Best Way to Connect on LinkedIn
Connection Scripts & Strategies for B2B Leads
Right now one of the most powerful professional networks you can develop to grow your business is your LinkedIn connections.
LinkedIn is a very unique social network hat you can reach out to and connect with individuals that are an exact match to your ideal client.
LinkedIn, with the use of their Sales Prospector Subscription Service allows you to search their database of users to select the exact individuals you are looking to reach, your ideal clients.
What this means, is if done properly over time you can build you LinkedIn network almost entirely of your ideal clients and then nurture that network over time.
Best of all, you can do this right now without any special software or subscriptions (although sales prospector subscription does help).
Basic Search on LinkedIn:
With a standard LinkedIn account you can search for other LinkedIn members using one of the three search constraints, connections, locations, companies:
Basic search allows you to search based on the degree of separation between you and other members (connections), by location and by name of the company.
For much greater granularity of searches, try Sales Navigator. It allows you to search on much more criteria, including size of the company, industry, seniority and department.
Types of Connections:
On LinkedIn you have a choice of 3 different types of connections:
1st Degree: The first degree includes those who have already connected with you. Since you have already connected, you’ll have the ability to message them. This is what these connections will look like:
2nd Degree: These are individuals whom you share one or many connections with, however haven’t connected with them yet on LinkedIn. These members will show up in LinkedIn looking like this:
3rd Degree: These are individuals whom you don’t share any connections and haven’t connected with you on LinkedIn.
For this article, I’ll only be focusing on 2nd and 3rd degree connections.
2nd Degree — How to Connect:
These are the types of connections which offer the highest connection ratios since you are in “similar” networks. At the minimum, the connection message should state you share one or many connections
For a more personal connection (and for higher connection rates) it helps to add in the connection who you know, how you know them or some common network which would incline the individual to connect with you.
3rd Degree — How to Connect:
These types of connections are with individuals which are likely outside your network for this reason the connection message will need to be different.
These types of connections will yield a lower connection rate than 2nd degree connections however if your LinkedIn description, profile photo and headline statement are well done you should still be able to accomplish a high connection rate.
What’s Next?
After you have sent the connection request, you’ll need to wait until the individual accepts. Generally, you’ll receive a connection acceptance within the next 24 hours.
After they accept your connection message, the first next step will be to thank them for adding you.
It’s just as simple as that.
About 10% of people will reply and say “You’re welcome”.
The Follow Up Cadence
Now that you have added your ideal client to your LinkedIn network, it’s just the start of the process.
LinkedIn is about relationship building. It’s about getting to know other member and having conversations and discussions which are mutually beneficial.
When following up with your prospects, it’s important..NOT TO SELL. If they are interested, they will reach out and ask. It’s about building trust, a relationship and getting to know each other.
Developing Your Followup Cadence
The follow up cadence should be informative, educational and even entertaining. It should speak to the prospect as an individual, addressing their individual needs and shouldn’t come across as a template message.
It’s for this reason that custom and personalized messages are highly effective when using LinkedIn. It’s not to say that automation isn’t possible. There are lots of ways to automate LinkedIn connections and messaging, however when automating the most important part to get right is the messaging.
If you would rather leave the development of the messaging and followup cadence to the experts, check out LinkedIn Done For You Service.
