How To Use LinkedIn For Sales?

How To Use LinkedIn For Sales?

With over 150 million members worldwide, is not difficult to see why LinkedIn is  getting increasingly more powerful when it comes to generating sales.

Unjustifiably, LinkedIn is often seen as simply the place to go to find a job. However, LinkedIn has certainly a lot more to offer when it comes to generating sales and is primarily used as a way of generating leads. In business to business environment, LinkedIn can turn out to be indispensable mainly due to its uncapped potential for business development as it not only makes generating leads more time-effective but also hassle-free.

1. Why You Should Not Miss A Chance To Connect?

First things first, step back and take a critical look at your contacts. Your contacts, be it family, friends or workmates can be used to further expand your professional LinkedIn network by adding second and third level connections . Whether you meet anyone online or offline, it’s always a good idea to follow up with a connection request to strengthen your LinkedIn profile.

2. Who’s Who?

You’d be amazed how much information people give out on LinkedIn! That’s why it works so great when trying to identify the key decision-makers.  You can easily determine all the relevant people, teams and projects which in turn helps you gain a better understanding of who’s who and the people who influence the scene. 

3. Why Cold Calls Are a Thing Of The Past?

Let’s be honest, cold calling is a fact of life. Sure, the vast majority of sales people would prefer to rely on other lead generating techniques. However, unless you are an established business, you will, at some time, be forced to cold call in order to generate leads. However, LinkedIn comes in handy here as you can almost always gather some information about your prospects before approaching them. Before approaching any of your prospects on LinkedIn always have a look at their profile to see what they’re after. You’ll be surprised how well this works when it comes to breaking the ice!  

Take a close look at profile and status updates, connections you have in common and group posts. It might be worth investing into a paid account as you gain access to everyone on LinkedIn.  

4. How To Get Past The Security Guard Unnoticed?

If you had a decision-making power in sales you’d do everything in your power to cut down on the number of calls and emails that get through to you…

However, there are ways you can bypass these security measures with InMail. InMail is basically LinkedIn’s internal email system allowing you to message anyone on LinkedIn while skipping the introduction.

5. Search smart, not hard

LinkedIn search facility allows you to search by title, company, location or keyword. You can also get weekly reports matching your search criteria, e.g. your customers’ profiles saving you a considerable amount of time. 

6. Spy On Your Prospects

If you’re in sales, you’d probably agree that you need to know your prospects better than you know yourself! Any industry changes are a good enough incentive to reach out to your potential customers to offer your services. 

To stay up-to-date with the newest industry trends and spy on your prospects or companies you have a vetted interest in follow a company’s LinkedIn page.

7. The Power Of Groups On LinkedIn

Groups offer you the ability to learn more about the industry you have a vetted interest in. It’s also a great way of gauging needs and demands of your target market. This can often give you a good enough incentive to approach your prospects.

Joining groups can offer you a better idea in terms of what’s going on with the company you’re interested in. Also you gain access to personal details of other members of the group which is normally restricted to first level connections. While being a group member you can further build your connections.

8. Make Your LinkedIn Profile Stand Out!

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete as it acts as your business card and the first thing a prospect will see.  You want to make sure it looks professional and creates a great first impression.

All the information on your LinkedIn profile needs to be up-to-date, including all links to your website and other social media networks.

Getting business recommendations can certainly help. Last but not least, include a high quality photograph in your profile. Smile!

More on getting your LinkedIn profile work for you here. 

9. The Power Of Taking A Look Back…

Unless a user has set his/her profile to anonymous you can see who’s viewed your profile. You can use it to your advantage by reaching out with a connection request. It works the other way round too. You’ll probably find that some of the people whose profiles you visited will always look back.



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