LinkedIn Prospecting: Your New Go-To Tool for 2022

Linkedin is a powerful business network that shouldn’t just be used for social purposes. In fact, many sales professionals are using Linkedin for b2b sales and to drive new opportunities. With so much information at your fingertips, LinkedIn becomes a powerful prospecting tool to generate new leads, make contact with industry leaders, and personalize your outreach. 

What is LinkedIn Prospecting?

Linkedin prospecting is the process of finding sales leads via Linkedin, with the goal of bringing them into your sales funnel, to eventually become customers. Research shows that 65% of salespeople rely on social selling activities, like Linkedin, to fill their pipeline. However, 75% of sales reps admit to receiving zero to little training on how to successfully prospect on Linkedin. 

We’re here to change that. For those wondering how to increase sales through LinkedIn, we’ve got you covered. Let this article serve as a guide to your LinkedIn prospecting efforts, where we’ll cover: 

• How to use LinkedIn as a sales tool 
• Linkedin tips for salespeople
• Creating an effective business development LinkedIn message
• Linkedin prospecting software 

How to Use LinkedIn for Prospecting

Using LinkedIn to prospect is an emerging strategy that sales professionals are incorporating into their toolkit. Yet with what seems like an unlimited pool of prospects, where do you even start? Discovering how to use LinkedIn as a sales tool may seem like a daunting task, but there are few strategies that can help you narrow in on targeting qualified leads. Here are a few starting strategies if want to learn how to use LinkedIn for B2B sales and prospecting.  

• See who’s engaging with your competitors 
• Utilize search filters – search by industry, department, title, etc. 
• Search relevant #hashtags for your industry and join in on the conversation
• Generate a list of best-fit companies, and target their employees directly

Once you’ve narrowed your search and found a solid list of qualified leads, send them a connection request to jumpstart the conversation. Keep reading on to learn how to send effective Linkedin prospecting messages when reaching out. 

LinkedIn Prospecting Best Practices

There are a number of factors that come into play in order to become successful at Linkedin prospecting. We have a few best practices to keep in mind when using Linkedin for prospecting efforts –  everything from optimizing your personal profile, to finding qualified leads and how to successfully reach out.  

1. Optimize your personal profile

Chances are if you’ve caught your prospect’s attention on LinkedIn – the first action they’ll take is clicking on your profile and giving it a look-through. Therefore, you want to be sure your profile is portraying a positive, professional, and intriguing first impression of yourself and your business. Here are a few LinkedIn prospecting best practices for optimizing your profile: 

• High definition and up to date profile picture – within 2 years
• A strong headline statement – answer the question “ Who do you help and how do you help them” in 1 phrase
• Add a banner photo – this should be on-brand 
• Update your About section – include key points about your business and yourself
• Add a description under your experience – the goal is to answer the question, “Who am I talking to at [Your Company]?”
• Choose your top 3 skills & endorsements – consider this section your social proof
• Gather at least 5 recommendations – these should come from coworkers and customers, new and/or old 

2. Find qualified leads

Your efforts are going to be more successful if you focus on the quality of leads, rather than quantity. When reaching out to qualified leads, your response rates conversion rates are higher because there’s a need for your product or service. However, narrowing in on qualified leads takes some additional time and effort – but it is more likely to pay off in the long haul. Here are some strategies on how to use LinkedIn for sales leads and methods for finding qualified prospects.  

• Take on an Account-Based-Marketing approach
  If there’s certain companies you want to target, search the employee directory and reach out to the best-fit contact at that company, or a few individuals in a specific department. 
• Engage with your current network
  Has it been awhile since your last LinkedIn post? Be a thought leader in your space and discuss relevant topics in your + and your prospects industry, someone in your network may be looking for exactly what you have to offer. 
• Join relevant groups
  Here you can connect with those in a related field, share insights, and grow your network. 
• Use LinkedIn prospecting software
  Nowadays, you’re only as good as your tech stack.  There is a variety of software available that can with targeting qualified leads, automating processes, personalizing outreach and more. 

3. Personalize your outreach

Today, personalization is key. Especially on a platform like LinkedIn where individuals are inundated with information and content. In order to stand out, you’re going to need to capture your audience’s attention – and the best way to do that is through personalization. As consumers, we all prefer a more personalized experience with the brands we interact with. Your sales strategy should be no different. 

• Send a personalized video – more on this below!
• Skim through their profile and see what you have in common – shared college, role, connection, skill, interest, you name it! 
• Or if you can’t find anything in common, make a comment on something that stands out to you from their profile 
• Look through their recent activity, and follow up about an article/post they engaged with, and expand the conversation on that topic

Note: Personalized messages do NOT mean just inserting their name in the message, we all know one when we see one. The reason why personalization is so powerful is that it’s tailored to the individual, it’s relevant, and the individual sees the effort that was put in. 

How to Create Effective LinkedIn Prospecting Messages

Once you’ve discovered a set of potential prospects, next up is outreach. How to approach leads on LinkedIn is not too difficult, however, there are a few tips that can lead to better success. Keep these tips in mind when sending your next business development LinkedIn message: 

• Use video: Rather than sending a plain-text message, stand out with video. Use a video message platform like Covideo to record a personalized video for the recipient. You can customize your videos with branded landing pages, and custom CTA buttons – so they are engaging and interactive. Best of all, you can track when your video has been viewed, so you know when it’s time to follow up. 
• Hold up a whiteboard with their name on it: At the start of your video, write your recipients name on a whiteboard or piece of paper and hold it up for the 3-2-1 video countdown. This adds another layer of personalization, and immediately captures the prospect’s attention when they see their name. 
• Personalization is key:  Your video messages should be highly tailored to your recipient – they should not be one-size-fits-all. Reference some items from their LinkedIn profile to add an extra personal touch to your message.
• Keep these short and sweet: To maximize engagement, keep videos under one minute. 
• Master the elevator pitch: Because these videos are short and quick, you’ll need to master your elevator pitch so that you are introducing yourself and your business effectively and efficiently. 
• Accompany your video with text: Send your personalized videos as a direct message on LinkedIn, and add in a short message like, “Hey Ryan – I  saw you’re an IU graduate, go Hoosiers. Check out this video I made for you!” 

Here is how your video will appear in a LinkedIn message to prospects: 

Master LinkedIn B2B Prospecting

Ready to take on your new LinkedIn sales approach?! Now’s the time to start generating more leads, engaging your prospects, and driving more conversions with the help of LinkedIn.

If you’re looking to incorporate video messaging into your LinkedIn message sequence, Covideo is here to help. Adding video to your sales outreach is the best way to stand out in the inbox, differentiate yourself, engage your audience, and boost response rates. In fact, personalized video increases open rates by 19%, click-through rates by 65%, and response rates by 200%. 

Better yet, see the impact for yourself – record and send video messages with a Start a free trial.