LinkedIn: Selling Zoom on a Digital Marketing Strategy

It was March 2020 and a newly hired account executive at LinkedIn Corporation (LinkedIn) was keen to close his first major deal. His job was to help marketing teams acquire new customers and grow their businesses by leveraging the LinkedIn Ad network. He had secured a meeting with the vice-president of marketing for the video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom). He had just one hour to prepare for the meeting and determine the best way to position LinkedIn as a solution for Zoom to handle its growth challenges and opportunities.

This case is designed for a marketing or sales course and can be taught at the undergraduate, graduate, and executive levels. The case illustrates the challenges and pressures associated with executing a complex sale in a high-stakes environment. It can be used to explain how online marketing works, and encourages students to articulate a value proposition and then cater that value proposition specifically to an individual customer (i.e., Zoom). Using the case, the instructor can facilitate a robust discussion on the importance of sales and how marketing interacts with the sales function, and dive into the nuances of what salespeople actually do. Finally, the instructor can guide students in how to prepare and execute an impactful sales meeting with a senior executive. This case demonstrates the decisions that salespeople must make in order to understand and articulate a value proposition from the perspective of a client, and highlights the challenges associated with preparing for and executing a proper sales meeting. After working through the case and the assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>understand how online marketing works, and how consumers (and enterprises) are influenced to make purchase decisions based on products like LinkedIn Marketing Solutions;</li><li>understand the role and importance of sales in an organization; and</li><li>explain how a sales representative can conduct research to understand their customer, and prepare a presentation/solution for an important meeting—one that could make their career.</li></ul>

• digital marketing
• sales
• advertising