Image generated with AI (Gemini)

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Your health, fitness, work, and personal life influence one another, even though you’re likely managing them separately.

• Research links competing work and family demands with later mental health difficulties. Stress can also make it harder to maintain an exercise regimen.

• Finishing your workday doesn’t always mean you’ve stopped working mentally. Just as with working out, you need to recover from work, too.

• Both personal choices and working conditions matter, and more control over your schedule and support at work can help.

• Relationships deserve space in your life for their own sake. They also belong in the health conversation.

A couple of days ago, I posted this note as part of my “That’s It. That’s the Note.™” series here on Substack:

Your health, fitness, and personal life aren’t separate entities.
They work hand in hand, so treat them as such.
That’s it. That’s the note.™

Like all of my other notes in that series, it’s short enough to read while you’re getting that first caffeine hit of the day. This one in particular, though, really hits me… and I bet it does you, too.

We tend to plan these parts of our lives, but we plan them separately. We set a fitness goal that’s either audacious or small. We look at our work calendar and wonder how the hell we’ll get all of that done. We agree to something at home because it’s the right thing to do, but we’re not sure how we’ll do it. And along the way, we figure we’ll deal with the health crap… preferably when it becomes more convenient.

Each of those decisions may make sense when you first make them, but they generally work independently of one another. Thing is, they all belong to the same person… you.

This is where the “hand in hand” phrase from my original note hits. While these parts of life can support one another, they can also get in one another’s way. Treating them as connected means paying attention to both of those possibilities.

Each Plan Assumes You’re Available

A workout schedule can look perfectly reasonable. So can a week of client calls, a project deadline, and a few commitments with people you care about. The trouble starts when each plan assumes it has full access to whatever time and energy it needs from you.

At first, all of these look pretty doable: You accept an early meeting because that slot is open and agree to an evening obligation because, technically, you’re free. You still intend to exercise, handle things at home, and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

But the calendar only holds 24 hours total, and doesn’t include everything it takes to get through that day. There’s preparation, travel, meals, and whatever decides to demand your attention without making an appointment. And then there’s sleep, right?

By Thursday, you’re wondering why you can’t seem to stick to your plan. The question is… which plan? You’ve made several, and they’re all competing for those same waking hours.

Researchers studied part of this overlap, calling it work–family conflict: the demands of one role (or in this case, plan) interfering with another. A 2026 review of 52 longitudinal studies involving more than 112,000 people found that work interfering with family life was associated with later depressive symptoms, burnout, and mental distress. Family demands interfering with work were also associated with later depressive symptoms and burnout.

The research doesn’t prove that competing work and family demands actually caused those health difficulties. But it does show a connection worth paying attention to, especially when those demands keep getting in one another’s way.

Fitness Has to Fit the Life You’re Living

I value fitness. I’ve put a lot of work into mine, and I know what it means to me. I also know that staying active gets more complicated when your body changes the terms.

My ongoing recovery from pretty major shoulder surgery a few months ago has made that pretty clear. Add in a recent arthritis-related setback with my knee, and… well, I’ve spun out a bit on that one.

Wanting to continue doesn’t automatically make my old plan appropriate… or, hell, even doable. That’s frustrating when you’ve worked hard to build consistency, and it’s easy to compare yourself with what you used to do (believe me; I still struggle with this, even though I’m writing about it right now!).

The rest of life affects that consistency, too. A review published in Sports Medicine examined how stress affects physical activity and exercise. Among 55 prospective studies, about three-quarters found that stress predicted less activity or exercise, or more sedentary behavior.

We hear plenty about exercising to manage stress. We hear far less about how stress can also make it harder to maintain an exercise routine. That can leave you struggling to do the very thing you hoped would help.

That gives us another question to ask before deciding if we lack discipline: what else is the week asking of us?

A fitness goal has to account for the body pursuing it and the life around it. Recovery, caregiving, and a demanding stretch at work can all change what’s reasonable. Adjusting a routine takes thought, especially when you care about it. But insisting on the same plan under different circumstances can leave you repeatedly disappointed with yourself.

There’s value in a routine you can actually keep doing.

Work Comes Home With Us, Too

Your business doesn’t run separately from your body. It runs through it. The way we work also becomes part of the life our bodies and relationships have to accommodate.

Consider the salesperson who finishes a late call, then spends dinner replaying what the prospect said. Same can be said of the business owner who closes the laptop at 5 PM, but keeps mentally rewriting tomorrow’s proposal that evening. The workday may be over on the calendar, but it still occupies the person’s mind while sitting at the dinner table.

Researchers call the ability to mentally step away psychological detachment. A meta-analysis involving more than 38,000 employees found that greater detachment during nonwork time was associated with less exhaustion and fatigue, better sleep, and higher life satisfaction.

That doesn’t make every after-hours work thought a problem. We’ve all had a useful idea while doing something else. The concern is being unable to put work down when we want to focus elsewhere.

We all have unusually demanding weeks. But “this week is unusual” deserves another look when we’ve been saying it every week for the past three months.

Your Schedule Isn’t Entirely Yours

Advice about managing all of this can get a little too casual. You’ve heard them all, too: Protect your time. Set boundaries. Stop overcommitting. All of those (and more) seem reasonable, but do you have enough control to act on them?

Some people are able to move a meeting or decline an assignment. Others, though, have rigid shifts, unpredictable schedules, or managers who treat constant availability as evidence of commitment. Personal planning has to operate within those conditions.

That’s why I found one randomized workplace study especially interesting. Researchers tested an intervention designed to increase employees’ control over work time and supervisors’ support for family responsibilities. It didn’t directly address sleep, yet employees in the intervention group slept about eight additional minutes a day and reported greater sleep sufficiency.

Eight minutes is a modest improvement, but what matters here is that changing work affected sleep.

For sales leaders and business owners, that belongs in the conversation. Encouraging people to take care of themselves carries more weight when deadlines, meeting schedules, and expectations give them a reasonable chance to do it.

Some Things Matter Without Improving Your Productivity

There’s a trap in writing about health and work. We can make every good thing in life sound valuable because it helps us produce more. While statements like “Exercise so you can sell better,” “Rest so you can make better decisions,” and “See your friends so you can return to work refreshed” sound like nice platitudes, they’re still making work the reason to take care of yourself and spend time with people you love. Those things deserve a place in your life whether they help you close another deal or not.

What’s more, there is a business argument for taking care of yourself. You can build a thoughtful, kick-ass sales strategy but struggle to carry it out when you’re exhausted, in pain, or preoccupied with something happening at home. Your capacity belongs in the business plan.

There’s a flip side to that argument, though. If every reason to exercise, rest, or spend time with someone you love comes back to work, we’ve made work the judge of what deserves our attention. What happens when taking care of yourself means working less, postponing an opportunity, or being unavailable when someone wants you? Your health and personal life still deserve consideration, even when the business has to accommodate them.

Relationships also belong in the health conversation. A large review in PLOS Medicine, covering 148 studies and more than 308,000 people, found that people with stronger social relationships were more likely to be alive at the end of the periods researchers studied. That doesn’t prove relationships alone caused the difference, but it gives us good reason to take our connections seriously as part of our health.

The people we care about deserve more than whatever attention remains after we've met every other commitment. The people we care about deserve more than whatever attention remains after we’ve met every other commitment. We deserve to be present for those relationships, too, without needing to justify that time in business terms.

That’s part of what this whole More Than Quota presence I’m building means to me. The numbers do matter… but so does living a life you actually want to be present for.

Make a Plan for the Person Who Has to Live It (That’s You)

Before making another separate promise, look at the week as a whole. What does work require, and what does your health need? Who needs your time, and where have you left room for yourself?

If you’re recovering (from working out or even work itself), account for recovery before filling every opening. If work will be unusually demanding, reconsider what else you’re committing to. Give important personal commitments actual space and don’t just assume you’ll be able to squeeze them in.

Where you have control, use it. Where you don’t, consider what needs a conversation with a manager, business partner, or someone at home. If you lead people, look at the demands you’re creating for them, too. Encouraging someone to protect their personal time won’t mean much if you expect an immediate reply to every evening message.

The question is simple: What am I expecting of myself this week, and does that expectation make sense when I put it all together?

You may move something, simplify a routine, or leave an evening open. You may find your week is actually manageable once you stop adding to it. That’s a surprisingly difficult skill for some (many?) of us.

Your health, fitness, work, and personal life will keep affecting one another. Think about that connection before the calendar fills up.

After all… you’re the one who has to live with it all week.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

Image generated by AI (Gemini)

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• A full calendar shows how much you’re doing, but it doesn’t provide detail on how much attention you have left in the ol’ energy tank for the person in front of you or on the other end of that Zoom call.

• When your energy is running low, it’s easier to miss a useful clue, rush a follow-up, or grow impatient with silence.

• Sleep, short breaks, and a little movement can help you manage your energy. They don’t need to become another complicated routine.

• Before an important conversation, give yourself enough room to be curious. If that capacity isn’t there, decide where your best thinking needs to go today.

A prospect says, “We’ve tried something like that before, and it didn’t really stick.”

At the very least, you could ask what they tried, or where it fell apart. But the reality is you’re on your fifth call of the day, you owe three people a follow-up, and your energy is waning. You already have a pat answer ready, so instead of digging into the hows and whys, you give that answer instead of asking questions that would probably tell you more than another five minutes of explaining your approach.

In the process, you’ve missed an opening the prospect handed you… and you’re not really delivering value as a result. It’s all because you were tired.

I’ve done enough work around sales conversations to know how easily (and often!) this happens. Lately, my own physical setbacks have also made me pay more attention to the energy my work takes. I can be present for a conversation, but I still need to make an effort to listen. If you’ve worked through a long stretch of calls while dealing with poor sleep, stress, pain, or plain old exhaustion, you know what I mean.

The Clue You Miss When You’re Tired

Most of us can tell when we’re so exhausted that we need to stop working. It’s harder to spot those in-between times, though… when you have 25% to 50% in the tank. You may be functioning, getting through the meetings, and answering messages. From the outside, the day looks pretty productive.

But then you hit a meeting where a prospect says “maybe next quarter.” You could find out what would change by then; instead, you just set a reminder for next quarter. Or someone doesn’t reply to a question or statement of yours, and their silence gets under your skin more than it usually would.

That’s where limited energy can cost you... that lack of presence because your tank is at one-quarter full changes the small decisions inside the work.

I’m especially interested in this because sales advice often assumes we can choose to be more curious, more patient, and more thoughtful on command. If you’re nearly tapped out, though, no amount of training and rah-rah thinking will counter that “I’m really tired” feeling.

Get More Energy Into Your Day

I don’t have a clever hack for this, and I’d be very suspicious of anyone promising one. The research points to a few fairly ordinary things that are easy to lose when work gets crowded.

The biggest is sleep. NIOSH says most adults need at least seven hours and recommends fairly consistent sleep and wake times. If your schedule allows it, protecting that time gives you a better starting point for the next day. It’s also worth noticing whether the coffee you drink to make it through late afternoon is interfering with sleep that night. (I bet it is; I know it does that with me.)

For the energy you need today, try leaving a few minutes between the conversations that ask the most of you. Get up, refill your water, or walk around before your next call. A review of studies on short work breaks found modest improvements in reported energy and fatigue, although it didn’t find a clear overall performance benefit. I like that the evidence leaves room for an honest claim: a break can help you feel less wrung out, even if it can’t promise a better sales call. And I don’t know about you, but the “how you feel” part can be the one thing that changes a call from a success to something much less than that.

If you can get outside for a brief walk, try it on an afternoon when you’re starting to fade. One study of adults who interrupted sitting with short walks found improvements in reported mood and fatigue. The best thing here is you don’t need workout clothes or an ambitious steps-per-day target. Just… get out there and walk.

Food and water belong in the picture as well. On a day filled with calls, it’s surprisingly easy to look up and realize you’ve had coffee but little else. NIOSH includes regular meals and hydration in its guidance for long work hours. I suggest always having at least water and some kind of snacky snack available that you can consume based on your schedule.

These are ways to manage an ordinary demanding day. If exhaustion keeps showing up despite adequate sleep and the basics, it’s worth a conversation with a healthcare professional.

Make Room for the Better Question

When you have an important conversation coming up, look at your last exchange with that prospect or inside influencer and decide what you genuinely need to learn. Give yourself a few minutes afterward to capture what the person said, while you can still hear how they said it… or go to a recording of the call if you have that capability. That small bit of space may keep your follow-up from becoming a recap of your own talking points.

When you’re short on energy, it also makes sense to decide which work needs your judgment most. AI can organize notes or help you start a routine message based on the prospect’s concern, the next question you ask, and when to follow up.

Sales leaders can help here as well. If the team is moving from one call straight into the next all day long, their schedules are shaping the quality of those conversations. NIOSH recommends brief breaks during demanding work and says employers share responsibility for managing fatigue. Give people some room to prepare and recover, then listen to what changes in the calls.

That prospect who said your last conversation “didn’t really go anywhere” actually has given you somewhere to go. If you have enough attention left to ask what happened, you might find out something your prepared answer never would have uncovered.

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

Leave a comment

Image generated via AI (Gemini)

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• My shoulder is improving, but recovery has been slower and less predictable than I’d like. Now my knee has decided it wants some (unwanted) attention, too.

• A new setback can make earlier progress feel invisible, but it doesn’t make that progress disappear.

• Health affects the energy, patience, and presence we bring to our work. Pretending otherwise isn’t a business strategy.

• Moving forward sometimes means changing what progress looks like (for a while).

For those of you keeping score, my shoulder is getting better. I have more range of motion than I did before, and I can see the work paying off in that area. Then I reach a certain point in certain movements, and I’m reminded that “better” and “finished” are (unfortunately) two very different things.

I’m working at it. I’ve been doing the exercises and showing up for the appointments. While I know recovery takes time, it doesn’t mean I enjoy hearing that I still have a ways to go.

Here’s the thing: While I’m trying to be patient with my shoulder, my right knee started hurting. Really badly at first. It’s better, but it still ain’t great. Apparently, dealing with one body part at a time was too much to ask.

The knee has been evaluated, and I’m working through what comes next. But the practical effect is familiar to anyone who has dealt with a setback: The things you were doing to feel stronger suddenly need another look.

Take my knee (please). Since I started PT, I've been walking with dumbbells and even hitting the Y to use the elliptical there. I was doing either or pretty much every day of the week. And I was absolutely crushing it, which I needed to do, since I can’t really do any other higher-intensity exercise right now like I did before all of this happened: going to my local gym 4-5 days a week for full-body functional strength training and playing lots of pickleball.

Now, with my knee constantly complaining, I’m pretty much just doing PT at home daily and going to the therapist twice a week. Compared to what I was doing prior to all of this happening, and even with what I was doing before my knee flared up, that’s frustrating as hell. And when the routine that helped you show up as well for your work disappears, the effect doesn’t stay at the gym.

When Better Doesn’t Feel Like Enough

The strange part is that I am making progress. My shoulder can do things it couldn’t do earlier in recovery. If I looked only at where I started and where I am now, I’d have reason to feel encouraged. Many days, I do.

But it’s easy to judge progress by the thing(s) you still can’t do. That limitation gets your attention every time you reach for something or try a movement that used to be automatic. Then a new problem shows up, and your mind starts lumping everything together: the shoulder, the knee, the disrupted routine, the plans you now have to reconsider. Suddenly the story sounds like, “I keep going backward.”

That’s how it can feel. It isn’t the whole story.

The work I’ve done on my shoulder still counts, and the strength and capacity I’ve built over the years still count, too. A sore knee doesn’t reach back in time and cancel any of it, but it does mean I need to respond to what’s happening now, which may be the least glamorous part of getting older: accepting new information without treating it as a verdict on the future.

The Body Comes to Work With Us

I’ve been thinking and writing more about the connection between health and business because I’m living it. Your business does not run separately from your body. It runs through it.

That’s easy to nod along with when you’re feeling good. It becomes much more concrete when pain affects your sleep, an appointment breaks up your day, or you spend mental energy figuring out which activities are possible. You can still serve clients, lead a team, create, and make good decisions. But you’re doing all of that with the body you have today, not the one you wish had shown up this morning.

In sales and business, we talk a lot about consistency. Usually that translates to producing the same level of activity regardless of what else is going on. I’m coming to think a more useful version is staying committed to the work while being willing to adjust how you do it. Some days, that means doing the important thinking when your energy is best. It may mean protecting time for recovery instead of treating it as an inconvenience that has to squeeze around everything else.

I’m still learning this myself. When a physical setback changes my plans, my first instinct is to get back to normal as quickly as possible. But trying to force yesterday’s plan onto today’s circumstances doesn’t make me more effective; instead, it just adds another fight to an already frustrating situation.

Change the Plan, Keep the Direction

I truly don’t want to make every ache into a business metaphor. Sometimes a knee hurts and you need to deal with a damn hurting knee. Still, I think there’s a lesson here that applies well beyond physical recovery.

When something interrupts a plan, it’s tempting to measure yourself only against the original timeline. That can make every adjustment feel like failure. A better question is: Given what I know today, what can I keep doing, and what needs to change?

For me, that means continuing the shoulder work while giving the knee the attention it needs. It means listening to the people helping me recover, paying attention to what my body is telling me, and finding ways to remain active that fit where I actually am. I don’t have to pretend I’m happy about the interruption. But I’m not using it as a reason to stop caring for myself.

