Samantha McKenna

Founder @ #samsales l Sales + Cadences + Executive Branding on LinkedIn l Ex-LinkedIn l Keynote Speaker l 13 Sales Records l Early Stage Investor l Overly Enthusiastic l Swiss Dual Citizen l Creator, Show Me You Know Me®

I had my first exposure to competitive "sales" in sixth grade when my school raised money for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society.  Knocking door to door and delivering a pitch was the start of my education; I still have the portable TV that I won for second place, which fuels my competitive spirit.

I’ve spent my career in sales doing a few things – breaking records, putting others first, creating global sales programs, educating through peer interaction, and going to great lengths to make people feel valued.  I’ve launched new verticals, overseen the GTM strategy for some of the most successful initiatives in company history, and put in processes across businesses that redefine how each company works and succeeds.

As the founder of #samsales, I oversee an all-women team of 14 who believe in a manners-first and buyer-first approach. We:

•	Run sales trainings that cover prospecting via your likely under-utilized LI Sales Nav licenses, how to write great email copy, Show Me You Know Me™, perfect discovery calls, etc. all while being sales methodology agnostic

•	Speak at 100+ annual events - keynoting for SKOs, international conferences, and podcasts alike re: sales, social selling, and women in tech/sales/leadership

•	Write the content you have in Outreach.io, etc using our proprietary techniques + the most up-to-date data on what works to drive opens + replies

•	Teach social selling - as an LI influencer, ambassador of Sales Navigator, and former LI leader, I understand how to use the ecosystem to truly SELL. I've personally trained tens of thousands on the platform, ranging from 10-person teams to Fortune 500 brands. 

•	Build brands for C-Suites on LinkedIn.  If you want to build a brand on LI but don't know what to write, don't understand the algorithm, and don't have the time to manage, our full-service strategy will manage it exclusively like we do for some of the most prominent/highly visible execs you see on LI.

As a founder, I have one goal - to make as much positive impact as we can.  Since our inception, we’ve raised over 120K via personal donations + our annual charity events for incredible causes, and have given away hundreds of our trainings to the military and transitioning teachers, free of charge.

When you hire us, you're not just hiring a team, but rather investing in one who constantly puts good into the world.

Who am I, otherwise - 

Philanthropist, investor, dog lover, die hard competitor, writer, former Nickelodeon game show contestant, extrovert, expert in self-deprecating humor, and willing to walk through fire to make you laugh.

Limited Partner

Sign up for our newsletters, webinars, and all our content here www.samsalesconsulting.com 

We just fired off an update to every one of our LinkedIn Executive Branding clients on the changing nature of the algorithm and reach on LinkedIn. A quick snippet from one part of our email, if you're also looking for a bit of reasoning on the changes:

What we're seeing today:

Feed saturation: 20% more daily posts competing for the same space.

Rise of suggested and paid content: now ~35% of all feeds.

Quality filters: comments, saves, and profile clicks now count more than likes.

Audience fatigue: people scroll faster and engage more selectively.

How the Algorithm “Thinks” Now:

LinkedIn now groups every post into topic clusters (AI-based “buckets” like sustainability, leadership, or innovation). The stronger your connection to a clear theme, the more likely your content is to be suggested to new, relevant audiences beyond your followers.

That’s why keywords and consistency of posting matters more than ever. The algorithm looks to your headline, about section, and recent posts to confirm your expertise before deciding who sees your content.

Note, you might still see some posts doing tremendously well and wonder, am I the only one getting hit? One of the downfalls of social: easy to feel great about yourself when your content tanks...

But, it's important to keep in mind that you only see half the story: the engagement and comments, not the impressions. Some of my highest engaged with content gets the lowest views, but some of my most curated-for-my-buyers-thought-leadership gets the lowest engagement and highest sends/saves.

Take yesterday's LI/algo post: 86 likes but 12,000+ impressions and 35 saves and 19 sends on LI. 

Then there's also my Dumb and Dumber GIF with 123 likes and 55,000 impressions so...at least it was shared around? 😏 

But as always, do a quick check on your Dark Social score (impressions/likes) - if you're sailing above 50 on average, you're doing great. Above 70 (like the above) and it means your content is resonating and useful to broad audiences.

****************************************************************

The best I can offer is that this platform is like the gym. We get easy wins when we start but things fluctuate daily, we hit plateaus, and what worked then doesn't work now, but keep at it. I've been posting since 2011 and this platform has done more for me than I could ever pay back to it, even if it's a fickle little creature most days.

