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Using LinkedIn to Prospect
When I speak to CEO groups, the first thing I ask the audience is what they want to learn during our three hours together.
More often than not, they want to know how to use LinkedIn for prospecting.
It’s so simple, it’s a wonder hardly anyone uses it.
If you love to make cold calls, you’re sick in the head and there is no need for you to read on. But, if you’re like me, and would prefer an introduction or a warm lead, following are five steps for using LinkedIn to do just that.
There are lots of ways you can pay to have this done. For instance, you can upgrade to the premium version of LinkedIn or use Mozenda to scrape data for you. But the recommendations here are all on the free version.
1. Log into your account (I know, I know, but many people forget they have to do this and then call me and say, “It won’t work.” Uh…are you logged in?).
2. Go to the search bar and type in the search you want. For this purpose, and because it’s my target, we’re going to use CEO.
3. Then the search page comes up and you can refine your search. Because I am a Vistage member and speaker, I’m going to click on people who also are Vistage members or speakers. Then, I’m going to refine to second connections because I want to meet people I don’t already know. Then I’m going to narrow it down to the greater Chicagoland area. May as well work here for now so I don’t have to get on a plane. Then I can even narrow down the industries, if I want. For this purpose, I do “all industries.” The search gives me 24 results.
4. Then I’m going to scroll through the 24 results and see if there are any companies that make sense for us. We specialize in manufacturing and healthcare so not all of them will be good contacts for us. Kevin Krak looks like he might be a good connection. I click to see who our six shared connections are and voila! I know that I can ask all six of them what they know about Kevin, if he hires PR/marketing firms, and if they’d be willing to make an introduction. I’d probably start with Jeannie Walters, even though she’d likely tell me to stick it.
5. Then I can do one of two things: I can either click the “get introduced” button and ask Jeannie to introduce me that way or I can just send him a personal invite through “add to network.” If I do the former, I’m going to have a separate conversation with Jeannie first, in order to gauge her relationship with him and to get as much information as I can. And I prefer that method because it becomes a referral, not just me sending him an invite with the hope of connecting.
And that’s really it. It takes maybe 10 minutes to go through this entire process. You can even use the advanced search, combine all of the search results, and export into an Excel document so you can track your prospects. It’s that simple.
So why, exactly, are you not already doing this?
Great looking post!! We may now use livefyre on our blog.. really cool..
And we are looking for guest bloggers on our blog www.blog.hubze.com I'd love a LinkedIn expert!
Wow Great Tip for the Day for me. These detailed steps make it easy to follow. Only need to be consistent. Using LinkedIn to Prospect Steps. Thanks for sharing @Gini Dietrich.
To answer your question, I had thought about it but never pulled the trigger. So, I just did and a good friend agreed to introduce me to a prospect. If a love connection is made in the future, I'll buy you a coffee or a hoagie or something when you're here for the book tour. BTW, I feel a new prospecting addiction coming on with Linkedin. I've now moved on to reporters.
Gini - whilst I understand the introduction method I thought that you needed someone'e email address to attempt to add them to your network. Or they need to have been a colleague, classmate, done business or a friend. Clicking " I don't know " does not work does it??
Chris,
You can contact/send invitation if you are part of a group with the contact you are trying to reach. Plus, most people show the groups they belong to in their profile. So, if you are not in a group together, you can do a bit of research and join one they belong to that is a common interest to both of you.
Okay, you had me when you said, "If you love to make cold calls, you’re sick in the head and there is no need for you to read on." That's exactly why I started using LinkedIn years ago. Relationship selling is much more profitable in the long term. Jeffrey Gitomer says, "You can make a sale and earn a commission, or you can make a friend and earn a fortune." LinkedIn in helps you leverage your existing relationships to build new ones that can help you earn a fortune!
Their stock has been a wild ride if you play the cycle right you could be rich! I was always more bullish on LinkedIn vs Facebook. And these are great tips Gini. problem is if you are really successful using LinkedIn for leads then we won't need inbound marketing?
HowieSPM I think LinkedIn is push marketing/sales and inbound marketing is pull marketing/sales.
ginidietrichHowieSPM depends how you use it. I publish my blog to LinkedIn daily, as well as a number LinkedIn groups. It brings a lot of traffic to my site. And a few of those groups are local. I know of at least two clients I have gotten after they were first introduced to me on LinkedIn as a result of my blog. However what you are talking about here is a bit more push. And LinkedIn clearly works better for some business categories and types of work by nature of how people use it and who is on here, whereas other, more inbound, types of marketing might work better for other business categories.
I said to myself earlier today that I needed to get back to LinkedIn and spend some more time over there. I'm not looking for a new job and my company isn't hiring right but NOW is the exact time to be working my contacts on LinkedIn. Plus, I should always look for ways to cultivate outside clients for my freelance business so thanks for this!
