Top 10 Actionable Linkedin Sales Tips

These social selling tips are inspired and validated by the profiles of the most successful leaders on LinkedIn. Here are 10 tips on how you can transform your online resume into a professional branding platform.

Sales tip #1: Create an effective executive profile

Don’t let your LinkedIn profile read like a resume. Customize your LinkedIn experience by:

• Uploading a professional photo:You are 11 times more likely to have your LinkedIn profile viewed if you have a picture.
• Writing a compelling headline:Add your job title, current company and a tagline about how you help customers.
• Adding a summary: Your summary in essence is the ‘story of you.’ Share the vision you have for your role or company.
• Adding rich media like videos and presentations: You’ll maximize your exposure on LinkedIn and better showcase your story.

 Sales tip #2: Efficiently connect with the people that matter

LinkedIn isn’t intended to replace face-to-face interactions, instead, it optimizes your ability to know more about people you’ve met or about to meet. Also, inviting people to connect is a great way to follow up on an in-person meeting.

 Sales tip #3: Leverage your mutual connections

 People are five times more likely to engage with you if the outreach is through a mutual connection. See who within your network is connected to your 2nd or 3rd degree connections and request an introduction.

 Sales tip #4: Find your top tier customers

Sales is about people, but nurturing relationships takes time. LinkedIn allows you to find your customers by searching by name, company, or position so you can easily connect and establish better relationships.

 Sales tip #5: Follow your customers’ activity in real-time

 If you are connected with your customers, their public activity will appear in your newsfeed. Keep tabs on your contacts’ interests and updates so you can remain top of mind and provide them necessary information.

 Sales tip #6 Listen to conversations and debate

 Joining and following Group discussions in your industry is an excellent way to gain customer insights about needs, interests and more.

 Sales tip #7 Use LinkedIn Pulse to stay on top of industry trends

 LinkedIn Pulse curates content in real-time based on your interests and the companies and influencers you follow. Share and comment on these articles to demonstrate your insights.

 Sales tip #8 Reach people directly and more credibly with InMail

 Effective sales prospecting requires communicating in a way that gets noticed. Identify something personal about the person that you can reference in the message. Then send a follow up InMail 1-2 weeks after the original - it increases the response rate by 500%.

 Sales tip #9 Engage with your customers

 Today there’s over 1.5 million unique publishers actively sharing content on LinkedIn. You can become a voice in your industry by sharing relevant blog posts, insights and industry news.

 Sales tip #10 Publish content

 Leverage LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform to share long-form posts with your network and beyond. When you publish a post on LinkedIn, your content becomes part of your profile and is shared with everyone, even those outside of your network.