LinkedIn for Sales Prospecting – Guide From an Expert

Many marketing strategies include inbound efforts and these methods work, but they take time.

It takes time to build a following on social media, or gain traffic for your website through SEO. 

Besides this, many inbound agencies are incredibly expensive.

But if you are looking for IMMEDIATE results, and cold calling isn’t your thing, you have to try LinkedIn for sales prospecting.

Why?

Because if done correctly, you can expect 1 sales-qualified lead per day.  

In the past 24 months, we have generated close to 7000 qualified leads for our clients by just using Linkedin outreach, cold email, and SMS. 

Most of these leads come through within the first 48 hours after launching our outreach campaign. 

Here are our stats:

If the above sounds good, hopping on the Linkedin bandwagon is a no-brainer. 

Below is our failproof prospecting strategy that we use on Linkedin to get 1 qualified sales lead per day. 

Give it a try. It’s worth a shot. 

(Or if you would like to skip the learning curve, hop on a free 15-minute consultation call with us.)

Step 1: Update your Linkedin profile – It needs to scream success.

Your Linkedin profile is a prospect’s first impression of you.

I can bet my left shoe that the first thing a person will do after you send them a message, is view your profile. 

So if you’re reaching out to potential prospects and your profile looks unprofessional (like the one above) the chances of them responding to you are going to be minimal. 

But if your profile screams success and professionalism, many more potential clients will agree to a booked meeting.

Have a look at the profile below and compare it to the one above. 

If one of these people were trying to sell you a product or service, who would you be more willing to buy from?

Most probably the second person.

Why?

His profile looks professional and catches your attention.

The photo he has used isn’t a random selfie and he has also made use of his Linkedin banner, which tells you exactly what his company does. 

What I love about his banner is that he also hops into his potential customer‘s pain points and then offers a solution. 

Notice how he says: “Most companies create tons of content that never get seen. I’ll show you how to distribute all of your content..”

Remember this when creating your profile. 

Mention pain points that your clients might experience and then offer your solution.

When you do this, the chances of prospects responding to your outreach messages will be greater. 

Step 2: Have an in-depth look at your target audience

Most lead generation agencies make this mistake…

They don’t do an in-depth analysis of who your current buying customer is. 

They use basic targeting when going after your buyer persona. 

For example, you might say that your ideal clients are CEO’s in the healthcare industry. And then this is who they target. 

But this step needs to be taken further by asking in-depth questions, like:

• Which healthcare industry? – Psychology, hospitals, insurance?
• Which areas are your buying clients located in? The USA? Africa? Europe?
• Do they use a specific CRM tool?
• If they are hospitals, how many beds do they have or staff? What’s the company size?
• Which decision maker is buying? The CEO? The marketing manager?
• Are they advertising their services on a specific social network? Like Instagram?
• Are those who are buying have the same job title?

So when you start to build a list of target accounts that you would like to reach out to on Linkedin you have to have a look at WHO has been buying from you within the last 6 months. 

When you ask these questions you will see patterns emerging between your current buying customers, and this will help you build look-alike lists of prospects that your salespeople can reach out to. 

The video below is an example of how you can do this:

REMEMBER…

When it comes to outbound, your list has to be ultra-refined; because if you’re reaching out to prospects at random, thinking they might be a fit, the chances of getting a booked meeting are going to be slim. 

Side Note:

Don’t just use Linkedin Sales Navigator – Third-party prospecting tools will help refine your list even further.

When building a list be sure to use various tools and not just Linkedin Sales Navigator. 

Read this article about Linkedin prospecting tools we can’t live without. 

In it, we will share how we use boolean searches, various search filters, and advanced searches to target ideal clients in our sales process. 

Also, read this article for some Linkedin sales navigator hacks.

Step 3: Research your prospects

Once you know exactly who to reach out to, you will need to research each person on your list. 

This is also why it’s important to have an ultra-refined list because you don’t want to reach out to thousands of people. 

At Salesbread we focus on high-quality, low-volume outreach. 

We would rather reach out to 70 new prospects who will definitely say “yes” to a booked meeting, than to 1000 of prospects who would be hit-and-miss. 

