- The more meaningful connections you make within the company, the more they may be willing to listen, engage or connect with you and your business.Â
- By doing your research first, you gain the opportunity to make moves that are valuable and relevant by tailoring your efforts to each step and appropriate committee member.
- By showing the right parties that you have the solution to their problem, you’ve done your homework, and you’re pleasant to work with, you can significantly increase your chances of getting through.Â
Success in business is often an accumulation of hard work, tireless effort, mindful choices, and meaningful connections. Additionally, as a salesperson, you should be ever vigilant and keep a watchful eye over changes in your industry, in order to remain relevant and successful. But how do you do this?
How do you maximize your effort to make sure you’re providing value, playing up your advantages, and reaching the right people?Â
There are many ways to multiply your connections with key players and optimize these connections to drive sales. So, let’s talk about a few of the best ways salespeople can use LinkedIn to reach decision-makers:
Using Sales NavigatorÂ
The Sales Navigator on LinkedIn is a paid service, but often underutilized tool even for those who’ve made the investment. With the numerous features it offers, among other options, you can use it to:
- Research the buying committee
- Increase your connections with essential individuals in the buying committee
- Collect account and contact insights
- Make connections at the right time
We’ll talk more about the most important of these outcomes in the sections following this one.
Map Out and Get to Know the Buying CommitteeÂ
To use buying committees to your advantage, you need to get to know each piece of the puzzle. That’s why one of the most critical features in LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator is Advanced Search. Buying committees are getting more substantial, and buying cycles are getting longer, so now is the time to step up the effort and set yourself apart. Use the Advanced Search feature and filters to learn about the operational structure of your target company.
By doing your research first, you gain the opportunity to make moves that are valuable and relevant by tailoring your efforts to each step and appropriate committee member.
Who makes which decisions? Who is responsible for which tasks? What do they need more than anything else?
From IT to the C-suite, the more you know about how the buying committee works, the better prepared you can be to show them what you bring to the table.
Increase Your Connections
Another useful feature of the Sales Navigator is TeamLink. Giving you a boost in building relationships by showing you promising contacts. The feature highlights the individuals that you have connections with and also shows you how you or your co-workers or employees are connected to them as well.
The more meaningful connections you make within the company, the more they may be willing to listen, engage, or connect with you and your business.Â
Perform Regular SearchesÂ
Outside of the Sales Navigator, there’s a pretty basic but incredibly helpful feature that most people aren’t using enough: a regular search. Searching through the company’s LinkedIn Corporate Page can help you find potential contacts, get to know the individuals who make up the operation, and what kind of connections they already value. You can browse through their contact, learn about their mission, and find ways to engage meaningfully.
Engage Contacts at the Right Times and In the Right WaysÂ
Engaging to engage is not enough. You have to get the timing right, first and foremost, and a big part of that is keeping your contact information up-to-date. Contacting the wrong party can make it seem like you’re not paying attention, or get you lost in the background noise of a busy company, and could cost you a meaningful connection. LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Data Validation feature matches up to your saved contacts with the data on their site so you can be alerted immediately if an important contact leaves or moves into another position.
Almost as crucial as getting the timing right is getting the approach right. Nothing is worse than an unanswered message when you’re trying to reach decision-makers. By showing the right parties that you have the solution to their problem, you’ve done your homework, and you’re pleasant to work with, you can significantly increase your chances of getting through. And when that’s not enough, LinkedIn is here to help with that, too. The Sales Navigator’s messaging feature lends credibility to your message and increases the odds that it’ll get read.
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