This is a great book that will help you to understand more about how to sell products and services on LinkedIn, as well as providing tips on how to put it into action. We have summarised some of the key points here for you, but we do recommend that you read the book for more in-depth analysis and action points.
As with all marketing-related books she first stresses that you need to profile your target prospect: job title, country, sector, what problems they are facing right now, what they will lose if they don’t solve this problem, etc.
Your Profile
The headline is the most important part as it is the first thing people see, and it is what the LinkedIn algorithms use to bring up search results. So, it must capture readers’ attention. You do this by highlighting your credibility, insights into what you do and for whom, and outcomes and solutions you offer clients. Do not put your job title and company name. You only have 120 characters.
Contact information – it sounds obvious, but use your current phone and email address rather than an old Yahoo account that you rarely look at.
Client focused summary section – write in the first person and speak directly to your target market. Highlight how you can help them, summarise your credibility, and include a call to action.
Current work experience – consider adding a list of current and past clients.
Accomplishments – list your published work, certificates, honours and awards, languages you speak, patents, organisation memberships.
Recommendations – aim for at least five to 10 from credible people who can vouch for who you are and what you do. When asking for recommendations, do not use the default message – personalise it! And strike whilst the iron is hot if you are speaking with someone offline.
Professional headshots only please – these are easy to take on a smart phone.
The 5-Step Process
Step 1: Mine LinkedIn for potential prospects
The book suggests setting a target number of new prospects to reach out to every day. The number of prospects that connect with you will depend on the time you are willing to dedicate, so also set yourself a time frame: 30 to 60 minutes a day is suggested.
Use the Advanced Search tool; when doing this, exclude first level connections as they are already in your network, and use saved searches (the amount you can do will depend on your membership level).
Step 2: Grow your network
Send a personalised connection request message – example – “Hello – we both work in M&E and sports sectors so I thought it would be great to connect.”.
Find commonality – comment on something in their profile or on content they have shared, comment on or compliment their company, compliment them!
Send to existing clients, industry peers, press, vendors, alumni, referral partners etc.
If you meet someone at an event, send this request as soon as you are able, mentioning that you enjoyed meeting them at the event.
Step 3: Send a welcome message to new contacts once they have accepted your connection request.
Example: “Hello xx. Thank you so much for connecting with me. [Insert compliment/ask a question about an initiative in their company or regarding something they have shared.] If I can be a resource for you with xx, please contact me and thanks again for connecting.”
Do not pitch anything at this stage – it’s about building rapport.
Step 4: Send a relationship building message
Example: “Hello xx. I noticed in your profile you have accepted a new position with xx – congratulations, this is really exciting. I’ve done a lot of work with different xx companies and I recently saw/wrote this article that I thought might be of interest to you. If you’d like to read it, you can see it here xx. I hope you find it useful.”
Step 5: Take the conversation offline
The soonest you should send this message is one week after the last one, but don’t leave it too long.
Example: “Hi xx, I hope you are keeping well. I was working recently with a client in your industry and it occurred to me that some of the insights and strategies I helped them with would be highly beneficial to you as well. Well, that is an assumption of course, as I am assuming that you’re interested in improving customer engagement with your clients. Is this even a priority for you right now?
I’d be happy to share a couple of insights with you over a quick phone call. Do you have 10 minutes free in the next few days? Let me know a couple of days and times that work for you and I’d be happy to chat with you. Thanks xx”
Trigger Events That Provide Engagement Opportunities
- They viewed your profile
- Your find a prospect you want to connect with
- Your invitation to connect is accepted
- Your connection had a job change
- Your connection had a promotion
- Your connection mentioned you
- Your connection updated their profile
- Your connection liked, commented on or shared your LinkedIn Publisher post or status update
- Your connection endorsed you
- You received a recommendation
- They were mentioned in the news
- Their company was mentioned in the news
- They’ve published an article on LinkedIn
- They’ve posted a status update on LinkedIn
Leveraging Existing Client Relationships
- Connect with your clients
- Follow your clients’ company pages
- Engage with their posts
- Save as a lead (if using Sales Navigator)
- Connect with others in their organisation
- Pay attention to their content, moves/updates and look for opportunities
- Stay in touch – offer a referral/introduction to people in your network
- See who your clients are connected too
Other Tips
- Before you begin making changes to your LinkedIn profile, especially if you are doing a complete revamp, turn off your notifications. Go to Settings & Privacy and select Privacy. Click on Sharing profile edits and change the setting to ‘no’ – it will auto-save
- Have all of your templated messages in a handy document
- Keep track of where each connection is in the Link Method message sequence
- Use Dux-Soup – an app that allows you to track LinkedIn profiles
Remember, the money is in the execution – create a weekly plan of how long you will spend, how many contacts to make and go through the 5-step process.
PRINT THIS OUT – do not let it become another lost document on your computer! And do seek out LinkedIn Unlocked by Melonie Dodaro for more tips.
