Sales Prospecting Using LinkedIn

When it comes to sales prospecting, the use of the social selling
channel to acquire customers is now a major activity. Sales people are
using LinkedIn, Twitter and other social networks for lead generation
activity and to engage buyers. When it comes to sales prospecting, the
new buzzword is “Smarketing” meaning sales and marketing departments
working together to ensure they maximize sales funnel growth, while
reducing the customer acquisition costs. So let us assume your content
marketing team is publishing quality articles to share, however, the
sales process is proving quite challenging and you want to know HOW to
successfully use social networks in the sales prospecting process?


So ask any sales person on the obvious place to start hunting for B2B
sales leads and they will probably answer – LinkedIn. But would they
know how to engage in conversations on LinkedIn groups for the benefit
of the business, while not damaging the company’s image.

What LinkedIn groups are and are not

LinkedIn groups are great when it comes to following or engaging with
industry thought leaders, to share knowledge and ideas. Buyers also use
the groups to make themselves aware of trends or brands, while sales
people use them as a means to identify prospects. The good news is that
there is a LinkedIn group for just about any topic, interest or business
insight. But let me explain what LinkedIn groups are NOT, before a
sales person jumps in to connect with prospects. They are not to be used
as blatant promotional channels or just to sell your product. They are
also not places to make endless connections with the single purpose of
trying to nab a potential customer.


However, LinkedIn groups if used correctly with practiced skills, can
provide a channel where sales and marketing teams can engage in thought
provoking discussions with prospective buyers. Let me repeat, LinkedIn
Groups are not a place for the traditional approach to selling. Posting
comments, promoting your products or appearing as an online sales person
will quickly lower your credibility within the group and will deter
many people from connecting or engaging with your profile. LinkedIn
groups are not to be used for spamming. In fact the social network has
taken action to prevent spam, poor content and job-postings appearing in
conversations, by the means of filtering its content.

Pitfalls on LinkedIn to be aware of

LinkedIn constantly introduces new policies to their social network,
which can lead to hidden difficulties for sales people. It is important
that you are aware of all these pitfalls around the social network,
before I can properly go on to explain how LinkedIn groups can be used
for sales prospecting.


Here are the pitfalls to avoid:


1. Posting low quality content




Recently, groups have been purposely made private so as to enhance
the quality of conversations being discussed within them. It was once
the case where sales people used to be able to bombard open chats with
constant messages promoting their products, leading to poor quality and
disengaging conversations. However, this new enhanced privacy feature
limits this from occurring. Industry leaders and group members will now
boycott poor content that does manage to be published within groups.
This means you need to avoid posting weak content, because once trust
and credibility have been lost, they are hard to regain.


2. Predictability




To facilitate high quality discussions occurring, people now have the
option of adding images to conversations. Such images may include
info-graphics, which are essentially attractive e-poster displays of
data. Info-graphics are fast becoming so important to the digital
marketing realm, as they are essential tools when it comes to engaging
prospective leads. Having said that though, you need to make sure you
don’t become predictable. It often happens that once sales people
experience a good reaction from a certain image that they have posted,
they will continue to post similar content because sales people think
that’s what will generate the most likes. However, this way of thinking
is medieval and sales people will soon appear very boring to prospects.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up by alternating between different images and
blog articles. Always make sure you are providing your audience with
new insightful material. Avoid posting the same predictable content all
the time.


3. Lack of consistency




Consistency is key with any social network, not  just LinkedIn. You
need to post on a regular basis or you will loose your following. Not
only that, but it will also drastically decrease the awareness of your
product or service online. No point in commenting sporadically, in other
words commenting in irregular intervals or whenever it suits you, like
for example once a week. By doing that, it would be hard to establish
promising leads and your social media account would be deemed useless in
the sales prospecting process. The same goes for the converse.
Over-commenting can be just as damaging as under-commenting. By being
over-active on social media, it could be interpreted as your business
having nothing else to do, or you could appear very irritating which
will ultimately discourage people from engaging with your profile.


