3 Tips to cold connect on LinkedIn
LinkedIn can be called the professional world’s Facebook to a certain extent, but that doesn’t mean it is. On LinkedIn, or rather any other professional networking sites like Xing, AngelList etc. one needs to be more careful about who we connect with and how. Sending a connection request to a stranger is also subtly asking him to open HIS/HER network to become YOUR second-degree network.
The stranger you are seeking to connect with, may have built his/her reputation with years or perhaps decades of hard work and having you in his professional network openly means he is associating with you at a certain level. He/she needs to see value in doing so.
Listing three important tips that we advise all our colleagues at Alore CRM to help you make a great first impression while cold-connecting and higher your chances of having your request to connect become accepted.
1. Send personalized connection requests:
While LinkedIn gives you an option to just keep clicking on “connect” with a “people you may know” list, we wouldn’t advise you to use this. One can never stress enough on the strength of how invaluable personalization is. Place yourself in the other person’s shoes. Think why would they want to connect with you when they don’t know you or have an idea why you’re approaching them out of the blue. Write a short and crisp connection request. Make those 300 characters Linked in gives you count. Remember, you might be okay with open networking but everyone isn’t. Always send a personalized note. Always.
2. Join groups
Find commonalities. If you know someone common or been to the same school or worked in the same firm etc., it’s a polite conversation starter. If not, join some groups the stranger of interest may have joined. Sometimes you don’t know how to reach the right contacts or know the right person at a company you’re wanting to establish connect with. LinkedIn has a plethora of exceedingly well-regulated forums and groups on specific niche and general topics. You could join these groups and see discussions happening. Sometimes connecting with strangers is one notch easier when you’re connecting with someone from a common group. It reflects common interests and can be a potential conversation starter.
3. Update your profile
Always keep your profile updated before you send someone a connection request. The person you’re wanting to connect with is likely to glance at your profile once. If you have no profile photo/ inappropriate profile photo (No beach photos or goofy pictures ideally) and an incomplete or vague profile, chances are the stranger of interest might not take your request seriously or worse , might consider you a weirdo. And if you’ve not even personalized the connection request, heaven bless you.
About Alore: Alore CRM is an end to end sales automation platform for small businesses. Besides providing advanced CRM capability, the Alore chrome extension helps you prospect smarter. It pulls out verified email IDs of prospects from Twitter, LinkedIn and Angel simultaneously updating it into your CRM with Tags you want. Thereafter you can schedule DRIP campaigns, track links, create Facebook custom audiences in Facebook from your CRM’s prospect lists etc.Salespeople can make, record and transcribe calls from Alore via Twilio.
