The Secrets To Getting New Business From LinkedIn

by Ryan McMullen

Up until about a year ago, I had dabbled in LinkedIn but never took any real time or effort to learn about it. Just as most people do, I considered it a tool primarily to find a new job. Since I own my own business, the last thing I want is a job. However, I always knew in the back of my head that there had to be an effective business development component to it. And there absolutely is.

Just like the rest of the most popular social media sites, LinkedIn is really very simple. You create a free account, search for a prospect you want to connect with and then send him a request to become a “connection.”  

Once somebody becomes a connection, you can send her a message just as if you were sending a friend an email. However, the real value of becoming connected with somebody is that your relationship instantly changes. No longer are you a stranger off the street who is cold-calling a prospect, but he has actively given you permission to reach out to him. No gatekeeper, no getting hung up on, no voice mails, no more nonsense. Awesome, right?

Here is the thing about social media: People will absolutely, under no circumstance, tolerate spam, so you cannot just ask the entire St. Louis metropolitan area to connect with you. Not only will nobody agree to connect with you and you’ll waste your time, but LinkedIn also can take away your account. Just like an event at the local chamber of commerce, the trick is to get meaningful connections.

The Warm LinkedIn Call

If you’re in sales, which at the end of the day we all are, you can use LinkedIn as a very efficient and effective warm-calling tool. If you want to reach a prospect, you can easily search for her on LinkedIn and see how you are connected to her. Meaning that if you are connected to Person A and he is connected to the prospect you’re after, that prospect is considered a 2nd connection.  The problem is that you cannot directly message a 2nd connection, so it’s pretty useless.

However, LinkedIn has an introduction feature that allows you to ask one of your connections to introduce you to your prospect. Most people don’t know about that and it’s a very good feature, but I don’t think it’s a game changer. I realize we’re all in sales, but constantly asking your connections to keep introducing you to prospects eventually makes you seem like you’re taking advantage and you become too reliant on others for prospecting.  

The Secret

 Here’s what I had to spend a couple hundred bucks and many hours of training to find out.  Basically, we eliminate the middle man and message our prospects directly. “But I thought you said you could not message somebody who is not your connection directly.” Correct.

The trick is that everybody on LinkedIn belongs to different LinkedIn groups based on business and interests. Within those groups, the members can message one another regardless of whether they are connected. LinkedIn looks at the members of a common group as valid enough to allow you to directly message them.

So, what do you do? You join a group that your prospect belongs to and you send him a message. You make your message non-spammy by doing 30 seconds of research and seeing who is a connection you both have.

Your message goes something like this: “Hey, Ryan. I saw that we are both in Group XYZ, and I recognized your name from So and So. I know him from XYZ and he’s a great guy. I’d love to connect with you and hear more about your business.” Ninety percent of people will agree to connect with you, and then you can start to build the relationship. That’s it.  

Let technology work for you and put your networking on steroids. You’re not going to triple your business overnight, but if you make LinkedIn part of your daily regimen – 30 minutes to an hour – you will absolutely have the best year you’ve had.  n       

Ryan McMullen (ryan@stlouismarketinglab.com) is the owner of St. Louis Marketing Lab.