How to use LinkedIn as a sales tool

More than a decade old, LinkedIn is one of the older social networks to survive a string of technological advancements, changing demographics and emerging players vying to make their mark in the social networking space. There is arguably no other social network that compares to LinkedIn in the corporate sector.

Today, there are more than 277 million LinkedIn users, three million LinkedIn company pages and 8000 new groups created each week. In Australia alone, there are over five million LinkedIn members.

But despite its popularity, LinkedIn is still mostly considered a hub for white-collar workers trying to find their next job.

As selling becomes more ‘social’, LinkedIn is a good vehicle to help business-to-business sales representatives better connect, engage and, ultimately, bring in new customer leads.

Here are my top tips to help sales representatives better utilise LinkedIn for selling:

1) Build your company profile: Your profile is where the relationship often starts. We now have a range of online profiles and when it comes to business, LinkedIn is the go-to resource for people looking to find out more about someone’s professional profile.

So before you use LinkedIn to find leads, you need to have your house in order.

When sales representatives reach out to people at other companies, the first place those potential leads will go to for more information is LinkedIn. And in most cases, those potential leads will be trawling through your sales representatives’ personal profiles, rather than your company profile.

But instead of simply uploading their resumes online, sales representatives need to create a sell-worthy LinkedIn profile that makes them appear knowledgeable, well-connected and reinforces the company’s key messages. Otherwise, you might simply find recruiters knocking on the doors of your sales staff!

2) Grow your network: It’s important for sales representatives to take every opportunity to grow their LinkedIn network. In this instance, quantity is as important as quality. One connection can easily open the door to a room full of more connections -- for example, people who can help with the decision-making process or potential sales leads.

While you need to nurture strong leads and build meaningful relationships with your network, don’t be afraid to have an expansive list of contacts to call on; you never know where the next opportunities will come from.

Your LinkedIn network isn’t just filled with family and friends -- as a general rule of thumb, more connections equal more business opportunities. One simple way to build your network is by joining LinkedIn Groups that are relevant to your industry, and listening and engaging with Group members.

Remember, you are judged by the company you keep, so choose wisely when building out your network.

3) Do your homework: LinkedIn’s Company Pages is where over two million businesses promote their own products and services, and share their latest news and event information. By following target companies, sales representatives can view the profiles of company executives and identify decision makers who will influence the buying process.

By building a map of who reports to whom, sales representatives will never have to make those dreaded cold calls again.

4) Nurture potential sales leads: Three years ago, research from the Sales Executive Council showed an average B2B buyer was only reaching out to vendors when they were halfway through the buying process. In 2013, this figure jumped to 65 per cent which means sales representatives have a shrinking window to work with buyers.

Based on these figures, it’s clear that sales representatives need to connect and engage with buyers earlier in the buying process. In fact, a lot of the conversations sales representatives will have on LinkedIn won’t be about influencing the buying decision; rather they will be about educating prospective sales leads even before they decide to commit to a purchase. Of course, this will require a lot of investment -- studies consistently show that people are more likely to make a purchase based on social media connections.

5) Use the right tools for the job: With a network of over 277 million users, the task of finding and connecting with the right people can seem daunting.

LinkedIn provides users with a terrific set of search tools and advice which will help you get the most out of the network. However I recommend looking into some other tools that will take your use of LinkedIn to the next level.

There are a range of products that have dedicated LinkedIn connections to help you make sense of the vast open social plain that is the world’s largest business network.

Products like Rapportive for Gmail surface valuable insights from people that you interact with during email correspondence. As you connect with people, LinkedIn information will appear automatically, helping you learn more about the contact (there is an Outlook plugin as well.) However, if you want to truly integrate sales efforts with LinkedIn, a customer relationship management (CRM) solution with dedicated LinkedIn connections will work wonders as way to manage and curate your network.

By integrating your CRM database with LinkedIn, you can connect your sales pipeline with the insights about important business contacts, enabling sales representative to truly understand whom they are talking with and creating a meaningful relationship.

Ultimately, selling is founded on relationships and there is no better platform for sales representatives to build and nurture relationships than on LinkedIn.

Marc Englaro is the Founder and CEO of InsightfulCRM, a leading Australian business consulting and system integration firm. Marc has no affiliation with LinkedIn.