Using LinkedIn as an Effective Prospecting Tool
LinkedIn can be an incredibly valuable prospecting tool. What you probably don’t know are the many advanced ways of using Linkedin to enhance your prospecting search. LinkedIn can be used as a means to find executives with very niche responsibilities, conduct research on executives that you have found via alternative prospecting techniques, and identify multiple executives at the same company with similar responsibilities.
Expand Your Network
After setting up your LinkedIn profile, the most important task is to expand your network. Adding current and former colleagues and joining relevant groups (college alumni & industry-specific groups) are probably the most effective ways to do this. To expand your network even further, consider joining open networking groups and adding those group members to your existing network. Adding people from open networking groups can have some draw-backs (as you don’t actually know these people), but keep in mind that the more people you have in your network, the more profiles you will be able to view.
Executive Search
Once you have established your network, it is time to begin your executive search. Once LinkedIn generates a list of relevant executives, you will notice that you can only see the names of those executives that are either in your network or one of your groups. This can be rather limiting.
When you view an executive’s profile, scroll down to the lower right hand side of the page and you will see a box that says “viewers of this profile also viewed…” This box may contain executives with responsibilities similar to your current prospect.
Searching by Background
Another important thing to remember about LinkedIn is that you can search for executives with a specific background, be it consulting, PR, etc. If you know that executives with a consulting background are more receptive to your company’s business model, then type consulting into the keywords field, and see what executives your search provides.
In the End
If you use alternative techniques for Prospecting, which most of us do, LinkedIn can still be a very valuable resource. Since many executives provide a small description of their current roles, it is helpful to search an executive’s name to see a blurb about their responsibilities. I have had ample success modifying my pitch based on a prospect’s specific responsibilities. In many cases, it is also useful to see where an executive has worked in the past, the type of work they performed, and what universities they have attended. Although everyone has their own prospecting preferences, it never hurts to see what a LinkedIn search can yield. Using multiple prospecting tools always provides better results than just one.
Contributor: Amy Lessans
Interested in learning more about LinkedIn for sales?
Posted by on 06/05 at 02:15 PM
