Listen on YouTube // Apple // Spotify

LinkedIn is a platform that most of us spend a TON of time on. So, we thought it would be helpful to give you an inside view on their advice on profile growth, social selling, and overall buying behavior through this interview.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a key platform for many sellers, and they just announced BREAKING news today! They are bringing Sales Navigator directly into sellers’ workflow, starting with Microsoft Teams.

Who you’ll learn from

Catherine, who leads marketing for LinkedIn’s Sales Solutions business (Sales Navigator), joins GTMnow to unpack LinkedIn’s new research, “The Trust Advantage,” and much more.

Catherine has spent 25+ years in marketing, including 13 at Meta, and now runs a global team out of Singapore. She argues AI has made “spray and pray” easier than ever, which is exactly why the winning move is doing less, more relevant outreach. She breaks down the 4 behaviors that separate top sellers, why warm introductions convert so much better, what a seller’s LinkedIn profile should actually say, and how putting your expertise out publicly now helps both you and your company rank in AI search.

What you’ll learn:

  • The trust gap: why 86% of buyers want expertise but only 45% find sellers trustworthy, and how to close it
  • Why expertise in a first conversation means leading with their problem, not your product
  • The case for less outreach: more signal means you can be far more selective
  • The four top-seller behaviors: signal-based selling, early multithreading, timely engagement (hours not weeks), and genuinely personalized outreach
  • Why warm intros win: ~3x higher email response and ~2x higher connection-acceptance than cold
  • The most underrated entry point: executive sponsors and former customers who moved companies
  • What a seller’s LinkedIn profile should be (a point of view, not a resume), and why profile views are a top buying signal
  • The algorithm and discoverability: how posting even once a week, and engaging on others’ posts, compounds
  • Why LinkedIn is now the most-cited domain for professional queries in AI search, and what that means for you
  • Hiring in the AI era: adaptability and generalists over specialists, and “throw your hat over the wall”

Episode highlights

1:18 – Welcome, and Catherine’s path from Meta to LinkedIn

2:40 – Leading Sales Solutions from Singapore, and building out of APAC

3:39 – The Trust Advantage report, and how buyers want to be reached

4:58 – The trust gap: 86% want expertise, 45% find sellers trustworthy

6:41 – Reframing the gap as an advantage

7:03 – What expertise looks like in a first conversation

8:29 – Why more signal should mean less, not more, outreach

9:44 – Warm connections, and how Sales Navigator quantifies them

11:36 – The executive-sponsor hack most sellers underuse

13:10 – Multithreading: why to start as early as possible

14:06 – The 4 behaviors that separate top sellers

15:58 – Profile views as a buying signal, and what your profile should say

17:26 – Should sellers post on LinkedIn? The once-a-week edge

18:50 – Algorithm tips: point of view, engagement, and authenticity

20:30 – Discoverability and AI search: LinkedIn as the #1 cited domain

21:24 – The distribution era, and measuring discoverability

22:08 – Leading the Sales Navigator team in the AI era

24:39 – Why Sales Navigator stays a daily non-negotiable for sellers

25:46 – A peek at the roadmap: Account IQ, Team Link, and going where sellers work

28:18 – Why LinkedIn now publishes its research for free

29:57 – Hiring for adaptability over specialism

32:37 – Rapid fire: the profile-views setting, testing formats, APAC vs. NA

36:07 – Catherine’s hot take: revenue still runs through relationships

38:06 – The thing nobody tells you about leadership

38:25 – The most underrated GTM advice, and building with AI

39:49 – The best advice she ever got: throw your hat over the wall

41:04 – Where to find Catherine

A few of the many questions asked that can help you grow your LinkedIn and career:

1. Should sellers be posting on LinkedIn, or is there a higher leverage way to show up?

Comment more than you post. Everyone pours effort into their own posts and treats comments as filler, and the reach math runs the other way. If your time is limited, showing up thoughtfully in other people’s threads builds more than another solo post.

2. What’s the trending direction of the algorithm? Are we going to see photos, video, text?

Don’t always chase the format everyone says is winning. Platform-wide trend is not the same as what works for your audience. For example, Catherine posts video frequently and confirms video performs better and better. Then a carousel she built off an Instagram trend out-engaged her recent videos.

3. One LinkedIn setting or feature you’d tell every seller to turn on today?

Profile views. The useful part is who it reveals: recruiters, investors, partners, and buyers evaluating you before you know they’re looking. Far fewer people have it switched on than you’d expect, which means most people are invisible to their own inbound.

4. What does AI search change about why any of us should be posting at all?

You’re being indexed now, not just read. LinkedIn is the most cited domain for professional queries, according to Profound. What you publish shapes how you and your company surface in AI answers. Her team started measuring discoverability as a metric this year, and almost nobody has an equivalent.

5. What are you actually looking for on someone’s profile when you’re hiring?

A clear point of view, published content, and evidence they’re building with AI.

Catherine Flynn

Sophie Buonassisi (Host)

The GTMnow Newsletter (by GTMfund)
GTMnow merges go-to-market strategy, venture capital and media.
Build, scale and invest with the best minds in tech.

The media brand of VC firm, GTMfund – sharing the how and who behind company growth.

GTMnow

The GTMnow Podcast – subscribe to support

It would mean the world to us if you subscribe to the show on your platform of choice. This helps support our growth, which in turn helps us continuously bring on bigger guests and deliver the content that you want to hear most.

Subscribe on YouTube

Subscribe on Apple

Subscribe on Spotify

The GTMnow Podcast shares how the best in tech build, scale and invest.

Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes, The GTMnow Newsletter editions, and other content.

GTMnow is run by GTMfund, an early-stage venture firm made up of 350+ go-to-market executives from the fastest-growing companies.

GTM 206 Full Episode Transcript

00:00 – 00:07

Catherine Flynn: If you’re posting on LinkedIn even once a week, you’re already head and shoulders above 99% of the other sellers out there.

00:07 – 00:10

Sophie Buonassisi: Where would you say the best introductions come from?

00:10 – 00:21

Catherine Flynn: It comes from mutual connections. So existing advocates, customers and buyers that you’ve worked with before, or leaders or colleagues at your own company who have those existing relationships.

00:21 – 00:28

Sophie Buonassisi: Catherine Flynn, she leads global marketing for LinkedIn’s sales solutions business. What should sellers profile look like on LinkedIn?

00:29 – 00:43

Catherine Flynn: They should definitely not just look like your resume. You know, when a buyer is checking your right. They’re not saying, where did Sophie go to school? Or what if her most recent two jobs been there actually thinking? Is this person credible on the things I care about and how can they help me?

00:43 – 00:50

Sophie Buonassisi: What is the number one kind of trending direction of the algorithm on LinkedIn? Are we going to see photos, videos? Text?

00:50 – 01:00

Catherine Flynn: It is all about relevance to your network. And video is booming on LinkedIn. That is certainly no secret you’re seeing more of it. We’re seeing it perform.

01:00 – 01:18

Sophie Buonassisi: Are you able to give us any kind of sneak previews into what’s coming down the pipe?

01:18 – 01:21

Sophie Buonassisi: Catherine, welcome to GTM now.

01:21 – 01:23

Catherine Flynn: Thank you so far. I’m a big fan of the show.

01:23 – 01:25

Catherine Flynn: Thank you for having me.

01:25 – 01:39

Sophie Buonassisi: We appreciate you coming on. Super excited to chat. And now I’ve got to ask to start. Now you’re an executive at a company where everyone’s career lives LinkedIn. How did you end up working at the renowned name and company that we all know?

01:40 – 01:41

Catherine Flynn: Well, I’ve.

01:41 – 02:17

Catherine Flynn: Been a marketer in one way or another for over 25 years. I’ve spent most of that in tech, although, and I started out in agencies and in consumer marketing, but I’ve made sort of B2B and social my home for the last 15 or so years. I worked at meta for quite a long time, and then I joined LinkedIn almost three years ago, and I currently lead marketing for our sales solutions business, so most people will know our main product, sales navigator, and a theme for me and how I got to LinkedIn and my career in general, is that I’ve been lucky enough to market products that I personally love and personally use, and LinkedIn is one of those. And also, Sales Navigator is a product that I actually sold in when I worked at Facebook over 13 years ago when we were building our first sales teams there. So a combination I think that led me to LinkedIn of personal passion and then just career that had progressed over the years from consumer to tech to to B to be marketing.

02:38 – 02:40

Catherine Flynn: I’m really, really lucky to be here.

02:40 – 02:45

Sophie Buonassisi: Oh, that is super cool. Very interesting to hear your journey. And what’s your favorite part now about working on LinkedIn?

02:45 – 03:08

Catherine Flynn: Well, today I think along with we have an amazing culture and values that sort of like frame and drive how we operate every day. But I think in my role specifically, I’m based Sophie, as I think you know, in Singapore, a lot of the sales solutions business right now is being built out of pack. So we are truly global team and we’re able to innovate, I think, at a faster pace than we have been before.

03:08 – 03:28

Catherine Flynn: So we’ve got a lot of goodness coming for our customers and the broader industry in the coming months. So I think right now it’s being able to do a global role and run a global team, along with some fantastic partners from, you know, the other side of the world to where you’re sitting today. Even though I do spend a lot of time on your side of the the pond.

03:28 – 03:37

Sophie Buonassisi: Oh, that’s amazing and excited to hear about all the announcements. I have been a Sales navigator customers in the very beginning of my career, and it is an absolute non-negotiable. I keep it at all times.

03:37 – 03:39

Catherine Flynn: It’s probably we have that in common.

03:39 – 04:01

Sophie Buonassisi: Key tools? Yes, exactly, exactly. And I’m sure we are not alone. So everyone will be very excited to hear some of the details we’re going to dive into in this interview. And, you know, LinkedIn recently published a report, The Trust Advantage. And there was a really interesting point I want to bring forth, because you actually asked buyers how they want to be reached. Can you rank them for us? Give them to us, maybe top to bottom.

04:05 – 04:25

Catherine Flynn: Well, one of the things we found, whom we surveyed thousands of, of B2B buyers globally in the last year, is that it’s not actually about the channel. So I can’t give you a list of in mailers here. WhatsApp is here. Email is here. Good old phone call is is there because they all still matter. And there’s a real preference from a buyers perspective.

04:25 – 04:58

Catherine Flynn: But what really matters is relevance. Because AI has made information abundant, it has meant that our buyers or us as buyers, because we’re all buyers for own businesses, we’re more informed than ever before. By the time a seller gets to sit across from us or have a conversation with us, and that creates a real opportunity. Because while the information now is more abundant than ever, we found in this research that trust is actually harder to find and build than ever before.

04:58 – 05:14

Sophie Buonassisi: And I believe I remember reading, I think it was 86% of buyers say expertise is actually what builds trust. But there was a crazy metric that only 45% described the sellers they meet as trustworthy. So yeah why the 41 point gap.

