Prospecting and making contact using LinkedIn
LinkedIn has many direct and indirect benefits for Sales Professionals. Not only is it a great source of information about the company you want to sell into, the business’ structure, and its people, but a great way to build new relationships to build your database.
If you haven’t already set up a system and convinced your salespeople to integrate LinkedIn into their sales prospecting process, you are falling behind.
But what if my sales staff are resisting change?
Assuming you don’t operate in a capitalist organisational culture, perhaps the first step is to gain buy-in from your Sales Professionals about the benefits of using LinkedIn during the sales process. Share the high-level list below with your people to start the conversation.
5 Key Ways You Can Make Social Sales Using LinkedIn
Through LinkedIn you can:
- Find new potential customers by prospecting and even utilise tools like the Advanced Search
- Use people you are already connected to, and warm up your cold calls through those introductions
- Discover who from the target company is using LinkedIn
- Learn about the people you might contact before the call and use that information to create rapport during the call
- Find Groups your prospects are part of so you can join these LinkedIn Groups too and become part of the conversation and find common ground
The next question or form of resistance sales staff might share is ‘How do we get it all done? We are busy enough as it is. There simply aren’t enough hours in a week.’
The key is to get the setup done, and then to follow a manageable schedule.
