Is LinkedIn a Lead Generation tool?

Using LinkedIn For Lead generation

I was coaching yesterday and coincidently both of the delegates had 61 connections. What began as a coaching program for improving their profiles they quickly appreciated the importance of growing their network as a source of leads and booked an additional hour on how to do this.

I have a couple of thoughts on growing your network for lead generation and although I appreciate LinkedIn is a social media site and it is important to remember the keyword “social” when using LinkedIn, I do exercise caution. My first thought is that accepting invitations without a second thought may seem a great way to build your network but then again ask yourself  “Am I building the right network?”

Building the right network on LinkedIn

What do I mean by building the right network? Well, I see LinkedIn as a real-time database of 277 million potential leads. In business I do help a variety of people working in a variety of industries, but ask yourself “who can I help in business and who can help me?”

Lets take yesterday’s example, my client was a book illustrator with 61 connections. Looking at her network I quickly noticed that the majority of her connections were other illustrators and I asked if it was because they pass work between each other, (joint venture partners) the answer was no.

My next question was “who can you help in business?” to which the reply was children’s book authors, (her target market) to then the answer to my next question who can help you in business was publishers. (Introduce her to her target market). Authors and publishers are the people she wants to be connecting with. I am not saying don’t connect with Illustrators or friends etc. but consider your target market. It is also quite common, taking authors as an example, that they will know other authors and will extend her reach. Doctors know other Doctors, Sales Directors know other people involved in sales and so on and so on. You can find any number of professionals working in a particular area on LinkedIn, which makes this such a powerful database.

The real value of LinkedIn

The great thing about LinkedIn is that your second line network is where the value is because your first line network should already know what you do and how you do it and will provide you with repeat business. Your second line network is where you will find your next potential client. I have got just over 400 connections, (there is a story to why that is which I will share with you on another time), my 2nd line network extends to just over 165,000 people.

I have no idea how much a cold call list of 165,000 of potential leads would cost me and whether the data would actually be up to date or even how long it would take to contact them all. More to the point, they don’t know who I am and to be honest, they just don’t care. Even if I managed to get past the receptionist or the “gate keeper” and can actually speak to the decision maker… they are likely to say “Stuart Carpenter who?”, “LinkedIn what?”, “No thank you.” As a sales person, before LinkedIn, I had invested in cold call lists and I know how demoralising it can be to get a “No” 100 times a day. I have a lot of respect for teams specialising in cold calling because I hate it, I am no good at it and I find I lose motivation with each rejection.

Get Introduced

As I said before your 1st line network should know what you do and how well you can do it, so lets look at this example. From the 165,000 leads I have, I’ve found a potential lead I can genuinely help in business. (I narrowed the search down to “Sales Manager” as these are the people I help most)

The great thing with this connection is that I know Andrew (the one in my 1st line) well and have already helped him. I am very confident that he will speak very highly of me and will make the introduction. So I will send him a personal message.

How easy was that? If Andrew (2nd line) asks Andrew (1st Line), in hindsight this probably wasn’t the best example having 2 Andrews, how he knows me he will will respond by singing my praises which will make my approach so much easier when I engage.

So at least now when I speak to Andrew it will no longer be a cold call but essentially already warmed up. Now, I am not saying that the potential lead will look at buying my coaching services immediately, but I can put him in a “Tag” group to remind me to follow up in the future. (For more info on “Tag” groups read How To Manage Relationships)

If you do this just 5 times a day, that is 25 introductions a week, 100 warm calls that can be made a month. How good you are at converting is down to you.

When I use LinkedIn For Business, I use LinkedIn to start the relationship and sell the phone call. I use the call to sell an on or offline meeting and the meeting to demonstrate what I can do for the new lead. I never sell directly on LinkedIn, the relationship is nurtured on LinkedIn and then I look to take it offline to begin building the trust.

Why is 80% of my business now coming from LinkedIn, well quite simply because I love using it, it is such a powerful platform. It is more sustainable and more enjoyable than cold calling and for me has a much better return on investment than any other marketing activity. It also enables me to do the things I love, meeting new people and helping new people.

