How to Use LinkedIn for Successful Sales Prospecting

LinkedIn has gone beyond a social platform for job seekers. Over the past few years, LinkedIn has become a pool of prospects for B2B marketers. With over 875 million active users, LinkedIn is undoubtedly a promising channel for sales prospecting.

B2B marketing can leverage LinkedIn’s comprehensive search filters and other features to approach relevant potential customers. On top of that, reaching out to prospects gets simpler through chat features.

Your LinkedIn page is a great platform to publish valuable content and share your work. You can share insights, upload explainer videos, add infographics, and more. Keep scrolling to learn how to make sales prospecting on LinkedIn.

Intro to LinkedIn Sales Prospecting

Sales prospecting on LinkedIn is necessary for B2B and B2C marketers. LinkedIn has become a channel for building networks, allowing you to nurture prospective customers with valuable content.

Like any other, LinkedIn sales prospecting attempts to gather potential customers using the platform’s features. Marketers identify relevant prospects and build relationships to convert them into paying customers.

Why does LinkedIn prospecting matter?

Many marketers and salespeople value LinkedIn as a goldmine to get customers. 89% of professional sales representatives agree that LinkedIn plays a significant role in closing deals. You can get more benefits from LinkedIn sales prospecting, which follows:

Build brand credibility: You can post valuable content, such as social proofs, product benefits, explainer videos, etc.

Communicate with audiences efficiently: The chat feature on LinkedIn has made it easier for businesses to communicate and build relationships with prospects.

Study competitors: LinkedIn allows users to see others’ profiles. You can also analyze your competitors and study their marketing strategies.

Exposed to new trends: LinkedIn enables users to notice marketing trends as soon as possible. You can switch or adjust new strategies to stay relevant in the business.

With a list of benefits, LinkedIn sales prospecting is undoubtedly a strategy to execute. Besides, LinkedIn is a free and easy-to-use social platform to generate more revenue and achieve business goals.

Best Practices to Use LinkedIn for Sales Prospecting

Some digital marketers and salespeople may be more familiar with cold calling by email. So, starting LinkedIn sales prospecting can be daunting for them.

Sales prospecting on LinkedIn is similar to a cold email campaign. Below we’ve pieced together some best practices for using LinkedIn for sales prospecting.

Build Credibility

Credibility is a strong metric for the value of a brand. Without good credibility, potential buyers will be likelier to ignore your message and end up in your competitors instead. Luckily, LinkedIn allows you to build credibility in many ways quickly.

Start polishing your account by creating good headlines and using a logo or professional profile picture. Add a background related to your business and write a captivating summary that can leave a big impression on readers.

Your summary must convey your business expertise and its values, perhaps some achievement too. LinkedIn provides over 2,600 characters for an overview, but keep yours short and sweet, with around 300 words.

Also, polish your experience sections, whether you’ve worked with some well-known companies. You can also add recommendations or social proofs from significant people to make your account more trustable and outstanding.

Upload Content and Media

As your account improves, you must build a good online presence through your LinkedIn feeds. Start posting valuable content, such as product benefits, recommendations, study reports, etc.

You can also publish content in video and image formats. Some visual content ideas include infographics, tutorials, reviews, explainer videos, and more. Consider sharing information in video format, as many prefer to watch short videos than read a wall of text.

Neil Patel is an example of an account with good content and media sharing. He shares insightful video content, blog posts, and other valuable posts for his connections.

Sharing social proofs of your business is also a great idea to make your profile stand out. People value reviews and testimonials as authentic opinions of existing customers. So, more social proof will build trust from prospects.

Join Relevant Groups

After setting up your professional profile and posting valuable content, it’s time to get the ball rolling. An excellent way to look for potential customers is through LinkedIn groups. You can join groups relevant to your industry.

LinkedIn has over 2 million groups, but you can only join up to 50 groups. Nevertheless, it’s enough for you to make relations with many people. If you’re confident enough, you can create your group.

After joining relevant groups, start building your online presence. An effective way to make people notice you is by participating in discussions. Share your expertise and experience with others so they see you as trustworthy.

Check your groups as often as you can. The more you’re included in discussions, the more likely you get connection offers. People may also ask you for advice, help, and even service. If you find prospective customers, don’t hesitate to connect and talk to them.

Leverage LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator

LinkedIn has a tool made specifically for prospecting. You can leverage LinkedIn’s sales navigator to reach broader prospects efficiently. Equipped with a bunch of filters, the sales navigator helps you narrow your search and find targets accurately.

You can filter your search based on keywords, seniority levels, groups, titles, etc. You can set up your sales preferences based on industry, company size, geography, etc. Moreover, the advanced search allows you to use more than 20 filters simultaneously.

Another useful feature you can try on the sales navigator is lead suggestions. This feature will read your sales preference, search history, and interaction data to offer lead recommendations. This way, you can save countless hours finding prospects.

Look into Profiles on “People Also Viewed”

Going through the “People also Viewed” section is a trick to sales prospecting on LinkedIn. LinkedIn algorithms gather people with similar demographics, expertise, or purposes. You can find the section on prospects’ profiles.

The “People also Viewed” section makes it easier for you to find relevant contacts. You can directly check on their profiles and send connection requests immediately if they match your prospect preferences.

Go Through Competitors Network

You can have the chance to sell a product to your competitors. As LinkedIn allows people to see others’ profiles, you can also go to your competitors’ pages and learn how they run their businesses.

The good thing is your competitors are most likely connected to their clients and prospects. So, scrolling through your competitors’ networks can be a shortcut to getting new prospects. However, approaching them remains tricky and challenging.

You must devise a strategy when you need to connect with competitors’ clients and prospects. Convince them why your business is more beneficial and state the upper hand of your products and services.

Connect and Engage with Prospects

As you gather many LinkedIn users as your prospects, the way you approach them is key to making connections. You can start by sending connection requests and personalized outreach messages.

Using templated outreach is fine, but you still need to make adjustments. With personalized outreach, you can appeal better to prospects. You can greet prospects by name, mention their achievements or expertise, refer to prospects’ interests, etc.

Along with personalized outreach, include values in your outreach. You must be clear and concise about your objectives, whether you want to promote services or ask people to join your platforms.

Here are a few examples to reach potential customers with personalized messages on LinkedIn:

“Hey David, your profile was at the top of search results for our industry. I would love to talk more with you as an expert in the field and get some insights and advice.”

“Hey, Bill. I noticed that we have a mutual connection in John Matthew. I’m impressed by what you’re doing at XYZ Company and would love to connect.”

“Hi, Amanda. I read some of your blog posts, and I loved them. I’d love to connect to find out more.”

Keep going if your initial outreach gets ignored. Send follow-up outreaches after one to two weeks of waiting for responses. You can attempt two to five follow-ups before giving up. If your recipients show interest, ask them to shift to emails.

Takeaway

It is safe to say that LinkedIn sales prospecting is easier to pull off than cold calling by email. With hundreds of millions of active users, you can comfortably leverage LinkedIn features to look for prospects. You can join communities, find recommendations, and search prospects manually and efficiently.

Besides, LinkedIn’s sales navigator helps you save countless hours finding potential customers. To wrap up, LinkedIn’s active users will keep increasing, making it more relevant for you to make sales prospecting on the platform.