LinkedIn has been a source of prospecting for many for a long time. Once you get past the stalking aspect of it, the rest is easy. Have you all did the reverse and used the tool to see who's been stalking you, then reached out to them?
AlbertMaruggi I LOVE the tool to see who's stalking me. It's kind of fun...and enlightening.
ginidietrich back in my yeut, as My Cousin Vinny says there was a song by Slave called Watching You. The line was walking down the street watching ladies go by watching you. http://youtu.be/4-CgY3x9480 yeah that right he said 1977, you weren't born yet. : )
AlbertMaruggiginidietrich Albert, I actually remeber that song and Slave. They had a real funky song called "Slide". Wow ! Old School Flashback. Thanks.
ginidietrichAlbertMaruggi Uh ........ there's a TOOL for that ? Oops. Thanks for that info.
AlbertMaruggi How do you check who is stalking you? :-) That sounds like fun.
kamichatAlbertMaruggi Over in the right sidebar, there is a box that says "people who viewed your profile." Go explore!
kamichat the more you pay the more you know : ) - It makes me want to put a line in my profile - I see you watching me, tune in tomorrow for more. or some wisenheimer remark : )
Hey way to go Gini, nice to see something about LinkedIn, not a daily thing for sure!
Why I am I not doing this? I am not in sales mode... I know I should be and need to be but to be in that mode means I intend to grow more than I already am which I am not ready for today :)
hackmanj What?! You don't want to grow?? I think we've talked about this, but that was a very valuable lesson I learned early in the growth of Arment Dietrich - sometimes bigger does NOT mean better.
ginidietrich it's a delicate balancing act, isn't it?
I love LinkedIn, I hated for a while. Now I just love it. I really do. True it's not as fun as FB or Twitter, but hey hard work usually isn't.
If you had to divide your leads across social media, which one would you say brings the most leads?
John Falchetto Twitter, by far, brings us the most leads from a social media perspective. My speaking is #1 and this blog is #2.
ginidietrich So it's the blog in a way, would you say you get your speaking invites from this blog?
John Falchetto No, most people I speak to have never heard of the blog. I get speaking from the bureau I belong to, Vistage, and then word-of-mouth. Most of the keynotes come from someone either heard me speak or got a referral from someone who heard me speak.
ginidietrichJohn Falchetto Since Gini LOVES when I add my opinion, I'll add it here. :) I actually am surprised by how much traffic I get from LinkedIn. It also serves a purpose I didn't expect - reminding people I know peripherally what I actually do. Recently I got an international project thanks to someone I know looking up the term "customer experience" on LI when they didn't know who to call. Total Win/Win.
jeanniecw Linkedin is my top 5 traffic referrer.
LinkedIn is a great resource and a very powerful tool. I suspect that some people overlook it because the profile pages feel a bit stuffier than what we might find elsewhere.
Honestly I don't use LinkedIn all that much to prospect, but when I do, I see a huge leap in networking and success. However, I've never used the method you described. Usually I'll just go answer some questions, comment in groups and generally socialize. And if I see someone I like, I'll ask to connect. This is an interesting method, though, one I'll have to try!
MorganBarnhart I do the same - with groups and questions. But it's a passive way of driving leads. This is very active...and it works!
So why, exactly have YOU not shared this sooner ? Can't decide if I like you for your smarts or because you are a smart ass. Who am I kidding. Smart ass. Ha ! Thanks Gini. Some more sh..... stuff to do. Really is great info. Love it, when it's practical and easy. I have a lot to learn and I will be trying this out soon. Need to get better connected and acquainted with Linked In. Thanks again.
Al
Great strategy, Gini. I should put this to work :) I don't think I have ever seen a "tutorial" post from you before, have I?
Linkedin search is awesome thing and the premium version really makes it awesome too :)
Can't say Thank You enough!! For me GD used to be a curse, but I'm on a mission to change it to mean Fantastic Person Who Knows Her Stuff, as in "You are so GD, I'm nominating you for Person of the Year!" (Is that enough brown nosing?)
ginidietrich I refuse to answer on grounds it might incriminate me.
On another note, I think you broke the GD server with this post!! Takes forever to get in. Congrats!!
So this is what learning feels like.
I now realize why I've never done anything useful on LinkedIn besides sharing my blog posts.
Conversation from Twitter
dfallon23 Thank you!
mackcollier Grazi.
JaimeSolis_ LOL! Or that...
SheratonNJShore LOL! Very easy!
ginidietrich yeah like duh! Face palm! easy :) It just occurred to me the other day to search Linked In that way....
jgoldsborough Twitter AND Facebook? Thank you!
ginidietrich Uh, yeah. It was that good :).
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