog and in the show notes for anybody who wants to start pulling it apart and, and thinking about how they're going to build their audience and Sales Navigator porting it over into their CRM, to creating that first personalized connection after liking and commenting on on people's feeds to, to having that personal message to the automation. I think it's Super streamlined. I'm telling you it said engineering brain of yours. So good. Before we close out here, Nikki, I've three people first question because at the end day you said it were People to People business. Absolutely. Such a good reminder of of that and being able to just add a little personal touch of your own to this conversation. So are you ready for my questions? I have ready, Bring it on, carry? Do it. First question. Have you picked up any new hobbies this last year? In the pandemic?

Niki Wilson: Yes, I'm a music buff. I love live music, I play a little bit of piano and I'm also a barbershop harmony singer I belong to I belong to a chorus of 50 women were part of sweet adelines International. So we've been around since 1945. And it's a ton of fun. So we're losing some of that as well during the pandemic, because we can't get together in person anymore. So I got a ukulele about two years ago with the best of intentions of playing it and never did. And I thought, Okay, this is a perfect opportunity. And I am just loving the ukulele.

Kerry Guard: Oh, that is so much fun. I am attempting piano. So yes, I know. I'm hobbies. I'm thinking of music. My second question for you is you are in the office, which is so cool that you can do that. And so, you know, when more people start to join you and you start getting back to normal Fingers crossed. What song are you going to want to play when you have a full office people and you're walking around and you're mingling. What would you want over the speaker?

Niki Wilson: Okay, first off, I'm number mingling. I'm dancing. Yes. The song that comes to mind is baby or firework show, show them what you're worth. Like. I love that. Yes, yes. Just got such energy and such positivity.

Kerry Guard: Love it. I could see it. dancing. That's the desk. Let everybody know they're a firework. Yes, yes, absolutely. Alright, last question for you. If you could travel to anywhere in the world right now, where would you go and why?

Niki Wilson: You know, Kerry after COVID I think I'd be happy with a trip to Paducah, Kentucky at this point. No offense to Paducah, Kentucky. My mom is actually from there. But I'm just ready to go anywhere. But if I had to pick, I would probably pick Sedona because we had a honeymoon planned for October in Sedona that we had to cancel. So that's kind of still in my mind because all the plans were said and the hikes we were gonna do and the restaurants we were going to eat at so I still want to take that trip.

Kerry Guard: That sounds lovely. Just Yes, yesterday. Well deserved. We still had the wedding but it was he and I and our dog nuts.

You know that sometimes it's all you need. I yeah. Loving, loving the day of COVID. But hey, but you did it. And now you

Kerry Guard: Absolutely. Get married. getting hitched. Love it. Love it. I was in the air. Nikki, thank you so much for joining me and for sharing your your LinkedIn wisdom.

Niki Wilson: I really appreciate you. Thanks, Kerry, this was so much fun. What a good start to the day.

Outro

That was my conversation with Nicki Wilson. We use a lot. We use LinkedIn a lot for our b2b tech clients here at mkg marketing. And there is real power in balancing both the automated outreach and that person to person connection. And well Nikki is a one woman show over there. If you do have a marketing and sales team, it's a really nice way to balance your marketing team to use some of the marketing automation to do some outreach over LinkedIn and then use your sales team to to jump in and do that personalized at the element of of creating those connections and finding out what people need and how to help them. And so while Nikki's doing both there's definitely ways to scale this across your organization if you have a nice marketing team and and your staff stuff on sales. If you'd like to learn more about Nikki you can find her on LinkedIn, obviously, and hear more about what she's doing. Yeah, she's she's so great. I love this guy. conversation, check her out, connect, say hi, and learn more about how to use LinkedIn.

Season eight is available, be sure to check out all eight episodes. Next up is my conversation with David Monday. David tells a story. It's literally like, the only question I asked him is for him to tell us a story. And it's a really cool story because I think we all can relate to it in one way or another of we didn't all set out to be marketers. And somehow we ended up here just like Nicky, and just like David and so to hear how David's journey was in terms of him becoming a marketer, and what he finds so fascinating and important about marketing within an organization really hits home in terms of how we can't really build a brand without it. It's a great conversation, be sure to check it out.

Thanks for listening tea time with tech Marketing Leaders podcast that helps brands get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. I'm your host Kerry Guard and until next time.