05:14 – 05:38

Catherine Flynn: So that was you’ve picked out the thing that was most surprising to me because, you know, it wasn’t necessarily a surprise to us, maybe a little bit more. So earlier last year at the the sort of AI takeover of the buying process where, you know, we’re all, you know, I think it was 94%. But I think at this point, we can probably say 100% of all of us are using AI at every stage of the buying process.

05:38 – 06:07

Catherine Flynn: But that gap that you called out between what buyers expect. So they expect sellers to have expertise on their industry, have expertise on the product that they’re bringing to the table. And but under 50%, I think it was 45% actually experienced the sellers that they meet every day as trustworthy. And the gap flips over. When we surveyed, we went out a second time and we surveyed sellers because we were so interested in what was going on.

06:07 – 06:26

Catherine Flynn: And sellers are going around with this perception that they are absolutely trustworthy, that they are, you know, making everything super relevant. But there’s a there’s a huge gap there. And rather than treat it as a gap, I’m an optimist. And at LinkedIn, we we want to be helpful to the, you know, the industries and the and the customers that we serve.

06:26 – 06:41

Catherine Flynn: So we wanted to present it as an opportunity because we think it really is because there’s so many tools available to us to make and trust building easier and hence the advantage rather than we didn’t call it the trust gap, we called it the trust advantage.

06:41 – 07:00

Sophie Buonassisi: I love that optimistic shake. And as it should be, you know, it’s an evolving era right now in particularly with AI, there’s a lot of opportunity for sellers to actually capitalize and really become the best sellers that they possibly can right now. So it’s a very exciting time. What does expertise, since that is, you know, huge, huge catalyst for building trust. What is that actually look like in a first conversation?

07:03 – 07:27

Catherine Flynn: So in a first conversation it is more about their problems, your insights on what’s going on for them than it is about you. So I could be the world’s best expert in sales navigator. I’m not. We have lots of them. I know a bit, but coming to the table saying, Sophie, I saw that your you recently expanded your business in Japan.

07:27 – 07:48

Catherine Flynn: I saw that you’re hiring in, you know, the UK. You know, what does that mean in terms of your business strategy. So again a bit like when we talked about channels, it’s less about the specific channel of choice and more about the relevance of the message. When it comes to expertise. It’s it’s still about starting with their industry, their problem, their business.

07:48 – 08:01

Catherine Flynn: And then it is about going straight, ending like, have you seen my new AI powered feature? And and that’s really what starts to build the expertise and the credibility for the next stages of the of the journey.

08:02 – 08:23

Sophie Buonassisi: Yeah, I love that framing. And I mean everybody at the end of the day, they are in conversation to solve a problem. So if you can come with some relevance and showcase your expertise in their problem, that sounds like it builds trust immediately. And thankfully now, I mean, with AI, we’ve got more signals than ever before to actually pick up on these things, understand if they’ve expanded to Japan and so forth. Has that helped sellers from your purview at LinkedIn or, you know, having more information, has that made a difference?

08:29 – 08:57

Catherine Flynn: It’s definitely helping the sellers who are taking the time to capitalize on that. So all of this, you know, new levels of signals and insight and information are there at our fingertips with many of the AI tools and sales. Navigator is just one of those that’s taking all of the insight and the data from our, you know, 1.3 billion members using LinkedIn every day and tailoring it specifically for the sales context.

08:57 – 09:24

Catherine Flynn: But not every seller is taking the time to do that. Now. I think, you know, the other thing that AI has made really easy is, you know, spraying and praying at a at a level never seen before. And the temptation, of course, is there to automate as much as possible, you know, increase the volume of outreach. But, you know, if I want us to stand for anything, it’s maybe even just that we could be doing less outreach than ever before.

09:24 – 09:44

Catherine Flynn: We could be way more selective in who sellers, you know, reach out to, because we’ve got that much more signal on what is going on for them. And we’re we’re really trying to build more and more of that in much more, in even more real time into the product when it comes to what we can offer for for sales teams.

09:44 – 10:06

Sophie Buonassisi: One of the things that was really appreciated about the product sales now specifically, is the ability to actually capture the context of connections, because people have many different connections. We often don’t know how close is that connection. And it’ll show you, you know. Did somebody go to school together? Are they former colleagues? So you get a little bit more color to that connection.

10:06 – 10:29

Sophie Buonassisi: And that really helps with warm introductions. We see it all the time at GTM fund on the founder side. But everybody knows warm connections are very effective. It’s often extremely hard to quantify. So maybe you can help us understand like what is technically a warm connection from the LinkedIn perspective. And then what difference does that actually make if you can quantify it going warm versus cold.

10:29 – 10:30

Catherine Flynn: Sure.

10:30 – 10:58

Catherine Flynn: You know, on the topic of trust, one of the fastest parts to trust is through someone who already has it. So when we talk about warm introductions or warm parts on LinkedIn, what we mean in the context of our network is mutual connections or even better, referrals. And, you know, Sales Navigator gives you the extra level of detail versus LinkedIn, the platform on exactly how you’re connected and the strength of those connections, which can be really helpful.

10:58 – 11:21

Catherine Flynn: But we see that mutual connections generate nearly a three times higher in mail response rate or acceptance rate, and then a two x higher connection request acceptance than if you just outreach cold. Makes sense. You know, I’m sure if you get a LinkedIn request or an email request, you will check who is this person and am I connected to other people in the same network.

11:21 – 11:33

Catherine Flynn: But that credibility is really, really important. So that’s what we mean by warm. And we really, really encourage sellers to take full advantage of those mutual connections, both in their network but also at their company.

11:33 – 11:36

Sophie Buonassisi: Yeah, yeah, that’s fantastic to quantify it too.