The same thinking belongs in business. A difficult stretch may slow you down or require you to prioritize more carefully. It doesn’t take away your experience, your relationships, or your ability to contribute. You can be honest about a limitation and still take the next useful step.

Still Moving Forward

I suspect a lot of people my age know this particular frustration. You put in the work to get healthier, and then your body presents a fresh agenda. It can feel unfair, especially when you’ve been doing many of the right things.

I’m not going to tell you to be grateful for every setback… I’m certainly not there with this one. But I do want to remember that recovery and progress rarely arrive in the clean, uninterrupted sequence we’d prefer. Some of the work is building capacity. Some of it is learning how to adapt when that capacity is temporarily limited.

My shoulder is better than it was. My knee needs attention now. Both statements can be (and are!) true. So is this one: I still want to keep moving forward, in my health and in the work that matters to me. Today, that means being honest about the frustration, taking care of what’s in front of me, and refusing to let one difficult chapter define the whole story.

The only thing I can add is this: don't let difficulty define your whole story. It’s hard, believe me. But when I started More Than Quota, I wanted to write about the people behind the work and what they’re going through, not just the results we’re trying to produce. Right now, this particular person (me) is frustrated with his shoulder, concerned about his knee, and yet still determined to move forward. I don’t know exactly what that will look like next month. I do know that this difficult stretch is part of my story, not the whole thing.

Leave a comment

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• LinkedIn gives salespeople, consultants, founders, and business professionals tools that can help them connect, listen, learn, engage, and build trust.

• The problem is not the tools. The problem is how some people use them.

• When people use connection requests, messages, comments, AI, and Sales Navigator as shortcuts to pitch faster, they train others to become more guarded.

• Bad outreach does not just hurt the person sending it. It makes the platform feel worse for everyone else trying to use it the right way.

• The better path is not complicated: earn attention before asking for time, bring relevance before making the ask, and treat LinkedIn like a relationship platform instead of a digital vending machine.

There are moments on LinkedIn when all you can do is shake your head and mutter the only reasonable response:

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Dramatic? Yes. True? Also yes. But if you spend any real time on LinkedIn, especially if you teach, sell, consult, coach, lead, create content, or do business development, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

LinkedIn gives us an incredible set of tools to connect with people we never would have met otherwise. We can find the right people, learn about their work, and notice what they care about. LinkedIn then shows us who we know in common and exposes us to the content they want to share. We can then engage with their content, send thoughtful messages, and start conversations that will hopefully matter.

These are all nice things.

Then there are some people who take those same tools and use them to spray generic pitches, fake familiarity, automate pretend interest, and ask for time they have not come close to earning.

This is where the “can’t have it” part comes into play.

Frustration Delivered Straight to You

The moment that sparked this article came from a coaching call inside our Social Sales Link membership. Brynne Tillman shared an outreach message she received from someone who said he would “skip the pitch.” Then, of course, he immediately proceeded to pitch her.

Which is a… choice.

Not a good one, mind you. But definitely a choice.

And that’s the thing that makes this so frustrating. The person probably thought the message was clever. Maybe AI helped write it (or just wrote the whole thing). Or it at least structured it by leading with fake relevance, then enforcing it with generic references to the recipient’s expertise. Then create a little pattern interrupt and ultimately slide into the ask.

The problem is that people can feel that slide.

They can feel the pitch coming before you even get there, or the compliment is not really a compliment. Most importantly, they can feel when “no pitch” means “please lower your guard so I can pitch you more easily.”

That’s not trust-based selling… it’s a pitch in disguise.

The Tool Was Never the Strategy

One of the biggest mistakes people make on LinkedIn is confusing access with strategy. While LinkedIn gives you access to people, it does not give you permission to interrupt them poorly.

There is a big difference between being able to reach someone and having earned the right to reach out in a way that deserves their attention. Too many people treat LinkedIn like the first part is all that matters. They find a profile, send a connection request, drop a message, and assume the other person should be grateful for the opportunity to hear about their thing.

But nobody owes you that. (Here’s a recent article of mine that emphasizes that point all the more.)

They do not owe you their time, a reply, or the benefit of the doubt just because you believe your product, service, agency, program, platform, process, or “all-the-bells-and-whistles” solution can help them.

What LinkedIn does is give us the opportunity to become relevant before the ask… the part that too many people skip.

What are they skipping? Doing profile research, engaging with content, finding mutual connections, and more. Most importantly, they skip the part where the other person might begin to recognize them as useful.

Then they wonder why people do not respond.

Well…

Bad Outreach Trains People to Distrust Good Outreach

Here is the part that matters beyond one bad message. Every lazy pitch makes the next thoughtful message harder to trust. That’s where the real damage comes into play.

Spammy outreach not only fails for the person who sends it. It conditions the recipient to become more skeptical of everyone. And, trust me - that’s been going on around LinkedIn’s parts for years now.

When people misuse the tools, they do not just burn their own credibility. They make the room smokier for everybody. And this is especially true now that AI is making it easier to create messages that sound polished on the surface. A message can be grammatically clean, emotionally smooth, and structurally well-written while still being completely empty of actual relevance.

Don’t get me wrong: AI can help you think through a message and clarify your point. It can help you create content that’s less clunky than what you’ve written. It can even help you notice when your “ask” might come too soon.

But AI cannot care for you or decide that the person on the other end deserves respect. When your entire strategy is still “find target, send message, ask for call,” AI only helps to amplify it and make it easier to scale.

LinkedIn Gives Us Better Signals

The irony is that LinkedIn actually gives us so many ways to avoid this.

You can read someone’s About section, look at their content, and see what they're commenting on. You can notice what they are trying to teach, their frustrations, and what they seem to care about professionally.

LinkedIn provides us with many more signals, too, including:

• Job changes

• Company news

• Their posts (before you ever send a message)

• Sales Navigator, and all of its kick-ass tools to organize and prioritize people more thoughtfully

In other words, LinkedIn gives us clues. The problem is that clues only matter if you are willing to slow down long enough to use them.

Too many people treat LinkedIn like a shortcut when it is actually a context engine. It gives you context that can help you decide whether to reach out, how to reach out, when to reach out, and whether you have any reason to believe the outreach will be welcome.

That is a very different mindset from “I found your profile and thought we should connect.”

Did you, though? Or did I just happen to match the filters in your search?

“No Pitch” Is Not a Magic Spell

One of the stranger things happening in outreach right now is the rise of anti-pitch language that immediately turns into a pitch:

“I’ll skip the pitch.”

“Not here to sell you anything.”

“No agenda.”

“Just thought we should connect.”

“I promise this isn’t a sales message.”

Then, three sentences later… the pitch.

The problem is not that people use those phrases. The problem is that they use them as camouflage. Guess what? Using “this is not a pitch” doesn’t somehow change the fact that the message is obviously designed to get the other person into a sales conversation.

People are not stupid. They know when they are being moved through a funnel. They know when “collaboration” means “I would like to sell you something.” They know when “quick question” is not really a question. They know when “curious” is doing way too much work.

And once people feel manipulated, the trust is gone. That is the part sellers need to understand.

Trust is not created by labeling the message differently. It is created by behaving differently.

The Better Use of LinkedIn Is Slower, But Not Passive

Permission-based selling does not mean sitting around and hoping people magically find you.

There is nothing wrong with wanting sales conversations. There is nothing wrong with prospecting. There is nothing wrong with using LinkedIn for business development. I am a huge believer in all of it when it is done well.

But the conversation has to be earned. Not forced, tricked, or automated into existence.

Earned.

And the good news is that earning it does not require some wildly complicated system. It usually starts with a few basic questions before you send the message:

• Have I shown any reason this person should pay attention to me?

• Have I created relevance before making the ask?

• Is this message about them, or is it just about my goal?

• Would this feel respectful if I were on the receiving end?

• Is there any human judgment in this, or am I just moving another name through a sequence?

Those questions will not slow down a good strategy. They will slow down a bad one.

And, yes… there is a difference.

The Nice Thing Is Still Worth Protecting

I still believe LinkedIn can be one of the best business relationship platforms we have. Not because it is perfect; believe me, it is not.

Not because everyone uses it well. They absolutely do not.

When it’s used with intention, LinkedIn allows people to build trust while they’re still at a distance (at first). It gives your expertise visibility and allows conversations to start before a meeting is ever booked. It lets people learn from each other, refer each other, introduce each other, and create opportunities that would not have happened otherwise.

Those are nice things.

The question is whether we are going to use it like adults. And that’s the part worth calling out.

The platform is not the strategy. The tool is not the relationship. The message is not the trust.

We are.

So before the next connection request, message, comment, follow-up, or “quick question,” it might be worth asking the uncomfortable but useful question: Am I using LinkedIn to earn trust? Or am I one of the reasons we can’t have nice things?

Keep asking those questions. Otherwise, you’ll run afoul of the statement I use to end all of my Substack articles:

Don’t be a salesy weirdo.

Earn those conversations.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Your LinkedIn profile is often the trust check people perform after they notice your content, comments, messages, connection requests, search-result appearances, or Sales Navigator presence.

• That first touch may create awareness, but your profile helps determine whether someone sees you as relevant, credible, and worth their time.

• If your profile is vague, outdated, resume-style, or disconnected from the content you publish, trust can start leaking before the conversation ever begins.

• LinkedIn’s 360Brew relevance engine makes profile alignment even more important because your profile, content, comments, engagement patterns, and audience all help LinkedIn understand what you are known for.

• Your profile should give both people and LinkedIn a clear center of gravity: who you help, what problems you help them think through, what outcomes you support, and what conversations you belong in.

• The stronger the alignment between your profile and your content, the easier it is for prospects and LinkedIn to understand your relevance.

• Confusion is expensive. And it is definitely not a growth strategy.

Your LinkedIn Profile Is Often The Second First Impression

A lot of people think their LinkedIn profile is just sitting there quietly in the background. In reality, it’s a hard worker that’s clocked in for you all the time. You have to decide if it’s working on the right thing.

If it’s not constructed properly, it’s working against you, like a digital beige wall with a headshot attached. That’s not ideal unless your dream client is actively searching for beige walls. In that case, congratulations on your oddly specific niche.

For most people on LinkedIn, the profile becomes important after something else happens first:

• They see a post of yours and like your point of view.

• They notice a comment of yours on someone else’s post.

• They receive your connection request.

• They see your name in a mutual connection’s comment thread.

• They read a message you’ve sent (that’s hopefully not pitchy).

• They find you in a LinkedIn search.

• They see you in their Sales Navigator instance.

• They hear your name from someone else.

Any of these first touches may create awareness. Before they respond, connect, follow, reply, or take you seriously, though, they may click over to your profile and quietly ask themselves a few questions:

• Who is this person?

• What do they actually do?

• Is this relevant to me?

• Do they understand my world?

• Are they credible, or are they just another person trying to sell me something?

• Is this worth my time?

These questions form the “trust check” that your profile must pass before someone takes you seriously. And if your profile does not answer them clearly, you may lose the conversation before it ever starts.

It Doesn’t Take Much for Trust to Leak Out

A little confusion here. A vague headline there. An About section that sounds like it was written for a job recruiter in 2014. A Featured section with nothing useful. An Experience section that reads like a list of responsibilities instead of a resource for the reader.

All of these can start the drip, drip, drip of a trust leak. The frustrating part is that the person may have been interested before they clicked through to your profile. A post or comment of yours may have made them think. Or a message or connection request you’ve sent may have been relevant or respectful.

Then they check your profile, and the alignment breaks. The profile does not support the conversation you started or reinforce your point of view. It does not make any of the next steps they want to take feel safer.

Overall, though, your profile does not help them understand why you are worth knowing. That, obviously, is bad. You may be able to restart the trust-building phase by reaching out to them via Who’s Viewed Your Profile on LinkedIn. But you’re restarting, which is never a good place to be if you’re in sales.

LinkedIn’s 360Brew Makes Alignment Even More Important

Now let’s bring 360Brew into this, because this is where profile clarity becomes more than a human trust issue. It becomes a LinkedIn relevance issue, too.

Without getting too geeky about it, I think of 360Brew as LinkedIn’s relevance engine. It is trying to understand what content is most relevant to which people. That means LinkedIn is not just looking at one isolated post in a vacuum and saying, “Well, this seems nice. Let’s toss it into the feed and see what happens.”

LinkedIn is looking for signals from topics covered in your profile, content, comments, engagement patterns, and the audience you’re targeting (which it learns from all of those other things). It then takes all of that and serves your content in the feeds of people LinkedIn thinks will want to read your brilliant thoughts and words.

This is why a focused profile matters. If your profile says you help sales professionals use LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and AI to earn better sales conversations, and your content consistently supports that same lane, LinkedIn has an easier time understanding what you are relevant for.

So do humans. And that’s the point.

But if your profile says one thing, your content says another, your comments are all over the place, and your About section reads like a generic leadership bio from a 2011 corporate retreat (yawn), you are making LinkedIn work harder to understand you.

That’s why it’s time to align.

Your Profile Gives Context For Everything You Publish

This is the part I do not think enough people understand. Your profile is not separate from your content strategy. It is context for your content strategy… so much so that I consider it to be the launching point for your content strategy.

If you publish a post about sales follow-up, your profile helps LinkedIn and the reader understand whether sales follow-up is actually part of your lane. Are you commenting on other people’s posts about prospecting? Your profile helps confirm whether you have a relevant point of view. Writing about AI in sales? Your profile helps support whether that topic belongs to you or whether it feels random.

That matters because LinkedIn is trying to connect content with relevance. The more clearly your profile, content, comments, and engagement patterns reinforce each other, the easier it becomes for both LinkedIn and your audience to understand what you are known for.

One thing, though: Please don’t turn yourself into a content vending machine that only dispenses the same three approved sentences until the end of time. But it does mean your content should have a recognizable center of gravity. Your profile should help define that center of gravity.

If your profile says you are known for helping sales teams create more conversations through LinkedIn, social selling, Sales Navigator, and AI, then your content should support that. Your comments should support that. Your Featured section should support that. Your Experience section should support that.

That is how you create alignment.

And alignment matters because confusion is expensive.

The 360Brew Profile Test

Here is a simple way to evaluate your profile: Imagine someone from your ideal audience sees one of your posts, likes your thinking, and clicks over to your profile.

Within 10 to 20 seconds…

• Can they tell who you help?

• Can they understand what problems or outcomes you are connected to?

• Can they see what services, resources, or expertise you provide?

• Can they tell what you believe or how you think?

• Can they find something useful to read, watch, download, or explore?

• Can they understand why connecting with you might be worth it?

Now add the 360Brew layer:

• Does your profile reinforce the topics you publish about?

• Does your content reinforce the expertise stated in your profile?

• Do your comments support the same general lane?

• Does your Featured section give people and LinkedIn more context around your authority?

• Does your Experience section make your current relevance obvious?

• Would a person and the platform both understand what you want to be known for?

That last question is huge. If your profile, content, comments, and engagement patterns are all pointing in different directions, you are creating confusion. Not just for prospects. For LinkedIn too.

And confusion is not a growth strategy.

Build A Profile That Keeps The Door Open

Your LinkedIn profile is not the whole sales process.

It is not magic. It will not single-handedly fix bad messaging, weak offers, poor targeting, inconsistent content, or a complete lack of follow-up. People will not throw money at you because your About section has nice formatting.

But it does matter… a lot. Because in modern selling, people often check you before they talk to you. You likely know this because you do it yourself.

They check your profile before accepting your connection request, replying to your message, or reading your comment. They check it after seeing your post. They look at it before deciding whether you seem relevant, credible, and worth their time.

And now, with 360Brew, your profile is also part of the larger relevance picture.

All of your content-related efforts on LinkedIn may open the door. But it’s your profile that greatly helps them decide whether someone keeps walking. So make it clear. Make it relevant, human, and aligned with the conversations you want to earn.

Here are some absolute don’ts for your profile:

1. Don’t make your prospects solve the mystery of who you help and why it matters.

2. Don’t make LinkedIn guess what you want to be known for.

3. Don’t let an outdated resume-style profile quietly undermine the trust your content is trying to build or the relevance signals your content is trying to send.

Your profile is the trust check. And now, more than ever, it is part of the relevance check too. Treat it like one.

And, as always…

Don’t be a salesy weirdo.

Earn those conversations.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was developed with AI (Gemini).

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• AI will not magically “know your voice” because you asked it to. You have to teach it.

• The real learning happens when you ask AI to compare its draft to your edited, complete version.

• Your edits reveal more than word choice. They reveal your rhythm, priorities, humor, structure, and point of view.

• The best AI writing process is not “prompt and publish.” It’s draft, revise, compare, teach, and repeat.

• The true “magic” comes in when you ask the AI what it learned after comparing its draft to your final edited copy.

• Human in, better human out: Still undefeated.

I recently had one of those “off-the-cuff” moments that turned out way better than I ever expected. First, some background.

One of the most common things people want from AI is for it to write in their voice. That’s what everyone bills AI as being great at.

What most people don’t want from AI is, well, AI: They don’t want content that sounds like it was created by a beige conference room wearing a name tag. What they do want from AI is content that truly sounds like them. They want their ideas, tone, structure, humor, worldview, and especially their point of view to come through.

While it seems we’re drowning in AI-generated slop that sounds like AI rather than humans anymore, this is where AI can help.

