THE PILLARS OF PROSPECTING ON LINKEDIN, LinkedIn is the most widely used social network for professional purposes. While other networks have an informal, entertainment and personal life focus, prospecting on LinkedIn brings together profiles where most interactions are focused on the job market.
On this site, people search for jobs, business opportunities and contacts to facilitate transactions.
The platform is particularly attractive to high income companies, which translates into high average ticket business opportunities. It is also considered ideal for those operating in the B2B sales market. You can verify these interpretations by analyzing the numbers in this chart, according to a 2018 U.S. social media usage survey.
Implementing lead generation via LinkedIn is a modern and effective way to collect qualified opportunities and do good pre-sales work. It can be the most effective alternative for lead generation, adding effort to inbound strategies and active prospecting via inside sales.
READY TO INCLUDE THIS STRATEGIC TOOL IN YOUR SALES PROCESS? WE’LL TEACH YOU HOW!
It makes no sense to ignore a social network as relevant to the business world as LinkedIn. After all, the platform already has half a billion users. What’s more interesting is that the majority of them are qualified prospects and representatives of high-income companies. Still according to the table mentioned above, we can observe that 45% of the network’s users are in the last bracket of personal income – that is, amounts of more than $75,000 per year.
In general, the profiles are made up of successful executives and business professionals, which makes them good contacts for prospecting for leads via LinkedIn. About 61 million of these prospects are high-level influencers and 40 million are in a buying decision position, who use the network daily to build relationships and identify new business opportunities.
You’ve already figured out that the sea is for the fishes, right? And more: you can see that the social network leads to growth in qualified lead generation and converts results into sales. Now we’ll show you how to take advantage of this enabling environment and make a lot more money!
WHAT ARE THE PILLARS OF PROSPECTING ON LINKEDIN?
The best way to implement lead generation through LinkedIn is to know all its tools and opportunities to enhance networking.
First and foremost, you need to understand what the potential of this social network is for pre-sales activity and how it facilitates prospecting on LinkedIn. The fact is that information is the best way to attract potential customers throughout the buying journey.
On LinkedIn, you can access various pre-sales information, such as:
. Company name and job title: allows you to intensify contact and reach the decision maker to accelerate the buying journey;
. Personal impressions of self and function: serves as a basis for defining an appropriate approach that generates a rapport;
. Direct contact with the prospect: thanks to the network, it is possible to access telephones, websites and even LinkedIn’s e-mail/chat.
. It is thanks to the information gathered in pre-sales that you recognize, in advance, the weakest leads, so as not to waste the precious time of the sales process with false opportunities. Further on, it is also thanks to this data that commercial intelligence is developed to have more assertive results.
It is worth mentioning that the site itself already “rewards”, in its mechanism, the profiles that are kept up to date. This is one of the reasons why the network is reliable and offers quality data.
This information has an effect on the seller’s field when making the sales proposal, and also serves to improve the strategy of the commercial process, seeking better results.
Once the potential is understood, it’s time to pay attention to the following pillars of prospecting on LinkedIn:
PROFILE BUILDING
As we have seen, LinkedIn has its own mechanisms to give more importance and reach to those who keep their data updated.
Moreover, it is your business card. It needs to be neat and have powerful data, capable of attracting prospects who come across your profile. So, don’t forget:
Photo: use a personal photo, showing the lead how you would like them to find you in a meeting ;
Title: Summarize what you think is most important. This is the information that appears just below the photo and name – such as the position and a certain specialty, for example;
Experience: Be complete and up-to-date, with past work experience that makes a difference in your current performance. As for recent information, take advantage of the space to talk a little about your solution and warm up the track.
THE NETWORK OF CONTACTS
After preparing a nice and presentable profile, it’s time to fill it with contacts that can bear good business fruit. The starting point here is to understand how “friends” are organized in the social network.
On LinkedIn, your network of connections is divided into two parts:
First-degree contacts: people you are directly connected to in the network (someone who has accepted your connection request) ;
Second-level contacts: people related to your first-level contacts, but not directly related to you;
3rd level contacts: people related to your 2nd level contacts, without a direct link to you.
Even if you are not connected to 2nd and 3rd level contacts, LinkedInvous allows you to send them personal requests and messages. This is one of the most effective dynamics to multiply contacts when prospecting on LinkedIn.
Imagine you need to get in touch with a very important person in your industry, who doesn’t accept connection requests on the network so easily. A good option is to search for profiles of more accessible professionals who have 2nd or 1st degree contacts with the same. This way, you can reach your initial goal more quickly.
ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS
The last pillar refers to exactly what is the core of any social network: building relationships between people.
There is no point in being in the network and not actively participating. This is one of the golden rules of working with social networks: interact and be present to be heard and gain relevance.
Invest a few minutes of your day to browse the news feed. Read the posts of your contacts and interest groups and interact with them whenever possible. By doing so, not only does your direct contact notice you, but also others who read the same message.
Also provide quality material so they interact with you and recognize the value of your content. Publishing one article per week is a good thing to build your authority. Avoid becoming one of those contacts that pollute the interface with too much information.
These 3 basic pillars are the main steps, which you need to know, in prospecting on LinkedIn.
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