Many business are using a LinkedIn connection to market to a potential prospect. However, there are certain limitations one should be aware of.
What is the best way to find prospects who may have an interest in your product? How do I maneuver in an environment where messages are lost amongst a sea of spam, group invites, and requests to connect.
Building trust through strong referrals Consider that developing direct relationships within a network is an activity that builds trust. Build conversations with LinkedIn prospects in this way:
- Identity the prospects you may want to offer your wares or services to.
- Study their LinkedIn profiles for your mutual connections.
- Email or text a prospect’s mutual connection that you know, to inquire if you could use their name for a connection, or even ask them to make the referral themselves.Try also to get their phone number for follow-up.
- Send an email or an internal message to the prospect you are to connect with, indicating that you know and shared a relationship with a mutual contact who trusts you, and offer the reason why you should discuss business or meet in person or via phone. If you do not get a response, make a telephone call.
- Ask to put prospects on your blog or newsletter list and send them ongoing content or information using Social Media content in your line of business.
Try to get an appointment in person Closing the appointment remains one of the key roles of a salesperson as Brian Tracy points out in his seminal sales book “Close that Sale”. It can be intimidating how communication styles are changing. You may text your children weekly to set up a dinner or an outing depending on their age. Like closing the meeting or the sale – when we want to execute definite scheduling while planning we must call them, to consolidate or “close” our meeting plans.