Thing is, you (and your AI tool) need to understand what “voice” really menas.

Voice is not just word choice. It’s not just whether you use contractions, short sentences, or the occasional “Heck” or “Yeppers.” (Or full-on cursing, if you’re the Gary Vee-type.)

Voice is what you emphasize. It’s what you cut, how directly you speak to the reader. It comes from how you move from an idea to an example. It’s also what you refuse to sound like (hello, Gary Vee).

It’s also how you land the proverbial plane.

Many people get tripped up when they ask AI to write in their voice, but they have never clearly shown it what their voice is.

Or maybe more importantly, they have never shown the AI what their voice is not.

The First Draft Is Just the Starting Point

As with many of my off-the-cuff processes, what I went through was simple. I asked AI to draft my latest LinkedIn newsletter on the idea of being “professionally vague.”

My angle was that too many LinkedIn profiles sound polished but say almost nothing. They use fancy schmancy language, corporate fog, broad claims, and polished phrases that look professional but do not actually help the reader understand what the person does.

The first draft was solid and useful. Definitely had “me” in it, but wasn’t really me. So I edited it, then pasted my edited section back into the AI.

Didn’t stop there, though. I asked it specifically to compare what I had changed against what it had originally written. And with that comparison, I asked it to spell out what it had learned and how it would change its output for me going forward.

This is where I stumbled into some real magic. Because the point was not just to say, “Good job” or “Try again.” The point was to identify the pattern behind the edits.

For example, the AI version talked about the profile as a “positioning asset.” That is not wrong. It is a perfectly fine phrase.

But my edited version moved the section into more practical LinkedIn profile guidance. I wanted to explain what the headline and the About section should actually do. What the Featured section should support. And what the Experience section should show.

That difference matters.

While “positioning asset” sounds smart, “Your headline should explain who you help, how you help them, the services you provide, and the results you bring” is useful.

And useful almost always beats smart.

Radical, right?

Your Edits Are the Training Data

More people need to understand that sub-headline.

When you edit AI’s writing, you are creating incredibly valuable training material for your own future use. (You’re not training the model globally… let’s not get carried away here.)

What you’re actually creating is a reference point. You’re showing the AI what you prefer, what you changed, what you strengthened, what you removed, and what direction you want future drafts to take.

That matters because your edits reveal your writing instincts. In my case, the edits showed a few clear patterns. I wanted the writing to be more direct and instructional. The copy needed to move away from abstract positioning language and into practical guidance people could use on LinkedIn.

I wanted prospect-centered language; phrases like “your prospects,” “the results you bring,” and “the services you provide.”

I also wanted the profile advice connected to LinkedIn’s ability to understand what someone is relevant for. That’s a huge point for that particular article.

And I wanted the ending connected to a business outcome I actually care about: Earning more conversations without being salesy.

That’s voice. Not just the words; the worldview.

The Comparison Is Where the Learning Happens

The most useful step in my on-the-fly process wasn’t this “follow-on” prompt. It was the comparison.

While I’m going to work on this languaging for my future use, here’s what I initially told the AI to do:

Here’s my edited piece, based on what you’ve written. You need to learn from what I did and how I changed/edited your copy and apply that to new LinkedIn newsletters of mine going forward. Prove that you've learned by providing me with a comparison of changes. (I then pasted the copy here.)

I’m going to improve on this, but I got some really good results from just the above. For example, here’s the full section of the AI’s response to me from the “positioning asset” example I listed in the first section:

Throughout the article, when I asked AI to explain what I changed and what it should learn from those changes, the editing process became a feedback loop. I realized that this was huge as the AI became much more than just a content generator. It was truly learning what was important, and then applying what it learned to future drafts.

I didn’t realize it at the time, because I was in a time crunch to get that piece out. What I ended up thinking, though, is that this content feedback loop is what most people (unknowingly) skip.

They generate something. They dislike parts of it and make edits to others. They then either publish or discard it. But the next time, they start from scratch and wonder why the AI still does not “get it.”

Well, my friend, you actually didn’t give it anything to “get.” You didn’t teach it by showing the before-and-after. You didn’t explain why your edited version was better, and which patterns you want repeated. You didn’t point out the phrasing, rhythm, structure, or strategic emphasis you want it to remember.

By omitting all of this, you’re not really building a writing process. You are just asking for new drafts and hoping the robot gets less weird.

Teach AI What Your Voice Is Not

Your voice is not only defined by the phrases you use, the rhythm you like, or the topics you cover. It is also defined by what you reject.

Maybe you do not want to sound too polished, like a motivational speaker who got trapped inside a LinkedIn carousel. You don’t want to fake enthusiasm, spew jargon soup, generate corporate fog, or produce the kind of writing that technically says something while making no actual point.

That matters because AI often defaults to “professional” language, which becomes generic. That’s probably why we’re drowning in that AI slop I mentioned earlier… people aren’t doing the kind of training I’m discussing here, which leads to that default professional sound.

So part of teaching AI your voice is saying, “Not that:”

Not this phrasing.
Not this structure.
Not this level of polish.
Not this kind of CTA.
Not this fake-sounding enthusiasm.
Not this robotic conclusion.

That kind of feedback is not being picky. It is being specific. We also teach using what we call “prohibitions” in our CRISPY™ prompting framework. We even wrote a whole book about it, which you can find here. Prohibitions help AI sound more like you than like everyone else using AI.

Build Your Voice Loop

Here is the process I recommend:

1. Have AI draft something based on a clear prompt.

2. Edit the draft yourself. Not lightly. Actually make it better.

3. Paste your edited version back into the AI LLM.

4. Ask AI to compare the original with your edited version and ask it to identify the repeatable lessons.

5. Use those lessons in developing the prompt for your next piece of content, save them as part of your writing instructions, or ask your LLM to commit everything to memory.

It’s not complicated, but it does require the human to stay in the process. And that is the whole point, right?

The True Win Is Not One Better Article

The obvious benefit of this process is that you get a better piece of content, which is nice. But there’s a bigger benefit: You’re building a better system.

You’re creating a repeatable way to help AI understand your voice, style, audience, structure, point of view, and strategic intent. That’s where the leverage is… not in asking AI to write like you once did, but in teaching it to get closer over time.

And yes, you will still need to edit. Frankly, you should still need to (and want to!) edit. That is not a flaw in the process. That is the process. Your voice is not a template; your voice is a set of choices. The more clearly you show those choices, the better AI can support them, not replace them.

This is where AI truly becomes a useful tool in your sales toolbelt. Not because it magically becomes you.

But because you stayed human enough to teach it.

And always remember: Don’t be a salesy weirdo.

Earn those conversations.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was generated by AI (Gemini).

If your LinkedIn content is not moving your prospects from “I saw your post” to “I’m interested in speaking with you,” then you’re not aware of AWARE™.

While it’s not that simple to get people from that first point to the second one, the AWARE™ Framework gives you the progression you need to get your audience of prospects to the point where they want a conversation with you.

With AWARE™, you can drive your audience from recognition to curiosity, then to insight, next to a shift in perspective, and finally to action.

Get your FREE eBook on The AWARE™ Framework for content that converts… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• A lot of LinkedIn content fails because the reader never sees themselves clearly enough in the opening to care about the insight that follows.

• “Lead with value” is good advice, but it’s incomplete. Value that’s provided without resonating with the reader can feel generic, even when the information itself is useful.

• Content that sparks sales conversations usually follows a progression: the reader recognizes their own reality, gets curious, receives a useful insight, sees the situation differently, and then feels invited to respond.

• The AWARE™ framework illustrates that progression with a specific structure: Attract Attention, Wonder Introduced, Add Value Through New Insight, Reframe Situation, and Engage.

• As always, your goal is not simply to get more likes, comments, or impressions. Your goal is to create content that opens the door to trust-based conversations with the people you actually want to reach.

“Lead With Value” Is Good Advice. It Is Also Incomplete.

For years, one of the most common pieces of advice on publishing content has been “lead with value.” You’ve probably heard it. Heck, I’ve even said it myself. And to be fair, it’s much better advice than “post whatever popped into your head while you were listening to that 90s grunge playlist on the treadmill.”

Leading with value matters because people do not come to LinkedIn hoping to be pitched, lectured, or trapped into a sales conversation they never asked for. They want something useful. Something relevant. Something that helps them think, decide, avoid a mistake, solve a problem, or understand a situation differently.

So yes, value matters. But here is the part that gets missed: value is not always where the content should start.

Many professionals start by teaching. They lead with tips, advice, frameworks, lessons, checklists, or “three ways to do the thing better.” Sometimes the advice is genuinely good with a solid framework, and the resulting post really does contain value.

After all of that? Nothing much happens. The post gets some views. Maybe a few likes. Possibly a nice comment from a friend of the original poster. What it doesn’t do is create meaningful engagement, new connections, or actual business conversations.

That is frustrating because the content isn’t necessarily bad. It may just be “starting” too late.

If Readers Do Not See Themselves, They Will Not Stay

This is the part way too many people skip.

They jump straight to value before creating resonance… or failing to resonate with the reader at all. They offer advice before naming the tension. They teach before the reader has either emotionally or intellectually raised their hand and thought, “Yep, this is about me.”

That recognition matters.

If the reader does not see themselves in the first few lines, they’re probably not going to stick around long enough to appreciate the insight in paragraph six. On LinkedIn, attention is fragile, context changes quickly, and people are usually scrolling between meetings, tasks, messages, and the occasional post from someone announcing they are “thrilled” about something. So they’ll absolutely scroll to the next feed item very quickly.

That does not mean every opening needs to be dramatic. It does not mean you need fake urgency, manufactured controversy, or some overcooked hook that sounds like it escaped from a content-bro laboratory.

It means your opening needs to be relevant. Not clever… relevant. There is a difference: Clever tries to grab attention, while relevance earns it.

When someone reads the beginning of your post and thinks, “That is exactly what I am dealing with,” they lean in. They’ll give you some more time when they think, “This person understands the situation I am navigating.”

On LinkedIn, a few more seconds can be the difference between being ignored and starting a meaningful conversation.

The Problem With Generic Value

Simply put, generic value is not useless… but it’s easy to ignore. Harsh? Yes. True? Also, yes.

A post can be helpful in theory and still fail to connect in practice. It can be accurate, well-written, and professionally sound, yet still feel like something the reader has seen 47 times before. (I love odd, random numbers.)

Herein lies the danger of starting with… and writing only about… generic advice.

Advice without context can feel detached from the reader’s reality. It may be true, but the reader does not feel the tension behind it. They do not yet understand why it matters: Why now? Why them? What belief might it challenge?

For example, “Three ways to improve your follow-up” might contain useful information. But it is easy to scroll past because it starts with the solution. It assumes the reader already cares enough to stop and click “see more” to read the entire post.

A stronger opening might start with the reality the reader recognizes:

Most sellers do not lose the prospect with the first message. They lose them with the follow-up.

That does something different. It names a situation, creates a little tension, or causes the reader to think about their own follow-up. It gives the value that follows a reason for its existence.

Which is the point. Value lands better when the reader understands the problem, the tension, or the cost first.

Content That Converts Follows A Progression

The best content does not move someone from “I saw your post” to “I’m interested in speaking with you” in one magical leap. That’s not how trust works. And it’s definitely not how content works when the goal is a real sales conversation, not just a “like” from someone who may or may not remember your name 11 seconds later.

Content that creates conversations follows a progression:

• The reader first needs to recognize themselves in what you’re saying.

• Then they need to become curious enough to keep going.

• Next, they need a useful insight that helps them understand the issue more clearly.

• Then they need a reframe that shifts how they see the situation.

• Finally, they need an invitation to respond that feels natural, not forced.

That progression is the foundation of Social Sales Link’s AWARE™ framework:

A — Attract Attention
W — Wonder Introduced
A — Add Value Through New Insight
R — Reframe Situation
E — Engage

This movement drives the reader from recognition to curiosity, then to insight, next to a shift in perspective, and finally to action. That matters because content should help the reader move somewhere mentally and not just deliver information.

A lot of LinkedIn content falls short because of this.

Posts may have good ideas. They may have useful tips and even be well-written. But if a post skips the progression, it often becomes content that people consume passively and then forget. They may nod, agree, and even think, “That’s a good point.”

Then they keep scrolling. That’s a missed opportunity.

AWARE™ is designed to prevent that by making sure the content does the right job in the right order.

A: Attract Attention To Their Reality

The first A is not about grabbing attention with a clever hook. It’s about attracting attention through relevance.

That distinction matters because many people confuse attention with noise. They try to be punchy, provocative, contrarian, dramatic, or clever before they have done the more important thing: naming the reader’s reality.

The goal here is recognition. You want the right person to read the opening and think, “Yep. That’s me.” Or, “That’s exactly what we’re dealing with.” Or, “I hadn’t put it that way, but yes.”

Continuing with the example of a post on LinkedIn messaging and content, a weaker opening might be:

Here are five ways to create better LinkedIn content.

That may be useful, but it starts with the advice. It assumes the reader already cares enough to keep reading.

A stronger opening might be:

A lot of LinkedIn content does not fail because the ideas are bad. It fails because the right reader never sees themselves clearly enough to respond.

That opening recognizes a reality. It speaks to the person who is posting, trying out different content topics, sharing ideas, and wondering why nothing meaningful is happening.

W: Introduce Wonder

Once the reader recognizes themselves, the next job is to create curiosity.

Not fake curiosity and certainly not clickbait. Wonder is created by pointing out a gap, a tension, a hidden cost, or an overlooked assumption. This is where you help the reader pause.

Maybe they thought their content problem was consistency. But what if consistency is not the main issue? Maybe they thought their posts needed more value. But what if they are starting with value too soon? Maybe they thought engagement was random. But what if their content is not structured to invite engagement in the first place?

That pause matters because passive readers rarely become active conversations. Wonder turns passive consumption into reflection. It gets the reader mentally involved. They are no longer just reading your opinion. They are comparing it to their own experience, their own habits, and their own results.

That’s when the content starts working.

A: Add Value Through New Insight

Now you teach.

This is the part most people want to start with, and I understand why. We have all been told to lead with value. And again, value matters. Nobody is arguing for content that says nothing, helps no one, and somehow still expects a sales conversation at the end.

But in the AWARE™ progression, value lands better because the reader has already recognized the situation and become curious about the gap. Now the insight has somewhere to go.

This is where you deliver something useful: a pattern, distinction, framework, example, explanation, or way of organizing the problem that makes the reader think more clearly.

The important part is that the insight should be new to them in some meaningful way. It does not have to be a brand-new idea that has never existed in human history. But it should help them see something more clearly than they did before.

For example:

Value without resonance often feels generic. If the reader does not see themselves in the message first, they may never stay long enough to receive the insight.

That is useful because it provides structure to a problem many people experience but may not have correctly diagnosed.

Good insight does not just give the reader more information… it gives them better understanding.

R: Reframe The Situation

This is where the rubber meets the proverbial road. The reframe is the moment when the reader begins to think differently about what they are doing today.

Without the reframe, content often becomes helpful but forgettable. It may educate, but it does not shift anything. Information may be added, but that info doesn’t interrupt the reader’s current thinking.

A strong reframe changes the interpretation. For example:

The problem may not be that you need to post more. The problem may be that your content is not giving the right people a reason to respond.

That is not just a tip. That is a shift. This is where the reader goes from an activity diagnosis to a structure diagnosis. Instead of thinking, “I need to be more consistent,” they may begin thinking, “I need to create more resonance, curiosity, and conversation.”

A much more useful place to be, for sure.

The reframe is also where content becomes more connected to sales conversations. Before someone is open to a new solution, approach, process, tool, or conversation, they often need to see their current behavior differently.

That’s true in content, sales, LinkedIn outreach, Sales Navigator adoption, and even in AI prompting.

People rarely change because you gave them more information. They change when they see the situation differently enough to question what they are doing now.

That is the power of the reframe.

E: Engage

Engagement is not a command. This is where a lot of good content goes down a weird detour at the finish line.

The post may be thoughtful. The insight may be useful. And the reframe may be strong. But the ending suddenly veers into this kind of thing:

Agree?
Thoughts?
Drop a YES below. (The lowest form of engagement bait, by the way.)
What did I miss?

Sometimes those are fine, but often they feel bolted on. They don’t feel like a natural continuation of the idea; instead, they feel like the writer remembered they were supposed to “drive engagement,” so they slapped on a question at the end and hoped for the best.

Engagement should feel like an invitation, not a demand. It should open a door to a trust-based conversation. Thing is, it should also feel connected to the thought process you just created in the reader’s head.

A better engagement prompt might sound like:

If your content is getting seen but not starting conversations, look at where it begins. Are you leading with value before the reader has had a chance to recognize themselves?

That question invites reflection. It gives the reader a way to enter the conversation without feeling manipulated.

The goal is not engagement for engagement’s sake. The goal is meaningful engagement with the right people.

Better Content Starts Before The Writing

Better content actually starts with understanding the reader. What are they experiencing? What are they tired of? What have they normalized? What do they believe is the problem? What are they trying that is not working? What are they feeling but may not have fully articulated yet?

And yes, the word they is italicized many times for a specific reason. It’s about them.

Those questions, asked about their mindset, matter more than the hook or the formatting. And while writing matters, the words on the screen or page are only as strong as the thinking underneath them.

