Fill your Sales Pipeline using LinkedIn

In the past year, we’ve seen many organizations take their marketing efforts online with rapid digital transformations. Some have made the transition more successfully than others. One of the main platforms being used in this shift has been LinkedIn. Knowing how to use LinkedIn effectively has become a huge advantage for finding (and landing) clients virtually. Even if you’re a bit reserved or not social media savvy.

So, how do you fill your sales pipeline using LinkedIn? Why is it so important to use this platform for prospecting? And how do you avoid becoming just another piece of noise?

In this week’s podcast, we explore LinkedIn lead generation, including ideas and tips based on actual results. Serial entrepreneur, Candace Edelen, CEO of PropelGrowth, joins Murray and Samantha to share her successful strategies for networking and engaging with prospects through LinkedIn.

Listen in to discover more about these main takeaways:

• Take some time to create personal connection requests. Show your prospect you’ve done your research and understand some of their concerns or pain points
• Pick a niche and then find 20 – 40 companies within that niche. Find people who represent your ideal customer profile, then identify the key people who would likely be on the buying committee for your product or service
• LinkedIn is a marketing tool. Your profile needs to be very customer-centric. Make it relevant to them and show how you can help them improve their business outcomes
• LinkedIn success is a long game. A few random posts over a few weeks probably won’t give you the success you’re after. Being consistent – and providing value, like sending a prospect some new research or information you come across that might help them – improves your performance

How much would your business grow if you could accomplish this kind of success?

• Over the course of six months, Candace got 500 accepted connections – a 76 percent connection acceptance rate
• Out of that, 355 of those people actually engaged through messages
• And then out of those, 125 of them booked meetings with her to get acquainted over Zoom. Keep in mind, this was in 2018 before Zoom was as popular or well-known as it is now
• Her conversion ratio was about 25 percent
• Compare LinkedIn networking to other marketing avenues: Candace was getting a 71 percent response rate (people not only accepted her request, but they replied) with LinkedIn. With cold calling, about two percent of cold calls result in an appointment. With email marketing, if you’re marketing to a cold list and you get a 20 percent open rate, that’s going to be pretty amazing

According to Omnicore data, 90 million LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers and 63 million are in decision-making positions. There are 17 million opinion leaders and 10 million C-Level executives on LinkedIn.

How are you engaging with your connections? Check out this podcast for more information on how to improve your online marketing game with LinkedIn!