One of the most overlooked platforms for many small businesses struggling to find qualified leads, new clients and increase revenue is LinkedIn. Perhaps you have heard of success using LinkedIn for client acquisition but you really don’t understand how to effectively use it?
We asked leading LinkedIn expert, author and influencer, Melonie Dodaro to share her thoughts on how businesses can use LinkedIn to increase revenue. I’m currently reading her new book and it’s packed full of actionable information to help your business to grow. Highly recommend. – Fiona
Over the past decade, social selling has grown from being a little-known concept to an integral part of modern selling and marketing. LinkedIn is the premier platform for social selling for B2B businesses.
While Facebook is still the largest social network, LinkedIn remains the go-to place for business professionals. According to Hubspot, 98% of sales reps with more than 5,000 LinkedIn connections meet or surpass their sales quota, while 78% of salespeople using social media perform better than their peers.
More than three out of four B2B buyers say that they won’t even speak to a salesperson until they have done their own research – and most of them do that research by using social networks.
However, the stat that I find the most compelling is… 80% of all B2B leads generated by social media come from LinkedIn. So, if LinkedIn is producing more B2B leads than any other social network, doesn’t it deserve your attention?
The old way of selling isn’t as effective with today’s modern buyer, especially on LinkedIn. To attract today’s buyer, it requires a shift in the sales dialogue from “What can I sell you?” to “How can I help you?”
Today your personal brand is more important than it’s ever been as people are looking to find out more about an individual before they do business with them.
Seven seconds is all you have to wow a potential client. Your social selling success is dependent on how your LinkedIn profile represents your personal brand.
With all of these challenges, there is still tremendous opportunity. You now have tools available to you to connect directly with your ideal prospects, with the click of a button.
And while everyone has been talking about social media for years, few talk about the power of LinkedIn. I believe many businesses ignore LinkedIn for two primary reasons:
- It isn’t sexy.
- It isn’t fun or exciting.
While LinkedIn may not be exciting, getting new clients and having a successful business certainly is!
A Blueprint for LinkedIn as a lead generator
There are five crucial steps that will turn LinkedIn into a highly predictable lead generator for you; I call this The LINK Method™.
In the infographic below I will share with you the five-step process, what you need to have in your profile to attract your ideal clients, trigger events that allow you to build relationships with your prospects on LinkedIn, how to leverage existing relationships, increase revenue and much more.
Are you interested in discovering how to turn LinkedIn into a lead generation machine? Take a look at the infographic below:
Image credit Top Dog Social MediaI believe that when you stop collecting connections and start building relationships, you increase trust, credibility and attract more clients. This is vital because effective social selling is all about building relationships and trust.
The beauty of LinkedIn is that it is a platform that was designed to help you find, connect and then build a relationship and trust with the exact group of people that comprise your target audience.
Social Selling Mistakes people make on LinkedIn
Yet people continue to make two very serious mistakes with LinkedIn and social selling.
Mistake #1: They rush to a sale right after connecting with a potential prospect.
Mistake #2: They never move the conversation offline, or don’t know how to, as it’s offline that you convert a prospect to a client.
LinkedIn is the premier business platform for social selling and the tips shared in this infographic represent just a small portion of the blueprint laid out in my brand-new book: LinkedIn Unlocked: Unlock the Mystery of LinkedIn To Drive More Sales Through Social Selling.
Your thoughts
Are you currently using LinkedIn? Where are you finding success, or what aspects do you struggle with?
From Fiona: We invited Melonie to contribute a post for us to share some of the amazing content of her new book and her expertise with our readers. As a LinkedInLocal host, I extol the virtues of LinkedIn on a regular basis. This is not an affiliate or sponsored post, we just wanted to share with you key learnings to help you increase revenue from one of the top LinkedIn experts globally, and we greatly appreciate her generosity in sharing.
If you would like to learn more about LinkedInLocal, you can read why I got involved.