#samsales #LIEB

Uptown Creation

Uptown helps B2B companies turn LinkedIn into a top revenue generation channel through a combination of organic content & outbound messaging.

Chief Executive Officer

Co-Founder

GMI Studios

GMI Studios is a creative technology company, innovating with Web3 & NFT’s. Here, possibilities are taken, tried, tested, touched, tasted and twisted. GMI has no fear of the impossible, we see the world differently and dare to make things that no one has ever tried before.

We constantly ask ourselves “what if?”, at every moment of the day. Because whatever that possibility is, WAGMI.

We’re best known as the creators of Deadheads, but we’re involved in a wide range of projects and collaborations. Right now we’re a team of 20 animators, editors, writers, makers, doers and thinkers, and growing! We’re innovating right at the forefront of Web3 technology, building the future.

Head of Growth

Amazon Seller

NuCara Pharmacy

Value Based Pharmacy Coordinator

- Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) Drug Shortage Staff
- Worked directly under the Drug Shortage Staff
- Researched and presented data on the pharmaceutical gray market
- Presented the implementation strategy of The Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA)

Pharmacy Extern

Cardinal Health

Remote Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Patient Engagement Coordinator

- Complete a variety of MTM claims for patients using OutcomesMTM
- Schedule/Warm Transfer Comprehensive Medication Reviews (CMRs) to pharmacists
- Complete Targeted Interventions (TIPs) with patients around the United States ranging from adherence to needs drug therapy
- Educate patients on benefits of MTM as well as how to properly take medications
- Identify barriers to patient adherence and create a plan and follow-up to correct issues
- Identify if a patient is on proper therapy for a given disease state, and if not recommend medication changes and dose adjustments to physicians while continuing to monitor and follow-up with patient health goals

Pharmacy Intern

University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Cystic fibrosis (CF) Research

- Microrheological properties of CF mucus: Using brownian motion to measure elasticity and viscosity
- Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) interaction with CF epithelial tissue

ICRU Research Fellow - Welsh Laboratory

Certified Pharmacy Technician

PostGradNation

Simplifying the way undergraduate students organize their coursework, plan a schedule, compare schools, and find their match during the process of applying to Graduate or Professional School.

Co-Founder/CEO @ Uptown.com | UIowa Alum | PharmD | Shichon Dad | ENTP | Ask me about building a LinkedIn Revenue Flywheel

Chris Cozzolino

"LinkedIn outreach doesn't work"
Did you:

Use Sales Navigator?
Follow up every 90 days?
Comment on 5 posts a day?
Filter for "Posted on LinkedIn"?
Track monthly pipeline impact?
Send 1000+ messages a month?
Keep messages under 75 words?
Build saved searches in Sales Nav?
Maintain response rates above 20%?
Post thoughtful content 5x per week?
Send 200 connection requests weekly?
Make your offer "cold outreach" friendly?
Move conversations to calls immediately?
Test different problem statements bi-weekly?
Track connection acceptance rates (should be 30-40%)?

Our clients generate $15M+ in pipeline every quarter using these fundamentals.

You're not failing at LinkedIn. You're failing at following the process.

Thoughts?

We booked 33 meetings for a health tech company in 5 months. 11 of them closed generating $396,000 in new ARR for our client. Here's the story:

This company sells AI software to pharmacies. Great product, fast company growth.

When they came to us they hadn't done outbound yet, but they needed to intentionally grow their pipeline outside of just referrals.

They came to Uptown with one question: "Can you actually get pharmacy leaders to take meetings?"

We built a LinkedIn motion around 3 things:
(1) Hyper-specific targeting (we only went after high volume pharmacies matching their ICP profile)
(2) Problem oriented messages that addressed real pharmacy pain points
(3) Organic content posted 3X per week

The results after 5 months:
• 33 qualified meetings booked
• 11 closed deals
• $396,000 in ARR
• 200,000+ impressions from the founder's LinkedIn content

They invested $25,000 with us.
They generated $396,000 in revenue.

That's a 15.8x return in 5 months.

If your LinkedIn outbound motion isn't booking meetings with your ICP, you're either targeting the wrong people or saying the wrong things.

Usually both.

At Uptown, we help B2B companies turn LinkedIn into a top revenue channel through a combination of outbound messaging to book meetings & organic content to nurture prospects.

If you want to start taking LinkedIn seriously we should chat - click 'Visit my website' to learn more.

taplio

The Battle

Samantha McKenna

Chris Cozzolino

Followers

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Performance ScoreSamantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreChris Cozzolino's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Samantha McKenna

Chris Cozzolino

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Samantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreChris Cozzolino's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreSamantha McKenna's LinkedIn Performance