8 Steps to building relationships with customers using LinkedIn.

Some people will tell you to only connect with people on LinkedIn you know, and that is the best way to start, but if you believe that you can offer value to someone specific because of your quality service then why wouldn’t they want to connect with you? One thing to remember is that it’s hard for people to find a quality trades company that they can trust before doing business with them…so, why wouldn’t they connect with one on LinkedIn and start building the relationship before they actually need them

I’m personally a huge believer that helping others is the best way to succeed at anything, it might take longer than some other routes, but the relationships you build will prove to pay dividends in the long run. I’ll tell you right now that I’m connected to a significant amount of trades people on LinkedIn and I feel like I’m really getting to know the ones that actively post. Before LinkedIn, I didn’t know an electrician or a plumber in Toronto to call, and now I know plenty…and they’ve built a relationship with me just by posting about the things they do and the things they care about. As a side note…feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and I’ll be happy to accept and offer help whenever possible! You can access my profile HERE.

I’m going to list out the steps you’ll need to follow, and I recommend jumping in and giving it a try yourself just to get a feel for it, but if you don’t want to waste time, you can access the simple step-by-step guide

Step 1.

Connect with the contacts you have in your cell phone or with you email provider. If you’re close with those contacts you don’t need to “Add a note”, but I always recommend doing it because it significantly improves your chances that they'll accept.

Step 2.

Name your Target Audience/Customer – this is extremely important to get right. If you service and install residential furnaces in Toronto, then you probably want to connect with people in Toronto that might own a home. With LinkedIn, you’ll be able to search for people that have the job title “manager” and then filter by city “Toronto” and 2nd degree connections. In my case, there are 6,539 LinkedIn profiles that match these specific criteria.

A fun and free tool to use to define your "Customer Personas" is Hubspot's Make My Persona Tool.

Step 3.

What will your message be when you request to connect? There are a few things to take into consideration here; everyone is busy so make your request non-committal, be polite, and let them know who you are and why you’re sending the request. You might be uncomfortable doing this at the start but remember that LinkedIn is a networking tool…so if you want to get great results, start by sending requests to people that would want you as a customer (maybe parts wholesalers or tech founders like me). 

Free grammar/spell checker: Grammarly

Step 4.

After they accept your connection request make sure to send them a thank you note. It only takes a second to be polite. A simple “Thanks for connecting with me. Always feel free to reach out if you need anything.” is plenty.

Here's an example you could use:

Hi Person’s Name,

My name is Jake and I recently started my own HVAC company. I figured I’d try to grow my network on here because I know how hard it can be to find a trades-person you're familiar with. So, if you ever need an HVAC tech feel free to let me know and I’d be happy to help.

Thanks,

Jake

Now, you ’ re going to want to write 3 or 4 of these and test them to determine which one works best. To do that, send each request to 40 people, then as people connect with you mark down which version they received. After a few weeks you’ll begin to notice that you have a stand-out winner. Then, start using that message for everyone. 

NOTE: if you have time to craft individual messages for each person you will have a significantly better success rate…but it will take a lot more time.

Step 5.

Be Engaged! LinkedIn gives you the power to connect with an amazing number of targeted leads, but that doesn’t do you any good if they don’t remember your name when they actually need your services. So, make sure to post something every day and either “Like”, “Comment” on, or “Share” other people’s content. And be real when you’re doing this…I know it doesn’t feel like your working by just reading content and engaging with it but over time more and more people will become familiar with you and your business.

Step 6.

Targeted offers. Depending on what industry you’re in you might have seasonal deals that you like to offer. In the fall you could offer a pre-winter furnace inspection and maintenance and post that deal so everyone in your network can see it, but then you could also offer a special offer to your LinkedIn connections via direct message!

TIP: Craft this message and test it just like you tested your connection requests. When you find a winner send it to every one of your connections that’s a target customer.

Step 7.

Post photos and stories about the things you found on your inspections and about the great service you gave your customers. It feels good to help someone out, so let people know that you feel good about it. People want to do business with people, and showing that your care about your customers kind of makes you a human.

Step 8.

Analyze what’s working and what isn’t, create more messages and offers, test everything again, and repeat!

A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS 

• 100 REQUESTS SENT PER DAY
• 3,000 REQUESTS SENT PER MONTH
• 18,000 REQUESTS SENT OVER 6 MONTHS
• 30% SUCCESS RATE
• 5,400 NEW CONNECTIONS/LEADS

REMINDER: I hope you’re still sending 100 connection requests every day! DO NOT STOP! Business is a game of numbers and the more leads you have and the bigger your network is, the better the chances are that you’ll get calls every day.

Your goals for this strategy are:

• Increase network size
• Build a quality and trusted brand
• Increase sales through targeted messages
• Get referrals 

If you follow this guide, you should have no trouble getting to 5,000 connections!

Now this success rate is based on continuous improvement, you most likely won’t see a success rate over 10% until you truly fine tune and optimize your messaging. But hey, even at 10% you’re still getting up to 300 new leads each month. Continue this strategy and as the years go by you will be building a business and a brand to be reckoned with. Good luck and as always let us know if you liked this article, if you have any questions, or if you need any help.

HAPPY NETWORKING!