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Using LinkedIn to Prospect for New Business
It’s Facebook question of the week time (clap, clap, clap)!
Today we talk Panera Bread and eavesdropping and LinkedIn use and there is a special guest appearance from someone (something?) you may or may not have already met.
But, before the video, a little background.
My friend Rich Burghgraef owns Randolph Sterling, a company that helps you with business development.
I’m pretty sure we met because he’s a fellow Vistage member and he was trying to figure out this whole social media thing about the same time I was doing the same. But he’s a friend I met in real life before I knew him online. Which means he’s an ollllld friend!
He asks,
Quick LinkedIn question: A couple of clients we started doing inside sales work for have spoken to us about running their prospect lists through LinkedIn as part of the other work we are doing for them. I spoke to our in-house social media guy about it and he says LinkedIn tends to be very strict about not letting people do this kind of thing and may penalize someone for sending too many rejected or ignored invitations. Others I have spoken to say the odds of that happening are pretty low. I was wondering if you have heard anything one way or the other on this.
I have a personal story about what happens when you send too many rejected or ignored invitations … and, from my experience, the odds are pretty high that you will be penalized.
Then I leave it in your court. What do you recommend Rich do for his clients?
If the video isn’t showing up for you and you’re dying to see who my guest is, click here and it’ll magically appear.
Thanks for using my LinkedIn graphic! :)
Gini and Co - we utilize Sales Force - a 'middle ground is that if you load a prospect into Sales Force there is a connector from LinkedIn that will give you 1st thru 3rd degree connections to your prospect so that you know who to approach first. We also do zip code / key word searches periodically on both LinkedIn and Manta to ensure that we've got a good 'list.' This seems to work pretty well on a smaller scale - don't think it would scale up very large though.
Thanks Gini for sharing. I have recently been using Linked in more. It has been a great way to get the word out on my posts as I send them to my groups (that allow this kind of thing) So I can reach 50,000 people easily. I don't post to the groups that restrict these things (for some reason the few mom entrepreneur and mom blogger groups are the only ones to not want people to post...) and only post articles that relate to that group.
For a matter of connecting, I have enjoyed sending requests to the interesting people in the groups that I have had dialogue with over a post online theirs or mine.
A small negative was that when I joined a nutrition group, I got bombarded with requests from people wanting me to sell their supplements... in the office. These have died down, whew!
Hi Gini,
I pretty much only seek to connect with people I have met off line, or know 'well' by phone, or from group discussion etc. I've made a conscious effort to be more active on Linkedin, especially in groups, which seems like an appropriate way to build relationships - and hopefully business. I'm a bit 'ho-hum' about using Linkedin for prospecting except as a way to get direct, personal introductions.
As I'm thinking about this topic, I wonder if we have somehow ended up in a world where some (many?) people have lost the skill of learning about other people's business/interests and being on the look out to help oil the wheels of business my making good introductions?
The more we can do to make Linkedin connecting a good experience, the better. I for one could do with fewer people I don't know seeking to connect via the standard "lets connect" request.
I like Barry's comment. If you can't get a connection, go with the old fashioned way of just get in there and try to establish contact. If we want to create business we've got to connect and talk with people, and find out how we can help each other. Just gotta be out there, be respectful but do create opportunities!
As always, you've got me thinking. No doubt I'll be more mindful of how I'm using Linkedin this week.
Kate
kategroom Weird, Kate. I was JUST thinking about you! I still haven't figured out the power of LinkedIn, from the perspective of making me want to use it every day like I do Facebook and Twitter. But it is pretty powerful if you want to make a connection and have mutual friends in common.
ginidietrich How amazing life is! Was thinking this morning "I need to have another go at applying ginidietrich 's morning routine for Twitter, writing etc" (now that I've figured out what I/we really do). So the universe somehow drew me to your Twitter stream. I loooove that :)
I've found a couple of groups on Linkedin with good discussion. And I like the idea of sharing and developing thoughts there, so pushing ahead with it. I've done business as a result of participating in discussion groups, and just got a great referral from another. My instinct is groups are a key to making Linkedin effective, but they seem to benefit from some leadership/seeding/direction to work well (and probably no-spam policy!).