11:36 – 12:03

Catherine Flynn: We see top performing sellers are the ones who are also using exec sponsors. And, you know, I get regular requests from salespeople within LinkedIn to say, hey, Catherine, I’ve seen that you’re connected to this person or that person. Would you mind sending them something like this message introducing us? And I’m always really happy to do that, because that’s a really smart way to use not just your network with your internal executive sponsors and leaders.

12:03 – 12:12

Sophie Buonassisi: Curious if you have a sense for how many sellers or sellers actually leverage executive sponsors to the fullest capability.

12:12 – 12:37

Catherine Flynn: So we know that top performing salaries do this way more than all sellers. So the highest yield entry points are from customer advocates and former customers of yours who might now be in new companies and new target accounts. And then top sales performers are also almost 50% more likely to use exec sponsors at their own company as entry points.

12:37 – 12:42

Catherine Flynn: So it’s a real it’s a real hack that can be underrated in the sales process.

12:42 – 12:53

Sophie Buonassisi: Oh yeah, that’s a massive percentage. And so it sounds like executive sponsors is a great way to actually help facilitate these warm introductions. Where would you say the best introductions come from?

12:53 – 13:10

Catherine Flynn: It comes from mutual connections. So existing advocates, customers and buyers that you’ve worked with before, or leaders or colleagues at your own company who have those existing relationships. So existing relationships are a fast track to those warmer introductions.

13:10 – 13:26

Sophie Buonassisi: Brilliant. And once we get that warm introduction into an account, of course, you know, multithreading is a topic that comes up often from LinkedIn’s perspective. And all the data that you have having hundreds of sellers. How many people should be connected with inside a target account?

13:26 – 13:54

Catherine Flynn: Yeah. So one of the things that we know is that buying groups are getting bigger all the time, or buying committees are getting bigger all the time, at the same time that sales cycles, despite AI, are getting even longer. So having multiple connections at a company, not just when you’ve had your first meeting or made the first connection, but starting the multithreading as early as possible in the journey was one of the top four behaviors we saw when we researched.

13:54 – 14:07

Catherine Flynn: What is building trust today in the era of AI for sellers? So start definitely multithreaded, but there’s you really can start to early on. The multithreading is a huge opportunity.

14:07 – 14:16

Sophie Buonassisi: Gotcha. And you’ve teased out a couple of them. But can you give us the four that came out. The four top behaviors for sellers that really differentiate top sellers from the rest?

14:16 – 14:43

Catherine Flynn: Yeah. What is making top sellers stand out with the abundance of information and the the lack of trust that that can exist in the era of AI. Very briefly, I would describe these as signal based selling. So taking advantage of all of the information, the signals, those signals on LinkedIn are pretty real time in terms of job change or, you know, company news or information or some of the most powerful ones.

14:43 – 15:10

Catherine Flynn: So that’s number one, multi-threading. We just talked about it as number two. So it’s a it’s a common concept in sales, but really not sleeping on the opportunity to multithreading in new ways and to do it really well. It’s a it’s definitely an advantage. Timely engagement. So the top top sellers are reaching out within hours, not days or weeks of a job change or a company.

15:10 – 15:44

Catherine Flynn: Something changing about the company or a a new product launch. So on LinkedIn, you’re getting that information pretty much in real time. Other providers that are out in the market are, you know, those. That data is often weeks or even months old. So the timeliness cannot be understated. And then finally, number four sounds obvious, but personalized outreach and I mean really personalized outreach, not just high insert name here and where we’ve all been on the bad end of receiving non-personal outreach.

15:44 – 15:58

Catherine Flynn: And I think the the excuses are really gone in terms of sellers not taking the time to once you’ve had all of those other steps, really personalize your outreach and build a connection on the trust. So those are the four.

15:58 – 16:23

Sophie Buonassisi: Those are our big four items. And if we dive into the first one I remember reading the profile views was also one of the single most predictive signals that you could pull on from that first signal based metrics side, which essentially means that buyers are checking sellers profiles before they answer to understand that trust and credibility. So what should sellers profile look like on LinkedIn?

16:23 – 16:50

Catherine Flynn: Yeah, they should definitely look not just look like your resume. You know, we we encourage all sellers to be taking advantage of all of the the kind of features that your LinkedIn profile can, can give you. And that’s about, you know, when a buyer is checking your out, they’re not saying, where did SoFi go to school or what of her most recent two jobs been there actually thinking, is this person credible on the things I care about and how can they help me?

16:50 – 17:15

Catherine Flynn: So I think sellers, no matter what stage they’re at in their career, should have a point of view that they share on LinkedIn a point of view on the industry that their product is solving for, or the key industries that their buyers and prospects are in, and also show who they are. Right? How do you distinguish yourself from the millions of other sellers on LinkedIn, and even the other sellers in your industry?

17:15 – 17:26

Catherine Flynn: Bring a bit of personality. Bring a bit of humor. LinkedIn ranks content higher when it’s seen as helpful, knowledgeable, and has a clear point of view. So that’s where I would start.

17:26 – 17:36

Sophie Buonassisi: Super good to know. And when we talk about ranking, that’s a big question mark for people when they think about posting. Should sellers be posting on LinkedIn first and foremost?

17:37 – 18:02

Catherine Flynn: Well, I read a great tip from one of the many great sales creators on LinkedIn, because there are lots that we partner with and who are out there advising sellers in the industry on how to get the most out of social selling and LinkedIn. And this one came from a guy called Daniel Disney. And Daniel was saying that if you’re posting on LinkedIn even once a week, you’re already head and shoulders above 99% of the other sellers there.

