Noob School - Episode 27: Using LinkedIn as a Sales Tool with Lindsey McMillion Stemann

Episode Date: December 10, 2021

Known by her online persona as "LinkedIn Lindsey," Lindsey McMillion Stemann is the leader of McMillion Consulting, a Greenville-based firm that helps businesses better connect with their prospects online and in-person. So, yeah—she knows how to sell. Better yet, she's on the cutting edge of the sales world and an awesome listen for aspiring salespeople who want to figure out how to leverage tools to connect with prospects. Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, welcome back to Noob School. This is where we interview great salespeople and business owners, and we dial it back to when they got started in sales so they can tell you what they do well, what they do wrong, what would they advise you to do today as you start out your career in sales. And today, I've got to tell you, truly one of my all-time favorites, Lindsey McMillian, Steeman. Lindsay and I have been friends for a number of years.

She is an absolute crackerjack salesperson. She's also a good business person, but I met her when she started or when she was just starting in sales. And, you know, she's closed to me. She's got money out of me on several occasions. So that's an admission on my part. But anyway, Lindsay came down here from Baltimore. She went to school at Clemson and like a lot of others. She liked it so much.

She stayed in the area. Very thankful for that. And she'll tell you about her story from Clemson to now where she owns a very successful company called LinkedIn Lindsay. It's a great name. LinkedIn Lindsay. You'll hear more about that later that just focuses on helping people do better with LinkedIn. And she does other things associated with that. So without further ado, Lindsay, welcome.

Welcome today. Thanks, John. It's so fun to be here and to have such an amazing. intro. Well, I have more to say, but I only have so much can do. Anyway, we're glad you're here. We're also glad, you know, being a Greenville native, we're glad that you ended up moving here, and you brought some of your friends with you. I have, yes. That awesome? Yeah, it's been great. You're going to bring some more? I hope so, only the good ones. Okay, good. Yeah, we're a little choosy, right? Good, absolutely. So let's start at the beginning. We know you went to Clemson. Tell us what you

majored in and how you got into sales and how you decided to get in the sales. Yeah. I thought about this question and I was wondering how far back you wanted me to go. Like selling boiled hot dogs on the sidewalk in my neighborhood as a young girl. So my dad was a salesman and I really think that in hindsight it's just been in my blood. I had two internships at Clemson. My Bachelor of Science degree was in graphic communications, and we were required to do two internships. And so I did mine as a graphic designer, sat behind a desk, 40 hours a week, designed really cool stuff that ultimately, mostly didn't go to production, which was really frustrating to me.

So I thought, okay, if I can't create it and voice my opinion, maybe I'll sell it. So I decided through those two internships what I didn't want to do, which was be a graphic designer, and I decided to go into sales. And what was really cool was the opportunity I had in the D.C. area, the intention, they hired me as the executive assistant to the president and vice president for first full 12 months with the intention of going into sales. So I really got to learn the ins and outs, the back end, build relationships. We were a three-shift printing operation to union shop selling custom manufacturing. So it was a great experience. So that when I launched into sales, it was a head start. Yeah, because you had all of that knowledge.

Yes. Because you had a year seeing behind the curtain. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. We talk about that. I know you've read some of the book, maybe not the whole thing. But we talk about that in the book. I didn't do a very good job of that myself, but I would tell the nubes,

new people, learn it, man, learn everything about it because it'll help you be more valuable to your prospect. Oh, it's so true. Well, and I was even given an opportunity to take over for a sales rep who went on maternity leave in that first year. And so to get to work with existing clients and start to create my own voice was a really awesome opportunity. So within the first six months of being a sales rep myself, I sold over a million in ink on paper,

which is so crazy. Wow. Inc on paper. Ink on paper, yep. So backing up a little bit, one of the questions I get a lot from the noobs is about the interview process. How do they prepare for it? How do they nail it? And I'm sure you did very well at it. But what would you recommend to them they do to get ready for a big interview? So when I was reading your book, one of the stories you told was actually you were picking on yourself and you said you were calling the IRS.

