THE BUYER HAS CHANGED. HAS THE SALESPERSON?

 The customer is now in control, and while you're checking them out, they're checking you out too.

I sometimes wonder how many salespeople are still selling the way they were taught twenty years ago. They have their prospecting scripts, their presentations, their objection-handling techniques and their closing strategies. Some even believe that if they can just get in front of enough people and talk long enough, eventually somebody will buy something. Unfortunately, the customer has moved on, and in many cases the salesperson hasn't even noticed.

Years ago, the salesperson had a tremendous advantage. We controlled the information. If somebody wanted to know about our products, prices, features or competitors, they generally had to speak to us. We could arrange the appointment, turn up with our beautiful brochure, deliver our carefully rehearsed presentation and guide the customer through the sales process. We were the experts because we had the information. The customer had the questions, and hopefully we had the answers.

The Customer Has Taken Over

Then along came the internet, Google, social media, online reviews and now artificial intelligence. Suddenly, the customer didn't need us to explain everything. They could research our company, compare competitors, check prices, watch demonstrations and read what other customers thought about us. And they could do all of this at eleven o'clock at night, sitting on the sofa in their pajamas with a glass of wine. Not exactly the ideal environment for a salesperson to deliver their carefully rehearsed PowerPoint presentation.

Today, the buying journey often starts long before the salesperson knows there is a potential customer. Buyers can use ChatGPT, Perplexity or Gemini to research solutions, compare suppliers and prepare questions. They can ask AI to identify weaknesses in a proposal, evaluate alternatives and even suggest what they should negotiate. By the time they contact us, they may already have a shortlist of suppliers and a pretty good idea of what they want.

We used to think the salesperson was taking the customer on a journey. Now the customer is taking the journey, and we're hoping to be invited along for part of it. Sometimes we're invited in at the beginning, sometimes near the end, and occasionally we discover that the journey is over and somebody else has got the business.

And Here's Something I've Noticed in My Own Business

I spend a great deal of my time speaking at conferences, working with companies and training sales teams around the world. LinkedIn has become one of my most important business tools, and over the years I've noticed something rather interesting.

Before I've even spoken to a potential client, I can often see that they've been looking at my LinkedIn profile. Sometimes several people from the same organisation have been checking me out. I haven't delivered a presentation, sent a proposal or even had a conversation with them, but they're already doing their homework.

And it doesn't stop at LinkedIn. I regularly discover that people have been reading my articles and passing them around to colleagues and their teams. In some cases, my ideas are already circulating inside a company before I've had the opportunity to meet the people who might eventually book me.

Think about that for a moment. I'm being evaluated before I've even entered the room.

Fortunately, I enjoy writing articles and sharing ideas, and my LinkedIn profile gives people a pretty good idea of what I do, how I think and the subjects I'm passionate about. Hopefully, they also discover that I have a sense of humor and don't spend my entire life talking about artificial intelligence.

But it made me realise something important. While I was using LinkedIn to research potential clients, those same clients were using LinkedIn to research me. The salesperson was no longer the only one doing the investigating.

Would You Buy from You?

That's a question I increasingly ask people in my LinkedIn and sales training programs. Forget what you think your profile says about you. Look at it through the eyes of a potential customer who doesn't know you.

Imagine you've sent a beautifully written prospecting email. The customer is interested enough to look you up. Your LinkedIn photograph looks as though it was taken when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, your headline says 'Sales Executive at ABC Company', and the last thing you posted was a photograph of the Christmas party three years ago.

Your company website is full of photographs of people shaking hands, but there's very little evidence that you understand the customer's business or the problems they're trying to solve.

The customer hasn't met you, hasn't seen your presentation and hasn't discussed your prices. But they've already formed an opinion. And unfortunately for you, it might not be a particularly good one.

Now compare that with a salesperson whose profile clearly explains who they help, what problems they solve and the value they bring. They share useful ideas, customer stories, short videos and insights relevant to their industry. Which one would you be more inclined to meet?

And here's the irony. The first salesperson probably complains that nobody responds to prospecting emails anymore. They blame the economy, the competition, LinkedIn or perhaps the price of petrol. It never occurs to them that the customer may have rejected them before the sales conversation even started.

The New Salesperson Needs a Different Set of Skills

Does this mean salespeople are becoming irrelevant? Not at all. I think the opposite is true. But we have to stop believing our main job is simply to deliver information. AI can already do a remarkable amount of that.

Our real value comes from understanding customers, asking better questions, challenging assumptions, sharing experience, solving problems and building trust. The salesperson who turns up and repeats everything the customer has already read on the website is going to have a difficult time. The salesperson who brings fresh thinking and helps the customer make a better decision will always have an advantage.

We also need to recognise that our sales and marketing activities can no longer operate in separate little boxes. Our LinkedIn profiles, websites, videos, articles, customer testimonials and personal reputations are all contributing to the buying decision. Every one of them is either helping to build confidence or giving the customer another reason to look elsewhere.

The old sales process was largely about the salesperson controlling the conversation. The new one is about earning the right to be part of it.