That is what AWARE™ gives you. It creates a structure for the thinking before the writing begins.

And that is why it works.

Create Content Like You Actually Want A Conversation

If your content is not creating conversations, the answer is not to post more. It’s also not to chase trendier hooks, copy someone else’s format, or publish whatever the algorithm seems to be rewarding that particular week.

The better question is whether your content is moving the reader through the right progression: Do they recognize themselves? Do they become curious? Do they receive a useful insight? Do they see the situation differently? Do they feel invited to respond?

That is the real test.

You can play the reach game all you want. Sure, go ahead and chase visibility, trends, and attention. Some of that may even work… sometimes.

For salespeople, though, the goal is to start trust-based sales conversations. So the bar is different.

You need content that does more than get seen. You need content that resonates, teaches, reframes, and opens a door. That is what AWARE™ is designed to do: It helps content become a conversation starter.

In our world, that is the point. The first job of content is not to teach. The first job is to make the right person feel recognized, so they’ll want to talk to you.

And remember: Don’t be a salesy weirdo.

Earn those conversations.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was created by AI (Gemini).

Want more information on the AWARE™ Framework? There’s a FREE eBook for that!

Discover The AWARE™ FRAMEWORK For Content That Converts, and get ready to start more sales conversations on a consistent basis.

Since you’ve read so much about AWARE™ already (above), I’ll skip the marketing copy here. So download it… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

That’s certainly the case with content on LinkedIn… crafting those thought leadership posts on the platform has changed because of the new 360Brew relevance engine (“relevance engine” is my term).

Today, you’ll discover how to craft those thought leadership posts so that you’ll build … thought leadership!

“Tune” in above to catch the conversation with myself, , and

NOTE: We’ll be going live here at Substack, on YouTube, and on LinkedIn every Monday at 12:30 PM ET… join us!

Get more from Bob Woods in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• When something changes physically, the workout goal may need to change with it. The goal might shift from lifting heavier or pushing harder to moving better, protecting the joint, restoring function, or avoiding compensation patterns.

• Sales processes work the same way. If the underlying motion is broken, adding more activity can make the problem worse instead of better.

• More reps do not fix bad form… true in both the gym and for sales-related activities.

• Before you add volume, speed, tools, or pressure, you need to ask a better question: What are we actually trying to improve?

• LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and AI can absolutely help sales teams improve their motion. But only if they are used to create better thinking, better timing, better relevance, and better conversations. Not just more movement.

The Workout Goal Is Not Always The Goal

Right now, my right shoulder is reminding me of something I would rather not be reminded of: The workout I want to do and the one I can and should do are not always the same.

That is annoying because I like progress, effort, and especially The Burn™. I like being able to look at a workout and know I did all of the things. More weight, reps, volume, and especially intensity.

I’m the type of person who needs proof that I showed up and didn't just wander around the gym pretending to stretch.

But when something is not right physically, the goal changes, whether we like it or not. And it has to change, too.

A shoulder issue does not care what you had planned. It does not care what you lifted last month or what the person in the next lane over to you is doing. It does not care what the whiteboard says, what the app says, or (especially) what your ego says.

It just gives you feedback. Sometimes that feedback is pretty clear: this is not the day to prove how strong you are. This is the day to figure out how to move without making things worse.

A very different goal, amirite?

It does not mean stop training, stop improving, or wrapping yourself in bubble wrap and dramatically announcing your retirement from all physical activity… even though you may want to.

It means you need to know what you are actually training:

• Are you building strength?

• Are you restoring range of motion?

• Are you protecting the joint?

• Are you maintaining conditioning while something heals?

• Are you avoiding compensation patterns?

• Are you testing capacity?

• Are you just trying to prove to yourself that you can still do what you used to do?

Those are very different mindsets. And if you confuse them, you can create a bigger problem.

The same goes for sales processes. In fact, I’m betting that you’re already seeing a lot of items from that bullet list that can be directly equated to sales processes.

Pain Is Feedback, Not A Character Flaw

This is where a lot of us get stupid… and I say “us” very intentionally.

When something hurts, there is a temptation to treat that pain like a personal insult. We think we should push through it. Ignore it; modify nothing. Keep the plan exactly the same and hope the body gets the memo.

Sometimes, quite frankly, that works. A lot of times, though, it does not. As my ortho doc always says to me, “don’t be a dumbass in the gym.” (Yes, we have a very good relationship.)

Pain can be feedback. It can be a signal that something in the movement, load, range, speed, angle, or overall plan needs to change. That does not mean every ache is a disaster. It does not mean every uncomfortable moment requires panic. And please, for the love of all things reasonable, do not take medical advice from a Substack article written by a sales guy with a continuing cranky shoulder from a bad fall on the ice.

But the broader lesson here still holds. When the feedback changes, the plan may need to change.

That’s not weakness. Look at it being intelligent. Sometimes a smart workout is more about keeping you moving forward without digging a deeper hole, or training the right thing instead of the obvious thing. Sometimes it is the one that looks unimpressive from the outside… but is exactly what the body needs.

That can be frustrating because it does not always give us the same emotional payoff. Sometimes progress is cleaner movements for less pain, better control, and more stability. You’re more aware of what you’re doing and not compensating during a movement for the sake of completing said movement.

Most importantly, smart workouts give you the ability to come back tomorrow and train again. That is still progress.

It just may not look as cool on Instagram.

Sales Teams Do This Too

This is where the sales analogy practically writes itself.

Many sales teams have a “shoulder” problem. Not literally, of course… although given how many of us spend our days hunched over laptops and phones, maybe this isn’t entirely off the table.

What I mean is this: when something in the sales motion isn't working, salespeople or management don’t change the goals or examine the motions. Instead, the team just adds more weight, calls, emails, LinkedIn messages (the wrong kind of messages, but that’s another article entirely), follow-ups (again, done incorrectly), and so on. All of this is done with the assumption that more movement will fix the problem.

But if the movement is bad, more movement usually only makes the problem worse. Just ask my shoulder about that.

If your message is irrelevant, sending it to more people does not make it better. If your team is connecting and pitching, doing that at a higher volume does not make it more strategic. If your follow-up feels like pressure, it is pressure, and adding three more touches will not create trust. If your reps do not know how to use LinkedIn well, telling them to just “be more active on LinkedIn” without a strategy is not a strategy.

It is just adding load to bad form. And bad form under load is where people get injured.

In sales, that injury usually looks like burned trust, damaged reputation, lower response rates, weaker conversations, more buyer resistance, and teams wondering why the activity numbers look good while the pipeline is withering.

That is the sales version of pushing through shoulder pain while bench pressing because your workout plan says to do those damn bench presses.

More Reps* Do Not Fix Bad Form

(*Not “sales reps” here… more like lifting a weight, doing a push-up, or performing a squat as part of a set of exercises.)

This is one of those truths that works almost everywhere. If your movement pattern is off, repeating it 500 more times does not make it better. It makes it more automatic. Or worse, the body compensates for the bad form by cheating during a movement, which makes that wrong pattern feel normal. (I could write a whole section on just compensation; for now, let’s just assume that compensation is bad. Very bad.)

Bad form also happens in sales.

If a salesperson is writing seller-centered messages, more messages do not solve the issue. Asking for time before earning attention? More attempts do not make that approach more respectful. And when a salesperson uses LinkedIn to pitch instead of to learn, engage, and start better conversations, more activity just spreads the problem around.

This is where sales leaders need to be careful with activity metrics. Let’s face it, activity does matter. You have to do the work. But “do more” is not always the right diagnosis. Sometimes the team does not need more activity first. Sometimes the team needs better movement:

• Better targeting.

• Better relevance.

• Better preparation.

• Better profile alignment.

• Better comments.

• Better follow-up.

• Better understanding of buyer signals.

• Better use of Sales Navigator.

• Better AI prompts that help them think before they write.

More activity can help when the motion is healthy. But when the motion is broken, more activity can just exacerbate the dysfunction, which hurts sales efforts all the more.

Just like in exercise, that is not a productivity problem in sales… that is a process problem.

What Are You Actually Trying To Improve?

This is the question that matters.

In the gym, the answer might be strength, mobility, endurance, stability, recovery, power, conditioning, or pain-free movement. Each one requires a different plan that works in conjunction with the others. A workout designed to test your maximum strength is not the same as one designed to restore function after an injury, but the latter can help build toward the former.

The same thing is true in sales: What are you actually trying to improve? Are you trying to create more conversations, better conversations, or more qualified conversations? Better account intelligence? Stronger relationships with buying committee members? More referrals? Better follow-up? More relevant messaging? Better use of LinkedIn? Higher Sales Navigator adoption? More authentic use of AI?

Those are all very different goals. When sales teams treat them as the same, they create confusion.

For example, if the real goal is better conversations, then measuring only outbound volume may train the wrong behavior. If the real goal is Sales Navigator adoption, then simply giving people licenses and hoping for the best is not a plan.

If the real goal is more trust-based outreach, then using AI to generate more generic messages faster is not progress… that is just speed. And speed is only useful when you are moving in the right direction.

This is why goal clarity matters, not fluffy mission-statement clarity. I’m talking actual operating clarity.

What are we trying to fix? What behavior needs to change? What does good look like? What are we doing now that may be making the problem worse? What would healthier movement look like in the sales process?

Those questions are not always comfortable. But necessary they are (as Yoda might say).

Use Tools To Fix The Motion, Not Add More Weight

LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and AI can absolutely help sales teams improve their sales motion. But only if they are used for the right job.

If the goal is simply “do more,” these tools can make a broken process worse, and at light speed. LinkedIn just becomes another place to pitch people, while Sales Navigator is only an expensive list-building machine. And AI becomes a way to produce more generic messages, just with better grammar (maybe).

That is not better movement… that is adding load to bad form.

Used correctly, though, these tools can help salespeople slow down, notice more, and create better reasons to reach out. LinkedIn gives you context. It shows what people are posting, commenting on, sharing, reacting to, and paying attention to. It gives you clues about what may matter to them.

Not buy buttons, though. Actual clues that can even be used in conversations with your prospects.

Sales Navigator takes that even further by helping you pay attention to the right people and accounts. Job changes, company growth, new decision-makers, lead alerts, account updates, and buying committee movement can all help a salesperson understand when a conversation might make sense.

Not because the CRM says it is Day 7, but because something relevant happened.

AI can support this too, but only when it helps the salesperson think before writing. The best use of AI is not “write me a follow-up message.” The better use is asking what you should understand before reaching out, what might be relevant to this person, what assumptions you may be making, and how to make the message useful without making it sound like every other AI-polished note in their inbox.

All of these are shifts in thinking, just like when you shift plans and goals.

These tools should not help salespeople repeat bad habits faster. They should help salespeople prepare better, understand buyers more clearly, communicate with more relevance, and show up like they actually thought about the person on the other side of the message.

The tools support the plan, not fix the movement. If there is no clear plan, no clear goal, and no clear standard for what “good” looks like, the tool just gives the bad form more weight.

Activity Is Not The Enemy

I want to be clear about something because this is where people sometimes hear what they want to hear.

Activity is not the enemy.

Effort, consistency, prospecting, follow-up. All of these things matter. Salespeople need to do the work. Sales teams do not improve by sitting around having philosophical debates about trust while nobody actually starts conversations.

The point is not to do less. The point is to make sure the work is training the right behavior.

That is the same thing with workouts. I am not using a shoulder issue as an excuse to avoid movement. The goal is to find the right movement for the current reality. Sometimes that means modifying. Sometimes it means lowering the weight. Sometimes it means changing the range. Sometimes it means training something adjacent. Sometimes it means doing the less exciting thing because the less exciting thing is what actually moves you forward.

(Or in my case, it means avoiding doing certain types of exercises entirely while letting physical therapy mend what needs to be fixed for now, and then adding those movements back in when I’m able.)

Sales processes need that same honesty.

If the old approach is creating resistance, modify it. If the team is getting ignored, study the message. If LinkedIn activity isn't sparking conversations, look at how people are showing up. If Sales Navigator is underused, look at behavior, not just licenses. If AI output sounds generic, improve the prompt, the context, and the standard for what “good” sounds like.

Do not just add more weight. Fix the movement.

Build The Sales Motion That Actually Builds You Better

When the goal changes, the plan has to change. Sounds obvious, right? Thing is, it’s one of the hardest things to accept in practice.

We like familiar plans. We like old goals. We like doing what used to work, especially when it made us feel successful, strong, productive, or in control.

But “familiar,” “old,” and “used to” are the enemies here. Your current reality gets a vote, and it’s a huge one at that.

A shoulder issue gets a vote, as does a changing buyer, a crowded inbox, a more skeptical prospect, or a market full of AI-generated slop.

Sales teams can ignore that feedback, but they cannot avoid the consequences.

What feedback shouldn’t be ignored? Buyers are not responding. LinkedIn activity is not turning into conversations. Sales Navigator licenses are not changing internal behavior. AI is creating messages faster but not better.

Never forget: feedback is not failure… it is information.

The best salespeople and the best sales teams do not just push harder when something hurts. They pay attention, adjust, and ask what the goal really is. They stop confusing movement with progress and instead train the motion that actually needs improvement.

So yes, keep moving. Keep training. Keep prospecting. Keep following up. Keep using the tools. Make sure, though, that your plan matches your goals.

Because if you keep adding weight to a broken motion, don’t be surprised when something starts to hurt.

And… don’t be a salesy weirdo. Earn those conversations.

NOTE: The hero image for this article is AI-generated (Gemini).

Most sales reps work hard on LinkedIn. But just like those workouts, many are unknowingly sabotaging their own results. Our FREE eBook, 21 LinkedIn Mistakes That Are Costing Sales Reps Opportunities (and How to Fix Them), reveals the most common pitfalls holding you back, from weak profiles to missed engagement opportunities, and gives you simple, actionable fixes to start winning more conversations and closing more deals

Download the eBook… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• The first sales message may open the door, but the follow-up often tells the prospect what kind of salesperson you really are.

• Most follow-ups fail because they add pressure instead of value. They remind the buyer of what the seller wants, instead of giving the buyer a reason to stay engaged.

• “Just checking in” is usually not a strategy; it’s often seller-centered language wearing a polite little hat.

• Better follow-up messaging continues the conversation with context, relevance, timing, and usefulness. It should feel like the next natural step, not another CRM box to click through your sales process.

• LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and AI can all help salespeople follow up better, but only when they are used to understand people more deeply… not to automate pestering them at scale.

• Discover a “follow-up” test to determine if the subsequent messages you’re sending are continuing to earn you conversations with your prospects.

The First Message Gets All The Attention

A lot of advice exists out there about writing that “perfect” first sales message: the perfect opener, that killer subject line, the chef’s kiss LinkedIn connection request or cold email. A “pattern interrupt” that a psychologist would love, but usually ends up interrupting someone’s day in a way they didn’t ask for.

And yes, the first message matters. It is the introduction, after. It’s their first impression of you. Most importantly, it’s the first step to a potential conversation.

But I don’t think most salespeople lose the prospect with the first message. I think they lose them with the follow-up.

That’s where the truth comes out. The first message might be polished, researched, edited, and reviewed by a manager, a coworker, a sales trainer, a marketing person, and three different AI tools before it ever reaches the buyer.

The follow-up? It’s a totally different animal.

The follow-up often reveals what is really happening. It tells the prospect whether you are actually paying attention, or whether you are just working a sequence. It tells them whether your first message was the start of a thoughtful conversation, or just step one in a campaign.

That’s why I say the follow-up is where trust often goes to die.

The Follow-Up Reveals Intent

The first message can be dressed up… the follow-up usually can’t.

By your second or third touch, the prospect starts to get a much clearer picture of your intent. Are you trying to be helpful and understand their world? Are you trying to stay relevant? Or (speaking of CRMs) are you simply trying to move them from “unresponsive” to “meeting booked”?

That may sound harsh, but it is how many of these messages land.

The seller may think, “I’m being professionally persistent,” while the buyer thinks, “This person won’t leave me alone.” The seller may think, “I’m following the process,” while the buyer thinks, “I’ve been dropped into someone else’s process without my permission.” The end result here? The buyer likely ghosts the seller.

That gap matters because communication is not just about what you intended to send. It is about how the other person receives it. This is Communication 101, folks. But too many salespeople miss this piece. You can mean well and still create pressure. You can be polite and still be annoying. You can use soft language and still make the other person feel like they are being chased.

None of this is persistence. It’s pressure with better manners.

“Just Checking In” Is Not A Strategy

I learned this one many, many years ago… it was from a sales manager I was working with when I was in marketing for a start-up. Little did I know just how common it was (still is!) when I moved up to VP- and C-level positions.

“Just checking in.”

It feels harmless, polite. It feels like a gentle nudge instead of a hard push.

But from the buyer’s side, it often sounds like this: “I still need something from you.”

The problem here is what I learned from that wise sales manager many years ago: Zero value is delivered with “just checking in.” There’s no new context, and no new reason for the conversation. All of that and more adds up to no reason for the other person to care… other than the fact that you would like them to respond.

If you’ve done “just checking in,” I can guarantee you that you didn’t mean any of that when you used it. But that’s how it often lands with your prospect or lead. Again, Communication 101 comes in strong here.

And once a prospect feels like your follow-up exists only to serve your timeline, the trust starts slipping away. Not because you are a bad person, or you’re wrong to want a response. Not because follow-up itself as a concept is a bad one, either.