I have found this to be a really powerful method of growing my network with the right people I can start to have meaningful conversations with. Even while I was writing this article I made a call to someone I got introduced to on Friday and I am now meeting him next Wednesday. Which reminds me that I must thank the contact for introducing us, a personal thank you goes a long way, it strengthens the existing relationship and will give me the opportunity to ask if I can return the favour.

For all those sales people out there who have ever said, “I am really good at selling once I get in front of the client!”, I know that I have, try this method, what have you got to lose? It only takes 5 minutes out of your day and I am sure your sales manager won’t complain about those 5 minutes if you have just set up a meeting with a potential client?

I hope this article was of interest to you and that you enjoyed reading it. If you found it of some value please share it with others who you feel could genuinely benefit. I can’t thank people enough for their input, questions and feedback as you are the ones who are inspiring me to write these articles.

If you would like a question answered, or a complimentary assessment on using LinkedIn, please drop me a line through my Contact Page or a message below.

Have a very successful Q2! – Stuart Carpenter

Have you set up a Google Alert?

Have you got a Google alert set up?

Google alerts are a great way of sourcing news, content and ideas for your niche market. Whatever business you are in or whoever your target market is, who can be assured someone somewhere is publishing content on it. It is a great way for a small business to stay on top of trends, competition and establishing themselves as a “Go To” person/business by engaging with their target market by publishing relevant content across Social Media platforms.

How to set up a Google Alert

You don’t have to be a technical whiz kid to set one up, it is really easy. You will need to open your browser, I am using Google Chrome, type “Google Alerts” into the search, or type www.google.co.uk/alerts into your URL bar.

The “Create Alert” Window

The new window is where you enter the required information. Just for fun I am going to search for something I know nothing about. Lets say you are a small business supplying utensils and accessories for cake making/baking. You are looking for content to share on your Social Media platforms, website or blog, maybe send out the info to your subscribed email database. Lets say you have a promotion for example on Muffin holders (no idea what the technical name is) , this could be a good time to include links or other calls to action.

You have the option to set the “Result type” to include where you would like to source the updates from. Personally I like having Google search “Everything” to find relevant content. You will be surprised what is being published across the internet and you may find a real gem of an opportunity.

You can set how often you would like to get updates, I normally advise that depends on you, but I prefer to have information as it happens, this way I can deal with relevant content and dismiss the stuff that isn’t as it lands in my inbox. Relevant content should be saved to your Content Folder (My folder is called “Thats Interesting”, although the name isn’t and is not very imaginative), so you have access to it when you wish to publish.

Finally add your email address and click “CREATE ALERT”. You will be taken to a screen confirming your alert has been set up and shortly after you will receive an email.

The email allows you to verify that you set up the alert and allows you to confirm you want to receive emails from Google.

Some additional tips

• The more specific your search criteria the more relevant the returned results will be but does result in receiving less results. There is a possibility you may miss some information which could be relevant because it doesn’t contain all of your search keywords.
• If you are using content authored by someone else, show your appreciation and credit them in your post. This is also a great way to start new conversations and relationships with people in your industry.
• Keep the content you publish relevant and interesting to your target market and they will begin to trust and rely on you as a source of good information, which in turn keeps you in their mind. Clients who have you in their mind are more likely to buy from you.
• Once you have an “Alert” set up you can “manage your alerts”, change frequency, delete those which are no longer relevant, etc. etc.

I appreciate that this is pretty basic but I hope this article was of use to you and you enjoyed reading it. If you found it of some value why not share it with others you may know who could benefit.

If you have a question on how to generate more leads, increase sales and build great relationships with key decision makers in your market, through the use of Social Media, you can book a complimentary assessment of your LinkedIn profile, or post it in comments or drop me a line through my Contact Page.

Have a great day! – Stuart Carpenter

LinkedIn for Business – How to get Recommendations

LinkedIn for Business – Endorsements V’s Recommendations

On Friday I was asked during my free surgery session what was better, getting endorsements or getting recommendations. My honest answer is recommendations!

Anyone can shout about how good they are at what they do but the spoken or in this case written word by a client is far more a powerful sales message and adds real value to what you say you can do.

I was then asked, “How do you get a recommendation, no-one has ever written me one.”

