Can LinkedIn really increase sales in your small business? I say absolutely YES. The reason why LinkedIn is so valuable for reaching potential clients is because you can target specific groups of people easily and you can gather all kinds of information for making a connection. “Because the client was able to look at my LinkedIn profile, he was able to determine that I was someone who could in fact create value for him. He told me, ‘I only accepted your invitation for a meeting because I knew it wouldn’t be a waste of time’”, said S. Anthony Iannarino, President of Columbus, OH based, Solutions Staffing, Inc. who credits LinkedIn with landing him one of his company’s largest customers.
A new independent study conducted by sales expert, Jill Konrath and Ardath Albee President, of Marketing Interactions, Inc. said LinkedIn could be a secret weapon in closing more contracts for your small business, if you work it right. “Small business owners can leverage the playing field by using their professional presence on LinkedIn to compete against the largest organizations in the world,” said Ms. Konrath.
The 2013 Sales and LinkedIn Study, which interviewed nearly 3,100 business owners, consultants and career sales people, said that most use free accounts on LinkedIn as a strategic prospecting tool and that “84 percent of users say they’ve generated several business opportunities from using LinkedIn.” In fact, 79 percent of the study participants were small business owners. The most successful users actively share relevant content, showcase themselves as a trusted resource and spend six or more hours on week on the social media site. And some survey participants say it’s their best source for new business leads. “58% of our revenue comes directly from LinkedIn initial contacts,” said Thomas von Ahn Founder of Denver, Colorado based Viral Solutions, a sales and marketing consulting firm. “Most people who participate in LinkedIn just have a hit-and-run approach. They put up posts, articles, links, etc. that they ignore, but still hope to get hits from.” He claims this approach is push marketing, and is not terribly effective.
Mr. von Ahn and his partner have grown their business to nearly $1,000,000 in revenue, by almost exclusively using LinkedIn to engage prospective customers. “We believe in being go-givers, we give first. We participate in numerous group discussions. We also start our own discussions by asking probing questions, and then we participate in the resulting conversation.” They also give free advice, free e-books, white papers, and solid referrals when they are not the right fit for a potential customer.
Mr. von Ahn said the best way to leverage LinkedIn is to know who your target customer is first. “We have grown our business by being laser focused on LinkedIn. They have developed a process to define their target customer, and then they only connect with people on LinkedIn who fit their exact target. “We turn down two-thirds of the people that reach out to us to connect on LinkedIn,” said Mr. von Ahn. And they prune their LinkedIn connections quarterly. He added, “Too many people just collect connections, we don’t believe in connecting with anyone we can’t help or serve as customers.”
This is one philosophy. Personally, I think you should connect with anyone who asks because you never know why they want to connect with you, and just because someone is not a customer today doesn’t mean they can’t become one in the future.
Two years ago, S. Anthony Iannarino hired a social media coach teach him how to use LinkedIn. After working with his coach for just one day, he updated his profile by changing his title and making sure his experience spoke specifically to his title. He also updated all of his job history, and added more recommendations from customers who looked like his targets. And in the next 60 days was able to identify and access a new contact within a dream client’s organization that he had been chasing for years. He reached out to this prospect through LinkedIn, and secured an appointment. “LinkedIn helped me solve the problem of getting in, but it didn’t mean I was entitled to any more than what my sales skills and attributes entitled me to,” said Mr. Iannarino. Well, he landed the business. This client presently generates just under $1,000,000 annually for Mr. Iannarino’s staffing firm.
He says that being successful on LinkedIn or any social media sites comes down to how you position yourself in your profile. “We think that social tools only work in one direction. We think we’re using them to research our clients. But really, your LinkedIn profile is part of your digital surrogate salesperson. You’re researching your prospects using the social tools, and they’re researching you right back.”
Here are 5 things you could do to get more sales with LinkedIn today:
Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile. Move away from the resume format. Make your profile customer-centric and results-based. LinkedIn is a two-way street. Just like you are checking out prospects online they will also use LinkedIn to check you out, so make sure your profile represents you well.
Connect With Your Colleagues. Use LinkedIn as your personal rolodex. Connect with everyone you do business with and all of your new contacts.
Research Your Prospects. Start using LinkedIn to get insight on people you would like to have as customers. It’s a great way to find points of connection.
Leverage Recommendations. Turn your happy customers into an unpaid sales force. Within five to 10 days after any sale or service, ask your clients for a recommendation on LinkedIn. If you work your recommendations correctly, you’ll only talk with customers about availability and budget.
Join Groups. With a free account, you can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups. Sign up for at least 10 groups to get started. Be sure to research the groups to find ones that are active and full of your target customers.
It’s clear that if you put more time into LinkedIn, with more than 200 million members in over 200 countries and 49% of its users with personal income over $100,000, it could be a great way to connect with decision makers and turn contacts into contracts.
Great stuff Melinda!
I’d also like to add that people should consider creating your own targeted groups. I have a number of them (one with over 100,000 members) and it’s a great way for you as the owner of the group to send a weekly message with tips and resources to the members, driving traffic back to your site, and increasing leads and sales.
Building your own groups can take time, Lewis. I like joining existing groups and contributing to the discussion, driving connections back to my profile (and landing pages). All conversation, no party planning.