Imagine if someone offered you a database of nearly every single potential customer you could ever want to do business with.
The data covers every industry, it tells you the latest information about your target customers and it’s always up-to-date.
Sounds pretty good, right? How much would you pay for that kind of information? £1,000? Even at £10,000 it’d be a bargain.
The good news is, it’s completely free if you start using LinkedIn to its full potential.
The bad news is, most business people unknowingly make a series of simple mistakes that stop them getting the in-bound leads, warm phone calls and business opportunities they deserve!
I spent months in my manufacturing sales business Fibrecore trying to make contact with senior purchasing managers, heads of R&D departments and managing directors of SMEs – all to no avail.
It was only once I heard some tips from a fellow machinery salesman that I understood how to start getting great B2B sales leads coming in.
Within 3 weeks I had appointments at companies that had rejected my cold calls, leads for machinery worth more than £153,000 and an invitation to be a keynote speaker at a conference in Germany for Europe’s largest automotive and aerospace seating companies.
Over the coming months, I developed this information into a simple system that I now share with everyone from network marketers and physiotherapists to sales managers and start-up entrepreneurs.
So, to help you start getting great results, I’ve put together 14 LinkedIn tips that you can start putting into practice straight away.
1. Attract more profile views
You get 120 characters (including spaces) to write your LinkedIn professional headline. Rather than stating your job title – which no-one is actually interested in – write a catchy summary of how you help people and the problems that you solve.
2. Get more in-bound leads
One of the big mistakes is that people write their LinkedIn summaries about themselves. If people are looking at your LinkedIn summary, they want to know how you could help them. Use your summary to explain the problems your customers have and how your products/services could solve their problems once and for all.
3. Cut the jargon
Would you introduce yourself to someone by saying: “John Smith is a dynamic and innovative leader who excels in a dynamic, high-complexity, international sales environment”? No. Probably not. So why do it on LinkedIn. Be human and write like you speak!
4. Attract more recommendations
Always be asking for recommendations. But don’t just ask people to recommend you. Help them out by suggesting what they could say. This makes it quicker and easier for them and means you’re more likely to get the types of recommendation you want.
5. Impress customers during face-to-face meetings
If you leave your recommendations on your LinkedIn profile, then they will only be seen by people who look at your LinkedIn profile. Instead, use them to make a testimonials document. You can take this to meetings and leave with prospects. It’s a fantastic way to show potential customers the great results they’ll get by working with you!
6. Be proactive and search for new customers
By using the LinkedIn advanced search, you can uncover hundreds of people that match your ideal customer profile. Just by using the free version of LinkedIn, you can search for prospects according to location, job title and keywords. It’s a super-powerful – and free – function!
7. Expand your reach beyond your network
Normally, LinkedIn won’t let you connect with people outside your network. However, if you join the same group, you can send an introductory message about yourself and how you could help them. It’s a great way to get a compelling sales offer in front of the right people quickly.
8. Be remembered by your customers more easily
Publishing hints and tips that your potential customers will find useful is a great way to showcase your expertise. But instead of thinking up dozens of new tips each week, focus on re-purposing your content. Turn a one-line tip into a 5-step action guide, and then turn that guide into a 600-word blog. Finally, you can turn that blog into the script for a YouTube video or a PowerPoint presentation for a talk you’re doing.
9. Rank better in SEO
Like all social media platforms, LinkedIn is highly rated by Google for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Decide on the keywords you’d like to be known for online and pack your profile full of them. That means every part of your LinkedIn profile: Your professional headline, summary, experience, endorsements and recommendations.
10. Get in touch with the top people
One way to massively increase the number of top business people you can find and connect with is to join lots of groups. Search for groups that contain potential customers, referral partners with a non-competing interest in the same customer demographic, or key influencers from within your industry.
11. Make it easy to be found
Do you have a long and complicated name? Or do people know you by a shorter version of your official name? It can be useful to write a line in your summary with all the usual misspellings and alternative spellings of your name. This makes it much easier for people to find you. LinkedIn’s search algorithm is pretty sensitive and you can be overlooked if people don’t get your name right first time.
12. Maximise your gains and minimise your loses
Like almost all free online software, there is a paid-for version of LinkedIn (several in fact). LinkedIn will ask you to pay for its premium version. Benefits of the paid-for service include extended search powers and the option to send paid-for messages to potential customers anywhere around the world. If you’re convinced that signing up is right for you, then go ahead, carry out all your messaging to potential customers – and then cancel your subscription at the end of the month.
13. Don’t forget the benefits
Don’t expect the world to come to you wanting to connect. Encourage people you meet to connect with you on LinkedIn with a call to action on your marketing material (business cards, brochures etc). But crucially, give them a benefit to doing so. Explain what’s in it for them.
14. Stand out from the crowd
Visual content is a great way to make yourself stand out whenever someone looks at your profile. If you’ve got visually appealing marketing material, upload it to your LinkedIn profile. You can even try uploading it to SlideShare (the YouTube of PowerPoint slides). LinkedIn owns SlideShare so the two programmes sync well together.
For more information and dozens more tips on how you or your sales people can get more in-bound leads, more warm phone calls and more business opportunities in 3 easy steps, contact Tom Mallens.
Go to: www.tommallens.com/moreleads
Email: tom@tommallens.com
Call: +44 (0)1926 678 920
Tweet: @TomMallens
Link in: www.linkedin.com/in/TomMallens
Skype: tom.mallens