LinkedIn Endorsements

Endorsements do add value to your profile, in the sense people can endorse you for a particular skill you may have demonstrated and I would always encourage my clients to build on getting endorsed for their skills. They help in providing evidence to what you say in your summary if they are correctly managed. (See – Are your LinkedIn endorsements saying the right thing about you)

LinkedIn Recommendations

When a client takes the time out of their busy day to write you a recommendation on LinkedIn then you know you are doing something that is of real value in helping your clients. When a prospective client is viewing your profile and takes note of what other people have been saying about you, it makes their own purchasing decision a lot easier. In business it is becoming usual to be accountable for your purchasing decisions and people generally like to make informed decisions and have reassurance they are making the right one.

How I get a LinkedIn recommendation

There is a series of steps I follow to get a recommendation.

I ask for a recommendation – So many of my clients are afraid to ask for a recommendation. If you have done your job well and more importantly provided a solution to your clients problems and added real value, why not ask to be recommended. People generally want to be nice and will accommodate your request if you have helped them, but busy people will rarely volunteer writing you a recommendation.

Only ask people who you have engaged and worked directly with – This sounds obvious but I was asked the other day to give a recommendation on a particular service I had no experience of receiving from a particular individual. Be careful when giving recommendations, stick to the facts and only write what you know about and what you have experienced, as this may reflect poorly on you.

What to be recommended for – When asking for a recommendation be specific. This has two advantages, first you are being recommended for the service or product you want to be recommended for and have demonstrated to your client. Secondly, it makes it easier for the person to write.

What steps do I follow on LinkedIn to get a recommendation?

Follow these easy steps –

Go to your profile and hover your cursor over the tab with the drop down arrow next to “Edit Profile” and click on “Ask to be recommended.” This will take you to another screen, work through the 3 sections.

1 – “What do you want to be recommended for?” – Use the drop down menu and select the role/position you were in when you helped this client.2 – Enter the name of the person you are wishing to ask and 3 – write them a personal message. (Useful Tip – There is no need to enter their name in the body of the message, LinkedIn does this automatically.)

Click “Send”

LinkedIn tip for your recommendations

Why not use your LinkedIn recommendations on your sales literature, website and marketing material.

I hope this article was of use to you and you enjoyed reading it. If you found it of some value why not share it with others you may know who could benefit. I can’t thank people enough for their input on my free Friday LinkedIn surgery sessions as you are the ones who are inspiring me to write these articles.

If you would like a question answered, book a slot on Friday with me or a complimentary assessment on your LinkedIn profile please drop me a line through my Contact Page or a message below.

Have a great week! – Stuart Carpenter

Use your LinkedIn headline to your advantage

Does your LinkedIn headline say what it needs to say?

Your LinkedIn headline is what is displayed under your name next to your professional profile picture. It is displayed along with your name every time you connect with someone, every time you post an update, comment in a group, in fact it follows you around LinkedIn like a bad smell.

It is your opportunity to grab peoples attention before they move on to the next profile.

What shouldn’t it say?

A lot of my clients are proud of what they have achieved in their career having attained promotions and more meaningful job titles, and so they should be. However there is little place for vanity on LinkedIn, their are thousands of Sales Directors at place of work (for example) on LinkedIn, I have 2071 in my 1st & 2nd line network.

When people are searching for a profession on LinkedIn they are looking for a solution to their problems, unfortunately in reality we are selfish in business. Yes, great relationships are built in business and friendships are made, but if you are not solving my problem I will not be buying from you.

Set yourself apart from the competition

Lets say I am looking for an accountant to help me with my tax returns. I search for accountant in the advanced search facility of LinkedIn and in my case I have 2,859 in my 1st and 2nd line network. Which one would you contact first?

What should I put in my headline?

If you use this simple rule you shouldn’t go far wrong.

Description ► Value ► Keywords

• Description – What is it you do? e.g. Social Media Mentor
• Value – What is it you do that helps your client? e.g. helping get more leads, sales and increase profits using LinkedIn
• Keywords – How you want to be found by LinkedIn search engine e.g. LinkedIn Coach

Your headline is your opportunity for people to make the right reason to connect and start a conversation with you, you only have 120 characters to sell that first impression.

