How to Do Successful Sales Prospecting on LinkedIn: Tips, Techniques & Tools
Imagine your marketing efforts that would feed the sales funnel with a stream of quality leads to keep the pipeline full of opportunities — sounds like a dream right because it doesn’t happen in reality. We realize that in every industry, B2B marketers struggle with the lead generation process. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for lead generation but there’s a great platform such as LinkedIn which is ideal for lead generation.
LinkedIn for Sales Prospecting
With more than 760 million+ prospects, LinkedIn is at the forefront of connecting with ideal prospects. Here are some stats to prove it:
- 90% of the B2B marketers and buyers use LinkedIn for lead generation
- 60% of the B2B buyers use LinkedIn for making their purchase decisions
- 80% of the B2B traffic comes from LinkedIn and the rest from other social media
It is undoubtedly the best platform for lead generation and that’s why a lot of businesses are using it for sales prospecting.
What is Sales Prospecting?
Sales prospecting is sifting through the mountain of 760 million prospects to find out the most ideal prospects who’re more likely to convert into sales with a little effort. It is done either manually or with the help of the best LinkedIn automation tools.
Many people prefer to do it manually, but it takes a lot of time because searching through an ocean of prospects manually will take you a lot of time. You will be left with no time to focus on actual lead generation activities.
That’s why modern B2B marketers prefer to use the latest LinkedIn automation tools to automate boring and repetitive tasks more efficiently without wasting any time. There are a number of advanced LinkedIn automation tools that are used for sales prospecting, but we will come to that later.
First, let’s have a look at some of the most effective sales prospecting techniques and approaches.
1. Build a Strong Reputation on LinkedIn
You need to be active on LinkedIn to build a strong reputation. For that, you first need to understand your target audience and their interests. Write and share interesting and personalized content that will attract the attention of your ideal prospects and they are more likely to interact with you.
The more interesting the content, the more queries and responses you will get. Another great way of interacting with people is by joining LinkedIn groups. In these groups, you will find like-minded people who have the same interests and objectives as you do. You can use these groups to establish a great reputation.
Note: Make sure you have an attractive and optimized profile with a good profile picture, a catchy headline, and a compelling summary. A good profile is very important for successful sales prospecting because prospects think of you as authentic and trustworthy.
2. Always Connect With the Right People
Networking is an essential factor for sales success and today, it’s all about finding high-quality prospects that can benefit you.
A lot of marketers believe in the number game. They keep adding people and then complain about low acceptance and response rates.
Sales prospecting, as we mentioned above, means extracting out the right and relevant profiles among millions.
We understand finding and collecting the right profiles manually is challenging and takes weeks. So it’s better to invest in an advanced LinkedIn automation tool that comes with features to help you extract out lists of the best prospects.
3. Prioritize Your Leads
Not all the leads are equally important. When you are prospecting to find the ideal leads, you need to analyze which leads show more interest in what you have to offer.
Some leads just need a little push, and they get converted easily. Others need some effort and strategy, and the rest are just cold leads. So, make you prioritize them accordingly.
LinkedIn Sales Prospecting Tools
There are a number of great LinkedIn automation tools in the market that help users to prospect smarter, not harder.
Here are some of the best LinkedIn automation tools that you can use for sales prospecting:
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced searching tool that comes with a LinkedIn premium. It is being used by small & large businesses and B2B marketers for effective prospecting.
Sales Navigator comes with advanced search filters as well as Boolean operators that help users find even the most difficult leads. All you need to do is to select filters and the tool will show you lists of your targeted prospects in a short time. You can even save the results and export the prospects lists to a CSV file.
Combine Sales Navigator with another advanced LinkedIn automation tool to run effective outreach campaigns using the ‘Searched prospects lists.’
LinkedCamp
LinkedCamp is a cloud based LinkedIn automation tool that comes with key features to enhance and maximize your sales prospecting techniques.
It's advanced filtration system that also comes with operators helps users find out the best prospects. It not only finds the prospects but also sends connect requests and personalized messages.
You can also use this LinkedIn automation tool to extract member’s profiles from a LinkedIn group and then assign those profiles to a LinkedIn campaign. This way, you can extract profiles who can be your ideal prospect. Not just that, you can also extract prospects from a particular LinkedIn post.
LinkedCamp also provides Sales Navigator support so you can combine both to get the best results. Using a sales navigator, you can extract out the best profiles and then use LinkedCamp to connect with them and build strong business relationships.
Conclusion
Every single ideal lead is out there on LinkedIn — waiting for you to contact them. For B2B marketers and salespeople, it’s a golden opportunity to take their sales game to the next level. But remember: you need the right techniques and LinkedIn automation tools to generate and drive more leads.
Create a strong profile, connect with the right people, build healthy and long-lasting business relationships and you’re already on the way to successful social selling on LinkedIn.