18:02 – 18:24

Catherine Flynn: I can’t verify the the stock, but it certainly feels true. And he was also advising the concept of using your content to warm up your prospects. And that’s not just about you have to be sitting down and long posting multiple times a week. It can be as simple as responding on, you know, your prospects posts. Job announcement. Congratulations, Sophie.

18:24 – 18:50

Catherine Flynn: You know it doesn’t need to be a an email straight off the bat or an email straight off the bat. So I think there’s a huge untapped advantage for any seller out there to use their LinkedIn profile, the content that they’re posting, but also the engagement, you know, we see you will get a lot more reach on LinkedIn if you’re showing that you’re actively engaging and contributing to the community, not just putting your own content out there.

18:50 – 19:09

Sophie Buonassisi: That’s an excellent algorithm tip. And to that extent, you shared, you know, post may go further with clarity expertise as strong POV. Are there any other little tips about the LinkedIn algorithm that you’d encourage people to think about when they’re creating content, whether it be sellers or founders or investors or any go to market?

19:09 – 19:34

Catherine Flynn: Operator I think those, you know, those key pillars of, you know, personality, authenticity, expertise, like having a point of view, you don’t have to be the expert in your field, but having an interesting point of view on a something that’s happening in the market and, you know, really contributing and giving back, you know, to use a phrase, to the the community that you’re in, those are the main ones.

19:34 – 20:02

Catherine Flynn: The other advantage this is less about the LinkedIn algorithm specifically, but more just about discoverability in this era of AI search that we’re all in, you’re actually helping the lens, you know, rank the information. If you are more expert or providing useful information. We’re seeing that LinkedIn is now the number one cited domain, most cited domain for professional queries according to profound.

20:02 – 20:25

Catherine Flynn: So by putting your thoughts and expertise out there, you are not just, you know, improving how you get ranked and discovered, but you’re improving how your company and your product gets ranked and discovered. So I think for sellers to understand that they’re they’re not just being more credible to their own buyers, but they’re helping their their companies rank better in LMS.

20:26 – 20:29

Catherine Flynn: Search is a real, really, really important tip that I would want to share.

20:29 – 20:55

Sophie Buonassisi: That is an extremely important tip. Absolutely. And we’re seeing this huge wave to of companies leveraging similar to the executive sponsor, but externally leveraging all their employees to now be voices of the company. As we’ve realized, people gravitate towards people and want to hear from people. So that completely makes sense. You know, not only are we leveraging it for just voice and company reach, but it truly is company impact on the EU front two.

20:55 – 21:23

Catherine Flynn: Yeah, it’s it’s really business critical in this day and age, you know, to be more discoverable and then to be more Bible as a like I think a lot about this as a marketer, it’s not just, you know your the information that you put out there, how you rank and search is still really, really important. But employee voices, like you say, expert voices, all of those things, customer voices, they become so much more important to shine a light on and make sure they’re part of your content strategy.

21:24 – 21:43

Sophie Buonassisi: Yeah, we call this the distribution era. Internally on our side where no, we’ve gone through multiple eras and we went through a product in more of a G motion era, and a shift in era does not mean that that goes extinct by any means used thriving. However, the priority of how you grow has shifted and how you go to market. And now it really is that that distribution and discoverability is a massive, massive part of that.

21:49 – 22:08

Catherine Flynn: I love that. Yeah. One of the we’re I’m actually measuring within my team, within our like marketing metrics. We’re measuring discoverability for the first time this year because that really plays to how we’re found and and how we’re understood in, you know, this era when information is just completely abundant.

22:08 – 22:29

Sophie Buonassisi: That’s fascinating. Let’s talk a little bit about your team and your product. So your team being and product being sales navigator. When you think about your team composition and you are leading marketing for Sales Navigator, what has shifted in terms of how you lead or how you execute as a team now in this AI era, if you will.

22:29 – 22:52

Catherine Flynn: Yeah. So our mission as a marketing team is to help crows, sales leaders, sales teams, sellers get the most value out of LinkedIn for sales and for selling. So some of that comes through how to best use our the broader LinkedIn platform. And then a lot of our work comes into how to get the most out of Sales Navigator, which as a product has been around for a long time.

22:52 – 23:14

Catherine Flynn: I mentioned I sold it into Facebook when I was a middle sales manager there many years ago, but it has evolved and is evolving so much now with the the AI and technology that’s available to us. So we’re still laser focused on that and that looks different year over year. So a bit like I was talking about, you know, tips for sellers to be more discoverable.

23:15 – 23:43

Catherine Flynn: We’re trying to follow those tips ourselves. So I’m investing a lot more. We’re investing a lot more in content that features our customers. And I would say, you know, I’ve been on a long journey and be to be marketing and customer testimonials and references have always been important, sometimes have felt more like a nice to have. But now we are seeing that people trusting people is more important than ever, when they can get pretty much any information they want at the at their fingertips.

23:43 – 24:13

Catherine Flynn: So customer stories and customer advocacy is one big investment that we’re continuing to make. And I would say on the product development side, because we are also at the at the forefront of, you know, leading the transformation and partnering with our product teams on what’s coming in Sales Navigator and from LinkedIn for the sales industry. And that’s really about, again, with our customers really digging in on where they see LinkedIn playing a role in the future.

24:13 – 24:36

Catherine Flynn: Now that they’ve got such a plethora of tools available to them, we are, you know, not trying to be the the only tool in the sales ecosystem, but we really want to be the most valuable and the most relevant one. So my team and I spend probably more time than ever exploring, you know, that sort of product future and testing and validating at a faster rate than we’ve ever done before.