What now?

Not sure how you go about changing your headline, why not connect with me on LinkedIn and I will happily work through it with you. You can also contact me through this blog or drop me an email, stuart.carpenter@thebizlinks.co.uk

If you have enjoyed what you have read please feel free to share it within your own network. Don’t be shy, leave your thoughts and comments below!

Thank you for reading and have a successful and productive week – Stuart Carpenter

The No. 1 Mistake SME’s make when using Social Media For Business!

It cannot be ignored!

You can make things happen or follow what is happening, but don’t be someone who ignores what happens, like it or not social media for business is here and can’t be ignored. However, apart from closing your eyes to what is happening around you being one of the biggest mistakes you can make in business, in my opinion, the no 1 mistake is approaching social media from the wrong perspective and believing it is a magic pill for success.

The No.1 Mistake SME’s make when using Social Media For Business

At last social media has created a level playing field with regards to the small business owner and the large multi-national corporate businesses, it is not all about having huge marketing budgets. I see many large companies using social media badly or at least not to their advantage, likewise I have worked with SME’s who are using it very well and are successfully increasing their business growth. The biggest mistake I see from SME’s who are looking to embrace social media is they approach it from the wrong end of the scale.

Most SME’s are jumping on the Social Media band wagon, lets get a twitter account, lets get a facebook page, while I am it I will sign up to LinkedIn, youtube and google +, etc. etc. and there the problems begin.

Am I right in thinking that the reason you are joining the social media revolution is to increase potential leads, make more sales, reach out to your audience to generate more opportunities?

Don’t start with choosing your social media platforms

Believe it or not I don’t recommend you start by signing up to all the platforms. As you can see by this diagram the platforms I suggest my clients should be using is step 4 of my coaching programmes.

LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are the big three at the moment, but trends change, who is to say they will remain the big three and there is not a new hot flavour of the moment.

If you get these steps right, the platform is not important as you will go with the platform that works best for you, your business and more importantly where you target market is.

The problem I come across is that once you have signed up on all the social media platforms available most people have nothing to say, fire out random sales messages to as many markets as possible or just don’t use them effectively. I call this the shotgun approach. They then wonder why social media is not working for them and their business, they are left demoralised and give up and continue with the same traditional methods of marketing, such as cold calling and print advertising. They lose the enthusiasm to continue and miss out on the huge opportunities social media marketing can offer their business when adopted as a part of their marketing strategy.

Just having a social media account is not enough

The problem with most small business owners is time and the wasting of it. Many people perceive social media as a time wasting activity and therefore don’t fully embrace it in business. However, I only get my leads in business through social media! I have fully embraced the platforms that work the best for me and leverage them to help build relationships in business, I find that through having great relationships most of my opportunities in business comes to me.

It is no good having any social media account and not doing anything with it, it’s like having a car and not putting any fuel in it and wonder why it doesn’t go. Find a platform that engages with your target market and you are comfortable with using and then spend some time each day effectively working with it. It doesn’t have to be a lot of time, I normally advise 30 minutes a day and most of my clients structure it in to their daily working schedule.

Follow this simple 5 step process to begin building your social media presence and business will start coming to you.

Simple 5 step process

1. Why – Why are you doing what you are doing in business? Why should your target market be talking to you? It’s not what you do or how you are doing it that engages with your market but WHY you are doing it.
2. Positioning – How are you going to position yourself in your market place – become a “go to person” – create your own niche in your overcrowded market place.
3. Content – What content can you generate to feed to your target market – what message do you want to put out there that will interest and engage with your market? Create your pitch and find relevant content to support you claim.
4. Platform – Now choose a platform that will suit you and your business (normally where your target market is), the majority are very intuitive and easy to use, you don’t have to be an 18 year old IT whizz kid!
5. Action Plan – Now you can create your action plan – Create your social media marketing strategy – Make small daily steps, be consistent and most importantly have fun with this new way of communicating in business – After all it is called SOCIAL media.

Now that is essentially the start of your Social Media Marketing Strategy!

In Conclusion

Admittedly I have over simplified things a little, but this 5 step process doesn’t change. If you can get these five steps right I can assure you that referrals, leads and business opportunities will start coming to you, it does for me and I practice the same methods I coach my clients in.

