LinkedIn as a (Sales) Referral Funnel

The easiest sales come by way of existing customers. And a recent @Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA) poll revealed that the majority of members’ business comes by way of referrals.

But are we supposed to passively wait for benevolent souls to refer us? No, it’s wishful thinking to assume satisfied clients know that you seek referrals, much less expect them to know how to act as your agent. Are they aware of your versatility? (“Oh, you do copywriting, too? I didn’t know that!”)

Meanwhile, the poll shows that social media—including LinkedIn—accounts for less than half of their business. Hmmm… Might there be ways to use LinkedIn to track “friendlies” most likely to provide you with referrals, while also subtly encouraging them to do so?

“Happiness is something that comes into our lives through doors we don’t even remember leaving open.”

Rose Wilder Lane

Networking 101

A month after joining the association, I responded to an EFA ad posted by marketing author @Tim Matthews, then an Incapsula marketing VP. As both editor and occasional writer, for the next four years that web content gig was mine. Each month disparate Incapsula staffers provided assignments. Being my standard practice, I connected with them all on LinkedIn, as well as a few of their Incapsula colleagues. As the beneficiary of insider referrals, after two years I began providing the same services for (parent company) Imperva staff, too. This equated to more insider names with whom to network.

[Note: Understand that I’ve never met anyone mentioned herein in person. That is, I didn’t personally “know” them before seeking to include them (and many more whom I’ve carefully vetted) in my LinkedIn network. To do so would have been to severely limit my prospecting opportunities. In building your own network, consider Harvey Mackay’s key points in his best-selling Swim With the Sharks Without Getting Eaten Alive. Or that old Friend and Lover song that encourages us to “Reach out in the darkness, and you may find a friend.”]

Auto Alerts – Especially in Silicon Valley (and with startups), the high-tech world is an ongoing game of musical chairs. But by being connected, LinkedIn automatically alerts me when my first-degree contacts move on. (Well, that usually works; sometimes you just have to manually track them in LI.)

Back to Incapsula: it left many Californians in a sticky wicket when it consolidated its content creation operations in Tel Aviv. But not so for Orion, who quickly championed my services when he teamed up with Distil Networks.

All were prior LI 1st-degree contacts, from whom I now began getting numerous weekly assignments.

Referrals – Because of Orion, soon I was working with several “Distillers.” Of course I connected with them all on LinkedIn—along with a few outliers. But it was Elias, its marketing VP, who kept most of my Distil assignments coming. I also did a lot of work for Stephen, an ESL who really appreciated my help in editing his white papers and business proposals.

But all things must pass...sigh. My run was abruptly ended when a new Distil CEO came onboard. As Elias suddenly became chair-less, I continued to track him as he sought his next position.

The Beat Goes On – Meanwhile, Peter, another “Distiller” contact, jumped over to Smyte. In reaching out though InMail, he referred me to his management and I was soon in the driver’s seat. Or so I thought. After one assignment that company was acquired by Twitter. C’est la vie. But it’s another example of LI’s helping me know who’s seated where so I can keep those referrals coming.

Meanwhile, Orion had read the Distil Networks tea leaves early on and joined Exabeam—you can now guess how I learned this. Sure enough, I messaged him and began getting assignments. Soon several other former “Impervians,” including Tim the marketing VP (remember him?), had also jumped to Exabeam. All were prior LI 1st-degree contacts, from whom I now began getting numerous weekly assignments. Rock on!

I don’t ever recall working with Tony when he was at Incapsula, but I did connect with him on LI back when. Querying him at his next whistle stop, I was pleased that he remembered me, although nothing came of that. However, he has moved yet again and contacted me via—yep, InMail—to learn if I’m available. Negotiations ultimately didn’t pan out with Tony’s CEO, but the story does serve as another example of how LI 1st-degree referrals can at least get discussions started.

Company Pages – Chiefly through the random LinkedIn feed (which you can continually tailor), I became exposed to other players in the cyber “everything-as-a service” marketing world. Indegy was one. Visiting its LI company page, I chose to Follow it so its content would appear in my daily feed. On the right side of that same page, I then clicked the See all n Employees on LinkedIn link. That’s how I discovered that Shira, with whom I’d briefly worked at Imperva (!), was now with Indegy. Cool! Leveraging our LI connection, I soon got a referral and phone interview with Dana, that company’s Israeli marketing VP dujour.

Finessing Invitations

Follow the Leader – Some invitations might benefit from being a bit more judicious. I didn’t invite Samuel, Medrobotic’s CEO, to connect until I’d been a company affiliate for a year (a highly profitable gig I got through the former LinkedIn ProFinder, incidentally). His posts would show up in my daily feed after I chose to Follow the company on LI (more on that shortly).

Every LI member seeks comments, regardless of length or profundity. So as I commented on his, Samuel became accustomed to seeing my name in conjunction with being an adjunct Medrobotics cheerleader. Embedding my personal links and/or graphics in the comments also let me show off the work I’d completed for his company (I only display a user manual cover page so as not to violate my NDA or its intellectual property).

Such tempered self-promotion gets subtly dispatched to Samuel’s own LI network, while also keeping my name in front of his staff (or at least those who are active on LinkedIn). Samuel and Medrobotics also benefit, so it’s a win-win. Done with care, such multi-faceted promotion is considered neither brazen nor presumptuous. And with it all being cross-linked, this activity also likely helps boost my Google and Bing page ranking (SERP).

Regardless of my approach and a person’s perceived lofty position, I’ve never had anyone take issue with my sending them a connection invitation (although some do get ignored or discarded). To practice timidity is to remain hungry; so is keeping secret all of your accomplishments and not prospecting for new business.

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Click?the following link for a catalog of all of my posted articles:?https://chrismorton.fyi.to/tips-about-linkedin-editing-writing-branding-high-tech-windows

As the principal of?Isn't That Write, Chris Morton is a freelance B2B/B2C marcom editor, author,?proofreader and jargon translator working in the high tech realm with companies like MedQIA, Exabeam, LaunchCG, Philips Lifeline, and Medrobotics—always seeking to "Do the write thing."

Specializing in technical writing and the user experience (UX)—coupled with a marketing bent—ITW?edits and creates marcom collateral and technical documents for audiences ranging from CTOs and CIOs, from developers to operators, and end users across a wide range of disciplines.

ITW also coaches up-and-coming content authors as?their work is being edited, so they can “learn to fish” (as the?Chinese proverb/Italian adage/Native American saying/Anna Isabella Thackeray Ritchie quote?goes).