4. Inaccurate Assumptions


Unfortunately or fortunately, whatever side of the argument you
support, LinkedIn notifies you once someone has viewed your profile.
This however can often be misleading and dangerous to sales people in
particular, because innocent profile views are often mistaken for actual
prospects. Sales people need to disassociate likes with people wanting
to link with them. Or profile views with people automatically wanting to
buy from them. This might not even be the case at all. Instead of
making hasty assumptions and jumping straight into the selling process,
you instead need to research these leads by analyzing their social media
profiles. Once suspect’s interests and buying intentions have been
established, they can then be treated as prospects.

My LinkedIn Sales Prospecting Process

So now that you are aware of the pitfalls, I can go on to explain HOW
I use LinkedIn for sales prospecting. Why many people fail, when it
comes to online sales prospecting, is because they don’t understand the
model or skip the stages that are involved. Online sales prospecting is a
series of steps that needs to be followed in a chronological order. It
is like learning to drive a car. You must know the rules of the road and
understand the components of the vehicle before you can be allowed to
sit behind the wheel. It’s the exact same with online sales prospecting,
you must understand the process before you can jump straight in joining
LinkedIn groups.


Below I have included an image of a generic sales prospecting model
that can be applied to any social network, not just LinkedIn.





Step 1. It is so important that you know where your
buyers are. By identifying your target audience, you can then determine
what social media site you are going to use to attract leads. For B2B
selling, LinkedIn is by far the best social network to use. Through this
site you can gain valuable information about potential buyers. Back to
the car analogy, when driving in icy conditions, you will need to decide
how you will tackle the dangerous road ahead, so as that you can safely
arrive at your destination. So for example you might decide to approach
the roads with extreme caution by driving slow. It is the same with
leads, you will have to decide how you are going to approach different
prospects. You need to come up with an angle that other unsuccessful
sales people may have failed to think of.  This is where researching
social profiles will help. The key is to know your customer, know what
they are interested in and what is going to persuade them to buy from
you.


Step 2. Once you have determined where you are going
to attract leads, you then need to engage with them. For this you will
need an arsenal of content at your disposal. Info-graphics and blog
articles can be great tools for sales prospecting. Again, as I mentioned
earlier, make sure you mix up the types of content you use. The last
thing you want is to appear predictable. Your aim is to portray an
interesting online persona, using insights and valuable content, that
will attract people  to your profile.


Step 3. Lead nurturing is the next stage of the
process. Once prospects have been identified you will then need to start
developing relationships with them by adding value to places where they
post comments, by understanding what catches their interest and
ultimately by understanding the tone and nature of their online
existence. Remember, buyers are way more informed than they once used to
be, so you must listen to the needs of prospects and publish material
that will provide them with the information to answer their questions.


Step 4. Once you have successfully completed the
first 3 steps, you can now connect with prospects directly. InMail and
email are important communication methods used to invite the buyer to
consider your product or service. It is important that you act quickly
and don’t delay, when contacting prospects directly. There is an optimum
time frame that sales people must act within, in order to secure a
sale. The last thing you want is for another sales person to ruin all
your hard work and nab a potential customer from you. That is why it is
so important that the second a prospect is established, action is taken
immediately to engage deeper with them.


Step 5. This is the only part of the model that
relates to the traditional selling process. This is the stage where you
want to close the deal and convert the prospect into a customer. Sales
people will do everything they can here to promote and convince the
prospect that they need this product. This stage is normally carried out
over the phone.

Cheat sheet to maximizing LinkedIn Leads

Request to Join Group Pages


Now that you understand the process, it is time to put the theory
into practice and join some groups. There are over 412,322 groups on
LinkedIn that people can join, however sales people must be aware of the
100 group only limit.