If you would like to learn more then please feel free to contact me, leave a comment or follow this blog. If you have enjoyed what you have read please feel free to share it within your own network.

You can contact me via this blog or invite me to connect with you on LinkedIn.

 

Thank you for reading and have a successful and productive week – Stuart Carpenter

5 Top Tips On How To Use LinkedIn For Business

5 Tips On How To Use LinkedIn For Business

It is not about how many connections you have, it is always quality over quantity but you do need to be constantly building your network with the right people in your market place. At around 200 – 250 connections if you are following these tips business will start coming to you. I can speak from experience as I have grown my business purely on following these 5 tips and all my business is now coming from LinkedIn. More and more people are also now using LinkedIn to find the services they need to solve their own problems, as I have in business, whether it is IT Support, Business Coaching or finding an Accountant.

1. Create a headline that solves your clients problems

Your headline is all you got to grab the interest of your reader and make them want to view your profile and turn that prospect into a potential client. Make sure you have got a photo on your profile, I will immediately skip past anyone I am looking for to help me in business if I can’t see a picture. (See my 3 Mistakes To Avoid With Your LinkedIn Profile Picture)

Create a headline with is engaging and tells me straight away what you do and what is in it for me, i.e. will you be solving my problem. I needed an accountant and searched LinkedIn, which one would you look at contacting?

2. Create an engaging summary

If you have successfully grabbed my attention with your headline and made me want to read your profile make sure your summary is engaging, remember what is it you can do for me. My advice here is to be humble and to keep it short and punchy. Focus on 5 areas, your opening, about you, what you can offer, what you are looking for and finally humanise it, for example what you do outside of work. I would seriously recommend you read Daniel Priestley – How to become a Key Person of Influence if you want ideas on how to write your summary. After all it is your pitch! (Daniel Priestley Blog)

3. Provide The Evidence

It is all very well you saying how great you are but I am far more inclined to believe what other people say about you. Make sure you are providing the viewer of your profile who has been hooked by your headline, fully engaged with your summary with the proof that you are as good as you say you are. Remember the Ronseal adverts… “Does what it says on the tin!” LinkedIn is great for displaying what others say about you through endorsements and recommendations. (Read my advice on endorsements Are your LinkedIn endorsements saying the right thing about you?)

Endorsements are not the same as recommendations on LinkedIn. Recommendations are where someone has taken the time to write about your product or service and is a hugely powerful message.

4. Contact Information

Great, I have been hooked by your headline, engaged with your summary, been provided all the proof I need and now I want to speak to you. Please make sure your contact info is up to date, fill in all the available fields and customise your URL (see my Personalise your LinkedIn URL!) There is nothing worse than finding someone you want to do business with and can’t find an easy method to get in contact with them, e.g no telephone number!

5. Build A Relationship And Take It Offline

Please don’t sell directly on LinkedIn, it is poor etiquette and it is most likely going to turn off your potential client if you fire a direct sales message at them. When you have found a prospect on LinkedIn and successfully connected with them, start to build a relationship. Relationships are the key to success in business, you don’t have to sell to good relationships, you only have to help to solve their problems. The hardest thing I found in sales was to find the excuse to why I was calling a potential client, i.e. the cold call and how to begin building a relationship. Use LinkedIn to warm that call up for you but remember LinkedIn does not and never will replace human real time interaction, send your new contact a message to arrange a phone call or a one-2-one meeting and take the relationship offline!

Social media for business is not a magic pill and should be integrated into your overall marketing strategy. It is not a get rich quick scheme and takes time and effort. Most of all, it does not replace the need to be a great communicator in business. If you can effectively communicate your message to your potential client in the right way, LinkedIn is an invaluable tool for sourcing new leads.

If you have any comments please post them below. I would love to hear your thoughts on this article. If you have liked what you have read, please feel free to share it with others.

I am always happy to address any questions you may have. You can post them on my “Contact Me Page” It is normally your questions which provides the inspiration to write my articles.

You are more than welcome to invite me to connect with you on LinkedIn

Thanks for reading – Stuart Carpenter