LinkedIn has positioned itself as the de facto social networking platform for professionals, and especially B2B marketing. By creating an environment that is conducive to networking and business development, LinkedIn has become one of the most important sources of leads for companies in the B2B market.
But you have to be careful about how you approach the platform, and simply taking a few minutes to learn the best practices can make all the difference.
With that in mind, here are five powerful tips for making more sales on LinkedIn:
1. Use an Automation Tool to Grow Your Qualified Sales Pipeline
You’re going to have a better chance of making sales on LinkedIn if you can regularly follow up with potential clients, and make sure that they receive your messages. But that’s not easy if you don’t have any existing LinkedIn contacts in mind.
Fortunately, there are tools you can use to put your sales on automate mode, so you don’t have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to build a sales pipeline.
For example, platforms like Salesflow enable you to create an automated workflow for following up with prospects, and as long as you stay within LinkedIn’s policies on account automation, you can even automate LinkedIn prospecting and outreach efforts themselves.
2. Join the Right Groups
LinkedIn is not a forum for debating political issues or debating hot-button issues in your industry. But LinkedIn Groups can be a great place to network with other industry players, share ideas, and learn about the latest trends in your industry.
LinkedIn groups also allow you to share your own insights and highlighted posts, allowing you to position yourself as an expert in your industry (you are, aren’t you?). This has tones of “if you build it, they will come”, but it can also be a great tool for building your credibility and brand appeal.
3. Follow and Engage With Key LinkedIn Influencers
If you’re in a position to be able to connect with influencers in your industry, then LinkedIn is the perfect place to do it. And it can be a powerful tool for reaching out to high-profile influencers.
In fact, LinkedIn boasts the highest number of active B2B influencers compared to Facebook and Twitter, and is widely recognized as one of the best ways for B2B content marketers to find and connect with the right people.
But influencers are busy people, and you can’t just bombard them with messages or offer them money for a favor. You need to offer them something of value.
4. Take a Personified Approach, Don’t Cold DM.
LinkedIn is unfortunately full of spammy cold outreachers, like many other social media platforms. You don’t want to be lumped in with them, and have your DMs go unread because you come across as just another unsolicited pyramid scheme.
Instead, you want to make sure that your messages are targeted and well-written, and you’re making every effort to get to know the person (not just their name, and not just the company they work for) before you start cold DMing them.
One thing you can do is follow a profile and make insightful comments on their posts before you hit up their inbox, and you can also take the time to watch their profiles for a few days or weeks before you decide to reach out, to learn if they air any grievances or business pain points you can address.
5. Host Workshops and In-Person Events.
If you’re lucky, you’re already organizing events and workshops at your company, and you’re already connected with other LinkedIn influencers in your industry. If that’s the case, then you can reach out to these influencers to ask if they’d be interested in attending or presenting at one of your events, or if you can get them to speak on your behalf at a related event.
If not, it’s a great time to do some research on how successful brand events are pulled off. Running successful workshops and events is a time-proven method of increasing your sales pipeline, and if you do it right, you can build up a lot of goodwill with the people who attend your events.