Trust slips away here specifically because the message is about you. They are just little pipeline pokes.

Bad Follow-Up Feels Like Pressure

Now we go from the inadvertently “bad” to the kind of thing most people know is “bad.” We’re talking:

• “Bumping this to the top of your inbox.”

• “Circling back.”

• “Thoughts?”

• “Any updates?”

• “Did you have a chance to review?”

• “Would it make sense to connect?”

None of these are crimes against humanity. Bad follow-ups do not always sound pushy. Sometimes they sound perfectly professional. And maybe just one message like this is actually the way to go in certain situations (I can’t speak to every single situation you face.)

But when these messages are stacked together over days or weeks, they begin to create a certain feeling. And that feeling is not usually trust… it’s obligation and pressure that can build up to annoyance.

It is the digital version of the much younger you putting your finger really close to your sibling’s face while saying in that annoying tone, “I’m not touching you!”

Here’s the problem, one that, as a seller, you may not have considered. You may view (and probably view) each follow-up as an individual message. The prospect, on the other hand, experiences them cumulatively. When you think about it, that distinction matters.

One message may seem harmless. Four of them, especially when none of them add anything useful, can make the prospect question whether responding will only make things worse.

That’s a place you don’t want to be. If the buyer starts thinking, “If I reply, this person is never going to stop,” you have not created momentum. You have created resistance.

Your Follow-Up Tells The Buyer What You Value

Every follow-up communicates something beyond the words themselves. If every follow-up asks for time, you value the meeting. If every follow-up asks for a decision, you value movement. If every follow-up asks for an update, you value your pipeline.

None of those things is automatically wrong. You’re in sales. You care about meetings, movement, updates, and pipeline. But the buyer does not owe you progress just because you reached out.

Your mindset has to shift from just reminders that you exist to demonstrating that the conversation is worth continuing. That means it should carry some kind of value: a relevant observation, a useful resource, a timely connection, a thoughtful question, or a new piece of context.

And not a massive research project. I’m talking about bite-sized chunks of content that are easy to digest yet important to fuel the buyer’s decision-making process. Something that makes the message feel like it belongs in their world, not just in your CRM.

A Better Follow-Up Continues The Conversation

A good follow-up should not feel like a disconnected nudge; instead, it should feel like the next natural step in a conversation with appropriate context.

That context might come from something the person said, something happening at their company, something changing in their industry, or something they posted, commented on, shared, or reacted to.

The keyword here is relevant, not personalized. There is a difference. Personalization is often surface-level. Relevance shows you understand why something may matter to the person receiving the message.

Personalized sounds like this:

“I saw you went to Ohio State.” (Go Bucks!)

… while relevant sounds like this:

“I noticed your team is hiring several new enterprise reps. When teams grow quickly, one challenge is making sure prospecting habits don’t become wildly inconsistent from rep to rep.”

One says, “I looked you up” (or my LinkedIn-illegal scraping tool looked you up), while the other says, “I thought about what might be happening in your world.”

Buyers can and do feel that difference.

The Best Follow-Up Doesn’t Need an “Ask”

This is where some sellers get uncomfortable because they’ve been trained to always drive to the next step: Book the meeting. Ask for the call. Get the demo. Create urgency. Move the opportunity forward. ABC (“always be closing”).

I get why that training exists. Salespeople need to create movement.

But sometimes the best follow-up is to ask for nothing. Instead, just go for earning attention.

That might sound like:

“I saw this and thought of the challenge you mentioned around getting new reps productive faster. No need to reply, but I thought it might be useful.”

Or:

“You may already have this handled, but this reminded me of the conversation around improving lead quality without asking the team to simply do more activity. Thought I’d pass it along.”

Notice what’s different? No fake urgency or guilt. Or anything I’ve shown you to this point. Just relevance, a sense of being useful, and a reason to keep the door open.

We here at Social Sales Link have recently adopted the mindset of “earn the conversation.” While we initially meant that for earning the first conversation, I think we should have that mentality for any touch we make throughout the sales process.

LinkedIn Gives You Better Reasons To Follow Up

This is one of the reasons LinkedIn matters so much in modern sales. Not because it gives you a place to pitch people. (Just… don’t.)

LinkedIn matters because it gives you context. It helps you see what people care about, what they’re talking about and sharing, what has changed in their role, and what may be happening around them.

That does not give you permission to be weird or pretend you know someone better than you do. And it definitely does not give you permission to write, “I saw your post and thought it was insightful,” followed immediately by a pitch that has nothing to do with the post.

That’s just connect-and-pitch in a clown suit.

Used correctly, though, LinkedIn can help you follow up like a person who is paying attention.

A prospect posts about a challenge. A company announces expansion. A buyer changes roles. Someone comments on a topic you teach or sell into. A mutual connection shares something relevant.

Those are conversation clues, not immediate “buy” signals.

Sales Navigator Makes Follow-Up More Intelligent

Sales Navigator takes this even further. Again, not to spam more people faster. If that’s how you use it, you’re taking one of the best sales tools available and turning it into a very expensive way to annoy the f*** out of people.

The real value of Sales Navigator is that it can help you notice meaningful changes with the right people and accounts: job changes, company growth, new decision-makers, posted content, lead alerts, account updates, and buying committee movement.

Those signals can help you understand when a follow-up might actually make sense… not just because your sequence says “Day 7.”

Something changed… something that gives you a much better reason to re-enter someone’s world with value and a genuine sense of wanting to help.

Compare this:

“Just checking in to see if you had a chance to review my last message.”

With this:

“I noticed your team added several new sales roles this month. When that happens, one thing that can get messy fast is making sure everyone is using LinkedIn in a consistent, non-salesy way. Thought this might be useful as you scale.”

One is about the seller’s timeline. The other is about the buyer’s world. That’s the shift.

AI Can Help… But It Can Also Make Things Worse

AI can 100% help salespeople follow up better. It can help organize your thinking, spot patterns, sharpen your message, and brainstorm useful reasons to follow up.

But AI can also make terrible follow-up easier to send at scale. There’s the danger.

If you use AI to create more generic nudges, you are not improving your sales process. You are merely automating mediocrity. A bad follow-up written faster is still a bad follow-up. A bad follow-up polished by AI? Also, still a bad follow-up.

The better use of AI is not:

“Write me a follow-up message.”

The better use is:

“Based on this prospect’s role, company situation, recent activity, and our previous interaction, what are three genuinely useful reasons I might follow up without creating pressure?”

That’s a very different prompt because now AI is helping you think before it helps you write. That’s where the value is.

AI should make your follow-up more thoughtful, not just more scalable.

IMPORTANT: The Follow-Up Test

Before you send your next follow-up, slow down and ask yourself:

Is this message about them, or is it really about me? Am I adding anything new? Would this be useful even if they never replied? Does this create pressure, or does it create value?

Be sure to ask whether it sounds like you. That matters more now than ever because people are already buried under AI-polished sameness.

Respect the inbox, whether it’s email or social media (especially LinkedIn).

That does not mean never following up. It means following up with a reason and with value. Don’t confuse CRM tick box-style activity with value. It means understanding that the buyer’s silence may not be an invitation to send four more increasingly awkward nudges that add more value.

Sometimes the best move is not to send the message yet. That does not mean give up. It means wait until you have a better reason.

Follow Up Like You Actually Want To Be Trusted

The follow-up is not a small thing. It is not just the thing you send after the “real” message. It may be the clearest signal you send.

It tells the prospect whether you are paying attention. It tells them whether you respect their time. It tells them whether you understand their world. It tells them if you’re trying to help or just encouraging them to move through your process.

The first message may get you noticed. But it’s the follow-up that helps determine whether you are trusted.

So yes, follow up. But follow up like a human. Follow up with context. Follow up with relevance. Follow up with patience. Follow up in a way that makes the other person feel like you actually considered them before hitting send.

Because if your follow-up only exists to serve your sales process, don’t be surprised when the buyer disappears.

And remember:

Don’t be a salesy weirdo. Earn those conversations. (And continue to earn them throughout the sales process.)

NOTE: The hero image for this article was created with AI (Gemini).

Most AI-generated LinkedIn sales messages fall flat because they’re too generic, lack context, and fail to reflect the sender’s real voice.

Don’t be a salesy weirdo. Instead, download this FREE eBook to guide ChatGPT (or any AI/LLM) in crafting personalized, relevant, and conversational outreach that resonates with prospects. Rather than letting AI lead, discover a prompting method that trains AI to support a strategic, trust-building approach, resulting in messages that feel authentic and spark real conversations.

Get this FREE eBook… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• LinkedIn gives us easy reasons to stay in touch: birthdays, job changes, work anniversaries, and more.

• Most people waste those moments by sending canned messages, lazy comments, or worse… a sales pitch.

• The opportunity is not to “touch” those in your network. The opportunity is to make someone feel seen.

• A better message does not need to be long. It just needs to be specific, personal, and free of commission breath.

• Staying in touch is not a tactic. It is a relationship habit. LinkedIn just makes the habit easier to practice.

The Lost Art of Staying in Touch

Just two days ago, I had a birthday. Which means LinkedIn did what LinkedIn does: It told a bunch of people in my network, “Hey, Bob is still alive. Maybe say something… ?”

Many people did. (And I thank them all for doing so.)

Some of those messages were thoughtful. Some were simple and kind. Some were the standard, one-click, “Happy Birthday!” message that LinkedIn makes very easy to send. (And I appreciated all of those, too… even the standard ones!).

And then there were some that were along the lines of this actual message:

Happy birthday. Do you want a targeted contact database?

Those kinda sucked. That one was mild compared to some I got, too.

Nothing communicates “I hope your day is special” to you quite like immediately placing my birthday into your lead-gen funnel as a recurring event or follow-up tickler, amirite? (Yes, that was sarcasm.)

Don’t be a salesy weirdo. Earn those conversations.

A Notification Is Not A Relationship

LinkedIn makes it easy to know when something happens in someone’s professional or certain aspects of their personal life. It tells us when someone has a birthday, a new role, a work anniversary, and so on.

But the real opportunity is not the notification… it’s what you do with it. Because staying in touch has become a lost art.

It’s not that people don’t know how to stay in touch. They send plenty of messages, believe me. The ones they do send, though, just aren’t good. But the message itself doesn’t build the relationship… your response does. And that is where most people miss the moment.

Staying in touch has also become a lost art because too many people confuse contact with connection. They just want to tick that box in their CRM that says whatever the equivalent of “reached out” is.

That’s not the right way to think about all of this.

Don’t get me wrong… simple messages can be great. But there is a difference between simple and forgettable. Simple can be thoughtful, but forgettable is what happens when the recipient can tell you spent less time on the message than LinkedIn spent generating the reminder.

Video And Voice Can Work, But Only If You Mean It

Sending a video message via LinkedIn’s video messaging can be a great way to stand out from the crowd. Why? Very few people use it, even today. A LinkedIn voice note can help you rise above, too.

But they only work when the message is actually personal. A reused video message is not personal. A voice note when you say the same thing every time, except that you change the name, is not personal. A “personalized” message that could have been sent to 900 people is not personal.

The medium does not create the meaning. The intention does.

A quick video saying:

“Hey, Lisa, just saw it was your birthday and wanted to send a real message instead of the standard LinkedIn one. Hope it’s a great day.”

… can work beautifully. Why? Because hardly anyone does it.

Plus, it shows effort. Not massive effort, or “stalker/weirdo” effort. Not “I hired Quentin Tarantino to make this video for you” effort. Just enough effort to show the person that you noticed them. That matters.

Give Value Without Turning It Into An Ambush

Another way to use birthdays and similar LinkedIn triggers is to give something useful to those you’re messaging. But this is where people need to be careful.

Giving value does not mean disguising a pitch as a birthday present. It does not mean saying, “Happy birthday, here’s my calendar link.” It does not mean, “Congrats on the new role, want to talk about how we help companies like yours?”

Those do not signal value. Those are sales ambushes wearing a party hat.

If you are going to send something, make sure it is genuinely useful even if the person never replies, never books a call, and never becomes a client. Yep… that’s the standard you’re looking for.

For example, if you help people with LinkedIn profiles, you might say:

“Happy birthday, Karen. Every year, I like to use my birthday as a reminder to do a quick LinkedIn profile checkup, so I thought I’d pass along this simple checklist. No need to reply. Just thought it might be useful.”

That works because the gift is useful on its own. It does’t require a meeting, a full discovery call, or the ol’ “let’s jump on a quick call” to unlock the actual value. (Yours is probably wildly different from mine, but I think you get the picture here.)

Trust starts when an item’s monetary value is zero, but the help it provides can’t be measured in dollars, euros, gold, crypto, or whatever.

Job-Related Reminders Aren’t Open Invitations to Pitch

When someone starts a new role, LinkedIn gives you a natural reason to reconnect. But again, the mistake is rushing the sales angle.

Unlike birthdays, a job change can signal a business opportunity for most salespeople. Yes, someone in a new role may eventually need what you do. And yes, the first 90 days in a new position can be a meaningful window where the right insight, resource, or connection could help them in that new gig.

In certain cases, a job anniversary can do so, too, especially for career strategists and recruiters.

No matter what the case, though, your first message in either one of those situations should be a pitch. Start like a human… you know how! But if you’re stuck on exactly what to write, here’s a short example:

“Congrats on the new role, James. Hope the first few weeks are off to a strong start.”

That alone is fine.

Better yet, if you have something genuinely helpful for someone stepping into that role, offer it without pressure:

“Congrats on the new role, James. I know the first 90 days can be a lot. I came across this piece on what sales leaders often wish they had asked earlier in a new role, and thought it might be useful. No need to reply. Just wanted to pass it along.”

That’s a very different energy right there. It is not “I saw your job change and smelled opportunity;” it’s “I saw you landed a new job and thought this might help.”

That difference matters.

Work Anniversaries Can Reopen Dormant Relationships

When it comes to work anniversaries, it’s more about a light-touch opportunity to reappear in someone’s world. But again, the goal is not to check a box. Instead of “Congrats on the work anniversary!” …

Try something a little more specific:

“Congrats on another year at ABC Company, Denise. I hope it’s been a good one and that the work is still giving you something worth showing up for.”

Or:

“Congrats on the anniversary, Mike. Three years in one place says something these days. Hope the role is still treating you well.”

Simple. Human. Not salesy. And maybe that turns into a conversation… or maybe it doesn’t. Guess what? That’s okay. Not every touchpoint needs to turn into a sales conversation. You’re just keeping the relationship alive.

Rediscover the Lost Art

LinkedIn gives us more opportunities to stay in touch than we probably realize. The problem is not a lack of signals…. the problem is what we do with them. A birthday message can be forgettable, or it can make someone feel seen. A job change message can feel opportunistic, or it can feel supportive. A work anniversary message can be a throwaway, or it can be a small relationship touchpoint that reopens a conversation.

The difference isn’t complicated. Just slow down, make it personal, nuke that pitch, and offer genuine value when it makes sense.

And remember that staying in touch is not about chasing the next sales conversation. It is about earning the right to have one.

So, remember:

Don’t be a salesy weirdo. Earn the conversation.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was generated with AI, because there’s no way I had the skills or patience to produce it myself.

Having trouble earning those sales conversations? Our FREE eBook, Why You’re Not Getting Conversations (Even With a Great Network), can help.

Most people get LinkedIn wrong because they’ve been taught to use it like email: send messages, drop links, and ask for time. But that’s not what buyers want. Fix what’s broken in your LinkedIn strategy with this eBook. Download it… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Prospects do not owe salespeople their time, attention, or a meeting. Real sales conversations have to be earned.

• The fastest way to lose a prospect is to act entitled to the conversation before trust or relevance has been established.

• Earning the conversation means showing up with value, context, patience, and respect instead of pushing for the call too early.

• When a conversation is earned, the prospect is more open, less guarded, and more willing to share what is really going on.

• The best salespeople do not force access. They create the conditions for a prospect to want the conversation.

Too many salespeople act like access to their prospects should be automatic. And even if they don’t believe that, their actions most definitely come across that way.

How? Because way too many outreach efforts and campaigns by salespeople still assume interest before they have earned trust, and assume a meeting before they have established relevance.

Nothing should be assumed in life, even with prospects. They do not owe us their time, their attention, or a meeting on their calendar. Real sales conversations are earned through trust, relevance, patience, value, and respect.

When salespeople stop trying to force conversations and start earning them, the quality of those conversations changes. The relationship changes. The outcome often changes, too. That is the difference between pushing for attention and being invited into a real business discussion. After all, wouldn’t you rather have the latter and not the former?

Communication is All About How it Lands (With the Prospect)

To be fair, I do not think most salespeople are sitting there literally thinking, “Of course this prospect owes me a conversation.” But too much outreach still comes across that way. When the first move is a pitch, a meeting request, or a push toward the calendar before any trust or relevance has been established, the message underneath it is still the same.

That is the thing about communication... it is not defined only by what the sender meant. It is defined by what the other person receives. So even if the salesperson does not believe access should be automatic if their approach makes the prospect feel like it is, the damage done is essentially the same. In the prospect’s mind, assumption is assumption, whether it was intentional or not.

You’re Not Owed Anything While Prospecting

This may sound obvious. But based on how a lot of outreach still looks, I do not think it is obvious enough.