Perhaps the challenge with Linkedin is we don't get that quick feedback and interaction, so it feels less 'personal'. My blindspot is Facebook, but I'm now pretty much convinced I need to be there for business. I seem to have resistance to that, which I guess comes from being horrified that people have it 'open' all day. Guess I need to get over that (Note to self: I am not my customer).
kategroom Now that Facebook has changed their timeline and their terms of service (again) you might be better off waiting to see how it all shakes out before you spend any time there. It looks like it will have pretty big implications for businesses. Not that I'm trying to talk you out of it...
I think it comes down basic understanding and common sense. When you ask someone on a date, the request is actually for something else. You may not mind going through a mutual attraction/compatibility process; then again you could be indifferent to compatibility or even impatient with the process, all of which could affect the end result. It truly is similar with LinkedIn. The whole idea of expanding a contact list is for referrals for jobs, employees or business. (except for those that accrue contacts in hope that contacts will one day be some form of worldwide currency). Having said that, LinkedIn is a very powerful tool when used appropriately. Why waste it by using LinkedIn as a form of direct mail? Research potential clients. As Gini said, ask a contact to make an introduction. If there is no intro possible and the product/client match is really good, go for it. If you don't ask the answer is no. Don't handle LinkedIn with kit gloves, it's all grown-up.
I've always found it best to tread lightly where Linked In is concerned. From my perspective, it really just seems like the service is geared more toward job seekers and employers than content/PR types looking to spread their business around to potential clients. (I also assume that this explains why LI is now the number 2 social networking site on the 'net - bad economy, record high levels of unemployment, etc.)
If there are any tips floating out there as to how we can use Linked In effectively as a business that's not looking for employees but contractor work, that would be swell. Heck, maybe I'll submit it as a Facebook question...
From my perspective, I would think that LinkedIn groups would be the place to prospect vs. connection requests. Groups (and Answers for that matter) allow you to build industry credibility and thought leadership...by definition it probably wouldn't generate any quick wins, but over time....
EmmaofCEM I agree it's not a great place for distributing content. But, it does drive a lot of traffic here for us, when I post a particular blog post in a group for discussion. And you SHOULD submit a FB question! :)
Gini, my experience has been similar to yours. When I first started marketing for others I attempted to build out a larger list of connections, both for myself and my clients. I always approached people that there was already a lower level connection with (usually a member of a group that we were in). I would not have considered them "spam" - I was not sending out a lot of requests at any one time, and they were each personalized. However, LinkedIn was fairly quick to shut me down - not completely, but for awhile any request that I made had to be accompanied by the person's email address. This passed after awhile, but it will still pop up every once in a while if I am active in connecting on a given day. Hope this helps,
Brent
Brent@Echelonseo.com That's exactly what happened to me. I was personalizing every invitation, too. I think just a few months ago they began to allow me to use it without the person's email address.
If I don't have a group, school, or other direct connection...I still have to include an email address. If I select "friend" or "other" when sending a request, I am required to include an email address or I can't send it.
I was never spamming (although Facebook has called me one in the past too) and in many cases I was trying to reconnect with colleagues from a past life. But regardless, LinkedIn is pretty strict.
Neil_Rubenstein I was just going to say you're a bad example because Facebook won't let you send friend requests. LOL!
ginidietrich Their bark was worse than their bite. Although I wasn't able to post to groups and pages for a while either. Maybe that's what I used to get stopped in airports all the time when making day trips for work...now it all makes sense.
[...] Using LinkedIn to Prospect for New Business (spinsucks.com) [...]
[...] today I was going through my reader this morning and I found a post by Gini Deitrich about Using LinkedIn to Prospect for New Business. I really enjoyed the article, and while reading it I realized I wasn’t using LinkedIn [...]
[...] I was going through my reader this morning and I found a post by Gini Dietrich about Using LinkedIn to Prospect for New Business. I really enjoyed the article, and while reading it I realized I wasn’t using LinkedIn [...]