500K LinkedIn Networking Strategy for Entrepreneurs

?"Hey, Shanee, we are intrigued. Should you guard your first degree connections with your life? i. e. not just accept anyone, but try to make these first degree connections your ideal customer profile? Do you think many people who are in your industry that are serving your same client profile as an issue or should we connect with those as well? If so, what percentage splits do you think should be against your ideal customer profile versus industry connection?"

The answer to this question really depends on five things...(Click the image to watch the video )

How Do You Get Your Clients Currently and Who Are Your Best Clients?

How have you acquired your clients thus far in your business?

Did you engage them directly or through building networks and forming partnerships with peers in your industry?

Reflect on your best clients—those you enjoyed working with, who did the work on their end (whatever that is), and who have paid you the most with the least resistance. It's advisable to have a majority of such individuals as your first-degree connections.

This approach is strategic because if you're going to host events, if you're going to launch a LinkedIn newsletter, if you're going to want to message people, then you need to have them in your first degree connection.

If you're not that great at selling directly and you have a proven history of networking, going to in person events, building relationships with other thought leaders in your industry, and then receiving referrals from them, and you want to continue to do that, then obviously most of your connections should be other leaders in your industry.

And your goal should be to have the highest quality conversations and to build relationships with the highest quality influencers in your industry to accelerate those referral partnerships.

But there's questions within this question that really should be asked.

How Will We Resonate With and Attract Our Ideal Clients So They Connect With Us (and accept our connection requests)

Instead of asking yourself, should we guard these first degree connections with our life? The question that you may want to consider is:

How can we create the best quality content to attract whoever that we want to attract and not only to attract them, but to become the first person that they go to when they need our services. Or the only person that they go to. And that's truly how you become a market of one.

For someone like you, content is also going to be critical because as you may know, LinkedIn will only allow you to connect with a hundred-ish people per week.

What this means is if you don't create content, your growth is extremely limited.

It could take you two to three months to grow just 1, 000 connections if you're not creating content. If you are creating content, you can receive hundreds or thousands of connection invites in a day. in a week, in a month.

This is why when people understand the structure and the framework of how LinkedIn operates, it truly is reinforcing thought leadership.

Because again, instead of spamming with messages, the only way to really grow at an accelerated rate is to share content, to start conversations that attract the right people and that inspire them and encourage them to connect with you.

When you create content that truly helps people over and over again, you won't have to worry about guarding your first degree connections with your life. Why? Because you will become a market of one. You could say, "Go to the competitors. I'll give you a list of all the competitors." And they will still choose you because you have already proven to be helpful in their lives before they even get on a call with you.

Who You May Want as a Future Client:

The third consideration in identifying who you need to connect with on LinkedIn to grow your business goes beyond just analyzing past data, which shows who you've previously served, and focuses on who you aim to attract going forward.

Take the example of a client of ours, who owns a marketing agency and is a member of EO. He became our client, not because he was focusing on attracting the highest paying, least resistant clients. Our client is shifting from a 'done for you' model, where his agency handles everything, to a 'done with you' approach.

This transition requires him to connect with a different type of person on LinkedIn compared to his current best clients because the person who is willing to pay $100,000 - $250,000 a year for a full-service agency package differs significantly from one who prefers a collaborative 'done with you' approach.

This change in strategy requires a reassessment of your target audience and how you engage with them on LinkedIn.

The Sales Cycle:

When considering who to connect with on LinkedIn, it's essential to think about the sales cycle.

Let me explain this with a story about a client. This client, previously a top aerospace engineer, started a consulting firm. Initially, they aimed at large companies, a direction suggested by their colleagues. However, these big companies took a long time, often four to six months, to finalize deals. This slow process caused a lot of stress because they were waiting too long for a response.

Dealing with large companies often means longer times to build relationships and close deals. My client found many big companies interested in their services but not ready to commit quickly.

They realized they needed to change their approach. They shifted their focus to medium-sized companies that could make quicker decisions, usually within two months, instead of six.

This change depends on various factors, like your business stage, your financial situation, who you like working with, and who you can provide the best results for. It's about choosing the right clients for your business.

One of my mentors who has grown a business from five million dollars a year to over a hundred million dollars in annual recurring revenue was recently on a podcast and said something that really stood out to me.

He said said that the thing that made the biggest difference for their business was not that they swung home runs. The thing that has made the biggest difference for them and has had the biggest impact in their business has actually been going for the singles.

And that really stood out to me because as business owners, sometimes we do miss out on so many singles going for the home runs.

Timing and Beliefs:

The fifth and often undervalued aspect to consider when creating content for LinkedIn connections is the blend of timing and beliefs.

Many business owners, possibly influenced by business school teachings or other online marketing strategies, believe they need to guide people through an educational journey.

While this is relevant in some stages of your business, the speed at which you wish to monetize impacts who your ideal customer profile (ICP) should be.

Consider this: would it be easier to attract LinkedIn clients who already value LinkedIn and want to enhance their skills, or those deeply invested in platforms like TikTok and Instagram?

Clearly, targeting individuals already convinced of LinkedIn's value and seeking to improve their use of it for business purposes is more straightforward. If I tried convincing avid TikTok and Instagram users to switch to LinkedIn, it would be like fighting against a tsunami. Although some might be intrigued, it's generally a much more challenging approach.

The key is to identify the specific trigger or belief that makes someone ready to engage with your services.

Pay close attention to the initial conversations with your clients. Understand who they are, why they came to you, and what aspects of the conversation intrigued them the most.

The better you understand them, the more effectively you can create content that resonates and serves them (and more future clients like them), ultimately leading to more meaningful connections on LinkedIn.

What LinkedIn is Really About:

You can have the ideal customer profile, you can have all the data, but you never know who someone knows and who they're going to become.

There are so many people that I sent connection requests to three years ago, four years ago, that completely rejected me.And today, they would accept in a heartbeat. And the reason is, is because of who I've become.

Don't discount someone just because they're not the ideal customer profile because you don't know who that person knows, you don't know who trusts that person, and you don't know who that person will be three to four years from now.

Remember, LinkedIn isn't just about LinkedIn. LinkedIn is about understanding how can you help people before they ever even get on a call with you so that those right people come to you.

Sincerely,

Shanee Moret

PS: Click here to grow your personal brand on LinkedIn .