I would recommend sales people firstly start off by joining groups
that bear relevance to the product that they wish to sell. So for
example, if you want to sell Lead Generation software, you will want to
target LinkedIn groups containing keywords such as ‘Lead Generation’,
‘Marketing Automation’, ‘Marketing Leaders’ or ‘Sales & Marketing
Directors’. Because what benefit would it be joining a general marketing
group if you were selling a specific product such as Lead Generation
Software? This would be a complete waste of time. Yes, it cannot be
denied that more general groups tend to cater for far more interesting
and broader discussions. However, it will be far easier to identify
prospects and connect with them in more specific groups. At the end of
the day, your job is to generate potential leads that will lead to
sales, not to appear active online and join as many groups as you can.


Engage and be Active in Discussions


 When you have been accepted into a certain group,
it is time to start proving your credibility by showing that you are an
expert in that specific field. Constantly engaging in conversations and
sharing useful insights in the group can accomplish this. However
members must be careful that they obey the group rules, when sharing
content or engaging in discussions. Most groups ban the publication of
promotional content within them; so sales people need to make sure that
they comply with these codes of practice.


Do not be vague when contributing to discussions. Always be specific
and provide valuable insights to the group. The more genuine and
interesting you appear, the more you will get noticed and the more
potential prospects will want to connect with you. Communication is a
2-way channel. It’s the same with LinkedIn groups. It is essential that
you initiate conversations, respond and react to activity occurring in
the group. By being proactive, you will increase your sales funnel quite
rapidly, as people will become curious as to whom you are and will
therefore want to connect with you.


Forget your Traditional Sales Approach


It is so important that you don’t come across as a traditional sales
person in LinkedIn groups. People will not want to engage with you, if
you are seen to be completely self-orientated. Forcefully promoting
yourself or products, in these groups, wont resonate well with other
users. The whole point of a group is to be a cohesive unit, where ideas
and knowledge can be shared. A group is essentially a community. There
is no mention of “I” or “Me” at all. They are completely self-less
entities. The minute you act in a ‘salesy’ manner, you will lose your
reputation and goodwill, and will not be taken seriously in the group.


It is all about social selling these days. Instead of going into
these groups with the aim of promoting a product by posting blatantly
obvious promotional material, go in with the aim of creating subtle
awareness through engagement. The key to generating sales via LinkedIn
is by being subtle. By posting abstract content that doesn’t directly
apply to your product, you are subtly creating awareness about your
sector, which will in turn benefit your business.Then once you have
identified interest in your product through likes and shares, you can
then take these ‘warm leads’ into the private-sphere and contact
prospects directly. Because they have already displayed signs of
interest online, they wont mind you reaching out to them.


Utilize InMail or Automated Social Selling Tools.


 So now you want to convert the goodwill and
connections into customers. The last step is to take the conversation
from the consideration to the active buyer engagement phase. When a
prospect has been identified and online engagement has been carried out
with them, you can then decide to take the conversation offline. By
sending them helpful insights and relevant articles, you can then start
to build trustworthy relationships with prospects, which is referred to
as the lead nurturing process. Once you have established the buying
intention of your prospect, you can then finally make the move and start
selling your product and pitching to them directly.


A great way to do this is through InMail or by using automated
selling tools. You can try message them on LinkedIn, but a far more
effective way, is by reaching out to them over email or phone. But
that’s easier said than done. Where are you supposed to get hold of
prospects’ contact details without having to conduct hours of online
research? The answer is by using automated social selling software. This
handy piece of software compiles all possible contact information about
your prospect that you will need into one database, which can be
accessed in seconds. This drastically cuts down on time spent tediously
researching a prospect’s email or telephone number. This extra time
saved can then instead be put back into actually selling, the sole focus
of a sales person’s job.


It is so essential that you take 30 minutes everyday to engage in LinkedIn Group discussions. Make sales prospecting
on social media a part of your daily routine. Be consistent by posting
regularly, in order to maintain high awareness and consideration rates
among prospects. This will prove very beneficial to you in the long run,
as it will drastically cut down your time spent cold calling. By using
LinkedIn Groups properly to sales prospect, you will dramatically
increase the success of your sales efforts.



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