EP #425 - Enzo Wälchli: Building Your Brand on LinkedIn
Aug 4, 2024
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Enzo Wälchli, the CCO at Anybotics and LinkedIn’s leading Swiss voice in robotics, discusses his transition from corporate life to the startup world. He emphasizes the critical role LinkedIn plays in sales, advocating for consistent content creation to attract prospects. Enzo shares insights on the power of video for virality, the importance of meaningful engagement over mere likes, and offers practical tips on building a personal brand. He believes that every salesperson should embrace LinkedIn as a dynamic tool for connecting with clients.
Transitioning from corporate roles to startups can enhance entrepreneurial skills by applying established processes to innovative environments.
Leveraging LinkedIn effectively through consistent content creation fosters meaningful connections and turns prospects into inbound sales inquiries.
Deep dives
Transition from Corporate to Startup
The guest transitioned from a decade-long corporate career to a startup environment, viewing this move as a way to engage more directly in business operations. They highlighted the importance of their prior corporate experience in developing essential skills in strategic marketing and sales management, which informed their approach in the startup realm. By obtaining knowledge from large organizations, they felt equipped to contribute effectively to building a startup, bringing valuable insights from established processes. This journey emphasizes that varied career paths can contribute positively to entrepreneurship and innovation in startups.
Importance of LinkedIn for Sales
LinkedIn has evolved from just an online resume platform to a vital tool for generating business leads and nurturing relationships. The guest emphasized that many sales professionals still do not utilize LinkedIn effectively, missing out on its capacity to connect with prospects and build a personal brand. Engaging with relevant content and establishing a professional presence leads to inbound inquiries, making sales discussions more fruitful. This approach shifts sales from traditional outbound tactics to a relationship-focused model supported by content creation on LinkedIn.
Growing a LinkedIn Audience
The guest shared insights into their journey of building a substantial following on LinkedIn, underscoring the value of consistently sharing content. They encouraged aspiring content creators to start simply and remain persistent, as most LinkedIn users do not engage actively, which allows early content creators to stand out. The emphasis on posting regularly and focusing on quality helped them move from a modest follower base to tens of thousands. Additionally, they noted that sharing engaging, timely content is crucial in maintaining visibility and relevance on the platform.
Content Strategy and Engagement
The guest developed a content strategy that combines posting original thoughts with sharing interesting videos related to robotics, effectively balancing engagement and personal branding. They utilize tools like ChatGPT to streamline content generation and focus on maintaining a consistent posting schedule, spending minimal time to maximize their output. By analyzing what resonates with their audience, they adapt their content to ensure it is engaging, meaningful, and visually appealing. Their strategy illustrates the importance of analyzing audience preferences while leveraging platforms to foster genuine engagement.
Enzo Wälchli is the CCO at Anybotics, a company providing autonomous robotic inspection solutions, and LinkedIn’s #1 Swiss voice in robotics. He holds an MA in Accounting and Finance from HSG and previously worked at Sulzer and Hilti Schweiz before joining Anybotics in 2021.
Enzo has 70K+ followers on LinkedIn, where he posts cool robotics content and also shares some insights into Anybotics’ journey. He’s firmly convinced that every salesperson should be using LinkedIn to connect with prospects. This doesn’t mean that you need to go around shooting connection requests and sending cold messages — on the contrary, if you post interesting content consistently, prospects will come to you, which is of course a much better starting point for a sales discussion.
Enzo thinks making it big on LinkedIn is relatively simple. Considering that the vast majority of LinkedIn users don’t post anything but merely consume content, if you start posting, you’re already one step ahead. And then you just need to keep posting, consistently, every day. It doesn’t matter if at first you post low quality content, because any piece of online content gets forgotten after a week anyhow: it only matters that you stay consistent and improve over time. If you can find a niche topic like robotics, all the better.
Enzo also recommends striking a balance between highly viral content (like cool robot videos) and actually meaningful content (such as his behind-the-scenes perspective on Anybotics). A viral post might have incredible stats, but it probably won’t get people to follow you, whereas consistent meaningful content will.