A salesperson finds a prospect. Sends a connection request. Drops a pitch. Follows up again. Then again. Maybe asks for 15 minutes to “share how we help companies like yours.” And when that does not work, they often assume the problem is the wording.

It usually is not.

The problem is the assumption underneath it all. The assumption that because a salesperson has a solution, a prospect should be willing to stop what they are doing and talk about it.

But that is not how trust works. And it is not how real conversations start. A conversation with a prospect is not a right, a reward for showing up, or something you get just because you hit “send.” It is something you earn.

That idea matters now more than ever, because prospects are overwhelmed more than ever. They’re busy and skeptical at the same time. They have seen too many bait-and-switch messages and too many fake “just wanted to connect” notes that turn into a pitch before the digital ink is dry.

And with the advent of AI, they’re seeing this stuff even more often because it’s so easy for salespeople and marketers to come up with this style of messaging (and even automate it).

That is exactly why salespeople need to earn conversations rather than assume they deserve them. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Because nobody owes you their time

This is the foundation for everything you should be doing when prospecting. Your prospects do not owe you a reply or a meeting just for you to “show up” in their inbox. They do not owe you attention just because your product or service might help them.

That may sound harsh to some salespeople. I think it is freeing. It is for me when I’m prospecting.

Once you stop acting entitled to a conversation (even when you don’t mean to), you start approaching the other person differently. You slow down, think more carefully. You start asking yourself a better question: Why would this person want to talk to me right now? That question alone improves outreach.

2. Because trust has to come before business

If there is no trust, there is no real conversation.

You may get a meeting. A demo might be involved. There may even be a polite exchange between you and your prospect. But a real conversation? One where the prospect is open, honest, and willing to tell you what is actually going on?

That takes trust. Too many sellers want the opportunity before they have earned credibility. They want access before they have created comfort. They want the business conversation before the prospect feels safe having it.

Trust is not built by rushing the process. It is built by showing up consistently in a way that feels helpful, human, and grounded.

Trust first. Opportunity second.

3. Because forced conversations feel like traps

Prospects can feel it. They can feel when the meeting request is going to lead to premature pitching. They can feel when the “quick chat” is anything but quick. They can feel when the message is pretending to be personal but was really written to move them into a sequence.

This is one reason “connect and pitch” fails so often. It is not just ineffective. It feels deceptive. And once a prospect feels trapped, their guard goes up.

Now the salesperson is not having a conversation. They are trying to overcome resistance they created. That is an unnecessary hill to climb.

Earned conversations do not feel like traps. They feel like next steps.

4. Because relevance earns attention

Attention is more expensive than ever nowadays. Everyone wants it, but precious few earn it.

Salespeople who earn conversations understand that relevance matters more than volume. They do not just blast the same message to hundreds of people and hope a few say yes. They take the time to understand the person, the role, the context, and the likely challenges behind the title.

That does not mean stalking people. It does not mean manufacturing fake personalization. It means doing enough homework to show the other person that this is not random. Relevance tells the prospect, “This may actually be worth my time.” And that is a big step.

5. Because value should show up before the ask

A lot of sales outreach starts with neediness your neediness as a salesperson:

• Can we talk?

• Can I get 15 minutes?

• Can I show you what we do?

• Can I tell you about our solution?

That is a lot to ask of someone who has not yet contributed anything. (That’s you, by the way.) Earning the conversation means bringing value before asking for time. That value could be insight, perspective, or even useful content. It could be a smart observation about the prospect’s world.

Whatever form it takes, the point is simple. Do not just show up asking for access; instead, show up bringing something worth noticing. That changes the posture entirely.

6. Because permission matters

This is a big one for us at Social Sales Link. We talk often about respecting the inbox. We talk about permission-based conversations. We talk about earning the right to go deeper. Why? Because permission changes the dynamic.

When a prospect gives permission for the conversation to continue, even in a small way, they are no longer being dragged into the process. They are participating in it. That matters.

There is a big difference between “I finally got them to take a meeting” and “They were open to a conversation.” One is pressure; the other is progress.

7. Because prospects can feel what you are attached to

This is where many salespeople get in their own way. If you are attached to quota, pipeline, commission, or what this prospect is worth to you, it comes through. Maybe not in the exact words. But in the energy, the pacing, the tone, and the pressure.

Prospects pick up on that. When the conversation is about what you as the salesperson needs, they feel it. We call that “commission breath” or “quota breath.” But when the conversation is about what might be useful to them, they feel that too.

That is why one of the biggest mindset shifts in selling is this: Detach from what the prospect is worth to you. Attach to what you may be worth to the prospect. We say that phrase a LOT at Social Sales Link. That’s because having that shift makes it far easier to earn a real conversation with a prospect who’s genuinely interested in your product or service, not one who feels forced into a conversation with you.

8. Because earned conversations are better conversations

This one gets overlooked. Salespeople often focus so much on getting the meeting that they forget to think about the quality of the meeting. A forced conversation is usually guarded. The prospect is careful. Defensive. Polite, maybe. But not open.

An earned conversation is different. The prospect is more likely to tell the truth. More likely to share context. More likely to admit what is not working. More likely to explore whether change even makes sense.

That is where good selling actually happens: it’s in the conversation, not the pitch. And the better the conversation, the better your odds of uncovering whether there is a real fit.

9. Because trust-based selling protects the relationship, even when the timing is off

Not every prospect is ready right.. friggin’.. now. Heck, most aren’t immediately ready to buy what you’re selling. That is reality.

But when a salesperson tries to force urgency where none exists, they often damage the relationship in the process. They turn a future opportunity into a present annoyance. That is costly.

When you earn conversations instead, you preserve the relationship by staying credible and welcome. You become an expert; someone the prospect will likely think of later when their timing changes. That is one of the biggest advantages of taking the long view. You may not get the meeting today, but you’ll stay in the mix tomorrow.

10. Because earning conversations separates professionals from spammers

Anybody can send messages and automate a sequence. Anybody can pitch too early. Anybody can try to game attention (not just “get” attention actually “game” it).

That does not a sales professional make. Professionals understand that selling is not about pushing harder. It is about showing up better. And most importantly, it’s not about them.

It’s about patience, discipline, listening, timing, relevance, and respect… all towards the prospect. In other words, earning the conversation. That is what separates people who are just generating activity from people who are actually building trust and creating opportunity.

The Answer Here is Pretty Simple

If all of this sounds good in theory but vague in practice, here is the simplest way I know to frame it:

Stop trying to get to the pitch as fast as possible; instead, take the time to earn the conversation. That means engaging with someone’s ideas before messaging them. Share useful content without attaching an ask to it. Understand their role and their likely challenges before you ever reach out. It means offering insight instead of asking for a meeting in the first message.

Most of all, it means not acting like access is automatic. The best salespeople do not force conversations into existence. They create the conditions where the other person is actually open to having one. That is a very different skill, and it’s one worth developing.

(Also, see the offer at the end of this article for a FREE eBook!)

Earn the Conversation

Salespeople need to earn conversations because the conversation itself is the beginning of trust, not the shortcut around it.

When we stop assuming prospects owe us their time, we start behaving differently. We actually start to behave like human beings, not some kind of AI- or automation-driven robot. We become more relevant, respectful, and useful.

We are also less needy, less transactional, and (most importantly) we don’t sound like everybody else clogging up the inbox. Which is the point, right?

Our goal is not just to get more conversations; it’s to earn better ones.

Because the conversations worth having are almost never taken. They are invited.

NOTE: The hero/top image for this article was generated by AI (Gemini).

Our FREE eBook, “Stop the Connect and Pitch: Start Earning Conversations,” will help you get going in the right direction of doing what was discussed in this article. Connect and pitch is a bait and switch. Don’t be “that” person. Download the eBook… today!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• A recent moment on Making Sales Social LIVE surfaced a truth I’ve seen play out for years: the people we serve at Social Sales Link consistently choose the harder, more intentional path.

• The hard path is not defined by effort. It is defined by clarity, curiosity and relevance.

• This approach might feel slower, but it works better, lasts longer and creates stronger, trust-based outcomes.

• The harder path is both a philosophy and a system; a way of working that turns intention into results.

Where This Started

In prepping for our recent Thanksgiving-themed episode of our Making Sales Social LIVE podcast about what we’re all thankful for, I created a line that surprised me the moment I typed it in. It’s something I never really thought about before, especially when it comes to our community of clients here at Social Sales Link, but it is 💯 true:

“The people we serve choose the harder, better path.”

I kept thinking about that line, not because it sounded good, but because it distilled something I’ve observed for years but never really thought about until then. The individuals who gravitate toward our work aren’t looking for shortcuts or hacks. They’re looking for substance. They’re looking for a way to build a sales practice they can stand behind… proudly.

In other words, they’re looking for what social selling really is: a relationship-focused strategy and system that fosters trusted, value-centric conversations, rather than just a sales tactic. Social selling is a human-centric skill that uses technology to facilitate genuine interactions and help buyers make informed decisions, rather than just aggressively pushing a product.

In a digital landscape that celebrates speed and scale, that harder choice is becoming increasingly rare. It’s because of that rarity that it’s increasingly important, too.

What Makes the Hard Path Hard

The more challenging path isn’t difficult because it demands more effort. It’s difficult because it demands more intention … and especially nowadays, the opposite of intention is what gets rewarded on social media, etc.

Choosing that harder path requires:

Slowing down in a system designed for acceleration.
Instead of blasting cold messages or relying on automation, you take the time to observe, think and respond with purpose.

Prioritizing conversation over performance.
You don’t treat every interaction as a broadcast. You treat it as an exchange between people who might actually help one another.

Focusing on relevance instead of reach.
It’s easier to appear everywhere than to matter somewhere. The harder path insists on the latter.

Showing up as a person rather than a persona.
A script can generate activity. Only a human being can build trust.

None of this is complicated. But it is uncommon. And that is what makes it hard.

Why the Hard Path Works Better Than the Easy One

The harder path often feels slower in the moment; more thoughtful, more measured, more deliberate. But the results tend to arrive faster and with greater stability. Here’s why:

Trust accelerates decisions.
People move more confidently when they believe the person across from them is acting with integrity.

Relevance creates clarity.
Tailored insights remove confusion. Clarity shortens the gap between interest and action.

Consistency builds reputation.
Anyone can create noise. Very few can demonstrate reliability.

Value compounds.
The harder path produces work that continues to benefit you long after the initial effort is made.

Shortcuts create bursts of activity that fade almost immediately. Intention, on the other hand, produces momentum that continues to grow.

Why I Admire the People We Serve

This was the real insight from that MSS LIVE moment.

The people we serve are not trying to game the system. They are trying to elevate their craft. They want to make meaningful contributions, have meaningful conversations, and create meaningful opportunities.

They want:

• depth, not volume.

• precision, not performance.

• genuine interaction, not transactional motion.

• something they can be proud of, not something they can simply automate.

These are the individuals who choose to build instead of blast. They pursue progress, not shortcuts. And when they share a win, even if it’s a small one, it feels like a shared victory, because we know the intention behind it.

The Harder Path Is a Philosophy… and a System

It’s easy to think of the harder path as a mindset, but it’s much more than that. It becomes a rhythm, a structure, and a system that guides how you approach your work.

The system relies on a few core principles:

Start with curiosity. Let genuine interest guide your attention.

Lead with what is relevant. Relevance is the strongest expression of respect.

Give before you request. When value comes first, trust follows naturally.

Earn each step forward. Not through pressure, but through presence.

This is what it looks like when a philosophy becomes a practice. It’s when intention is translated into behavior, and behavior into outcomes.

What’s more, choosing the harder, more intentional path becomes a form of leadership. It becomes a signal of what you stand for. And in the long run, it becomes the reason your work continues to matter.

Would love to discuss all of this in the Comments section below!

Want to know what can help you down that path? Artificial intelligence (AI) and large-language models (LLMs). Our FREE Ultimate Guide to Conversational Prompt Writing eBook enables you to ignite smarter conversations. By shifting our mindset to see AI as a thinking partner and not just a content creator, we open the door to deeper insights and innovative ideas that can enhance trust in our business relationships.

Download it… today!

NOTE: Google Gemini’s Nano Banana Pro generated the hero image for this post.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Em dashes (”—”) are one of the biggest “AI tells” on the internet today.

• Most AI-generated text leans on them in ways humans typically do not.

• Cleaner, more natural alternatives exist that keep your writing human… without sacrificing rhythm (periods, ellipses, commas, colons, parentheses, and line breaks).

• These alternatives can be added to any Prohibitions list or writing avatar to keep your voice consistent and invisible to AI-detection patterns.

The Em Dash Problem Everyone Sees but No One Mentions

Spend ten minutes scrolling LinkedIn and Substack, and you’ll see it… or rather, them.

I’m talking, of course, about em dashes (”—”).

People are getting smarter about AI-written content, but the em dash is still one of the loudest giveaways. Why? Because large language models (LLMs) rely on it as a structural shortcut.

Instead of choosing more precise sentence structures, AI drops in em dashes to glide from one idea to the next. Simple, right?

To the human reader, though, something feels “off,” even if they may not be able to explain why. Copy with em dashes reads too smoothly. Too convenient. Too predictable. Plus, everyone nowadays just “knows” that copy with em dashes comes from AI (even though it doesn’t sometimes!).

Worse yet, many AI systems exhibit internal patterns that use em dashes far more frequently than human writers do. So even when the content is strong, the punctuation exposes the copy’s LLM origin.

The fix is simple:

• Teach the model alternatives.

• Teach yourself alternatives.

• And bake those preferences into your style guides and Prohibitions documents.

Why AI Overuses Em Dashes

Three reasons show up consistently.

1. AI uses them as a structural crutch

Models find it easier to connect clauses with a dash than to rewrite the sentence for clarity. Is the sentence getting long? The model drops in a dash. If the idea veers in another direction? Yet another dash. Dash, dash, —.

LLMs build rhythms into copy that quickly feel mechanical. Since humans aren’t mechanical, we pick up on those patterns… either consciously or subconsciously.

2. Humans don’t write (or talk) in em dashes in their everyday speech

When we talk, we pause, restart, shorten, simplify, or break thoughts apart. We do not mash two ideas into a sentence with a single punctuation pivot.

Good writing mirrors good speech, which is why I always urge people to read anything that an LLM generates out loud. That’s because AI-default writing mirrors internal logic, which is not how people learn and comprehend information that’s presented to them.

3. Most prompt templates do not forbid them

This one’s a biggie.

Writers ask AI to “make this sound natural” or “more conversational.” Yet, AI doesn’t inherently know what “natural” or “conversational” means.

Without explicit guidance, the model will use its standard patterns… that “internal logic” I just mentioned. And guess what internal logic includes for AIs? That dreaded em dash.

This is why adding “Avoid em dashes” or “Under no circumstances are you to use em dashes” to a Prohibitions list is one of the easiest fixes for authenticity in LLM-generated content.

The Six Best Alternatives to Em Dashes

During one of our recent mastermind coaching sessions here at Social Sales Link, I was going on (yet another) rant about em dashes… I was actually ranting on how I used to use them, but I actually can’t now, thanks to $#&@ AI (another subject for another time).

Anyhooo … one of our members raised their hand and asked a very simple but profound question:

What can we use instead?

I have to admit… I’ve never been asked that before. And yet, somehow… I was able to rattle off six alternatives just off the top of my head. I also thought at the time, “hey, this is great for an article,” which you’re now reading.

With that, here are my six replacements for em dashes that feel natural, subtle, and human. They also give your writing more texture and variety.

1. Periods

Periods are the cleanest and most overlooked substitute. Simply break the sentence in two. Short sentences feel confident. They also slow the reader’s consumption of your content, but in a good way.

Example:

AI version: This looks simple — but it is not.

Human version: This looks simple. It is not.

2. Ellipses (my favorite, if you haven’t already guessed)

Ellipses create a soft pause that feels conversational and reflective. They mimic the way people naturally trail off when thinking, reconsidering, or shifting gears. Used thoughtfully, they add warmth and humanity because they mirror real spoken hesitation.

They can also provide impact. When placed at the right moment, they build anticipation and draw the reader forward. They signal that something meaningful is coming next, which makes the next line land harder.

Caution: overuse can make writing feel vague or indecisive (I’ve been a victim of this myself). Readers may sense a lack of clarity or direction. When used sparingly, though, ellipses can soften transitions and create a more intimate, almost whispered tone.

Example:

Most people think AI makes writing easier… until they realize it also amplifies their habits.

Another example? Their use in this article.

3. Commas

Use them when the second idea is a natural continuation of the first. Not every shift in thought needs dramatic punctuation.

Example:

AI version: Writers want clarity — readers want connection.

Human version: Writers want clarity, and readers want connection.
- OR -
Writers want clarity, while readers want connection.

4. Colons

Perfect for signaling expansion or explanation. It is the most direct alternative when you need a reveal… even better than ellipses.

Example:

Only one thing truly improves your writing: revising your thinking.

5. Parentheses

Another one that needs to be used sparingly. Parenthesis add texture without calling attention to themselves. They feel human because humans often narrate their own side notes.

Example:

Most people read quickly (and forget even faster), which is why clarity matters.

6. Line breaks

This one is more for social networks and online mediums like LinkedIn and Substack, where spacing beats punctuation, and white space can be our friend. Line breaks create rhythm without relying on symbols. The reader’s brain fills in those “beats.”

