LinkedIn has evolved to be a place for business prospecting. Though it was once assumed to be a tool for updating your resume, sales professionals now get inbound leads from LinkedIn.
Today on The Sales Evangelist, we talk with Dennis Brown about using social media to connect with your target market and find business opportunities.
The goal is to flip the script: instead of simply connecting with your target market, use LinkedIn to engage people and have your prospects come to you.
Become the hunted
There are several steps you can take today to make your LinkedIn work for you. Like any social-selling strategy, start with the basics.
If you aren’t making a good first impression, start there. Dennis’s blog has tons of information about optimizing your LinkedIn profile to make a good impression.
If people engage with your profile and you don’t have strong social proof with good recommendations, you can immediately ruin the opportunity.
- Post relevant content regularly, preferably every day.
- Post content that’s relevant to your target market.
- Focus on educating, inspiring, entertaining and engaging instead of selling.
Engage with your engagers
Once you’ve posted relevant content, people will engage. Engage them back. Show appreciation for their time and effort. You’ll start getting inbound connections, and your goal is to continue the engagement.
If they engage with your content, you’ll show up in their feed more often. “Know, like and trust,” will kick in.
From there, there are three ways Dennis conveys them to leads.
- Prospects see his content and visit his profile, which leads to added engagement.
- Prospects respond to his CTA to schedule a free phone call.
- He engages with their content if he knows they are a prospect who fits his customer avatar.
Dennis works backward, knowing that his leads often evolve from prospects who ask questions, so he determines how to get them to the point of asking.
In each case, he leverages the power of his profile to influence his prospects, and he creates inbound leads from LinkedIn.
Generate content that generates leads
His content leads prospects to ask, “How’d you do it?” which allows him to reply with basic information and resources.
Most recently, he offered his book 7 Habits of Highly Successful LinkedIn Users free to prospects who responded with “7 habits” in the comments section of his profile. More than 100 new leads requested the book, opting in with their names and emails.
Dennis then led them through a drip campaign that nurtured them into potential leads.
Throughout the campaign, prospects had the chance to ask questions and engage with content that was super relevant, because only relevant content will create opportunities for engagement.
“Inbound Leads From LinkedIn” resources
Dennis has created a one-page cheat sheet for everything in today’s podcast. Visit askdennisbrown.com/TSE to find a summary of today’s conversation, as well as all of his contact information.
The book, Stop Selling & Start Leading: How to Make Extraordinary Sales Happen from our sponsors at Wiley is a fantastic blueprint of all the things buyers say they expect from sellers and want from sellers.
We’ve got a free excerpt of the book so you can check it out. You’re going to love it.
Check out the Video Jungle podcast, your source for marketing and selling your brand using video. Plan, create and share your way to better content and strategy. Video Jungle offers top-notch, state-of-the-art advice about video, which is a great way to offer relevant content on LinkedIn.
Email me for more information about our newly launched Sales Podcast Network, designed to provide specialized sales content for sellers of all levels and all industries. You can also email us about our new business development services.
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