There are typically two stages to the LinkedIn sales process, making the connection and then making the sale. While the first stage is hard, the second stage is usually much harder – and a lot longer than you might first think.

Getting in front of the right people, the “decision makers”, isn’t always a simple task as these can vary from company to company. Where companies traditionally relied on cold calling to reach decision makers, this is often met with so-called “gatekeepers”, and you can’t always guarantee you will reach the right person. In many ways, social media posts are similar, in that you are aiming to reach people with a mutual interest, but you cannot guarantee you are targeting the decision maker specifically.

If you’re serious about targeting key decision makers and generating leads and sales on LinkedIn, we’ve put together a list of tips to help you get in front of the right people quickly, efficiently, and most importantly, effectively.

Optimise Your Profile

Your LinkedIn profile is the perfect place to make a great first impression. But in order to make sure it reaches and resonates with the right people, you need to optimise it. This means populating it with key information on your product or service and including important links and contact details.

Ensuring your profile is visually appealing with a branded cover photo that conveys what you do in 2-3 seconds is also vital. Think about the essential information a decision maker will need to see value in your business and make sure it is easily accessible.

Network

Networking on LinkedIn doesn’t mean speculatively reaching out to new people, it needs to be a targeted process. This means carrying out profile searches using relevant search terms to find the decision-makers in an organisation.

For more targeted searches, we recommend using Sales Navigator, which has been carefully designed with additional search filters that enable you to find and connect with the right people.

Publicly Engage with Target Contacts

If you have identified a key decision-maker, engage with their public content and make yourself known. If you connect intelligently by commenting on an article and holding a meaningful conversation, this could lead to a connection, a relationship, and most importantly, a sale.

As well as commenting, you can share their content with your network to broaden their audience. You can also tag them in relevant content to help strike up a conversation.

Personalise Connection Requests

By adding some personalisation to your connection request messages, you are immediately increasing the likelihood of acceptance. Take a moment to view their profile and make a personalised comment based on their recent posts or work anniversaries.

This personalised information often strikes a chord, as long as it is friendly and relevant. You should also include a call-to-action prompting them to connect in order to help accelerate the process.

Use LinkedIn InMails

LinkedIn InMails are a great way to reach out to people you are not already connected to. With a higher character limit than an initial connection request message, they enable you to add additional context and scope out the potential for collaboration in one simple step.

Join LinkedIn Groups

Joining and participating in LinkedIn groups that key decision-makers are members of is a great way to be seen and noticed. This helps people get to know you quickly without reaching out directly, and immediately puts your business front and centre, enabling you to promote your product or service to the right people.

LinkedIn Training from Bee Social Marketing

Our bespoke LinkedIn training includes everything from tips for connecting with the right people to a fully personalised LinkedIn strategy to help you put your new skills into practice – two critical components in the process of converting leads into actual sales.

So, contact our team at Bee Social Marketing and we can help get you in front of the people who can truly influence your sales figures.