Example:

Most people treat AI as a shortcut.
The professionals treat it as a collaborator.

I strongly recommend not using line breaks like this in anything that’s published (eBooks, white papers, reports, etc.); only for socials and other online mediums.

How To Train AI Away From Em Dashes

This is where your Prohibitions documents and style avatars matter.

A simple line like:

“Avoid em dashes. Use periods, ellipses, commas, colons, parentheses or line breaks instead.”

…will completely retrain the model’s rhythm.

Add it to your:

• Avatars

• Writing guidelines

• Your default prompt stack

Over time, the AI learns your cadence.

And more importantly, your writing stops sending the “AI signal” that readers (and platforms) are increasingly attuned to.

Cleaner Writing Starts with Simpler Choices

Em dashes are not the enemy. Overuse is. The moment you become intentional about punctuation, the AI-generated “feel” starts to disappear.

The goal is not to outlaw em dashes. The goal is to use them with purpose, instead of relying on them by default. Heck, even I throw in an em dash every once in a while—but only when I think they’ll have true impact, not as a crutch (like I did just now).

If you want your writing to sound more human, more grounded, and more you, this is one of the easiest wins you can implement right now.

Need help in using AI to start more trust-based sales conversations? Grab our free eBook, The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn and AI Prompts for Trust-Based Conversations, today!

NOTE: The hero image for this article is AI-generated.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• AI content is everywhere. Without voice, context, and perspective, though, it falls flat.

• The failure isn’t the tech. It’s how we use it.

• One sentence can instantly humanize AI output:

  • “Write this as if you’re me, speaking directly to one person who trusts my experience.”

• When you feed AI your intent and your why, it turns from a robot into a reflection.

The Volume Trap

Every day, we scroll through LinkedIn posts and newsletters that sound fine but feel fake. They have structure, clarity, and keywords. What they lack is pulse.

This isn’t the AI’s/LLM’s fault. It’s what happens when speed replaces substance.

People think they’re scaling themselves when in reality they’re really just scaling sameness. They want efficiency but forget that trust isn’t built through output… it’s built through insight.

That’s why AI content often reads like it’s written for everyone, and yet connects with no one.

Real trust comes from clarity, perspective, and consistency. Those can’t be automated, but they can be amplified.

Soulless Input = Garbage Output

You create your own voice. AI doesn’t (and can’t) do that. LLMs can only echo your thinking.

Feed it a shallow prompt, and it produces a shallow post.

But if you feed it your experience, intent, and perspective? Suddenly, it becomes your creative ally.

I’ve already revealed it in the TL;DR section, but here’s the sentence that changes everything:

“Write this as if you’re me, speaking directly to one person who trusts my experience.”

That one line reframes everything about your process. It forces you to define who that “one person” actually is, and what you genuinely want them to understand.

Suddenly, AI is no longer filling space. It’s extending your space. It starts sounding less like a robot and more like you on your best day: clear, confident, and conversational.

Why It Works

Authenticity doesn’t come from tone. It comes from intent. When you use AI to sound “human,” it tries to mimic emotion. When you use AI to extend your human thinking, it reflects your emotion.

That’s the difference between imitation and amplification.

When your prompts center around a real audience, specific insights, and your personal rhythm, the output resonates. It reads like a trusted peer, not a pitch.

And that’s the shift happening right now… from AI for content to AI for connection. If we’re honest, AI should have never been used for just “content.” I’m glad we’re all discerning enough to demand this kind of change.

The New Baseline

We’ve all heard the old line, “AI is coming for our jobs!” More accurately, though, I think that AI is coming for your process. You can either let it flatten your voice (or even change it entirely)… or train it to express it better than ever.

The truth is, AI will never replace you. It can expose you, though. It reveals how clear (or unclear) your message really is. And the results usually veer sharply towards that “unclear” direction.

Use LLMs for creativity. Use them to overcome the “blank screen” syndrome that many of us experience to come up with ideas for our content. Use it to sharpen our thinking… to accelerate your creativity.

Use AI to organize, outline, and optimize… but never to replace the human in the loop. (That’s you.)

When you combine your lived experience with AI’s capacity to structure and scale, you get something that moves people, that starts conversations, that connects with your readers. After all, you’re not looking to connect with an algorithm (hello, LinkedIn)… you want to connect with other humans.

One Simple Sentence Leads To…

Before you hit the “Return” key on your next content-related LLM prompt, take five to 10 extra seconds and type this:

“Write this as if you’re me, speaking directly to one person who trusts my experience.”

Then ask yourself:

• Who is that person?

• What problem are they trying to solve?

• And what truth do you want to share that will make them stop, think, and trust you?

Between The Sentence™ and this additional information, you’ll start to transition from generating “AI content” to creating authentic impact. After all, that’s what you want to have with other people… right?

If you want to go deeper into the kinds of AI prompts that drive honest, trust-based conversations, not robotic noise, grab a free copy of our new eBook:

The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn & AI Prompts for Trust-Based Conversations (click for details)

It’s packed with practical strategies and real-world examples to help you turn AI and LLMs into your most authentic business ally.

NOTE: The hero image of this article was generated with AI.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Sales teams measure everything… except the one factor that fuels every result: health.

• Physical and mental energy directly influence consistency, focus, and authenticity.

• Leadership sets the tone by modeling sustainable habits, not just demanding high output.

• A healthy culture isn’t a perk. It’s a performance system.

• The data is clear: when your people have more energy, they have more conversations, better judgment, and stronger results. (Read for the receipts!)

The One Metric That’s Missing from Your Dashboard

In sales leadership meetings, we track everything that moves: revenue, pipeline velocity, conversion ratios, activity counts, content engagement… the list goes on and on.

But there’s one metric we rarely talk about, even though it drives every number on the board: energy, as in, our energy as human beings.

Energy, both physical and mental, is the hidden KPI behind every deal closed, conversation started, and problem solved. When your people have it, they show up sharper, listen better, and connect deeper. When they don’t, every number downstream suffers.

And yet, most organizations treat health as a mere afterthought or ignore it completely. They invest in tech stacks, training, enablement… but not in the one resource every seller depends on to do their job well: their own well-being.

Let’s change that.

From Burnout to Baseline: Why Energy Drives Performance

The best sales reps often come from athletic or disciplined backgrounds. I’ve seen it myself in previous corporate sales jobs. Why? They understand the compounding effect of small, consistent actions… in training and in selling.

• The salesperson who moves regularly handles rejection better.

• The one who sleeps consistently makes sharper, more informed decisions.

• The person who manages stress with intention communicates with more empathy.

Those aren’t lifestyle perks, and a lot of companies treat them as such. They need to regard them as business advantages.

Recent research backs this up. A 2023 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials found that structured physical activity improved executive function in sedentary adults, including inhibitory control and working memory. Those are the same skills that govern judgment, focus, and real-time call quality. Effects were more substantial with programs longer than 12 weeks, too.

Broader evidence supports this as well: an umbrella review of randomized trials reports reliable improvements in general cognition, memory, and executive function with exercise. This reinforces the mechanism underlying better decision-making at work.

And sleep is a measurable performance lever. RAND’s 2023 analysis ties chronic insomnia to 45–54 lost workdays per person per year through absenteeism and presenteeism, with macro-level losses exceeding $200B annually in the U.S. alone.

Leadership Sets the Health Culture

Sales leaders can’t preach performance without modeling sustainability. You can tell your team to push harder, or you can show them how to push smarter. (Guess which one works better?)

This starts with small, visible actions driven by leadership:

• Taking walking meetings.

• Encouraging recovery after big sales pushes.

• Acknowledging mental breaks as part of productivity, not a pause from it.

Culture doesn’t start with just a wellness program. It begins with permission, and by example.

Workplace evidence points in the same direction: physical-activity-based wellness programs are associated with improvements in workability and work performance and can reduce absenteeism, though program design and quality matter. (National Institutes of Health)

Simple environmental shifts help too. A recent study shows reallocating desk workers’ sitting time toward standing or stepping is associated with better presenteeism, absenteeism, and engagement scores.

My Wake-Up Call

I learned this the hard way.

Years ago, I was the kind of person who powered through fatigue with caffeine and deadlines. At the time, I told myself it was discipline. It was actually denial.

When I finally focused on my health, everything changed. I lost more than 120 pounds. My clarity improved. My writing and performance sharpened. My decision-making got faster, and my patience deepened.

That transformation not only changed how I lived, but also improved how I performed at work.

Now, when I coach sales professionals, I emphasize health not as a personal story, but as a professional strategy. When you prioritize your energy, and when your team does, too, every client conversation gets better.

The Sales Equation We Don’t Talk About Enough

We say sales is a numbers game. And it’s true. But sales is also a health game.

You can’t convert if you’re constantly depleted. You can’t engage if you’re exhausted. And you can’t connect (well) if you’re running on fumes.

Healthy teams don’t just perform better… they sustain better.

Even brief movement can help. Experimental work shows short bouts of aerobic exercise can boost cognitive flexibility and creative ideation shortly afterward. You and your team can use this before big calls or brainstorming sessions.

How Leaders Can Start Managing the Health KPI

1. Normalize energy conversations. Ask how people are managing their day… not just their deals.

2. Celebrate recovery. Reward balance, not burnout. (No more joking about “you’ll sleep when you’re dead.)

3. Integrate movement. Walking 1:1s, quick stretch breaks, stand-for-strategy sessions. It’s all low friction, but with high payoffs.

4. Share your story. Vulnerability drives change. And if, as a business leader, you don’t have a story? Start building one and share your journey as you (hopefully) travel along with your people.

The ROI of Health in Sales

Wellbeing investments tend to return value primarily through productivity gains from lower absenteeism and presenteeism. One 2024 analysis (PDF direct download) estimated ~$1.47 returned per $1 spent, with benefits compounding over multi-year horizons.

Sales teams are made of humans, not machines… even in today’s world where we’re starting to lean harder into AI. When people have the physical and mental capacity to perform, every metric improves: pipeline, productivity, profitability.

Wrapping It Up

The best leaders don’t just track performance. They cultivate it. If your team is hitting the numbers but running on empty, that’s a countdown to failed health in the long term.

So the next time you review your dashboards, remember: the most important KPI doesn’t appear in Salesforce or Sales Navigator.

It’s the energy your people bring to the work.

What do you think? Have you implemented health-forward solutions in your workplace (and are you participating in them)? How’s it going? Or do you think that implementing such strategies would be like approaching a 350 lb. barbell waiting to be deadlifted? Let me know in the comments section.

Heath, especially good health, is a habit. Another thing that’s a habit? Getting good conversations started from LinkedIn.

If your team isn’t getting results from LinkedIn, don’t blame the algorithm. It’s the absence of a strategy that fits how buyers want to be approached today. And they need a system and strategy that makes it easier to do the right things, consistently. So they become, you know… a habit.

Download this FREE eBook to help them get those conversations started.

NOTE: The hero image for this post was generated with AI.

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• In my mind, Deep Sales isn’t just a LinkedIn platform. It’s a mental operating system (of sorts) for how modern sales teams think, act, and connect.

• Building a Deep Sales culture means going beyond adoption to alignment, mindset, and daily reinforcement.

• Leadership models the behavior; teams sustain it through habits, consistency, and curiosity.

• Success is measured not by how many actions you take, but by how deeply those actions resonate with buyers.

• The outcome: a sales organization that operates with purpose, trust, and precision.

The Shift from Sales Process to Sales Mindset

Most teams approach Sales Navigator like a new piece of software they install but never truly integrate. The icon’s there, but it’s collecting digital dust on the desktop.

The truth is, tools don’t transform organizations. Mindsets do.

“Deep Sales” is LinkedIn’s term for a more intelligent, insight-driven approach to selling. But it’s also something deeper than data and dashboards… it’s the foundation of a modern sales culture.

When I talk about Deep Sales as a “mental operating system of sorts,” I’m describing a way of thinking that powers every decision, conversation, and connection your team makes. It’s not software that runs in the background. It’s behavior that runs in the foreground.

Deep Sales as the Mental Operating System of Modern Selling

In traditional organizations, sales teams operate in silos: prospecting, qualifying, pitching, closing. Each step happens in isolation, and sometimes is handled by different roles or people. Deep Sales, however, integrates it all.

Deep Sales isn’t about automating outreach. It’s about elevating human connection through smarter insights. It shifts the focus from “How many calls did we make?” to “How well did we understand the people we called?”

That’s a cultural shift, not a procedural one.

Leadership Sets the Tone. Culture Sustains It.

Sales culture mirrors leadership behavior. If leadership treats Deep Sales as a quarterly initiative, the team will too. But if leadership models curiosity, preparation, and authentic engagement, those behaviors become the norm.

Picture this: a VP of Sales begins each weekly pipeline meeting by reviewing buyer intent signals inside Sales Navigator. The team doesn’t just look at deal stages; they look at people signals. Who’s changed roles? Which accounts show growth or funding activity? Who’s posting on LinkedIn about a challenge your solution solves?

That’s what leading through Deep Sales looks like. It’s not micromanaging activity; it’s modeling curiosity.

Embedding Deep Sales into Everyday Habits

Deep Sales becomes culture when it becomes habit. Here’s how teams make that happen:

• Pre-Call Prep: Use Sales Navigator insights before every meeting or interaction. It’s not just knowing your contact’s title, but also understanding their recent activity and shared connections.

• Connection Strategy: Replace cold outreach with warm introductions, facilitated by mutual connections and shared context.

• Weekly Wins: Nominate “Deep Sales Champions” who share real examples of how insights led to better conversations. Even reward them with tangible items they can use (or potentially a points/rewards system).

This transforms the sales process from a checklist into a rhythm… one built on genuine connection.

Measure the Right Metrics

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. What you measure, though, matters even more. Deep Sales shifts metrics from activity to impact.

Instead of focusing on calls or emails sent, measure:

• Conversations that moved forward because of shared insights.

• Connections built through warm introductions.

• The quality of LinkedIn engagement from target accounts.

Track culture, not just conversion.

Scaling the Deep Sales Mindset Across Teams

The most effective sales organizations don’t just “roll out” tools. They align people, systems (and tools), and purpose around a shared mindset.

That means enablement trains for curiosity, not compliance. Marketing delivers insights, not just leads. Sales managers coach conversations and interactions, not just quotas.

In a true Deep Sales culture, everyone from leadership to SDRs speaks the same language: insight, empathy, and relevance.

The Real Outcome: Human at Scale

The irony of Deep Sales is that technology, when used right, brings humanity back to sales. When your team sees every buyer as a relationship, not a record, you’re not just selling better; you’re selling more authentically.

Deep Sales is how you scale human connection without losing it.

What do you think? Should Deep Sales be a part of your team’s mental OS? Any other thoughts? Let me know in the Comments section below.

This completes my five-part series on Making Sales Navigator Work: From License to Lifeblood. We’ve covered:

Part 1 - Why LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Fails (and How Leaders Can Fix It)

Part 2 - The ROI of Consistency: It’s Sales Navigator, Plus...

Part 3 - How LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Helps You Sell Like a Human

Part 4 - Embedding LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Into Your Team’s Workflow

Part 5 - The New Sales “Operating System” - Leading a Deep Sales Culture (this article)

Hope you got real value from it. If there’s something else you’d like me to cover, please let me know in the Comments section as well.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was generated by AI.

Want to turn Deep Sales from a philosophy into a framework?

Our free eBook, The 8 Stages for Rolling Out a Sales Navigator Program, shows you how to move beyond adoption into cultural transformation… step by step.

Download your copy here!

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Sales Navigator success isn’t measured by logins. It’s measured by behaviors.

• Embedding Sales Navigator into your workflow means making it a part of every sales motion, not a “bonus activity.”

• Leadership sets the tone: When managers coach from insights surfaced by Sales Navigator, teams will naturally follow.

• The goal is to make deep sales a daily rhythm… where context, connection, and consistency drive every interaction.

• When Sales Navigator becomes muscle memory, the tool disappears, and better selling just happens.

The 90-Day Problem

Every sales leader has seen it: licenses get distributed, excitement spikes, and usage climbs for about 90 days.

Then, it flatlines.

Not because the tool doesn’t work, but because the workflow doesn’t change. Salespeople revert to what’s familiar (email lists, CRMs, “just checking in” calls [ugh]), while Sales Navigator sits idle like an unused gym membership… or that language app you open once a quarter to remind yourself you’re ‘learning Spanish.’

The truth? Adoption doesn’t come from distribution. It comes from integration.

And integration doesn’t happen in a training session. It happens in the daily rhythm of selling.

From Tool to Tempo: Making Sales Navigator a Habit

Sales Navigator shouldn’t live in isolation. It should live inside your existing workflow… CRM, meetings, 1:1s, pipeline reviews, and even prospecting routines.

Here’s what that looks like:

1. Start Every Day Inside Sales Navigator

   The best reps don’t check email first. They check insights.

   • Who changed jobs?

   • Which accounts are showing intent?

   1. What new connections have surfaced through TeamLink?

      When Sales Navigator drives your morning priorities, the rest of the day gets smarter.

2. Run Pipeline Reviews Through a Sales Navigator Lens

   During pipeline meetings, don’t just talk about stages and next steps. Ask:

   • “What did Sales Navigator tell you about this account’s recent moves?”

   • “Who else inside that company could open a door?”

   • “What insights can we use to re-engage stalled opportunities?”

