Things You’re Not Doing On Linkedin, But Should Be

Cold emailing prospects just isn’t as effective as it used to be. I’m guessing that’s what brought you here.

You’ve done the research, tried different tactics to improve your email open rate and response rate, but your engagements are still dropping.

Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. Cold emailing, like any growth tactic, has a shelf life and believe it or not, we are at the cusp of a new era of sales beyond cold emails.

With email on its way out, social is making its way in. And it makes absolute sense. Seriously, it’s about time we socialize sales and start engaging prospects where their attention is focused. Most everyone is on some sort of social platform, be it Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Medium, etc. It’s a no-brainer to utilize these channels to reach, engage, and nurture leads through the sales pipeline.

Linkedin, let’s talk about it.

If you’re in sales or manage a sales team and are not utilizing Linkedin to prospect and generate leads, you’re behind the curve. Linkedin is hands-down one of the best tools you can use to generate more leads and start conversations.

Linkedin is especially effective for b2b sales engagements. Why?

Because chances are… 99% of your leads are on Linkedin. Okay, I made up the 99%, but the fact of the matter is there’s a ton of potential customers in your segment just hanging out on Linkedin. It’s a gold mine.

Here are some things you can do to boost your presence on Linkedin, generate more leads, and land more sales conversations.

But first, let’s talk about the elephant in the room:

Linkedin Automation

Email automation has gotten a lot of bad press over these last few years. It’s spammy, unsolicited, and disruptive. I agree.

Unlike email or cold calling, Linkedin users see the platform as a place to connect and interact with like-minded professionals around the world. It’s not only a place to showcase your resume and the cool things you’ve done, but also a place to network, develop business relationships, and engage in professional discussion.

Email and cold calling on the other hand are perceived as personal tools or devices, which is why cold emails and calls are… cold. And that’s what makes Linkedin such a unique tool for lead generation. The platform was specifically designed to help professionals network.

You know this. It’s why you visit profiles of potential leads, send connect invites, and strike up conversations. Most people are doing this manually or outsourcing it to virtual assistants. You’re ahead of the curve if you’re automating your Linkedin engagements.

And yes, you should automate Linkedin, because you shouldn’t be spending time doing silly repetitive tasks that robots are designed to do. You should be instead focusing on more important things like striking up authentic conversations, providing value, solving pain points, etc. Not clicking on the “send invite” button.

Here’s the thing about automation. Only automate what needs to be automate, don’t try to remove yourself from everything. Sales is about conversation, use automation to get you to the conversation and once there, be human… socialize, build relationships… don’t be a robot and send a generic pitch template.

Linkedin automation tools… there’s a ton of Linkedin tools out there to choose from. From browser extensions to full-fledged saas tools. Find one that resonates with you and implement into your stack. Here’s a list of tools you should check it.

• Dux-soup
• Linkedhelper
• GPZ Linkedin
• Gocastanet
• MeetLeonard

Last, but not least… our very own tool Orca. You didn’t think I was going to write a Linkedin post and not talk about Orca, did you?

Warming up prospects with social selling engagements

Social selling works. Why?

Science.

Behavioral science to be exact. Platforms like Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, pretty much any app are designed to hook users and bring them back into the platform. This is achieved through the platform’s elaborate (and automated) notification system.

What Orca and other Linkedin automation tools are doing is triggering notifications within the app to help you get noticed by leads through soft social touches. There notifications then trigger a lookback, which in social selling is when a person visits your profile.

Here are some things you should be doing on Linkedin to generate more leads:

• Visit your leads profile. Show you’re interested, and wait and see if they decide to connect with you.
• If not, send an invitation to connect, it’s much warmer than a cold email pitch and more inviting.
• Once connected, strike up a conversation, just don’t pitch.