Using LinkedIn To Find Sales Leads
LinkedIn is a great resource to connect with former colleagues, business partners and classmates. You can establish and build relationships that could help you land a job or strike a business deal but it can also be helpful as generating sales leads.
LinkedIn can be a great research tool to find the decision maker within an organization so you can reach out to them to pitch your product. By doing research you can turn a cold call into a warm call. Instead of calling the company business line and asking for the person who makes marketing decisions you can ask the secretary for John Smith Directory of Marketing. With this approach you are much more likely to get patched through.
By using the advance search feature you can enter the company name you are targeting along with other decisive factors to find the list of people who fit those criteria. Scan through the list and search for the contact person who fits the decision maker profile you are looking for.
After you have found the contact and their information it is important to contact them in a way that dignifies a response. Sending them a message in Linkedin DOES NOT WORK! In my post LinkedIn Is Not The Place For Cold Calling I outline why I find using messages in LinkedIn is not a valuable or efficient sales tool.
But following up with a well crafted email and phone call introducing the decision maker to your product can be an extremely effective way to get your foot in the door and capture a few new clients.
Interested in the secrets it takes to make money on LinkedIn? Check out LinkedIn Master Strategies
