How to sell through LinkedIn?

LinkedIn can be an incredible platform for finding new leads and growing sales. With over 800 million members on LinkedIn worldwide, there is immense opportunity to connect with potential buyers. However, simply having a LinkedIn profile is not enough to drive sales. You need an effective LinkedIn sales strategy to fully capitalize on this platform.

Why Use LinkedIn For Sales?

There are several key reasons why LinkedIn can be highly effective for sales prospecting and lead generation:

• Professional audience – LinkedIn members are there for professional networking and business purposes, making them high quality leads.
• Detailed profiles – LinkedIn profiles provide a wealth of information about prospects including job titles, skills, experience and interests.
• Targeted ads – Sponsored content and LinkedIn ads enable you to target prospects based on location, job role, industry, interests and more.
• Relationship building – LinkedIn facilitates ongoing relationship building through content sharing and messaging.
• Lead nurturing – You can nurture prospects through the sales funnel by publishing valuable content.
• Establish authority – An optimized LinkedIn presence helps demonstrate your and your company’s expertise.

For both B2B and B2C sales, LinkedIn is the go-to platform for connecting with professional buyers and decision makers. It provides salespeople direct access to prospects they typically could not reach through other channels.

Develop An Optimized LinkedIn Profile

The foundation of your LinkedIn sales strategy is having an optimized, professional profile. This will increase the likelihood of prospects finding and connecting with you.

Tips for optimizing your LinkedIn profile include:

• Professional photo – Have a high quality headshot of yourself wearing business attire.
• Headline – Summarize your value proposition and areas of expertise.
• Summary – Share your background, skills and accomplishments in an engaging narrative.
• Experience – Detail your work history with accomplishments and skills gained.
• Education – List your degrees and certifications.
• Skills – Include keywords prospects may search to find you.
• Recommendations – Request endorsements and recommendations from colleagues.
• Links – Add links to your website, blog, and other profiles.

Completing your profile signals professionalism to prospects and gives them reasons to connect with you.

Expand Your LinkedIn Network

Growing your LinkedIn network will significantly expand your access to prospects. There are several ways to add high value connections:

• Connect with colleagues – Current or past coworkers make natural connections.
• Engage with prospects – Send connection requests to promising prospects you identify.
• Join LinkedIn Groups – Become an active participant in industry or alumni groups.
• Follow companies – Follow prospects’ companies to stay updated and build visibility.
• Import contacts – Sync your email contacts with LinkedIn connections.
• Search by criteria – Discover new prospects based on location, industry, job role, and interests.

The larger your active first-degree network, the more referrals and introductions you can leverage for sales prospecting.

Identify Your Target Prospects

With an understanding of your ideal customer profile, you can identify relevant prospects to connect with on LinkedIn. Ways to find prospects include:

• Searching by keywords, titles, companies, groups, interests, skills, location
• Browsing your connections’ connections
• Looking at followers/employees of prospect companies
• Exploring content participants and group members
• Using LinkedIn’s lead generation and sales navigator tools
• Viewing visitors to your LinkedIn profile

Conduct research on prospects to assess fit before reaching out. Prioritize connecting with decision makers and influencers at your target companies.

Craft a Personalized Connection Request

When sending a LinkedIn connection invitation, personalize the message to improve response rates. Effective connection notes:

• Address the person directly
• Explain who you are and why you’d like to connect
• Reference common ground such as an employer, group, or interest
• Keep it brief yet thoughtful

This helps establish rapport and gives the prospect context behind your request. Avoid generic invitations that may come across as spam.

Engage With Content

Content engagement on LinkedIn provides a way to organically interact with prospects, demonstrate expertise, and build relationships. Ways to leverage content include:

• Publishing posts with valuable insights prospects would find interesting
• Commenting on content published by prospects and their companies
• Sharing content published by other industry thought leaders
• Posting content in relevant LinkedIn groups
• Liking and reacting to prospects’ content

This shows your knowledge while enabling natural two-way conversations with prospects.

Utilize LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn advertising enables you to get your content and offers directly in front of relevant prospects. Benefits of LinkedIn ads include:

• Targeting by location, industry, job role, interests, and more
• Flexible format including text, image, and video ads
• Ability to drive traffic to your website or LinkedIn profile
• Detailed campaign analytics for optimization
• Offering promotional offers and content downloads
• Retargeting website visitors

Experiment with Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail ads to boost prospects’ awareness of your business.

LinkedIn Ad Best Practices

• Define your ideal audience and target your ads carefully
• Highlight value propositions in your ad copy
• Use eye-catching creatives including images, stats, etc
• Keep messaging consistent with your overall branding
• Drive traffic to landing pages with clear calls-to-action
• Continually A/B test ad elements and messages
• Track ROI to optimize campaign performance

Follow Up and Nurture Prospects

Once you’ve made an initial connection, continue providing value to prospects through consistent nurturing touchpoints on LinkedIn. Ways to stay top of mind include:

• Commenting on their posts and content
• Sharing their content with your network
• Liking and reacting to their posts
• Sending personalized InMail messages
• Providing helpful resources and information
• Recommending them as experts
• Recognizing work anniversaries and milestones

This helps build rapport and trust to eventually convert prospects into customers.

Leverage Sales Navigator

For additional sales enablement, a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription provides powerful features including:

• Seeing full prospect profiles regardless of your connection status
• Uncovering contact info for prospects
• Receiving notifications when prospects view your profile or content
• Saving Leads for future follow up
• Send InMail messages to anyone
• Getting conversation tips for connecting with prospects

The Sales Navigator tool integrates directly with CRM systems to streamline sales workflows. Premium subscriptions are available.

Track and Measure

To continually refine your approach, diligently track LinkedIn campaign performance and engagement metrics. Key data to monitor includes:

• Profile views and connection growth
• Content reach, clicks, reactions, comments, shares
• Ad clicks, cost per click, conversions
• Lead generation and sales through LinkedIn
• Engagement and sales by prospect segment
• ROI of ads and other investments

Regularly review results to identify the most effective strategies and opportunities for optimization.

Conclusion

With over 30 million businesses represented, LinkedIn provides immense opportunity for sales prospecting and pipeline growth. By implementing the above best practices, you can successfully generate qualified leads and new business through LinkedIn. Ensure your LinkedIn presence is professional and optimized. Expand your network. Proactively identify and engage with prospects using personalized outreach, valuable content, and strategic advertising. Continuously nurture prospects over time. Measure linkedin ROI. With a sound LinkedIn approach, you can significantly boost sales performance and achieve business goals.