The LinkedIn Selling Index a closed book? Not really! With a little time and the right information, the Selling Index and its significance for your own LinkedIn profile can be quickly identified. After all, this index can not only reveal a lot about your own profile, but a good selling index can also significantly improve your reach. This also means that the sales figures targeted by social selling, for example, can be achieved much more quickly.

What is the LinkedIn SSI (LinkedIn Social Selling Index)?

The Selling Index is nothing more than a value that shows how strong your LinkedIn profile actually is. It is therefore a metric that can be used to measure your own activities on LinkedIn. Originally, the LinkedIn SSI was developed for sales staff, who could use it to better measure their social selling activities and make any necessary adjustments accordingly. Nowadays, however, the LinkedIn Selling Index can be viewed by any user completely free of charge.

A high SSI therefore means that the reach is also correspondingly high, so that more users are addressed with your own profile. And this, of course, also has an impact on potential sales or other interactions on LinkedIn.

The Selling Index also consists of four values:

• Profile
• Search
• Content
• Network.

Depending on the project or goals, each individual value can be improved in order to ultimately optimize the entire LinkedIn Selling Index.

Selling Index Meaning of the four elements

First of all, it is important to know that the LinkedIn Selling Index fluctuates daily. Of course, these fluctuations also depend on how active you are on the platform. A high level of activity on LinkedIn therefore also leads to a better Selling Index.

In addition, the focus should be placed on the four elements already mentioned and these should be constantly improved so that the LinkedIn Selling Index shoots up. It is almost mandatory to fill your profile with as much information as possible.

The various tools on the platform are particularly useful for finding the right people for your own goals or projects. With regard to a good LinkedIn SSI, it can also occasionally do no harm to use the paid Sales Navigator.

The Content element refers to any content that is shared with other users. The content should not only be tailored to the respective target group, but also be entertaining and varied. The right content also plays an important role in improving your own LinkedIn Selling Index.

And last but not least, of course, the network must not be forgotten. As a platform, LinkedIn offers an excellent opportunity to build relationships with other users, which can then be used for your own projects. This means that having more contacts not only expands your own network, but also improves your Selling Index.

Just like the LinkedIn Selling Index, the parameters of these four elements also change throughout the day. So if more content is shared, the corresponding value also increases. The same applies to the network. Profiles with more than 1,000 contacts often reach the maximum of the corresponding value.

Indispensable: A high LinkedIn Selling Index

When it comes to successful social selling, there is no way around a high LinkedIn Selling Index. This is essential for specific activities on the platform in combination with increasing sales opportunities and contacts with potential prospects. A high Selling Index often also leads to an increase in your own sales targets.

Recent studies have shown that profiles with a high Selling Index not only have 45 percent higher sales opportunities, but that sales quotas have also risen to 51 percent. In addition, salespeople with a high LinkedIn Selling Index made 78 percent more sales than competitors who did not rely on the index or social selling.

Improve LinkedIn Selling Index! But how?

Admittedly, the LinkedIn Selling Index may seem a little complicated at first glance. In reality, however, it is not that difficult to use these parameters for your own success. The most important thing is to use the four elements of the Selling Index optimally for your own projects and to integrate them as well as possible.

It is particularly important to focus on the content. Interesting updates or other important information can be used to arouse the interest of the respective target group. In this case, a sophisticated content strategy for the respective profile, in which the corporate goals are also embedded, is best suited.

But networking and building relationships should not be ignored either. It may seem very easy to simply find enough contacts to improve your LinkedIn Selling Index. However, in the past it has proven to be extremely impractical and sometimes dangerous to add contacts to your profile at random. Although this scam improves the value in the Selling Index, no relationship is usually established with the individual contacts. However, these are crucial for reacting to or interacting with the posted content, for example. It is therefore advisable to choose only contacts who are actually interested in the content posted and ideally also spread it.

In short, this means: For a better LinkedIn Selling Index, the first step is to create a professional profile in which all relevant information can be found, which may even arouse a little curiosity. This is followed by networking with the right people who also have added value for the company’s own corporate goals. In order to maintain these contacts over a longer period of time, interest should ideally be aroused on a daily basis. The best way to do this is with the right content. And in the end, this is often the bridge that leads to contacts becoming strong relationships. However, these are not only an important guarantee for a good LinkedIn Selling Index, but also for successful social selling on LinkedIn.