and you said, so what do you guys do? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the person said, well, we're the IRS. And you're like, oh, the least I could have done has spent 60 seconds, like checking out who this. A minute, a minute, right? Well, interestingly, it took me back to when I was first launching out of school. And I'll never forget one of the interview tactics I was taught was no, you know,

learn about the company that you're interviewing for and come prepared with questions. But now being in sales my whole career, what a great sales tactic too, right? To not have all the information, but just enough to ask curious questions. Right. I agree. I agree. One of the things I've learned in the last couple of years is people will go in there and they'll ask the person.

They'll try to be like an interested interviewee and say, well, how is your business doing or something? Like, you could have Googled that. Right. Don't ask them anything you could have Googled. Ask them something more interesting, I would say. Okay, so you started with the print-to-paper business back in Baltimore, and you sold a million dollars your first sales year.

How much, how did that go from there and tell us about your transition throughout? So I'll make the long story short, and that is I started learning about commission structures. and also just the disconnect between being a salesperson and selling a product that I had very little control over. There were dozens of hands touching the product that I was ultimately presenting to the client. And so it was challenging. It was a really challenging sales experience. And when I moved down to Greenville about a decade ago, a little over that, I stayed in the

print industry, had a great experience. If there was one thing I was going to keep consistent. it was at least the industry. So I did that for a little under a year and then worked for a startup, a software as a service company, and that was a whole different experience, right? That's actually when you and I met and I had my first formal sales training. And that transformed. I mean, I'm just so grateful that that leader invested in me as a salesperson to actually learn

sales tactics. I mean, right? I had really just been waiting. it up to that point. So having a process and getting to practice and role play as uncomfortable as that is, that's the time to do it. Yeah. So. So, yeah, on that point, I agree with you, I winged it for the first couple years. And, you know, for the nubes, you can wing it and you can kind of get away with it and you can kind of do okay. But as soon as you get some good sales training, you're like, oh, oh, it's so much easier. So much easier. You know, particularly for

example, not trying to sell everybody. Right. We're not a fit for everybody. Because that's just the truth. We couldn't be. Yeah, that's true. It couldn't be a fit for every single person that's a lead. So let's figure out which ones are a fit.

Let's do a good job for them. That's right. A lot of good stuff there. So you ended up back in here, and I know you worked for that one startup. And then eventually you got really into LinkedIn, learned it inside and out. You eventually launched your business. How long ago was that? So I've been doing this for almost nine years.

I launched the first expansion of another company. And then it was time to part ways, had an amazing experience, and launched McMillian Consulting, as you like to call my business. I love that. LinkedIn, Lindsay, which is how I'm known, thanks to you, about five years ago. So I've been, gosh, trained thousands of people across the country, spoken internationally. We train sales teams, recruiting teams, work with a lot. of executives around the country. It's a blast. Right. Well, I'll say this. When I met Lindsay at a training class, we were sitting

next to each other at this thing, this class you're talking about. I don't remember what we were training on. Do you remember? Gosh, I don't know. No, either. A lot of stuff. That I was not very good at. But she, Lindsay, you know, she introduces herself. She goes, what do you do? And I tell her and she goes, this is what I do. I'm like, well, why would I be that interested in LinkedIn?

I really had not given it much ado at that time. And you're like, well, I don't know. Maybe you shouldn't be. But if someone doesn't know you, John, because most people right here know you, but if someone doesn't know you, they go to LinkedIn, they look up your profile. And yours doesn't look so good. Do you remember what it looked like? Yeah, it was ugly. So, what was it?

It was a picture of you and your sweet dog poppy. Rowdy. It was a poppy? I think it was Poppy. Uh-huh. Hiking. Yeah. And so here's John, this successful business.

business person, right? Great career, awesome story, charismatic, mentoring, I mean, all these cool things, right? On and on and John's LinkedIn profile had misspellings, had a profile picture of him and his dog hiking in the woods, right? And part of it, John, from my memory was that you just didn't know what you didn't know. I didn't know what I didn't know. And I remember you saying, well, you know, I have a good budget for Google AdWords, right? So when you Google my industry, my company website is going to be one of the top search results. I said, well, let's do that. Let's just put it to the test.

And I saw beads of sweat starting to pile on your forehead, right? And so we did. And thankfully, you know, your website was the top search result. But guess what was number two? Your LinkedIn profile. Yeah. So, you know, it was a great way to make me the prospect aware of the situation and honestly decide whether or not it would be helpful. And then I'm like, well, great, Lindsay, let's, we get together sometime and talk about it.

You know, just try to sluff it off. And she goes, well, I got my phone right here. Why don't we just quit and pull out calendars and put something down? I'm like, whoa, okay. So we put it down. and we had a meeting at my office. And before the meeting, she called and said, just want to make sure you know we're going to go over at the meeting

and how long it's going to last. And also, if you're okay with it, at the end, if you're okay with what I'm proposing, that I'm going to go ahead and ask for your business credit card so we can engage. I'm like, holy cow, unbelievable. Like, no way am I giving her that card, but I said, okay. You did.

I said, okay. I'll give it to you. You did. And then she shows up and just went by the number. when we got to the end, and I kind of forgotten about the credit card. I said, well, if we're going forward to that credit card, I just reached in my pocket, gave it to her, and she ran it through. Golly, you crushed me.

You didn't crush me. You helped me. You really helped me. All those things you did were not tricking me into something. They were helping me. Help everyone looks at my LinkedIn profile. It's a pretty good profile now. Probably needs a little refresh.

It does. It's been a while. Well, I'll give you my credit card. There we go. So good. Did you tell us something about sales that you thought was true that turned out not to be true? That I thought was true that didn't end up being true. Well, I would say that having the expectation that you're going to get it right the first time.

It takes a lot of practice. Even like you mentioned in your book, John, about the characteristics and the qualities of good salespeople, you still have to practice. And humility, I mean, gosh, I like many people, are their own worst critic. And so having this expectation that I was going to nail it the first time every time was just, I mean, I was beating my head against the wall. So I think just accepting that you're always going to be learning and that you always need refrave. refreshing too, right? Like your LinkedIn profile needs a refreshment. All my sales skills always need refinement and refreshment. We're all, Lindsay and I are always going to one training or another. We just continue to do it because we know it works. But you keep talking about practice. I don't think

a lot of the nubes are aware of just how important it is to practice before you go into an interview or a sales situation, even if it's with your roommate or your friend. And It's just to say, you know, here's my script, here's your script, and let's just go through it. And if this doesn't work, we'll try it again and try it again. And I can't tell you how many sales calls I've been on that we've practiced beforehand, like me and Dustin would practice. We'd go in the call, and then the people were just completely compliant. Just however we wanted it to go, they would just follow right along because they hadn't practiced. Right.

Well, and we've heard the phrase before. It's not real until it comes out of your own mouth. So you can have all the written scripts in the world. But until you actually use your own words and hear your voice and your inflection and put your own personality to it, it's not real. And so I totally agree with you that actually verbalizing the practice is so important. And some of our successful folks that we have on, Lindsay, you know, some of them end up being great salespeople. They keep working for bigger companies. they don't have a lot, you know, the business responsibility, but they make a lot of money,

and they get really good at it. Some of them become management, like sales management types, bigger companies, and some of them become entrepreneurs like you did. That's a very hard route to take, but it's also incredibly rewarding, you know, when it works. Can you tell us about that decision process in your head to leave what was a very good job, with this expanding the company and opening up your own thing? I feel so thankful that I have the experience of sales because there is no question that when you are the business owner,

you are the salesperson, period. No matter what you're providing, service product. And so when people use the phrase, oh, I'm not a salesperson, you absolutely are. The book Daniel Pink wrote to Sell as Human is such a great book to reference as well because it really reframes this idea of the S word that people don't like using

because there's a lot of bad salespeople out there. But guess what? There's a lot of bad doctors out there and bad teachers. I mean, right? It spans the gamut. And so when I decided to launch McMillian Consulting, I, again, was blessed to have the opportunity already under my belt of hunting the deals, closing the deals, delivering on the deals. And so I didn't

feel like it was that risky in that sense. It was really just starting to make all the decisions on my own. That was probably the more unknown part of the experience. Interesting. Because you, again, I think this is more entrepreneurial advice, but I tell people all the time when they say, I want to be an entrepreneur, like, well, you'd be smart if you link it very closely as possible to something you already kind of have a universe in. Yes. You know it. You know who banks it.

You know who the prospects, who the customers are. You might even have some customers that will start with you. You know, and then it's really not like you're just rolling the dice and saying, I'm going to go start, I'm going to start making towels or something. I mean, something that you know a lot about. And you had that. So you had to add bookkeeping and marketing and some of those things. Sure, exactly.

And so I just was taught, reminded of a recent sales. lesson just last week where a good friend, a mutual friend of ours, Walker, McKay gave me the advice, especially in my space of what, for example, what I'm teaching or training sales teams, there are three things I can guarantee your sales team, the material. I can guarantee you it's top-notch, best of the best, right? Because I'm controlling that, right? Let's be honest. The second is the delivery of that material, which is me. You're getting me. And the third, that's the third, that I can't actually guarantee and actually you're responsible for owning this part of it. And that is ultimately the results.

Right? So I can equip your team and give them all the tools in my tool belt. But it's up to them to believe it, own it, practice it, implement it, make it a habit. And so I think that when we're just thinking about all of the different tools out there, It's what do you decide to own and what are you going to decide to, you know, move the needle on and commit to. Right. Yeah, people have to buy in. You got to buy in.

What are the things that slowed you down when you're ramping up your business sales-wise? Mistakes you made tell them not to make again. Overthinking it. Oh, my gosh, overthinking it. So I'm jumping ahead with our Colby's. Can I do that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so I'm a 7762, which means I am a high fact finder.

So I need just enough information. But I'm also a high quick start. So when I have just enough, I go. You act. And then I have high follow through as well. The two means I'm good at envisioning future, which makes me primed as an entrepreneur. Yeah, definitely. So the question of overthinking kind of gets me stuck sometimes in my fact finding because I might not feel like I have enough information to make that phone call.

But ultimately, at this point in my career, I've had enough experience. And that's just something that comes with time and repetition to be able to say, okay, I have just enough enough. And we don't know, I can admit that. I can say, John, that's a great question. I need to get back to you on that. Or John, you know, I've never been asked that part. Let me get back to you. So overthinking for me was the biggest hurdle to, to, um.

So if someone had that same situation, you recommend they do things like just go ahead and put the call on the calendar and just give yourself, you got till tomorrow afternoon to get ready or to give yourself something on the timer at 30 minutes. Absolutely. I'm going to call them. Yep, absolutely. And like you said, too,

doing the role playing, practicing, looking at yourself in a mirror, right? Building that confidence and conviction. Okay. That's good. Is there one thing you wish you to know when you started in sales? That it's okay to be uncomfortable. People can't see how hard your heart is beating in your chest. I think going back to the overthinking thing, they overlap for me quite a bit, and that it's okay to be uncomfortable. That's where growth happens. So I had to make a difficult call recently, which thankfully doesn't happen very often.

And I knew that the longer I delayed, the more painful, the whole experience for me, and likely for that person was going to become. So I took a deep breath, heart was still pounding, and I just picked up the phone. And it was uncomfortable, but I have the, thankfully at this point, luxury of experience and maturity

to have kept it cool and calm and equal business stature, right? And we worked through it. And I was genuine. And just we had to have a hard conversation, but we both left the conversation feeling better about it. And that was, I really think, because I overcame what I knew was going to be uncomfortable and just went for it. Yeah.

