In case you hadn't noticed, there's a whole lot happening
over on LinkedIn right now.
From a new, freelance marketplace to the ongoing, furious
debate about whether or not the world's largest "professional"
network is becoming too much like Facebook, there's plenty to ponder.
If, like me, you're mainly interested in using LinkedIn to
generate business for yourself, all of this is good news.
Long story short, LinkedIn is improving by leaps and bounds
- particular in its ability to facilitate business deals between its 433 million
members.
Below are six specific, proven steps that I've seen work
time and again in studying how to sell your products and services over on
LinkedIn.
Step 1 - Create a
Client-Facing Profile
This is the most important - and overlooked - step in the
entire process.
To summarize: Instead of having a profile page that reads
like an online résumé, instead you talk about the unique value and benefit your
product or service provides to your ideal clients and customers.
(Here's a step-by-step, free video training on how to create
a killer LinkedIn Profile.)
Step 2 - Target and
Engage Your Ideal Prospects
One of the most under-utilized features on all of LinkedIn
is the site's built-in search engine.
With access to nearly 450 million professionals in 200+ countries,
LinkedIn has enough data on you and me to make the NSA blush.
With a few keystrokes, you can immediately build a prospect
list that is both hyper-targeted by job title, industry type and/or location,
along with adding in "personal" markers like where someone went to
college or even what his or her non-work interests/hobbies are.
Best of all, there are now automation tools in place that
help you quickly build and scale personalized, 1-on-1 interactions with new
prospects you discover on LinkedIn.
Step 3 - Create
Content
You can't go fishing without bait, and you can market or
sell your products, services or even yourself (for a potential job opportunity
or to a recruiter) without content.
The good news is that it's easier than ever to create and share
all sorts of original content.
LinkedIn makes it easy to embed podcasts, videos, images,
sound clips and more both on your profile page and inside of blogs on the
platform.
The best type of content should "reverse-engineer"
the type of product/service you want to sell by demonstrating your expertise in
a given niche or area of your industry.
Step 4 - Add a CTA
If you've done all the work to craft a great piece of
content, top it off with a killer headline and then publish it on LinkedIn,
don't forget to give prospects an easy way to take the net step and engage you
further!
Follow these tips to build in a lead-generating Call To
Action (CTA) for each piece of content you create and share on LinkedIn.
Step 5 - Build in
Sales Funnels
As you build out a thriving network of targeted prospects
and connections on LinkedIn, it's critical that you both organize your
connections and put a sales funnel in place to ensure you maximize your
interactions and efforts on the platform.
It's also critical to recognize and engage with the inbound,
warm leads and opportunities that arise every time you're active on LinkedIn.
Remember, timing is everything!
Step 6 - Earn the Ask
This is perhaps the most important step of all.
It's a lesson my business coach taught me a few years ago,
and it's made an immense difference in my ability to close deals as a result.
Here it is: Your "ask" must be in direct
proportion to the amount of trust you've earned with the prospect up to that
point.
That's why Steps 1-3 in this post are critical - they help
you build the "Know, Like and Trust" factors that are key to any
business or professional relationship.
The more value you give someone, the more helpful and useful
you are, the more "right" you have to ask for time on the phone, or a
free consultation, or make a sales offer.
Credit: inc.com
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