24:36 – 24:39

Catherine Flynn: New features that customers want to see from us.

24:39 – 24:57

Sophie Buonassisi: Super exciting time. And actually, in preparation for our conversation, I reached out to 25 different sales reps and I asked them about their sales tech stacks and where LinkedIn falls in it. And every single one, every single one. 25 people said that it falls in their daily usage, and it is a must to have in their workflow and stacks.

24:57 – 25:15

Catherine Flynn: Sorry, I was just going to say I’m extremely grateful to hear that. And and we we don’t take that likely we do. See you know, Sales Navigator as a it is still such a fundamental tool for most sellers. They won’t take a job that doesn’t give it to them. They won’t work in a sales or work where it’s not, you know, somewhere in the tech stack.

25:15 – 25:35

Catherine Flynn: But with new tools and technologies springing up all the time, we really want to continue to earn, you know, our place as the most valuable tool in a in a sales order sales orgs stack. So I, I interviewed about, you know, 30 year old people so similar from my own network when I started this role just over a year ago.

25:35 – 25:46

Catherine Flynn: And I also heard that over and over again. So it’s pretty humbling. And it’s also really motivating because it makes me and us just want to innovate even faster and make our product more relevant.

25:46 – 26:09

Sophie Buonassisi: That’s super exciting. And the one kind of excitement question I got from everyone that I spoke to was, well, excited to hear, Kathryn says about the roadmap overall, what’s coming down the pipe. And everybody’s getting a ton of value right now. But you mentioned you’re working a lot on the innovation side. Are you able to give us any kind of sneak previews into what’s coming down the pipe?

26:09 – 26:34

Catherine Flynn: We’ve got a lot of really exciting things coming up in the Sales Navigator roadmap. And I think just as LinkedIn itself, hopefully you see it as a user is constantly, you know, upgrading as a result of, you know, the AI that we’re able to bring to the fore today, you will see improvements in Sales Navigator in all of the features that are within there that have, you know, are and have been AI powered, like account IQ is even more powerful than ever.

26:34 – 26:55

Catherine Flynn: So, you know, as you’re prepping for a meeting or an engagement or a new outreach like that is one that is really an unfair advantage in terms of mining, not just publicly available information on companies, but also, you know, those live signals and changes that are happening, you know, from that company’s employees on the platform, things like Team Link.

26:55 – 27:15

Catherine Flynn: So you talked about executive sponsorship and making the most of your internal network. Team link allows you to, you know, basically map your company’s whole network and serve it up to you in a way that you can really maximize your, your potential outreach to. So features like that that have been part of the product for a while are getting better all the time.

27:16 – 27:38

Catherine Flynn: And then I would say, you know, we are thinking so much when it comes to the future direction of our product. And we’ve talked a bit about this, that, you know, recent events we’ve run around the world is, you know, how do we bring more of the insights that Sales Navigator is known for and more of those sticky things that the people you are talking to are telling you they couldn’t do without into places that sellers work.

27:38 – 28:06

Catherine Flynn: So, you know, sellers workflows have changed dramatically over the last few years, and we want to continue to earn our place as a daily platform of choice for sellers. And that’s going to mean from a future direction perspective, just being more where they work versus always, you know, having Sales Navigator is the destination. So that’s probably as much as I can say for now, but we’ll look forward to being back in touch as we start to roll out some of this over the next few months.

28:06 – 28:18

Sophie Buonassisi: That is so exciting. And we’re seeing a huge, huge kind of push for sellers around products going headless and just consolidating where they work. And I think it’ll be a very, very exciting time to see those updates come out.

28:18 – 28:48

Catherine Flynn: Yeah for sure. And you know, one other thing to add, just on, you know, what, we’re what we’re doing or doing differently as, as a, as a global team. The research that we’ve just talked about, Sophie, the trust advantage that you’ve seen, we periodically survey our our customers and our buyers. And I think in the past, as marketers, we either kept that research to ourselves to inform our our sort of marketing or product development, or we put it behind, you know, lead generation forms or paywalls.

28:48 – 29:12

Catherine Flynn: And I personally believe as a marketer that those days are over. And how we are in trust and credibility is by making that information and expertise available. So, you know, we are now just putting research like that out into the world. When we have the insights, you will have the insights and that’s freely available. It’s linkedin.com/trust advantage for anybody to be able to benefit from it.

29:12 – 29:15

Sophie Buonassisi: Amazing. And that will be in the show notes for anyone looking for it.

29:15 – 29:17

Catherine Flynn: Awesome. If you don’t mind the plug.

29:17 – 29:40

Sophie Buonassisi: Yes of course it’s a really valuable report ahead of ton of fun looking through. The unique thing is, I mean, almost unanimously everybody is on LinkedIn and the professional particular b b offered AI space. So they’re all relevant findings to how we can be better on LinkedIn but also better sellers. Now, Catherine would love to dig into a little bit more of your methodology as a leader.

29:40 – 29:57

Sophie Buonassisi: We talked about what’s changing for your team and how you’re operating as a team. What about when we take a step back and talk about before people join your team? More of the hiring process. How are you thinking about bringing on people that are going to really help lead the company with you through this next era?

29:57 – 30:27

Catherine Flynn: I’ve got to say that beyond, you know, resumes, specialisms, years of experience. Now it is about adaptability and, you know, comfort with change. Or even better than that, you know, openness and appetite for change. I want people who are going to run us and new problems and uncertain horizons more than ever before. So I think there’s been a change in marketing in the last, you know, certainly 20 plus years since I’ve been in it.

30:27 – 30:57

Catherine Flynn: But, you know, the last 5 to 10 years specifically where we’re moving away again from specialists, you know, people who are like complete domain expert in a specific field. And, well, that’s really important. I’m looking for marketing generalists. I’m looking for people who can, you know, not be attached to the idea of having a specific team or org structure and really thinking about people who can build new solutions, you know, new types of products that can connect with customers.

30:57 – 31:19

Catherine Flynn: So it’s hard to screen for. Again, I think this is where AI and in-person interaction and have different things to offer, but I can screen for the expertise. But then it’s about the in-person conversations, the networks, the trusted connections that will tell me, can this person really ride the waves of change that are coming up in the the world that we operate in?

31:19 – 31:23

Catherine Flynn: So I’m looking for adaptability above all probably at this point.

31:23 – 31:26

Sophie Buonassisi: And your networks actually speaks to adaptability. It sounds like.

31:26 – 31:59

Catherine Flynn: Yes, exactly. And we can all reach out today, get a reference on someone you know, we use those warm paths. We use our networks, we use LinkedIn to find those things out. But I would also highly rank someone who, like we talked about earlier, has a clear point of view on their own expertise, doesn’t just present the resume on LinkedIn, but if I can go into their profile and see that they’ve shared content, that they’re active participants in the industry, that they’re, you know, building with AI and all of those things go a long way in the in the hiring process today.

31:59 – 32:15

Sophie Buonassisi: Definitely. And I mean, we even on the founder side, a GTM fund. Every time we’re assessing a founder and we’re in a deal flow, we’re constantly looking at LinkedIn and understanding how can we backchannel this person? And I’m sure it sounds the same thing goes for when you’re hiring to back channeling and understanding networks is number one.

32:15 – 32:37

Catherine Flynn: Yeah. And we can all help people in those efforts to, you know, discover us or build credibility or a sense of credibility about ourselves. We have to remember that we are agents in this evaluation process, be it sellers or, you know, job seekers or marketers. And we can harness our presence online and our LinkedIn presence to help people do that.

32:37 – 32:42

Sophie Buonassisi: I love it. Well, Kathryn, I’ve got quite a few actually rapid fire questions here. Keep for you.

32:42 – 32:44

Catherine Flynn: Keep going. It’s all good.

32:44 – 32:54

Sophie Buonassisi: Yes I’m ready. All right. What is one LinkedIn setting or way to use a feature that you tell every single seller to turn on today?

32:54 – 33:12

Catherine Flynn: Sellers switch on profile views. Not everybody has that turned on, but it is such a strong indicator of interest from either prospects that you’re aware of, or by potentially buyers that you might not even be aware of yet, and way less people than you would expect. Turn that feature on.

33:12 – 33:25

Sophie Buonassisi: I love it. What is the number one kind of trending direction of the algorithm on LinkedIn? Are we going to see from a format perspective? Are we going to see photos videos text? Is there one ranking above the other?

33:25 – 33:46

Catherine Flynn: I think mine is going to be very different to yours. Sofia’s what we’re discovering. So it is all about relevance to your network. And video is booming on LinkedIn. That is certainly no secret you’re seeing more of it. We’re seeing it perform better and better all the time. But I would really encourage anybody to test out different formats.

33:46 – 34:07

Catherine Flynn: I do video quite frequently, but last week I tried a carousel image post, so I took a bit of an Instagram trend. Kind of chic was the trend going around, and I used that trend in a professional context, and I saw more engagement from that particular post in the carousel format than I’d seen on some of my prior video posts.

34:07 – 34:21

Catherine Flynn: So maybe I’m more interesting in static format than I am in video. But the the message is, I think, experiment post often and test out what’s going to work for your audience. Use your analytics as another tip that I think not enough people leverage.

34:21 – 34:41

Sophie Buonassisi: That is great advice and I love that post by the way. It’s a fun trend. And in it, I think you mentioned, you know, kind of chic to to move to Singapore for two years and then kind of chic to stay for. I believe it was seven. Yeah. What what’s like the biggest difference now operating in APAC compared to building in North America that you see.

34:41 – 35:04

Catherine Flynn: Yeah. So I mean, the reason I moved here, first of all, I’m an extremely growth oriented person. I’m professional and I had done Europe. I had worked in for US companies, not in the US, but I’d worked on the US market and for US companies, and this was just a region of the world that I saw driving kind of exponential current and future growth for the companies that I was working with.

35:04 – 35:26

Catherine Flynn: And I just wanted a piece of that. I just wanted to learn. And I came here for two years, and I’ve worked across all of the markets in APAC, and now, you know, second time doing a global role from here. And really it offers that global, truly global perspective that, you know, I think if you only ever sit in the US or in Europe, you will never really be fully able to bring to your company.

35:26 – 35:41

Catherine Flynn: So I try to be that person who brings the global perspective, brings the new market growth perspective and and the, you know, the buyers and the consumer behaviors are so different and always changing. So it keeps that growth mindset in me fed all of the time.

35:42 – 35:49

Sophie Buonassisi: Yeah. You’ve really got the perspective across AIPAC and the North America, the whole global viewpoint which is super valuable for global companies.

35:49 – 35:50

Catherine Flynn: I hope so.

35:51 – 36:03

Sophie Buonassisi: Yeah. And in one of your videos, actually, speaking of videos in different formats, you mentioned that you have many hot takes and you listed a couple. Give us one of your hot takes. Catherine, what are you feeling spicy about?

36:03 – 36:07

Catherine Flynn: You mean from a, from a GTM perspective?

