Yesterday’s big announcement that LinkedIn is being acquired by Microsoft caused me to reflect on my embrace of LinkedIn and how integrated LinkedIn is with my achievements during the past decade.

1. My Life On LinkedIn Since 2006
A Case Study for Sales and Personal Branding

3. I signed up for LinkedIn on
November 22, 2006.
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4. I saw the platform as an
opportunity to post my
resume online.
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5. I mainly responded to
connection requests from
other people and spent very
little time on the site itself.
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6. In early 2007, I had jumped
into the sales profession,
joining an IT consulting
boutique.
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7. My job was to diversify the
company by growing its
network of consultants and
landing new clients.
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8. Very quickly, I realized how
LinkedIn could help me do
both.
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9. I spent the next four or five years
adding every person who I
connected with on a professional
basis as a connection on
LinkedIn. Before meeting
someone new, I looked him or
her up on LinkedIn so that we
could relate that much better.
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10. My big breakthrough
happened in 2009.
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11. That small IT consulting
company landed a large,
multi-year contract, and we
needed people with
specialized skill sets.
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12. I leveraged LinkedIn and
found subject-matter experts
around the world. I contacted
them, began dialogues, and
transitioned the relationships
to phone calls and eventually
visits to Newfoundland.
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13. In 2012 we decided it was
time to grow the company
geographically.
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14. I scheduled multiple business-
development trips to other
provinces.
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15. I spent hours on LinkedIn,
looking up key individuals in
the provinces I planned to
visit. I sent inMail messages
to those I wanted to meet.
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16. LinkedIn has facilitated
hundreds if not thousands of
coffee chats for me. Some
have led to business. Virtually
all have led to new
connections.
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17. In 2013 the company was
acquired by KPMG Canada. I
lead business-development
efforts for the Microsoft
practice.
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18. Interestingly enough, the
Microsoft practice originated
with that boutique firm about
a year prior to its acquisition,
when two Microsoft MVPs
used LinkedIn to contact me
and form a relationship.
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19. In mid-2014 I decided to
pursue my lifelong dream of
writing a book.
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20. I wanted to share with
entrepreneurs and new sales
professionals the message
that, with the right mind-set,
they can embrace selling and
become very effective at it.
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21. It’s Time to Sell: Cultivating
the Sales Mind-Set, self-
published in December 2015,
has sold many thousands
more copies than I ever
expected.

22. How?
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23. A few months after I began
writing the book, I began to
research how to promote a
book. I came to realize that
without a platform doing so
would be very difficult.
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24. I took notice of a few people I
knew who were publishing
articles on LinkedIn’s new
publishing platform. I decided
to jump on board.
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25. To date I have published just
shy of one hundred articles
and attracted a whole new
network of thought leaders
and influencers.
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26. I also have leveraged the
SlideShare platform as
another avenue for
communicating my message.
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27. My platform has expanded to
include the It’s Time to Sell
podcast. All thirty guests who
have been on the podcast are
connections that I made via
LinkedIn.
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28. Around the same time that I
began publishing on LinkedIn,
I embraced another new
LinkedIn tool: Sales Navigator.
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29. I use Sales Navigator to stay
up to date on key accounts,
clients, and leads.
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30. My use of Sales Navigator, in
particular, leads to the reason
that I am excited about
Microsoft’s potential
acquisition of LinkedIn.

31. Under its Dynamics brand,
Microsoft has a powerful
suite of enterprise
applications. CRM is one of
them.
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32. I see huge potential in the
combination of Sales
Navigator and Microsoft
Dynamics CRM.
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33. How Microsoft and LinkedIn
integrate those products will
be interesting to see.
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34. Could this be the next chapter
in my life on LinkedIn?
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35. Time will tell.
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