Gosh, that's such a good one, Lindsay. I think we're all, we all like everything to be happy all the time. Yeah. Everyone likes us. Yeah. And sometimes your business, you've got to have like a grown-up discussion. Oh, yeah. Well, it's like I was listening to your interview with Marty Osborne,

and we're all in the human-to-human business. I say that all the time. Like, even in MySpace, LinkedIn, yes, is my expertise. But I believe your goal is still to get offline to schedule that phone call or in-person meeting and build a human relationship. Yeah. Yep. I agree.

So what's your favorite word, Lindsay? Perspective. Perspective. Okay. Tell us about that. Why is that your favorite word? Well, without it, we think we're the only person in the room, the only opinion, the only person that matters, right?

And perspective goes beyond other people's perspective and where they might be coming from, but also the gift of time and realizing that, okay, that uncomfortable phone call I had to make recently, in the grand scheme of things, it's going to be okay. right? It's fine. I'm here to just be an advocate and support and help people. That's why I love what I do. So perspective in the sense of time and perspective in the sense of, you know, if you get a nasty phone call or an email or you have a difficult situation or, you know, somebody's probably having a bad day. It has nothing to do with you, right? And putting yourself in the other person's shoes. That's great. That's a great word. What's your favorite word? Has anyone asked you that yet?

My favorite words absolutely. Oh, okay. Absolutely. So, you know, kind of a commitment word, like not just yes, but absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we're going to do this. Very good. Or absolutely not.

Do you ever say that? No. No, never. I'll give me the credit card, Lindsay. I'll do it. All right. Perfect. So let's do one last little promotion thing on LinkedIn Lindsay because I want them to

understand what you do. There might be some customers out there. So I'm a customer. I've been a customer for a while now. I need to refresh. But besides helping someone have a strategy around their LinkedIn page, tell us what else you do, speaking, training, all that kind of stuff. I appreciate you asking.

Well, I do want to go back to the profile piece because this is a sales conversation, and I love sales. I love selling. I love hunting. I love having the conversation, building the trust, and acquiring the new client and the opportunity to do work. And I always say, like, I teach you I always say, like, I teach teams and individuals how to do that through LinkedIn as an additional

tool in their toolbell, right? But that's oftentimes phase two because everybody, as soon as you start activating on LinkedIn, guess what happens? People's eyeballs come back to your profile. So the profile transformer is our five-step trademark process that we take a lot of executives and business owners and leaders through. We interview them, write the entire profile, and launch it for them. So it's taking all the guesswork, all the heavy lifting, giving you the microphone, pulling out your story and writing the whole thing. And LinkedIn's become much more visual. So it's so much more than just a resume anymore. It's really, okay, I got you on the profile. Now I got to keep you there, right? So how do I educate you, inform you, tell the story,

and how do I get you off of LinkedIn to have the conversation with me? So the profile transformer, we do dozens and dozens of those every single year. And then, And I love speaking engagements. So I speak at a lot of conferences. My favorite speaking engagements are sales incentive trips. So my last speaking engagement before I, before the pandemic, was in Mexico. So I was hired to speak at this global meeting for the top sales performers within this company. It was a blast.

I mean, I got paid to be there. I brought them a bunch of value and excitement and they were already successful, but they wanted to be better. Yeah. And so it was so much fun to just be with high performing, high achievers and equip them with even more horsepower to just continue to crush their goals. That's great. So yeah, I mean, at this point, I've literally helped companies generate millions of dollars. It's so rewarding. And it's a win for them and double one for me. Well, we're mighty proud of you. Thanks, John. And thankful as you're here on the call with us today. If you want more from Lindsay, I think you can find her on LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn, yes. Me too, by the way. That's right. But, yeah, we're thankful for you being here and for being part of the success formula here in Greenville. Thanks so much, John. This is great. Appreciate you. Thank you.

Thank you. Hey, is John here? Thanks for listening today. please check out noobeschool.org. That's my website. That's where we have other videos and content that can help you get started in sales.