With such a vast number of professionals located in one place on the web, LinkedIn is a great place to get in touch with prospects within your industry – especially if your target customer is another business.
But there’s more to it than simply logging in and discovering potential leads. You’re going to have to put in some work to uncover your ideal connections. If you’re looking to communicate with new prospects via LinkedIn, here’s how!
Do your research.
The first step is research. This is the phase where you’ll determine who could be a potential prospect. To learn enough to tell, here’s what you need to do:
After picking out a prospective customer, see if you can find them on other social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook. With any luck, you’ll be able to see what they’ve been doing at work lately, as well as getting an idea of what things are like at the company.
Additionally, you should also check out the company’s website, as there could be some clear indicators that they’re in need of a product just like yours.
As for LinkedIn itself, use their profile to look for common ground. Perhaps you studied at the same college, worked at the same company or have a similar certification. Again, can help you when starting and continuing conversations as you build up a rapport.
Build a connection.
Once you know enough about the prospect and their business, you should have a better sense of whether they could be your ideal customer. If there’s a possibility, it’s time to connect. Send them a request, but be sure to attach a note saying why you wish to do so.
After connecting, take a look at what they’ve been doing on LinkedIn – such as sharing and posting. This will give you a feel for what they like, and is also a chance for you to interact and place yourself on their radar. Don’t be afraid to like, comment on and share their content. Hopefully, they’ll return the favour and take a look at your profile.
When you’re ready, kick off a conversation by introducing yourself – but don’t go straight into a sales pitch. Start by discussing the prospect and their needs, then bring in the possibility of selling your product or service.
Consider meeting in person.
If you’ve mentioned what you can offer and the prospect seems as if they may be interested, you may wish to set up a ‘real life’ meeting. When requesting the meeting, be sure to explain what they will get out of attending.
Providing you get a chance to meet up, this is the perfect opportunity to make your full pitch and convert them into paying customers.
By using LinkedIn, you’ll be able to improve the likelihood of sales by researching the perfect customers to promote to, who in turn will become loyal patrons of your business
Have you ever got in touch with a prospect via LinkedIn? How did it go? Did you gain that person as a customer?
If you haven’t yet tried it, go ahead and start building connections on LinkedIn – you never know where it could lead.
Tell us your experiences, plans and thoughts in the comments section below, we’d love to hear all about your LinkedIn success!
