Prospecting on LinkedIn may seem, at first glance, easier than canvassing by phone. But behind this “simplistic” appearance hides all the subtleties of the “first human contact” , which is not easier on LinkedIn than elsewhere. You can get in touch with LinkedIn Ads Agency in London
Know why we are prospecting on LinkedIn
First of all, if you are not convinced to use the networks to develop your activities. I invite you to consult our article “Choosing your social networks in a b2b sales approach”.
When I talk to prospects on the phone to ask them how much time they spend on LinkedIn each day and what their goals are on this network : the answer is a simple silence or a stutter.
So yes, it’s ” basic from basic” and at the same time , you can’t get miracles in prospecting on LinkedIn without knowing what goal you’re aiming for.
There are different types of goals for a salesperson on LinkedIn:
- be visible (it’s already not so simple…)
- be recognized as a professional in a sector of activity
- identify and find new prospects
- retain existing customers
Well, being aware of these types of goals is a good start.
But that is not at all enough to hope to obtain a return on investment in terms of LinkedIn prospecting.Let’s be honest, the purpose of a prospecting process on LinkedIn is still to generate leads and sales appointments, and above all to sign new clients afterwards.
Define quantified objectives on LinkedIn
When we talk about ROI (return on investment), we are necessarily talking about numbers…
So defining “qualitative” objectives is good… but putting figures behind them is much better!
Well you’re going to tell me that it’s simple: we force a salesperson to get 5 telephone appointments a day via LinkedIn and the case is closed…
Obtaining X demo or discovery telephone appointments is a very good end goal, but LinkedIn is not the “brave of all worlds” and does not work in a “mechanical” way.
This social network works rather in a “systemic” way and its algorithm will monitor different indicators to put you forward (or not).
This is why it is necessary to set intermediate objectives and more operational KPIs (performance indicators).
Here are some examples of intermediate objectives that we have set at Lead Generator:
- Send 20 (targeted) invitations per day to increase the size of your network
- Publish 1 short post per day
- Write 1 long publication or article per month
- Like, share, comment, briefly interact … (on other people’s posts) at least once a day
- Trigger 3-5 highly targeted private chats per day via LinkedIn messaging
Even if your final objective is and above all to obtain telephone appointments , setting up this type of follow-up will allow you to evaluate a more general progress in the performance of your sales representatives in terms of LinkedIn prospecting.
Structure your prospecting process on LinkedIn
Intermediate objectives can help determine what must be done in terms of daily quota but do not allow you to have all the cards in hand to obtain satisfactory results.
Structuring your business approach on Linkedin involves creating processes and 2 types of essential resources :
- a “roadmap” i.e. a daily framework which specifies the chronological order of each action. Its unfolding scenario with possible outcomes and a summary of the daily intermediate objectives.
- action models, i.e. a precise description of each action, its purpose, its context, its means, its elements of language, and its quantified objective.
