If you’re an account manager, an SDR or even a relationship manager at your company and you aren’t leveraging LinkedIn, you could be missing out on generating new leads and even closing new deals.

Yes, you read that correctly. LinkedIn CAN be a platform where you not only build your personal brand, grow your thought leadership and grow an audience, it can also be a platform where those audience members actually become leads and even convert into customers. 

Before I get into the 3 ways to make that happen, I first want to share some interesting data with you that I read in the 2023 Hubspot Sales Trend Report.

It was reported that in 2022 the top sales challenge was standing out from the competition with other top challenges including meeting quotas, getting in touch with decision makers, and lead quality.

When I read that, sirens and light bulbs started to go off in my head because every single one of those challenges can be addressed the same way…

You know what I’m going to say! LINKEDIN. 

Don’t believe me? Let’s talk this out. 

Challenge #1: Standing out from the competition

It’s no secret that there are a lot of people out there that do the same exact thing or something very similar to you or your company.

If you’re blending in with the rest, that’s a problem! But one of the easiest ways to fix it is by building your personal brand/presence and LinkedIn is one of the best places to make this happen.

Challenge #2: Meeting quotas

If you’re in a sales role that requires quotas and you’re having trouble meeting those numbers, it’s typically a simple lead problem.

After all, sales is a numbers game. You need a certain number of leads (people aware and possibly interested in your offer) to become a certain number of prospects (someone that is qualified) to ultimately become a certain number of customers. 

If you don’t have the leads, you can’t make the sales. 

The good news is that LinkedIn is full of potential leads that you possibly haven’t even tapped into yet!

Challenge #3: Getting in touch with decision makers

Sometimes in the sales process, you might find that you have a prospect, but they aren’t the final decision maker. And if that’s the case, you really don’t have a prospect at all!

Knowing where to find the ultimate decision maker is key to your sales success and what’s really cool is that LinkedIn is the #1 channel for getting in touch with decision makers (Hubspot said so themselves).

Challenge #4: Lead quality

It’s clear that sales can’t happen without the right type of leads. And oftentimes the problem is that you might have an audience full of people… but they aren’t the *right* people.

When this is the case, turning people into prospects and eventually customers can feel almost impossible because your audience isn't there for the right reasons. 

For example, let’s say you’ve been marketing on Instagram and you have a lot of followers, but no one is buying. Are they following you because they’re interested in what you’re selling or are they following you because you share your life, wear cute clothes and they like to watch your stories?

If you think you might have an audience full of the wrong leads, it might be time to a) shift your messaging, but also b) change your platform. 

LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter and 30% of LinkedIn users are NOT on Instagram!

If you can relate to these challenges in your sales, I hope you can see how LinkedIn can help solve all of them. And I promise it’s not as complicated as you might think. 

3 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn For More Sales

I’m going to keep these as simple as possible for you so you can see how you can start leveraging LinkedIn as soon as you’re done reading this blog post.

When in doubt, follow the BCC method: build, create, connect. 

1. Build rapport and relationships

Obvious? Yes. Overlooked? Also yes.

LinkedIn isn’t just a platform for you to promote yourself, your business or your company. It’s truly a place to meet new people and ACTUALLY get to know them!

When you connect with someone new on LinkedIn, don’t just leave it at that.

Message them. Ask how you can support them. Learn what they do. Go the extra mile.

When you do, they’ll remember you and being memorable is one of my top LinkedIn Do’s!

2. Create content

I know that saying “create content” is a little vague, so here’s what I mean by that:

• Answer commonly asked questions

• Guide your audience through a process or journey of what you sell

• Build the value on your offer

• Provide tangible resources for your audience regarding your industry or niche

• Share stories and personal lessons that they could relate to

If you struggle with content creation and have no clue what to post on LinkedIn, click here to learn my favorite hack!

And if you already have a ton of content created on other platforms, refer here to see how you can translate that to LinkedIn.

3. Connect and engage

Lastly, connect and engage with your ideal customer and current customers.

When you do this, you continue to stay top of mind for people who haven’t yet bought from you AND for your current customers, which is important for repeat buyership. 

It really is that simple, friend.

When you do these 3 things consistently, in addition to showing up with a personal presence, you become the person that people want to learn from and eventually buy from!

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