The online business and social networking platform Linkedin can be a powerful tool for generating sales leads in your business. It’s far more than just another social network focused on displaying your resume and business contacts – it can be used in an amazing number of ways to build your business and here are some Linkedin sales strategies.
Building Business with Linkedin Sales Strategies
From Me-Focused to Them-Focused
It’s sometimes hard to see social networks like Linkedin as functioning beyond the ‘me.’ The me-focused approach (building your profile, making connections, expanding your network) is laudable and has its uses from a personal perspective, but it’s not a great way to build your business beyond meeting people and possibly getting a new job or promotion.
Instead, to grow your business and generate sales leads, focus on the ‘them’ approach to Linkedin sales strategies. There are over 200 million professional profiles on Linkedin today, and these are people who have registered with the site because they’re looking to connect and be seen.
Direct messaging and cold-calling are things of the past, as it’s now possible to interact with people in myriad other ways. A few ways to reach out:
- Linkedin Sales Navigator: The Sales Navigator program within Linkedin is a paid option for users who are looking to build their business. Sales Navigator offers enhanced searching, full profiles, and more connection details to help you identify the decision makers within the companies you’re targeting and is a great value for your Linkedin sales strategies.
- Linkedin Groups: Just like in real life, groups are great for meeting new people. Any group can be beneficial, but the real value comes in as you reach out beyond your industry and comfort zone to people who may otherwise have no exposure to you and your business. Joining groups across the board will give you broad access to a wide potential audience and will allow you to interact on a more personal level.
- Linking Outside Linkedin: Linkedin is strong not only in its connections between its members, but also in its connection to other platforms. Use Linkedin to build a narrative about your company and expertise by sharing and connecting your Twitter, company’s website, blog links, or viral-focused marketing materials. Doing this will put your business in front of more people, and the active teaser of seeing a portion of the content you’ve generated will make for more lead engagement with your brand.
- Linkedin Ads: Finally, the direct advertising approach is another avenue to put your company in front of new faces. This approach, while costlier than the other options, saves time and is a simple, direct method to attract leads’ attention. Traditional Linkedin advertising also ensures that your potential customers go exactly where you want and see your messaging as it’s meant to be seen.
Doing a Bit of Research
So perhaps you’ve used one of the above methods to locate some targeted profiles of interest on Linkedin. These folks are all potential leads, but cold-calling in this Internet age is not a wise decision. It’s best to enter into any conversation with potential customers only when armed with as much information and foreknowledge about your lead as possible.
This is where Linkedin sales strategies become evident. Imagine you’re at a party and you’re looking to promote your business to strangers. Rather than blindly handing out business cards, you want to know a bit about those strangers first in order to tailor your messaging to their needs.
Linkedin is your research tool to get to know your potential customers before contacting them. With a premium account, you can easily view job history, other connections, and interests, as well as get a sense of a potential customer’s personality and potential needs. Each of these things can positively influence your messaging, targeting it to what you know they need.
Linkedin sales strategies advantages as a go much deeper than the introduction we’ve described here, but the bottom line is that you get out of it what you put in. If you’re willing to invest the effort and time into building your presence on Linkedin into something that has meaning for and connections to potential leads, you’ll be happier for it.
