In today’s world where almost everything is automatized; there are countless options in regards to how you can make it easier for yourself to prospect your leads and make them into potential customers.
LinkedIn is one of the most well-known and prominent platforms that people use for this, and that’s why I’ve decided to tell you all about LinkedIn prospecting and how you can use it to your advantage.
Prospecting isn’t easy, and it’s especially not easy when you’re doing it under certain circumstances – for example, if you’re doing it over a platform where you can’t hear the sound of the voice of the person you’re trying to turn into a customer.
For these reasons, it’s recommended you do certain things that will allow you to prospect with ease and surpass the difficulties that are put in front of you.
If you’re interested in learning more about these things, I highly suggest you keep reading!
LinkedIn Prospecting – What Is It?
First of all, you should know what prospecting is in order to understand how to do it while using LinkedIn.
Don’t worry, it’s not rocket science, and you’re all fast learners!
LinkedIn prospecting is the process of identifying and connecting with LinkedIn members to convert them into customers.
Now, the definition alone doesn’t mean much, so let’s break it down and see what it really means.
LinkedIn members can mean a lot of things. What this really means is that you should identify and connect with LinkedIn members that are potentially interested in a product or service that you’re selling, or you think may be interested once you tell them about it.
Going through your LinkedIn list and messaging anyone and everyone isn’t exactly productive, so you should focus on those that I’ve mentioned above.
In addition to that, “converting them” is a process where you turn someone that’s slightly interested in what you’re selling into someone that’s openly interested in buying your products or services.
This is a process that can’t be explained in one sentence, so I’ve devoted a whole part of this article to it.
Be patient, and you’ll find out!
Lastly, customers are former leads and prospects that are actively using what you’re selling and are recurring buyers of your goods.
Now that you all know what the definition of LinkedIn prospecting really means, we can now start talking about how to properly prospect leads on LinkedIn!
How To Start Prospecting? – The Basics
LinkedIn prospecting is a process that takes some time to take place, and that’s why you can’t expect results immediately.
There are some LinkedIn prospecting tools that may help you, but the wisest thing is to do it on your own without any automatization since that’s the most organic way to do it. If you do, however, feel the need to use those kinds of programs, only use the highly trusted ones!
But otherwise, this is what you have to do:
Make A List
By making a list of initial people that you think may be interested in what you’re offering is crucial. That’s what I was talking about earlier in regards to the fact that not everybody will be interested in what you’re selling.
So, you should do thorough research regarding who would be interested in what you have to offer depending on what their lifestyle choices and interests are.
When you’ve made a list, now you know how many people you’re working with and you’ll be able to tell exactly what your rate of success is.
Doing this is crucial since you’ll be able to organize your work and put your efforts in places that have a higher chance of showing positive results.
Taking that into consideration, I really wouldn’t advise you to start prospecting without having a clear group of potential customers in mind.
BONUS ADVICE: Join relevant groups to find potential customers easier. People sort themselves out much better than you ever could. Use the power of LinkedIn to your advantage!
Have A Clear Goal In Mind
Making a clear goal may be the most important thing when it comes to contact with other people. If you seem like you don’t know what you’d like to happen, how could you expect other people to know?
This doesn’t mean you should be overly assertive or aggressive when you contact other people, it just means that you have a clear goal in mind and you know the direction you’d like to take things to.
When a potential customer feels that, they’ll subconsciously start believing you and leaving things to you.
Have Solutions Ready!
When you’re selling a product or a service that you’re interested in and know a lot about, you’ll know some recurring problems and objections that you might get while trying to sell it.
That’s why it’s important to have some solutions to some obvious potential objections ready at hand!
What I mean by this is that you should not leave it to the case when it comes to solving problems that your leads have with what you’re trying to sell.
If you make it known that it’s your number one priority to solve every problem, objection, and dilemma that your prospect has, they’ll know that their wellbeing is your first priority.
For example, if you know that because your product is better than the rest of the competition and that’s why the price is a bit higher, have your reasons for pricing, and potential solutions to it ready at hand.
By doing so, you’ll resolve that problem there and then instead of making your prospect wait for you to get back to them with additional information.
Know When To Pursue And When To Quit
I’ve talked about this numerous times in the past – you have to know when to stop wasting resources on prospects that don’t have a serious intent of becoming your customers and focus on those that want to do that.
What I mean by this is that if you see that someone has too many problems and objections about things that can not be changed or are at the core of what you’re selling, that means that they probably don’t want or don’t have the use from what you’re selling.
If you come across this, don’t be discouraged, just move on!
There are countless people out there that are in need of what you’re selling, and you spending your resources on people that aren’t is a waste.
Instead of trying to make every lead a prospect and every prospect a customer, try narrowing down your list that I talked about earlier and end up with people and companies that have the highest chance of turning into your customers.
That’s how you maximize your percentage of success and make the most deals happen.
Otherwise, you’re wasting resources like time and effort that you can’t get back, and you all know how bad that is for business.
LinkedIn Prospecting – Summing Up My Thoughts
Why is LinkedIn good for prospecting in the first place? Does it even make sense to invest time in LinkedIn prospecting?
Well, LinkedIn is one of those platforms that does a big part of your job for you. By joining groups, you’ll narrow down the number of people that you should consider potential leads that will, later on, turn into prospects and customers by interacting with you.
But, does prospecting on LinkedIn work? – Of course, it does! LinkedIn is one of the most used platforms to prospect when it comes to digital prospecting.
If you aren’t calling your prospects or directly interacting with them in other ways, LinkedIn is the perfect place to find an alternative.
Doing a few things will help you prospect leads on LinkedIn easier than ever. For the sake of recap, let’s see what these things are:
- Make a list
- Have a clear goal in mind
- Have solutions ready
- Know when to pursue
All four of these things will lead you to have a higher success rate at LinkedIn prospecting overall.
The biggest mistake people make while doing so is not knowing when to reallocate their resources and stop wasting them on people that will likely never become their customers.
If you see any kind of engagement from a potential prospect, you should double down on your efforts to close the deal, but the only way you’ll be able to do so is to know when to stop wasting resources in other places.
Prospecting is hard and can be discouraging at times, and we all know that, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t make it easier.
If you follow these simple pieces of advice I just shared with you, you’ll make it much easier for you to find prospects and turn them into happy and satisfied customers.
In other words, stick to what you know, don’t waste resources, and be happy with the results you bring in!