The power of LinkedIn part 2
Now, if you had enough of me professing my love for LinkedIn yesterday, I’d like to share with you how I use LinkedIn in my business to not only get a 80-90 per cent connection rate, but also to start conversations with my leads (to qualify/ provide value to) and ultimately get them onto a sales call. Let’s dive in:
There’s a saying that “in order to have a friend, you have to BE a friend first”, and that’s the philosophy I apply with my LinkedIn (and cold email/ cold calls) campaigns.
It’s not about a secret message or template that tricks people into replying to you, and it’s not about spamming your sales message to anyone with pulse.
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The way I use LinkedIn is to be selective with who I approach, and to reach out to people not with the intention to sell, but with the intention to understand and help them.
I’m only interested in high quality clients - and clients who have a genuine need for the service I provide but how will I know that if I go into every contact with the intention of selling them straight away (rather than listening)?
So here’s how I get into the conversation with them:
1) Search and find your IDEAL leads
Let’s say that my ideal clients are the CEO’s or Owners of Financial Services businesses with revenues between $2m - $50m.
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Using the Advanced Find function in LinkedIn, we can see EXACTLY how many of these people exist, and who they are:
From the results, we’ve got 1,236 people who we might want to speak to.
I used to think “1,000 + people? Awesome - time to start sending messages” - but I guarantee that if you do that…the vast majority of people won’t respond.
Instead here’s what I do/ say.
I find a profile that is a great match for me, and likely to be an “ideal client”:
Now, before I message, I do a bit of research about this person (and please do think of them as PEOPLE, not as a lead).
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I’ll look at their profile, I’ll look at their business website, and I’ll read some of their posts if they have any.
When I know more about them (what they do, who they serve etc.) I ask to connect. Here’s my template. Note that each message I send is personalised (you can do template messages, but your response will be much lower).
Hi {{Name}},
I was doing some research on LinkedIn, and your profile was highlighted to me.
I was really impressed by (you know how you’ve done research? Compliment them on something you GENUINELY thought they do well etc.), so I thought I’d reach out, to follow your posts (if any)/ what your company is doing.
Would it be ok to connect on here?
You don’t have a lot of characters to work with, so keep it short and simple (but personal).
Now, from these messages - as long as people see that you’re a person and genuine, they’ll happily accept your invitation (it’s growing their own network as well, after all!) You might get a few people that respond like this:
But don’t worry too much about that.
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You’ve got to have a tough skin and a soft heart, and if 10% - 20% don’t want to connect (they don’t like how my face looks or whatever), that’s all good - don’t fret the minor things! Just move on.
Once they’ve connected - here’s the message I send to start the conversation and the relationship (not close the sale):
Subject: thanks for connecting {{Name}}!
Body: Hey {{Name}},
Thanks for connecting with me on here.
As I said on the invitation to connect - I really like/ I was really impressed by {{something you genuinely like or was impressed with}}.
I was hoping to ask a small favour of you… I’m just curious about one thing, and wanted to ask a quick question - what’s your biggest frustration when it comes to {{what do you}}.
Thanks in advance!
Now, when you send these messages, not everyone will reply - but I generally send one follow up a few days later, and between the follow up and the initial message - I get a 50 - 60% response rate.
If the response is something you can potentially help with, then it’s time to ask to get them on the phone.
Again, I take a “softly, softly” approach and try to UNDERSTAND them before even thinking about selling them anything.
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I’ll ask for a 5 minute phone call to understand a bit more about their problems and frustrations, and let them talk me through it. It’s only after I feel like I fully understand their frustrations that I decide if they are leads, or if I can help in some other way.
By doing this, I get to speak in my client’s language and I get to match their problems with a solution that’s right for them.
Now, LinkedIn is a fantastic tool. In fact, if I could only have one tool to grow my business – this would be it. Just remember though, that even though LinkedIn is a business network, the people on the other side of the screen as REAL humans (so don’t spam them or use it wrong way, because it makes it worse for everyone).
William Wang is a lead generation specialist and the founder of Growth Labz
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