In my previous blog article, I focused on the importance of creating a killer LinkedIn profile to impress your ideal clients from the outset, optimised to boost your discoverability. If you haven’t done that already, I want you to stop right there! Go back and check out my blog called My Beginner’s Guide to LinkedIn Part 1 – Creating a Great LinkedIn Profile, and put my advice into practice. Only then will you be ready for Part 2, to start using LinkedIn to win quality clients for your business. This is known as LinkedIn lead generation. It’s the process of identifying and nurturing prospective clients who may be interested in your services or products. LinkedIn lead generation is a form of social selling, where you use social media to interact and engage with your prospective clients.
That might sound daunting – but don’t worry. I’m here to guide you through the process, and soon you too will be confidently prospecting like a pro!
How to Use LinkedIn to Win Clients – The Right Way
There are plenty of misconceptions about the right way to use Linkedin to win clients. You’ve probably seen some shocking examples. I get spammed all the time by people trying to sell to me, or who offer me free stuff. They haven’t taken the time to understand my business or my needs and interests. There’s no bigger turn-off, and nothing is more likely to make me hit the disconnect button!
Instead, it’s about finding the right people and building rapport and trust as the basis for a long-term professional relationship. By following my simple steps, you’ll be able to grow your professional network and convert your prospects to valuable long-term clients who are aligned with your business.
Let’s take a look step by step at the method I developed to grow my own business – my ‘4C Method’ for Prospecting Like a Pro. It’s my own proven approach to LinkedIn lead generation – and it won’t cost you a penny, as it’s all done using the free version of LinkedIn.
My 4C Method
Collect
The first stage – Collect – is where you search for targeted prospects – your ideal clients.
Instead of focusing on connecting with lots of people just for the sake of it, the key is to find people who are closely aligned with your products or services, and who you’ll enjoy working with.
I’ve created a blog article on using a clever technique called Boolean Search to find the right people, which is well worth a look. It might sound intimidating, but once you’ve mastered it, it’s pretty straightforward. It could save you a lot of time and effort!
This is the most difficult stage of your LinkedIn lead generation campaign – get it right and the rest is easy.
Connect
Once you’ve identified your prospective clients, the next stage of my 4C Method is to Connect. A vital part of the LinkedIn lead generation process is to start the relationship as you mean to go on.
The aim of sending a LinkedIn connection request is to get accepted by your prospective client. Nothing else. No selling, no pitching.
Start by sending a personalised connection message when you invite someone to connect with you on LinkedIn. The key is to make the messages personalised and feel quite natural. Spend 10-15 minutes daily connecting with 10-15 targeted individuals – you’ll soon have a high-quality network aligned with your business objectives.
There are plenty of great resources in my Complete LinkedIn Mastery Course that you can use and tailor to help you get the wording right if you find this difficult.
Within 2 days of making a new LinkedIn connection, send a welcome message – even if they invited YOU to connect. The goal is to let your new connection know that you are a valuable connection who can help them. It’s the start of a two-way conversation.
Converse
Once you have found your prospective clients, you’ve connected with them and welcomed them to your LinkedIn network, the next stage of LinkedIn lead generation is to communicate and get the conversation going with your connection. Keep the momentum going, by building rapport, being engaging and personable, and showing how you can add value.
By sending regular ‘relationship-building messages’ every 2-3 weeks, you’ll be well on your way to building a powerful professional relationship.
Remember that:
Rapport Building + Value = Sales
If you need some inspiration and help to keep the conversation going, there are plenty of examples of relationship messages you can use that come as part of the resources with my Complete LinkedIn Mastery course, which you can customise to suit your own tone of voice.
Your prospective clients will appreciate what you share with them as long as it is relevant to them – for example by sharing news or information and picking out key stats or messages they will find useful and interesting. That’s at the heart of my approach to LinkedIn lead generation. The right way to achieve success is to build rapport so that your prospective client gets to know, like and trust you – and that feeling will be reciprocated!
Convert
Eventually, you’ll get to the last step of my 4C Method for LinkedIn lead generation, which is to Convert. When you’ve built rapport, given value, move the conversation offline by phone, over Zoom, or face to face. Don’t rush to suggest this – it’s better to wait until the time is right.
If you’ve put the groundwork into building a relationship and providing value, you’ll know when the time is right as it will feel like the natural next step. When you get the opportunity to speak directly to your prospective client – whether it’s on the phone, on a video call or face to face – that’s very powerful.
The best way to do this once you’ve got to know them and you understand their business challenges – their pain points – is to find ways of showing them that you can genuinely make a difference to them – and offer a call to help them.
The good news is that when you get to that stage, it won’t feel ‘sales-y’ but very natural. You’ll be helping them, using your expertise to provide solutions to their business issues. You can really engage with them and move to convert them to a valuable long-term client.
Final thoughts
By following the step by step approach explained in my 4C Method, even an absolute beginner can create a successful LinkedIn lead generation campaign and win valuable new customers for their business
Unfortunately, in my experience, only around 2% of users actually go about LinkedIn lead generation the right way. The other 98% risk not engaging, or even alienating their prospective customers. It’s much better – and more productive – to spend the time nurturing and building the relationship with your prospective clients, so that they know, like and trust you.
It takes time, but you are much more likely to win quality clients if you put the effort in. It’s much more likely to feel natural and friendly too!
If you’d like to find out more about getting the most out of LinkedIn, I’d be delighted to help. Please feel free to head over to my website, drop me an email at [email protected], or message me directly on LinkedIn for further support.