So here's my question. We spend an enormous amount of time teaching salespeople how to find, research and approach customers. But how much time do we spend making sure that when customers research us, they like what they find?

The buyer has changed. Has your sales team changed with them?

---

Frank Furness
International Keynote Speaker | Sales, AI & LinkedIn Training

www.frankfurness.com
frank@frankfurness.com

 

Why Video Isn't "Nice to Have" Anymore—It's Your Business Survival Kit

 

I was speaking at a conference in Florida last month, and a business owner asked: "Frank, video seems like such a big investment. We're doing fine with just written content. Why should we bother?"

I asked him: "How many of your competitors are using video?" He paused. "Most of them, actually." Exactly.

Here's what I've learned training businesses across 70+ countries:

Video isn't the future anymore. It's the present. And if you're still treating it like an optional extra, you're handing your competitors a megaphone while you're whispering into a tin can.

The numbers tell the story: 91% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool, and 85% of people have been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a video.

That's not theory. That's your revenue walking out the door if you're not in the game.

The £10,000 Mistake Nobody Talks About

 

Here's where I need to save you from an expensive blunder I see constantly.

You spend money creating a brilliant video. You upload it to YouTube. You embed it on your website. Job done, right?

Wrong. Catastrophically wrong.

Someone watches your video. It finishes. And then YouTube—being helpful—immediately shows them "related videos."

Which videos? Your competitors. Videos about similar topics. Literally anything except what you want them to see.

I watched a financial services company spend £10,000 on an explainer video, embed it via YouTube on their pricing page, and wonder why people weren't converting.

We discovered 40% of viewers were clicking on competitor videos YouTube suggested at the end. They were literally paying to send traffic to their competition.

Frank's Quick Tip: If you're embedding videos on your website, use Vimeo (paid plans start at £20/month) or another dedicated hosting service that gives you control over what happens at the end. Yes, it costs money. But it's a fraction of what you'll lose inadvertently promoting your competitors on your own website.

5 Ways Every Business Should Be Using Video Right Now

1. Product demonstrations. Stop describing what your product does. Show it. 82% of people are more likely to buy after watching an explainer video.

A B2B software company I worked with created a 90-second screen recording showing exactly how a customer solved a real problem. Their demo request rate jumped 67% in two months. Shot on an iPhone, edited in an afternoon.

2. Personalized sales videos. Instead of another text email, record a 60-second personalized video addressing your prospect by name. Tools like Loom make this easy. Open rates are consistently 3-5x higher. Why? Because authentic personal video stands out like a lighthouse in a sea of automation.

3. LinkedIn thought leadership. Video posts on LinkedIn reach 5-10x more people than text posts with the same message. Film yourself sharing one practical insight. Natural light, iPhone, done. Keep it under 2 minutes. The content that performs best looks like it was made by a professional, not for one.

4. Customer testimonials. Written testimonials are fine. Video testimonials are gold. You don't need professional videographers. Some of the most effective testimonials I've seen were customers recording themselves on smartphones. The authenticity matters more than production quality. I have over 65, take a look https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBFF5A8C8590F57B2

5. Internal communication. How many company-wide emails get ignored? Most of them. Now imagine your CEO records a 90-second video update instead. Engagement will be dramatically higher. I've seen this transform company culture in organizations from Dubai to Denver.

The Tools You Actually Need (Spoiler: Less Than You Think)

You probably already own the best camera you need. It's in your pocket. Modern iPhones shoot in 4K quality that's genuinely professional—78% of LinkedIn videos are shot with a smartphone. The barrier to entry isn't equipment. It's pressing record.

For editing: iMovie (free on iPhone) handles simple edits perfectly. CapCut is free and powerful for social media content.

For desktop, DaVinci Resolve is shockingly powerful and completely free. My personal favourite I use all the time is Camtasia.

But honestly? For 80% of business video needs, your iPhone and iMovie will get the job done.

The AI Video Revolution

AI video generation has gone from "interesting experiment" to "holy hell, this actually works" in about 12 months.

Sora 2 can now create professional-quality videos up to 25 seconds long from just a text description. Complete with sound effects, music, and realistic physics.

I tested it: "A professional presenter in a modern office explaining business strategy, warm afternoon lighting." Thirty seconds later, I had a video that looked like it came from a £5,000 production.

Perfect? No. Does it replace human creativity? Absolutely not.

But for B-roll footage, concept videos, or situations where filming isn't practical?

Genuinely transformative. Disney just invested £1 billion in this technology. That's not a small bet.

The Quality Question Everyone Gets Wrong

People obsess over 4K resolution, professional lighting, and expensive microphones. Here's what actually matters: audio quality and authenticity.

You can get away with iPhone video quality. You absolutely cannot get away with rubbish audio. Invest in a simple lapel microphone (£30-50) before anything else.

And authenticity? That's free. The most engaging business videos are people being genuinely themselves—imperfect, human, real.

Overly polished corporate videos that cost £20,000 often perform worse than authentic content shot on a phone.

The Bottom Line

Video is no longer competing with other content types. It's dominating them.

Your customers prefer it, algorithms favour it, and your competitors are already doing it.