     This shifts Sales Navigator from a tool to a trusted source.

3. Align CRM Notes With Sales Navigator Insights

   Sales Navigator is where insights start. CRM is where deals live. Encourage reps to bring their Sales Navigator discoveries into CRM, like job changes, company updates, and connections… so intelligence flows both ways.

4. Make Sales Navigator a Standing Agenda Item

   Whether it’s weekly sales calls or monthly coaching sessions, review what’s being learned and applied from Sales Navigator.

   • Who booked a meeting because of an alert?

   • Which connection led to a warm introduction?

   • How did Account IQ influence your outreach?

     Celebrate these stories. They make Sales Navigator real.

When Leadership Leads With Insight

Adoption follows example. If sales leaders don’t use Sales Navigator themselves, teams never will. Period.

The moment leadership starts showing Sales Navigator data in meetings, referencing signals in strategy sessions, and acknowledging wins driven by deep sales behavior, the shift begins.

Try this: Instead of asking, “Did you use Sales Navigator this week?” ask,

“What did Sales Navigator teach you about your top five accounts this week?”

That first question frames usage as compliance. The second one reframes it as learning.

The Rhythm of Deep Sales

Embedding Sales Navigator isn’t about logging in more often. It’s about changing how sales teams see their work.

In a deep sales rhythm:

• Prospecting becomes proactive, not reactive.

• Outreach becomes contextual, not scripted.

• Conversations start from insight, not interruption.

Sales Navigator becomes the drumbeat. Every signal, every alert, every insight keeps the team moving in tempo with their buyers.

That’s when deep sales stops being a platform… and starts being a culture.

Could This Be You? Turning Adoption Into Advantage

Let’s say you have 50 Sales Navigator licenses for your team. You discover that after the initial rollout, fewer than half of your team members were logging in weekly.

(That happens. A lot.)

So you decide to shift the approach by:

• Opening team meetings with “Top 3 Insights from Sales Navigator.”

• Recognizing Sales Navigator-driven wins during team meetings and as they happen… in real time.

• Having reps share their screens during manager 1:1s to walk through saved searches and alerts.

I can guarantee that two months later, you’ll see usage double. Within three months, your team’s meeting-booked rate will jump… perhaps by as much as 40%.

The tool itself won’t change. The tempo will. And you will see results.

Leadership’s North Star: Coach Curiosity

Great leaders don’t coach on tools; they coach on thinking.

When you lead teams to be curious -- to seek understanding before pitching -- you’re building a deep sales culture that outlasts any platform.

And when Sales Navigator becomes the bridge between curiosity and connection, selling feels less like selling… and more like helping.

That’s the point.

Wrapping It Up

Sales Navigator adoption isn’t about compliance. It’s about cadence. When leaders model curiosity, teams follow. When Sales Navigator becomes part of the workflow, adoption takes care of itself.

And when adoption sticks, deep sales becomes second nature.

Because the ultimate measure of success isn’t how often your team logs in. It’s how naturally they think, act, and connect. Like humans, powered by insight.

A Look Ahead

This is Part 4 of my series Making Sales Navigator Work: From License to Lifeblood. So far, we’ve covered:

Part 1 - Why LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Fails (and How Leaders Can Fix It)

Part 2 - The ROI of Consistency: It’s Sales Navigator, Plus...

Part 3 - How LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Helps You Sell Like a Human

And…

Part 5 – The New Sales Operating System: Leading a Deep Sales Culture

We’ll explore how to turn these habits into a company-wide operating system… where sales, marketing, and leadership align around shared insight, consistent language, and a truly buyer-centric approach.

In the meantime, what do you think? Do you agree that embedding Sales Navigator into your team’s workflow means making it a part of every sales motion, not a “bonus activity?” And do you think that you, as a sales leader, should be “in” Sales Navigator every day? Any other thoughts? Let me know in the Comments section below.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was generated by AI, with no notes from me after its first try.

If you want Sales Navigator adoption that sticks, you need a rhythm… not a reminder.

The 8 Stages for Rolling Out a Sales Navigator Program shows you how to weave Sales Navigator into the workflow so deeply, it becomes second nature.

Download our free eBook and start building that rhythm today.

👉 Get it here.

Leave a comment

Connect With Bob on LinkedIn

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• LinkedIn defines Deep Sales as a platform, powered by its Sales Insights and Sales Navigator.

• The real advantage of that platform, though, lies in adopting a Deep Sales mindset: using insights to understand, not automate.

• Deep Sales blends data with empathy: it helps sellers show up with relevance, humanity, and trust.

• Sales Navigator enables sellers to act human at scale through context, intent, and relationships.

• When your mindset leads and the tech follows, buyers stop feeling prospected… and start feeling understood.

When “Deep” Became More Than a Buzzword

LinkedIn has positioned Deep Sales as a new sales platform, built on Sales Insights and Sales Navigator.

It’s a smart evolution that combines data and intelligence to help sellers gain deeper insights into accounts, intent signals, and relationships.

But let’s be clear: while Deep Sales as a platform is a LinkedIn “thing,” I think of it as being something much more powerful.

It’s a mindset.

The Deep Sales mindset is about returning to what made sales work in the first place: honest, authentic conversations with real people.

And when you pair that mindset with the right platform, something remarkable happens: you stop chasing deals and start cultivating trust.

What LinkedIn’s Deep Sales Platform Really Does

LinkedIn’s Deep Sales platform (as it defines it) combines two engines:

• Sales Insights, which helps leaders understand markets and prioritize accounts.

• Sales Navigator, which helps sellers identify, engage, and build authentic relationships.

Together, they give sellers a living map of opportunity. They show what’s happening at a company, who’s signaling intent, and where real connections exist.

The platform organizes the data. Don’t get me wrong… that’s fantastic and something that’s needed in sales nowadays.

But the mindset interprets it. That’s where the magic is. And that’s where I want to take Deep Sales to a new level.

The Deep Sales Mindset in Action

Deep Sales thinking isn’t new. Heck, we at Social Sales Link have been teaching forms of it for more than a decade now. That mindset, though, has just been buried under automation, volume goals, and “personalization at scale.”

It comes down to three principles:

Context – Know what’s happening in your buyer’s world. Deep Sales surfaces this through Account IQ and company updates. Great sellers go a step further, as they interpret those signals.

“Your company’s expansion into healthcare stood out to me. How’s that changing your focus on tech partnerships?”

Connection – Find authentic bridges between people. The platform highlights shared connections and warm paths through TeamLink and Relationship Explorer. But connection doesn’t end with a click. It starts with curiosity and a willingness to both listen and learn.

Consistency – Show up repeatedly with insight and empathy. Sales Navigator alerts and lists let you stay visible without being intrusive. The Deep Sales mindset turns that visibility into meaningful presence.

When you connect context, connection, and consistency, your use of the platform becomes human.

Deep Sales Is a Human Advantage, Not a Tech Advantage

LinkedIn’s own research backs this up. In a global LinkedIn–Ipsos study, sellers who adopt Deep Sales principles are nearly twice as likely to exceed quota compared to traditional sellers.

That’s not because they send more messages. It’s because they send better ones. They use insights from Sales Navigator not to push, but to prepare.

They see intent data as conversation starters, not closing tactics. They use technology not to replace humanity, but to scale it.

That’s the Deep Sales advantage, and it’s not algorithmic. It’s emotional. And as we all know, people do buy emotionally… even with the types of sales that seem like emotions wouldn’t be a factor.

Here’s what Deep Sales looks like in real life:

A sales rep opens Sales Navigator and sees that a key prospect has recently taken on a new leadership role at their company.

Instead of dropping a templated “Congrats” message, they take all of 90 seconds to read the company’s latest funding announcement and align their outreach with what’s happening right now. They then reach out with a note that shows awareness, not agenda.

It’s the same platform another rep might use to automate 100 messages. But with a Deep Sales mindset, it becomes a connection engine rather than a spam cannon.

Leadership’s Role in Scaling Deep Sales

Sales leadership is where the Deep Sales mindset either thrives or dies.

When leaders treat the platform as a compliance checkbox (“Make sure everyone logs in to Sales Navigator twice a week”), adoption will always be shallow.

But when they reframe it as how their team sells, and make it a rhythm of insight-driven, human-centered outreach, everything changes.

The best sales leaders coach curiosity. They ask questions like:

• “What insights did Sales Navigator surface that changed your approach?”

• “How did that connection shift the conversation?”

• “Where did empathy outperform automation?”

That’s how Deep Sales moves from theory to culture.

The Real ROI: Selling Like a Human at Scale

You can’t measure trust in a dashboard, but you can measure its outcomes:

• More meetings booked.

• Shorter sales cycles.

• Higher win rates.

• Clients who stay, because relationships outlast transactions.

That’s the ROI of Deep Sales. Not more activity — more authenticity. Deep Sales may be LinkedIn’s platform, but it’s every seller’s mindset.

Sales Insights and Sales Navigator are the tools. The human using it is the differentiator.

When you combine the two -- data plus empathy, platform plus mindset -- you stop selling like a machine and start building like a trusted advisor.

A Look Behind… and Ahead

This is Part 3 of my series: Making Sales Navigator Work: From License to Lifeblood. Here’s what’s been published so far (with links):

Part 1 - Why LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Fails (and How Leaders Can Fix It)

Part 2 - The ROI of Consistency: It’s Sales Navigator, Plus...

And…

Part 4 – From License to Lifeblood: Embedding Sales Navigator Into the Workflow

Part 5 – The New Sales Operating System: Leading a Deep Sales Culture

In the meantime, what do you think? Do you agree that Deep Sales is a mindset that incorporates tools and not just uses them? Any other thoughts? Let me know in the comments section.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was AI-generated, and I think it tried to put me into the finished photo. Not bad… not bad at all.

Knowing the “what” is easy. It’s the “how” that separates top teams from the rest of the sales chaff.

The 8 Stages for Rolling Out a Sales Navigator Program shows how to operationalize insight: mapping buyers, aligning tools, and connecting activity to revenue.

Grab your free copy and start putting your data to work.

👉 Download it here.

Leave a comment

Connect on LinkedIn with Bob

The TL;DR (Executive Summary)

• Few things slow the buying process more than hidden pricing by the seller.

• Transparent pricing on your Website isn’t just bold. It’s functional: it filters out bad fits and accelerates real conversations.

• Transparency simplifies the buyer’s journey and the seller’s job by removing secrecy, guesswork, and surprise objections.

• Academic research backs this: cost transparency boosts trust and purchase interest.

• In this post, find out how to lean into transparency: why it matters, objections and fixes, and how to embed it in your sales approach.

It’s The Frustrating Website That Hides Its Pricing

Think back to the last time you landed on a company’s Pricing page but saw nothing. Just “Contact us,” “Get a quote,” or, worse, a big form asking for your deep information before you even see numbers… with no guarantee that you’ll actually see any pricing.

You already understood their offering. You wanted to compare tiers. You wanted to see features vs. cost. But instead, you’re greeted with friction.

In that moment, your trust dips. You assume complexity, smoke & mirrors, or gatekeeping. You may decide this company doesn’t respect your time. It’s a tiny signal… but it’s a powerful one that could stop a sale in its tracks, before you even know there’s interest in your product or service.

That exact scenario came up in a recent team call of ours. Details will come later, but we discussed a potential lead who “loved” the fact that we have transparency on our pricing page because it aligned with authenticity and consistency.

That really struck me: transparency isn’t just for show. It makes the selling process simpler for buyers and sellers alike.

Why Transparency Isn’t a Gimmick. It’s a Signal.

Bold statement, I know. It tells the prospect that you, as a seller:

• Are confident.

• Trust the prospect won’t feel surprised.

• Value clarity.

• Believe in alignment.

When pricing is hidden, buyers suspect that other things are being hidden elsewhere, such as fees, complexity, negotiation, and uncertainty. Having a buyer doubt you before you even know they’re a prospect isn’t a position you want them in.

Transparency counters all of that.

A Harvard Business School working paper, Lifting the Veil: The Benefits of Cost Transparency (direct PDF download here), studied cost transparency in multiple experiments. They found that cost transparency increases purchase interest even when prices are unexpectedly low, primarily mediated by perceived trustworthiness.

In other words: when you voluntarily reveal costs, you aren’t just being fair… you’re being honest. You’re building trust. And people respond to that.

Hidden pricing and drip pricing, or advertising “starting at $X” then hiding add-ons, also breed resentment. Drip pricing is controversial precisely because consumers feel misled.

By contrast, transparency shifts suspicion into respect.

How Transparency Makes the Buyer’s Journey Easier

1. Removes friction & friction-caused drop-offs

Buyers don’t need to spend dozens of minutes investigating your site, guessing about pricing tiers, or filling in forms just to get the basics. Transparent pricing gives them information upfront, which is what many want.

2. Accelerates internal approvals

Buyers almost always need to get budget or leadership sign-off before they can act. Hiding your costs creates extra friction internally for them. Transparent pricing lets purchasers say to their powers-that-be, “Here’s what they cost. Here’s what we propose. Let’s contact them to debate features, not guess the number.”

3. Pre-qualifies conversations

When your price range is public, prospects self-select. Those who can’t afford you drop out early, and often before you waste time. The ones left will be serious.

4. Reduces surprise objections

“Why is it this much?” or “What hidden fees are there?” become non-starters when pricing, inclusions, and add-ons are clearly stated upfront. It allows sellers to skip imagined guardrails due to opaqueness and focus on value, case studies, and outcomes instead.

How Transparency Simplifies the Seller’s Job

It’s not just the buyer who benefits. Sellers see value too, as every conversation begins with clarity rather than obscurity.

One of the significant benefits is that transparency shortens your sales cycle. Since many preliminary meetings involve discovery and cost, removing pricing from the discussion gets you to discovery much more quickly. Less time spent building trust means more time spent customizing.

In addition:

• You no longer have to reveal your pricing hand mid-call or at the end of the call; the structure is already visible.

• Disciplined discussions: conversations focus on features, outcomes, and fit; not “What’s your budget anyway?”

• Fewer objections, fewer surprises.

• Easier onboarding of new reps: your pricing model is public, so you don’t have to coach them through “that secret page no one sees.”

• More alignment across marketing, sales, and content: everyone speaks from the same pricing language.

When pricing is out of the shadows, everything else gets clearer.

Addressing the Objections (Yes, I’ve heard them)

Just like any sales process, there are common objections to being transparent about your prices. Here’s what you might be thinking (with answers to your objections):

“Our pricing is too complex to put on a page.”

Then publish ranges, tiers, and scenarios. Show what changes the price. Use “If you need X, we add Y.” An especially hot idea is to include a calculator or configurator so that your prospects can price their own individual needs. Transparency doesn’t demand simplicity, but it does require clarity.

“Competitors will see it all.”

Guess what? They already do. Prospects reverse engineer. Your clarity is a strength. You’ll compete based on value, not confusion.

“We’ll frighten prospects if they see how much it costs.”

Cool. If they’re frightened, maybe they weren’t the right fit. Transparency filters. You want qualified buyers, not tire-kickers.

“We have custom deals.”

That’s fine. Show your basis, then show starting tiers, and note that “custom deals vary.” Be transparent about range, too. If you don’t want to share every custom nuance, share the principles behind customization.

Real-World Example (Our Team and That Lead)

In the call that I referenced at the start of this article, we shared our landing page with upfront pricing. The prospect flat-out said they “loved” this transparency and that it aligned with our authenticity. Rather than being surprised mid-deal, our prospect felt seen and valued. They liked that we could show the page, share screens, and skip to honest conversations.

Because we didn’t hide anything, nothing had to be revealed later. No shock. No renegotiation. Just alignment. It’s really that simple.

Putting Transparency Into Practice

Here are concrete steps you can use to lean into transparency:

1. Create a public pricing page that shows:

   • Tiered pricing (e.g. Basic / Pro / Enterprise)

   • What’s included / excluded

   • Typical add-ons & costs

   • Examples / scenarios of what pushes a client to next tier

2. Add contextual notes

   • “This tier is for X-size teams”

   • “This add-on is for Y feature”

3. Use a configurator or estimator

   If pricing depends on variables (users, usage, add-ons), let people build their own estimate in real time. This can be HUGE for transparency.

4. Link pricing in discovery

   During sales calls, screen-share your pricing page (even if you know they’ve already seen it). Be transparent about trade-offs and options.

5. Align your internal messaging

   Everyone in marketing, sales, and product should use the same pricing language and logic. When your pricing is public and every team member uses the same verbiage, you reduce miscommunications both internally and with prospects.

6. Iterate & gather feedback

   Watch which tiers people view on your Website, and which configuration options they use. If you’re able, survey people who drop off at price pages and ask what was confusing.

When price is hidden, you create friction, hesitation, and suspicion. Transparency flips the script: you clarify, demystify, and accelerate alignment. You filter mismatches earlier and free up energy for the right conversations.

Transparency isn’t just a value statement. It’s a strategic lever. It makes the buying process simple for the prospect and for you, the seller.

I’d like to hear from you:

• What’s one thing you’d publish tomorrow to make your pricing more straightforward (or more transparent)?

• If your pricing is hidden, what’s one obstacle holding you back from implementing transparency?

Let me know in the comments below… I’ll respond.

NOTE: The hero image for this article was generated by AI, which still doesn’t quite know what keys go where on a keyboard. But it’s getting better.

Leave a comment

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn