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When it comes to B2B content marketing and sales outreach, LinkedIn should be the top social media platform used by small businesses.
Here are some statistics from January 2023 which help explain why. No surprise then that 75% of B2B marketers advertise on LinkedIn.
But what I’m going to discuss here is how to generate leads on LinkedIn and how to get the most out of the platform for free.
Most salespeople don’t use LinkedIn to maximum effect. Or they just plain get it wrong. If you get it right, you’ll have an automatic competitive advantage.
Here are some quick links to the sections below:
The biggest mistake salespeople make on LinkedIn
Before we get into what works, it’s worth covering the most common mistake salespeople make on LinkedIn.
I’m often amazed at how often I’m approached on LinkedIn with an invitation to connect (from people I don’t know) and with a message that’s a clear sales pitch.
It surprises me even more when these come from marketing professionals who I’d assume would have trained themselves on the psychology of why and how we buy. They should know that a hard sell from the open is a recipe for failure.
Inviting someone to connect on LinkedIn with a sales pitch is like proposing on a first date.
In fact, this approach (which is remarkably common) is probably the main reason salespeople using LinkedIn fail to connect with potential prospects.
Of course, some people will accept any invitation blindly. It may just be their way. Or they may be trying to build their social media status by increasing their number of followers or connections.
But never forget that these are the people who will almost always go silent afterwards. After accepting your invitation, they move on.
Most often though, people will be sceptical, irritated or both. They won’t want to open the door to repeated reminders of the same hard sell. Because that’s what happens. And so your cold invitation with a sales pitch will probably fall flat.
And the people who send these types of pitches almost always mistakenly assume that if someone accepts their invitation to connect, it means they’re now open to being sold something. Not true.
I’ve had sales colleagues who complain and are puzzled when the connections they make don’t respond to a sales pitch. They would often say — why are these people on LinkedIn if they don’t want to engage?
What they overlook is that almost everyone hates a sales pitch that comes out of nowhere. Their immediate thought is probably something along the lines of — ‘I don’t know you and you want something from me. No, thank you’.
The danger is also that second chances don’t come around. You’ll be remembered as the sales pest and any follow-up messages will likely be ignored.
If you use LinkedIn, it's worth remembering that people accept connections for all sorts of reasons (apart from boosting their profile status) — advancing their career, sharing ideas, meeting new people in their industry, networking across broader geographies, learning new skills, finding conference speakers, etc.
A good marketing salesperson will always consider what would motivate someone to accept their invitation.
They won’t even send one until they’ve thought about this. And the best will always be ready to tailor their interaction based on what that motivation turns out to be.
I say marketing salesperson because that’s what’s needed to sell on LinkedIn. In fact, it’s probably more than that. Marketing sales advisor is perhaps the better descriptor.
Your starting point to sell on LinkedIn is to create an appealing profile.
How to create a LinkedIn profile that sells
You should treat every part of your LinkedIn profile as if it were a billboard. Most importantly, don’t write it like your CV (unless all you’re doing is looking for a job). It’s meant to sell not tell.
Your profile is not only what people will look at when you send them an invitation. It’s also what LinkedIn will scan so it can respond to search queries. If your profile doesn’t sell neither will you.
And if you have a team of salespeople then it’s good to make all their profiles look consistent across your company (but, of course, with different content). It will send a coherent message of professionalism, branding and service.
Use the right headshot
Your headshot will be what people see first. If a professional headshot photographer is within your budget (and here’s a recommendation of a very good one) then that’s the best option. But, if not, you can take a good photo yourself using a smartphone.
If you go for the second option, you should make it look as close to a professional headshot as possible. You should wear clothes that your prospective clients would expect to see you wearing for work. And a smile is always welcoming.
Social photographs (you on the beach or at a friend’s wedding) are better kept for your personal Facebook or Instagram page.
Make the most of your banner profile
Your profile background or banner sits behind your headshot. It offers you a great opportunity to include a powerful marketing message.
Canva and Adobe Express have plenty of plug-and-play templates to get you started.
In your copy, focus your message on how you help people (what problem you solve). It should not be about what you do. The best marketing always focuses on the benefits your customer will experience not the features you sell.
Here’s an example for a cybersecurity expert:
Securing today, protecting tomorrow — leading the way in cybersecurity
Take ‘sales’ out of your headline
Below your name is your LinkedIn headline. You should use it in a way that appeals to your prospects.
There are various options here.
Job title
This can work if you hold a senior position. Or you’re job hunting. Or you have a passive approach to LinkedIn.
It’s a bad idea for any sales or business development people (which is essentially the same thing) to include their job title here. This is simply because people will be put off from connecting if they think a sales pitch is the next message they’ll get (which is usually the case).
It’s also a waste of a marketing opportunity given you’ll repeat your job title in your work section.
What you do
People will be more inclined to interact with you if it's clear what benefit you can bring to them.
It's common to see phrases such as ‘I help companies…’ or ‘I show people…’.
So, for example — ‘Showing companies how to secure their future — cybersecurity expertise you can trust’.
Personal brand promotion
This is another successful option. It works as a clear, bullet-pointed approach and can cover the full expanse of the value you offer. It also conveys the experience of the person and that they are an authority in their field.
Here’s an example:
Renowned cybersecurity expert | International keynote and panel speaker | NED board member | Industry advisor | Training specialist | Business consultant
Remember, your profile is not just about outbound selling. It should make you as easy to find as possible — by the people who can help grow your brand and your business. So keywords (i.e. what people will search for when they're looking for people like you) are very important.
Make your LinkedIn summary customer focused
Your LinkedIn summary is the ‘About’ section in your profile. The character limit is 2,000.
Most people treat this section like the personal statement on their CV or resumé. This misses the marketing opportunity.
Instead of describing your personal achievements, it should instead focus on your prospective customers and what you can do for them.
Here are some questions you should answer to help you write your profile:
· Who are your customers?
· How do you help them?
· What do they achieve with your help?
· How many customers have you helped?
· How do you rank against your competitors?
You want your prospect to understand what they can expect from you. And to signal to them that you have the solution to their problem.
Also, bullet points can be a good way to do this as they are easier to read.
Here’s an example:
· Defending digital assets since 2010
· Devised and implemented robust cybersecurity strategies and controls across 100s of companies
· Helped companies save £5m in costs through cybersecurity efficiencies
· Trained >5,000 people on cybersecurity risks and best practices
· Trusted by government and industry — advisor on evolving sector protocols
· No.1 ranked cybersecurity expert in the 2022 and 2023 Security Excellence Awards
· Board member of UKCSA (UK Cyber Security Association)
Keyword and hashtag research are very useful here if you want to optimise your chances of being found through organic search.
Showcase your useful content in the activity section
The ‘Activity’ section comes directly after your LinkedIn profile summary. It includes your posts, comments and articles.
You can make the most of this section by providing visitors with a good overview of how you interact on the platform and what value you offer.
Your own posts should contain useful information for your prospects, i.e. they should demonstrate that you understand your customers’ pain points and you know how to solve them. They should also contain examples of how you’ve done this — your clients’ success stories and the part you played in helping them get there.
Social media is built around engagement and it’s important to make this meaningful. People often take a reactive approach. They may like or even repost a post but do little more. This can lead to missed opportunities and the chance to show you have valuable insights to offer.
Commenting on a post in a way that is useful for other readers shows you could be someone worth following or connecting with. And ‘useful’ is the operative word here. Writing ‘this is great’ or ‘very interesting’ says nothing about your perspective or opinion. It’s an empty comment and will make you look like a bystander rather than a thoughtful commentator.
Instead, if you agree with a post, explain your reasons why. And, similarly, if you disagree. Perhaps you can offer up an example of your experience and how that supports your position.
This way, when prospects come across, not only your posts, but those you have commented on, they will see that your knowledge could help them.
Articles (which are essentially blogs) are another way to demonstrate this. Remember to include keyword research and hashtags so you can be found more easily.
Give your most recent work experience the most attention
The work experience section is probably the one that will be the most CV-like. Although you should continue to keep your customers’ needs in mind as you write this.
Your most recent experience will be the most relevant for your prospects. This should, therefore, be the most detailed.
Where possible, your other experience should help supplement this role. You should think about how it has been useful for what you are doing now.
Recommendations are worth more than skill endorsements
Generally, people overlook endorsements. This is mainly because there’s no way to test their credibility.
However, what you can do is rank them in order of importance, i.e. those most relevant for your current job should be at the top of the section.
Recommendations (or testimonials), on the other hand, can add a lot of value. These are essentially reviews of your work and may often be a reason why people choose to work with you. This is an example of what psychologists call social proof — one of the main reasons we buy.
It’s interesting how few salespeople include recommendations. Or even ask for them from their customers.
The best time to ask for a referral is just after you’ve done something for a client that’s pleased them. And you can always offer to write something for them in return. Be sure to check that they don’t mind you sharing their positive feedback on other social media channels too. Or on your company page.
Keep your profile up to date
If you’re adding more testimonials and gaining more information that can help your customers, keeping your profile up to date will help you win more business.
How to find leads on LinkedIn
Before you start digging into LinkedIn’s search function, you need to know who you’re looking for, i.e. you need to create a target customer.
You may think, as many do, that the service you sell is for everyone. Even if you think that’s true, it’s worth segmenting your customer base for better targeting.
If we take our cybersecurity expert again, he/she could segment as follows:
· By industry
· By job title or level of seniority
· By department
· By company size
· By geography
Based on this, he/she could start to create a target customer list (which can be expanded as you gain traction).
The free version of LinkedIn limits you to around 300 searches per month. This may not seem like a lot but if you’ve narrowed down your target list, it can still be effective.
If you find the limit is too restrictive then you may want to upgrade to LinkedIn’s premium subscription (if it fits within your budget).
As a supplement to your search, you can also use Google to look for people by job title, company and region. If you add ‘LinkedIn’ in the search bar too, you’ll see profiles in the results.
There are various search filters on LinkedIn and you’ll need to decide which are the more relevant to get to the people you’re targeting.
And don’t forget that you can use logic functions in your search — AND, OR and NOT.
Don’t overlook groups and posts filters
There are over 1.2 million groups on LinkedIn and they can be great for finding new prospects.
This is where you will find people in the same industry or who have the same interests.
‘Posts’ is another very useful filter. It will show who has written on your search topic. You should also look at who has liked or commented on these posts. This should help increase your target list.
What people have written on in their posts could also act as a good conversation starter.
How to connect with people and network on LinkedIn
Once you have your list, you need to work on expanding your network of connections and adding valuable content.
Be aware that when you send a connection request, LinkedIn will also automatically make you a follower of that person. You can unfollow if that’s your preference.
The first, and most important, rule is to NEVER send a sales pitch with a connection request.
While connection requests with no personalised message is common, you may have more success if you include a note. Ideally, you should write something that shows you know something about your target.
Here’s an example (again, taking our cybersecurity expert):
Dear Penelope
I saw your post on phishing emails and how many company firewalls are struggling to block them. I have been working on this for some years and would love to connect.
Best wishes
This type of approach is more likely to work because it shows you’ve taken the time to understand your prospect by communicating your interest in a topic that is important to them (or they wouldn’t have written on it). All this should help create an opportunity to start a dialogue.
And when Penelope checks your profile, she’ll see that you’re more than your job title or CV. She’ll notice that you could be a useful contact for sharing ideas and perhaps doing business.
How to add valuable content on LinkedIn
Making the most of LinkedIn is as much about generating your own content as it is about finding sales leads.
You need to create original posts, articles, videos and polls that will appeal to your target customer. You also need to add useful comments on other people’s posts. Do this both on your own page and on the pages of relevant groups.
All your content should appeal to your prospective customers.
If you’re not sure what to include, take a look at how it’s done by the people who have high follower numbers in your industry.
· What topics do they write on?
· Who is their audience?
· How do they structure their content?
· What sort of content do they publish?
· How long is their content?
· What keywords and hashtags are they using?
· How do they engage with comments on their content?
· Who do they follow and what strategy do those people use?
The right content will help you become a thought leader in your industry. People (and businesses) will be drawn to you and when you send sales pitches, they will be more willing to accept them.
How to send a sales pitch on LinkedIn
After perfecting your profile and as you publish value-add content and engage on the platform, you’ll be ready to send pitches.
If you think about this from a marketing perspective, it will help you get the wording right.
Doing some research will also help. What do you know about your prospect. Do you know what they may have done already to solve their problem? Can you offer something more, something better?
Our cybersecurity expert would probably have stress-tested the target’s website. A human resources specialist may have investigated what type of HR support their target has. You get the picture.
Armed with information, you can then write a pitch that will get to the heart of their problem — with your solution.
Here’s an example:
Dear Richard
I think our team of experts could help reinforce the security of your website against vulnerabilities and cyber threats. We’ve helped 100s of companies gain peace of mind, including those in your sector. Here’s a link to some testimonials. [Link added here].
Let me know if you have ten minutes to discuss, perhaps over a coffee?
Best wishes
At the open, this pitch makes it clear what problem this potential customer faces. He/she also demonstrates their authority (having solved the problem for 100s of other companies) and provides social proof (through testimonials).
What’s also useful is the offer to discuss for ten minutes. Most salespeople ask for thirty minutes. Very few people have thirty minutes to spare, especially for a salesperson.
Ten minutes in an informal setting may just get your prospect interested enough to take your conversation further. Provided you say the right things at the meeting.
Another way to open up a dialogue is to pick up on comments on posts left by your prospects (see the ‘Penelope’ example above).
How to respond when people find you on LinkedIn
This will become more likely as your connections and content grow.
The free version of LinkedIn only allows you to see the last few people who have viewed your profile. If you check a few times a day, this should be enough not to miss anyone.
If you don’t have the time but do have the budget, you can upgrade to LinkedIn’s premium subscription which will give you access to the full list of viewers.
If someone of interest views your profile, you should thank them. You should then ask them something relevant about what they do in a way that links back to what you can do for them (but not in a sales-y way).
Here’s an example:
Dear Fred
Thank you for looking at my profile. I’d love to understand what your company’s approach to cybersecurity currently is?
Best wishes
This approach opens the door to getting directly to the client’s problem. If they engage, then you have an opportunity.
Just remember to take your time and focus on your customer. If you do that, your commission will follow.
And then rinse and repeat.
On a final note, we talk about how to generate more sales leads for your business in this blog.