The good news? The barrier to entry has never been lower.

You have a professional camera in your pocket. Free editing software exists. AI tools can fill in gaps. And authentic content outperforms expensive production anyway.

The businesses thriving over the next decade won't be the ones with the biggest video budgets.

They'll be the ones who understood that video is simply how humans prefer to consume information now—and they got comfortable pressing record.

So the question isn't "Should we use video?" anymore. The question is "How quickly can we start?"

 

Ready to build a video strategy that actually drives results without requiring a film crew? I work with businesses globally to develop practical, sustainable approaches to video content that fit how you actually work. Let's talk about what's possible when you stop overthinking it and start recording.

LinkedIn in 2026 - The Game Has Changed

 

I was chatting with a marketing director in Manchester last week who was genuinely baffled. "Frank," she said, "my LinkedIn posts used to get thousands of views. Same content quality, same posting schedule. Now? Crickets. What the hell happened?"

I pulled up her last ten posts. Every single one had a link in the main text. There was her problem.

LinkedIn fundamentally changed the rules in 2026, and most people are still playing by the 2024 playbook. Having trained professionals across 70+ countries on LinkedIn strategy, I can tell you this with absolute certainty: What worked 18 months ago will actively hurt you today.

The Three Seismic Shifts

External links are poison. Posts with links see 60% less reach. I tested this myself—same post, same timing. The version without the link got 4x more impressions.

Comments beat likes. A post with 50 genuine comments outperforms one with 500 likes. LinkedIn wants conversations, not superficial engagement.

Engagement pods are dead. The algorithm identifies unnatural patterns and will hammer your reach if you're gaming the system.

What's Actually Working

Text-only posts dominate. Here's the shocker: Posts with a single image get 30% less reach than text-only posts. This completely reverses the 2024-2025 trend. My best-performing content in the past six months? All text, no images. Just well-formatted insights with strategic line breaks.

PDF carousels are kings. Multi-page documents keep users on LinkedIn while delivering value. I created a 5-page carousel on algorithm changes and it reached 3x more people than my typical posts.

Short video clips thrive. 30-90 seconds is the sweet spot. Anything longer loses people. And here's critical: Put the URL in the comments, not the post. One test showed reach quadrupling with this simple shift.

Frank's Quick Tip: Format text posts for humans. Short paragraphs, white space, occasional bold text for key points. Make it scannable. Nobody wants to read a wall of text that looks like terms and conditions.

The First Hour Is Make or Break

 

The first 60 minutes decide your reach. LinkedIn evaluates your post in that window. Genuine engagement—actual comments, saves, shares—gets it distributed wider. If it flops initially, it stays flopped.

I now block out 60 minutes after posting anything substantial. I'm in the comments, responding thoughtfully, keeping conversations going. It works.

Frequency and Timing

LinkedIn's official guidance: 2-5 posts per week. Not daily. Quality over quantity. I post 3 times per week now—Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. Better results than when I was posting daily and burning out.

Best times: Tuesday-Thursday, 10am-12pm and 1pm-4pm. Mid-morning catches coffee breaks, lunchtime catches scrollers. Weekends? Forget it. LinkedIn is a work platform.

Personal Profiles Win, Company Pages Lose

Brutal truth: Organic reach dropped 60% on company pages between 2024-2026. Meanwhile, personal profiles dominate 65% of content consumption. Your company page is basically invisible. Your CEO's personal profile? That'll actually get seen.

One client made this shift three months ago. Their company page engagement went to basically zero. But their three executives posting regularly? Combined reach 10x what the company page ever achieved.

The Link Workaround

Need to drive traffic? Put the link in the first comment. Create your post with all the value, then immediately comment with "Full details here: [link]". Better yet: Create the complete value on LinkedIn itself. Make LinkedIn the destination, not a billboard.

I stopped linking to my website from posts entirely. My traffic hasn't dropped—people who want more click through to my profile. But my reach has tripled.

Comments Are Your Secret Weapon

Your comments on other people's posts matter almost as much as your own posts. Thoughtful comments function like micro-posts, expanding reach and boosting your credibility.

I spend 30 minutes every morning commenting thoughtfully on posts in my feed. Not "great post!" rubbish, but actual insights. This has done more for my visibility than almost anything else.

The Bottom Line

LinkedIn in 2026 is fundamentally different. The engagement hacks don't work. The clever tactics backfire. The company pages are invisible.

What works? Being genuinely helpful. Sharing real expertise. Creating value directly on the platform. Engaging thoughtfully. Posting consistently but not constantly.

The good news? This makes LinkedIn better. The people gaming the system are getting squeezed out. The people adding genuine value are getting amplified.

If you've been frustrated with declining reach, now you know why. And more importantly, you know what to do about it.

The question is: Will you adapt to the new reality or keep wondering why nobody sees your posts anymore?

 

Want to build a LinkedIn presence that actually drives business results in 2026? I work with professionals and businesses globally to develop strategies that align with how the platform actually works now—not how it worked two years ago. Let's talk about what's possible when you stop fighting the algorithm and start working with it.