When it comes to finding prospects, especially in B2B marketing strategies, LinkedIn is probably the best social media network that you can use. LinkedIn was built for professionals after all, which means that finding companies on LinkedIn to do business with shouldn’t be difficult. However, it’s making contact with other businesses using LinkedIn, pitching your product or service and then closing the deal that poses the biggest challenges. Fortunately, LinkedIn not only helps you find prospects, it helps you establish the foundation to assist you in closing deals as well. The following process will help your company find the right prospect, make contact and then close the deal:
Finding Your Prospects
There are thousands of companies using LinkedIn that have corporate profiles, which they keep up to date in order to post employment opportunities, product and service information, recent achievements and more. Searching for companies that fit your ideal customer profile isn’t difficult. You can identify prospects based on their area of expertise, their corporate culture, their location and more. Pick a handful of prospects based on these factors and begin doing your research by reading through their profiles and visiting their main websites. You should look at recent product launches, press releases and media coverage. Look for both positive and negative coverage to help you get a clear picture.
Making Contact
Once you’ve found a prospect you want to do business with via LinkedIn, you’ll need to make contact. Unfortunately, calling them up to try to schedule a meeting with a decision-maker is a lot easier said than done. You’ll want to build up to that by using LinkedIn to your advantage. Very few decision makers will schedule a meeting with someone they do not know that calls them up out of the blue. First of all, build your network. A company will be able to see the network of the person that is trying to connect with them. If your network consists of a dozen individuals, you won’t be taken seriously. Build your network so that you have hundreds of connections. This will give you much more credibility as a professional. Then, look at the support network of the prospective company. Attempt to connect with their network via LinkedIn before you contact the company itself. A company that you are trying to connect with will see that you share a number of the same connections. There’s a much better chance that the company will seriously consider you if you share a core audience.
Closing The Deal
Before you go into a scheduled meeting with a decision maker at the prospective company that you have found on LinkedIn, speak with some of the connections in their network via LinkedIn. Try to find out as much information about the prospective company – from recent performances to any issues the company is facing. Closing the deal with the prospective company is now on you – LinkedIn has provided you with the information and ability to find and make contact with the company. However, if you do close the deal, you’ll be able to add that company as a new contact in your LinkedIn network. This is a huge advantage when you attempt to find and contact additional prospects via LinkedIn, since this new contact will be visible to anyone you try to connect with, thereby helping to improve your credibility as well as your reputation.
LinkedIn is a social media site that every business should be using. Not only is it a fantastic way to market your brand, it’s an excellent way to find and contact prospects in order to build your business, build your reputation, increase brand awareness and increase your LinkedIn network.
0 comments:
Post a Comment