8 Tips for Using LinkedIn for Sales Prospecting
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 3:25 am
Francois KOLLI
September 10, 2024
Acquisition
With over 600 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the largest social networks. In fact, for businesses, it is probably the best social network. Marketers are increasingly using LinkedIn as their primary source of new leads and tangible revenue. Indeed, they can't always wait for the marketing department to generate leads. In fact, for B2B companies, LinkedIn is a tool that can make their prospecting faster, easier, and more profitable.
° 1: Never miss an opportunity to connect
The first thing we can tell a salesperson who is willing to take advantage of LinkedIn is to take a good look at their contacts. Contacts are like LinkedIn's currency. If your contacts are mainly family, friends, and former cambodia email list classmates, you have a lot of work to do.
Connections create new connections. Your first-level contacts open up a wide range of second- and third-level connections. This is how you size your network. Enjoy this moment every time you meet someone (online or offline). Always ask for a connection on LinkedIn – do it while you’re still “fresh” in the other person’s mind.
#2: Discover a better way to find your potential clients
One of the main reasons we use LinkedIn is to find the leaders of the companies we target. When working with multinationals, there can be many people involved or influencing the purchase. But even for sales between small businesses, you’ll often need to influence several people.
You’d be surprised how many things people put on their profile – usually what department they’re in, what office they work in, and even what their projects are. With a little detective work, you’ll quickly be able to get a feel for who the person you’re talking to is, their personality (check out their recommendations), and what they’ve done before.
Tip #3: Never make a phone call again
Almost no one likes making phone calls. They are often a waste of time and make people feel like they are hitting their heads against a brick wall. Nowadays, there is no reason to make a completely cold call.
With LinkedIn, you can almost always learn enough about a person to be able to make the call or deliver a sales pitch (if you are further along in the process) in a way that is more relevant to the person you are talking to. This is not cyberstalking. Generally, people are always open with people who tell them they have viewed their LinkedIn profile.
When it comes to the profile of your target prospects, you should pay special attention to the changes they make to their profile and anything they post in a group. Also on LinkedIn, with a paid account, you can view the expanded profiles of all people (not just your connections). This can give you even more useful information that you can use later for effective connection.
Tip #4: Reach Out Further with InMail
Ask anyone who works in sales: high-level decision makers are a tough bunch. Of course, this isn't surprising if you think about it and realize that these are probably people who receive emails and calls absolutely every day and all the time. So, here's what these people do to protect their time: they block unwanted calls, ignore most of the emails they receive, and have a barrier that prevents salespeople from approaching them.
While we do our best to reach out to managers through traditional channels, they are often too protected. And this is where InMail comes in to do its job.
InMail is LinkedIn's internal email system that allows you to send emails to anyone without having them as a contact. Basically, InMail is a tool that ensures that the email you send reaches the inbox of the person you want to talk to. LinkedIn claims that with InMail you are 30 times more likely to receive a response than with a phone call.
READ ALSO: B2B Prospecting: Email vs LinkedIn, Which Channel Is More Effective?
#5: Find a smarter search method
LinkedIn has an impressive search infrastructure. With advanced search, you can find people by title, company, location, or keyword. And if you have a paid account, you can also search by company size or management level. By mixing filters intelligently, you can perform a comprehensive search and identify key people.
You can also save your search criteria
September 10, 2024
Acquisition
With over 600 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the largest social networks. In fact, for businesses, it is probably the best social network. Marketers are increasingly using LinkedIn as their primary source of new leads and tangible revenue. Indeed, they can't always wait for the marketing department to generate leads. In fact, for B2B companies, LinkedIn is a tool that can make their prospecting faster, easier, and more profitable.
° 1: Never miss an opportunity to connect
The first thing we can tell a salesperson who is willing to take advantage of LinkedIn is to take a good look at their contacts. Contacts are like LinkedIn's currency. If your contacts are mainly family, friends, and former cambodia email list classmates, you have a lot of work to do.
Connections create new connections. Your first-level contacts open up a wide range of second- and third-level connections. This is how you size your network. Enjoy this moment every time you meet someone (online or offline). Always ask for a connection on LinkedIn – do it while you’re still “fresh” in the other person’s mind.
#2: Discover a better way to find your potential clients
One of the main reasons we use LinkedIn is to find the leaders of the companies we target. When working with multinationals, there can be many people involved or influencing the purchase. But even for sales between small businesses, you’ll often need to influence several people.
You’d be surprised how many things people put on their profile – usually what department they’re in, what office they work in, and even what their projects are. With a little detective work, you’ll quickly be able to get a feel for who the person you’re talking to is, their personality (check out their recommendations), and what they’ve done before.
Tip #3: Never make a phone call again
Almost no one likes making phone calls. They are often a waste of time and make people feel like they are hitting their heads against a brick wall. Nowadays, there is no reason to make a completely cold call.
With LinkedIn, you can almost always learn enough about a person to be able to make the call or deliver a sales pitch (if you are further along in the process) in a way that is more relevant to the person you are talking to. This is not cyberstalking. Generally, people are always open with people who tell them they have viewed their LinkedIn profile.
When it comes to the profile of your target prospects, you should pay special attention to the changes they make to their profile and anything they post in a group. Also on LinkedIn, with a paid account, you can view the expanded profiles of all people (not just your connections). This can give you even more useful information that you can use later for effective connection.
Tip #4: Reach Out Further with InMail
Ask anyone who works in sales: high-level decision makers are a tough bunch. Of course, this isn't surprising if you think about it and realize that these are probably people who receive emails and calls absolutely every day and all the time. So, here's what these people do to protect their time: they block unwanted calls, ignore most of the emails they receive, and have a barrier that prevents salespeople from approaching them.
While we do our best to reach out to managers through traditional channels, they are often too protected. And this is where InMail comes in to do its job.
InMail is LinkedIn's internal email system that allows you to send emails to anyone without having them as a contact. Basically, InMail is a tool that ensures that the email you send reaches the inbox of the person you want to talk to. LinkedIn claims that with InMail you are 30 times more likely to receive a response than with a phone call.
READ ALSO: B2B Prospecting: Email vs LinkedIn, Which Channel Is More Effective?
#5: Find a smarter search method
LinkedIn has an impressive search infrastructure. With advanced search, you can find people by title, company, location, or keyword. And if you have a paid account, you can also search by company size or management level. By mixing filters intelligently, you can perform a comprehensive search and identify key people.
You can also save your search criteria