36:07 – 36:17

Sophie Buonassisi: GTM perspective, unless you have a different hot take that you’re like, I got to share this. It was a Cannon Leon video, so it was very relevant to the creator ecosystem since you were there. So I’m curious.

36:17 – 36:45

Catherine Flynn: I would say like hotcakes today when it comes to what we’re talking about here, revenue and GTM revenue still runs through relationships. It is easy to get blinded by all of the technology available, but when it comes down to it, with the plethora of information that’s available to us, the signals that we almost value as buyers when it comes to making decisions are credibility, connections, expertise and that all ladders up to trust.

36:45 – 37:20

Catherine Flynn: So that’s a hard take when it comes to how do I simplify all of this? Revenue still runs through relationships, I think for any CRO who’s feeling under more pressure than ever before. That’s that’s a that’s really a truth. And I think, you know, a hard take when it comes to career advice in GTM or, you know, anybody who’s looking for that based on the experience that I’ve had is, you know, get out of your lane and get experience in some of the other GTM functions, because it’s easy to sit in sales and have perspectives on, like what marketing to do much better.

37:20 – 37:42

Catherine Flynn: But, you know, I’ve been a sales leader at different points in my career, and I think I wouldn’t have the job I have today had I not sort of gone outside of my comfort zone and run a sales team or led a CSM team, as I also did at a different point. So I think we are all so much more credible and have much more empathy for each other in, you know, the pace at which GTM moves today.

37:42 – 37:53

Catherine Flynn: If we’ve actually sat in another chair or, you know, walked in somebody else’s shoes for a while, so get out of your lane is another would be another piece of advice for careers in GTM today.

37:53 – 38:06

Sophie Buonassisi: That’s a powerful, powerful message, and I promise. I’ve only got a couple last questions for you here to put you on the spot, but these are a couple just finished this sentence. The thing nobody tells you about leadership is.

38:06 – 38:26

Catherine Flynn: It’s not a destination or a job title. It is a constant journey. I think in my career earlier, if I aspired to leadership or the kind of, you know, roller title I have today, I would have thought it was like a an end goal. But as I discover, and I’m very glad to have discovered, I’m still learning all the time.

38:26 – 38:30

Sophie Buonassisi: Takeaway and the most underrated piece of go to market advice is.

38:30 – 39:03

Catherine Flynn: Get experience outside your function or discipline. You know, if you’re in marketing. I’ve worked in sales. If you’re in sales, build something you know you can use AI to build anything from a marketing perspective today. And I think marketers who want to hold on to all their Legos are not future proofing themselves in the age of AI. So I think it offers us all the opportunity to get more experience and build more empathy, and therefore more effectiveness throughout the full spectrum of functions within GTM.

39:03 – 39:11

Sophie Buonassisi: And that’s such a good call, because now more than ever, it’s maybe easier as the wrong word, but more accessible for people to build to try different things than ever before.

39:11 – 39:31

Catherine Flynn: Accessible. Yeah. I mean, I can I can sit down with a seller and better help them build a, you know, targeted outreach strategy, or I can better use the signals that are important to them in an A, b, m campaign or another, another marketing context. Or we can just have fun and build like a new web page together quicker than we ever could before.

39:31 – 39:37

Catherine Flynn: So I think dropping our egos is an opportunity that’s available to all of us now, if we choose to embrace.

39:37 – 39:48

Sophie Buonassisi: It and stepping outside of the go to market arena, I mean, it could be go to market, but it could be anything related to life. What is the overall best advice that you’ve gotten and who gave it.

39:48 – 40:10

Catherine Flynn: To you? If I take my mom. Out of the equation, because many of my, you know, best life advice came from came from my mother. But I’m a big fan of setting goals and big visions for yourself in your life. We say dream big, get shit done, and know how to have fun at LinkedIn. And one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given was throw your hat over the wall.

40:10 – 40:28

Catherine Flynn: So I will credit that to Lisa McCarthy of the Fast Forward Group. I’m a big fan of their bold Vision methodology, but that one has really stuck with me because it’s sort of that spirit of why not, you know, aim, aim high, throw your hat over the wall, set a big, bold goal and vision, and you might get halfway there.

40:28 – 40:46

Catherine Flynn: And that could be further than you ever thought you would get. So I try and do that for myself and my life and my career, and I also try and encourage my team to do it. We’ve set a big vision for for this year and the years ahead as a marketing team, for LinkedIn, for sales, and we’re having a lot of fun seeing if we can get there.

40:46 – 41:04

Sophie Buonassisi: Incredible. That is fantastic and applicable to everyone listening. Now, it feels remiss to not say, of course, people can find you on LinkedIn. Follow along with you and your journey. LinkedIn. That’ll be in the show notes. Is there anywhere else one should find you?

41:04 – 41:22

Catherine Flynn: You know, I think it’s pretty much all LinkedIn, and at least at this stage, I, I like to think I worked for Facebook and Instagram and, you know, now I’m in my professional era, so pretty much everything you you might want to know professionally also sharing a lot about what we’re building and what we’re doing at LinkedIn for sales.

41:22 – 41:32

Catherine Flynn: So LinkedIn is the place to find me. Instagram. You’ll only get like mom life and bad food photos. So I would say LinkedIn is the place.

41:32 – 41:37

Sophie Buonassisi: That sounds great. Well, that’ll be in the show notes for anyone. Catherine, thank you so much. This has been absolutely fantastic.

41:37 – 41:45

Catherine Flynn: Thank you so much and thanks for your advocacy of of Sales Navigator as well. We really appreciate it and love to hear the feedback.