Why is research important?

Research helps you write personalized messages to your prospects. 

Studies have shown that personalization is imperative for engagement, have a look below.

When you look at your prospect’s profile, think about what you can use in your LinkedIn messages that will capture their attention. 

At Salesbread we use the following method:

CCQ

This stands for:

COMMONALITIES

COMPLIMENTS

QUESTIONS

Let’s break each option down:

Commonalities

The best custom intro that you can use in any cold outreach message, is one that includes commonalities. 

But if you can share something that you and a prospect have in common, then you will separate yourself from any other sales rep out there, and capture the prospect’s attention.

Some examples of commonalities are:

• You live in the same city
• You both have a passion for hiking or a certain charity
• You know the same people or share mutual connections on Linkedin
• You both worked at the same company 
• You both belong to the same Linkedin groups

By mentioning any of the above in your connection request, you stand a better chance of Linkedin users replying to you. 

NOTE: Personalization is all about starting conversations. Forget the sleazy sales pitch. Just get your foot in the door first before you even try to sell your product.

Compliments

Compliments are a great way to get a conversation started. Have a look at your prospects “about” section on Linkedin.

Often you will notice that they have posted something you can use to compliment them on. Whether it’s an article they have written, a social media post that resonated with you, or even if they got a promotion. 

Use that in your message. 

Here’s an example: 

“Well done on your promotion at (company name). What’s your secret to success?”

Remember, Linkedin is all about building relationships and expanding your career. When you use the platform in the way it’s intended to be used, you’re in for a gold mine of prospecting success.

Questions

Be specific when asking a prospect a question. 

If you are specific on one thing that your prospect is excited about, you are going to do personalization well. If you use very generic info, you aren’t going to get a reaction. 

Here’s an example:

“Jack, love your content, would being a guest on our podcast be on your radar?”

Step 4: Write personalized Linkedin connection requests

So once you have researched each prospect you can begin to write personalized messages specifically for them. 

Below are some connection request templates you can edit: 

Step 4: Follow up 3- 5 times 

Following up is essential in the prospecting process. If you reach out to someone and they don’t reply, wait 3 days, and send another message.

Follow up between 3 and 5 times. 

Here are some follow-up template examples you can use and adapt for your own outreach:

Step 5: Ask for a booked meeting

The purpose of all this personalization is basically being able to get a foot in the door to ask for a booked sales meeting. 

Some sales teams try to sell in their messages, don’t do this. 

It’s not going to work. 

Rather ask for a set date and try to sell in that meeting. Mention how your product can solve their pain points. 

Here are some ways to ask for a booked sales meeting:

Here are some more prospecting tips to follow:

• Don’t sell in your outreach messages. Wait for the meeting to do this.

• In your messages remember the 90/10 rule. Speak about the prospect 90% of the time and only 10% about yourself or the service for context.

• Don’t spam prospects.

• Always use personalization and never send a blank connection request.

• Have a clear Call to Action – Let the prospect know exactly what you want from them.

• Remember to have a strong value add – This means something that will spark the prospect’s interest and make it a no-brainer for them to set up a meeting with you.

• Keep your messages short. 2-3 sentences are enough.

• Don’t use automation for everything. For example, if you use a tool like Expandi to send personalized messages, that’s okay, but make sure to reply in real-time as a person, not a robot.

• If you want to use automation tools, make sure they aren’t Chrome extensions. The reason for this is that they could get your Linkedin account banned, especially if you send too many messages in one day. Try to send a maximum of 20 – 25 connection requests per day. 

• You might be wondering if you should send inmail messages. At Salebsbread we don’t make use of inmail often. We only use it as a last resort. We have found that prospects are more likely to connect with you if they are in your second-degree network, and often prospects dont seem to reply to Inmails. Our theory is because it’s a paid-for service.

Looking for more qualified leads?

If you need more advice on using Linkedin for sales prospecting, get in touch. 

We offer 2 services. 

• Done-for-you lead generation
• Consultation services

Social selling doesn’t have to be complicated. If you have the know-how, leads will be coming in daily. 

Book a free strategy session below.