Many people associate LinkedIn with just networking or employment opportunities. Actually, LinkedIn is also an effective platform for salespeople to find potential clients via networks and referrals, especially if you know exactly who your targeted audiences are.

Today’s post is on the 5 ways to drive sales through LinkedIn social selling.

Method #1: Connect with potential customers and help each other generate value.

Do not approach people with the immediate intention of selling them things, or to do “cold pitching”. Instead, build your network way before you make any sort of pitches to your prospects.

The way to build your network before doing any sale is simply to provide value to everyone and anyone. Listen to people you meet and treat them sincerely. If something is easy for you, extend a helping hand, or make a business introduction. Help people reach their dreams, and they will help you with yours. With LinkedIn, introductions can be as simple as writing a fast email to link two parties up or providing a recommendation to somebody.

The guideline here is to balance between not selling yourself short and offering “free” services, and being of professional value to people around you.

Method #2: Join “LinkedIn Groups”.

LinkedIn Groups are places where the people in your industry are clustered at–they are “your tribe”. From the postings, you can find out who are the thought-leaders in the industry. From the comments, you can usually find out what people are concerned about, and who they are: Are they prospects, partners, or competitors?

It is possible to make useful and thoughtful posts on LinkedIn Groups to position yourself as the thought leader in the industry. Better still, start a LinkedIn Group yourself and become the administrator. Nonetheless, no matter what role you play, you can always contact other group members directly in the group, even if you do not have any prior or mutual professional contacts with them.

Now, that’s a start to something amazing.

Method #3: Upgrade to LinkedIn Premium.

LinkedIn offers a free 1-month trial for LinkedIn Premium. Once you have LinkedIn Premium, you can access the LinkedIn Sales Navigator. One of the most important features of LinkedIn Sales Navigator is that you can build accounts lists on it, which allows you to monitor the latest updates and content sharing of the said companies. Once you can track their movements and behaviours, you can do active social media listening. The key here is to focus on major new pain points a company has and see how you can help them solve their problems.

After doing that, you can use the Sales Navigator to also build lead accounts, which can be categorised by very specific parameters. This is so that your lead list can be more complete, right down to knowing exactly who is performing what function in the said industry.

LinkedIn also has an “export to CRM” extension for google chrome browser, so with a simple click of the button, you can build your prospect contact list as well.

Method #4: Use “advanced search”.

Instead of the normal search function on LinkedIn, use the advanced search when you are narrowing down for prospects to market your goods and services. This is especially useful when you are refining your target audience–it is always good to reach out to the right people who can and are willing to make purchase decisions. After searching by industry and title, you can then see if there are mutual contacts to make the introduction.

Be sure to balance between unnecessarily bothering your contact and not asking completely though.

Method #5: Ask a trusted common contact to refer prospects.

Nothing beats a direct referral from a past client. This is after all relationship marketing– If you have worked closely with a client prior and had massively surpassed expectations, then the client would be more than happy to recommend you. Also, because there are a verifiable portfolio and a real client to refer to and benchmark your service on, the prospect will have greater assurance on quality.

So, use LinkedIn to keep in contact with your past clients and prospects. Look for ways to value-add to their businesses on a regular basis even before entering any monetary transaction. These ways can range from something simple like sharing relevant quality articles, or actively keeping in contact via personalised messages.

We hope you have enjoyed today’s article on how to use LinkedIn to do effective social selling!