flevyblog

Flevy Blog is an online business magazine covering Business Strategies, Business Theories, & Business Stories.
MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP STRATEGY, MARKETING, SALES OPERATIONS & SUPPLY CHAIN ORGANIZATION & CHANGE IT/MIS Other

How to Use LinkedIn for Business Development?

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Key Account Management 101 - Best Practices (47-slide PowerPoint presentation). Having a robust and streamlined Key Account Management (KAM) Program is critical, because it helps organizations build strong and long-lasting relationships with their most important clients. This PowerPoint presentation provides a step-by-step, detailed approach to designing a Key Account [read more]

* * * *

LinkedIn is used for business by over 29 million firms. It is the most widespread social network for recruiting and hiring personnel. An increasing number of companies are using LinkedIn advertising to link, associate, and sell, with over 680 million members.

LinkedIn is a tremendous business growth tool for corporate leaders and decision-makers – if utilized strategically and with foresight. You may utilize the platform to produce more leads and expand your reach within your target market with little know-how, time, and effort.

But you must first earn people’s trust. And the best approach to create trust is to interact with others. When you respond to other people’s posts, when you leave reactions to other people’s opinions, they will engage with yours.

Sincerity is the next critical element. You accomplish this through engaging and being a genuine human being. Perhaps you can relate to this situation: you write someone an email, and they won’t respond because of the absence of credibility.

The stages below comprise our beginner’s approach to establishing a robust Business Development presence on LinkedIn:

Analyze Your Profile and Business Page

First and foremost, before you reach out to other people, pull your things together. Begin by inspecting your personal business profile and your company’s LinkedIn page. It is the first thing potential consumers see when they search for you, so it should be as pleasant as you can make it. Keep it up to date with important information, including your most recent promotions, and make sure there are links to all of your offsite materials and your contact information is correct.

Fill out all of the areas on your profile and company page, and make sure any logos and photographs are optimized to appear appropriately on LinkedIn. This process is not automated, so you’ll need to use a graphics program to ensure you’ve got it right.

Generate Solid Networks and Contacts

The aim with connections should be quality rather than a number. A hundred meaningful business contacts are worth more than 740 random or out-of-date ones. Everyone receives connection requests from a variety of sources, including optimistic recruiting agencies and friends and relatives who have no meaningful business link. Make sure you only include people who are directly related to you and your business. If you’re worried about looking impolite, send the contact a note explaining why a LinkedIn connection might not be acceptable and recommending an alternative. Other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, may be used to reconnect with friends, family, and old coworkers.

Whenever users take the step of requesting to connect with someone, make a note of it. Make it personal by explaining why you’re reaching out and asking to connect with them.

All of this doesn’t have to belong, but indicate whether you’ve met before, if you share a common interest, or simply how you found their profile.

Many individuals will disregard connection requests that appear random, so take the time to personalize the letter and provide them with a reason to accept your request.

In case you already have a meaningful connection in mind, but can’t seem to find them, use Nuwber to find their profile. Nuwber will provide links to social media profiles, one of which might be LinkedIn.

Connect with Potential Prospects

Whether you’ve done your marketing homework, you’ve identified the characteristics of your perfect client.

Nonetheless, in order to establish a direct discussion, you must first make a connection request. The simplest way to do this is to find a mutual link and ask them to introduce you electronically. Make this process as easy for your contact as possible by emphasizing the value you offer to their connection and utilizing short email phrasing for the introductions.

Consider investing in LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator if you want to take this approach to the next level. This tool makes it easier to search LinkedIn and returns up to 500+ results at a time. It also allows you to contact prospects with whom you have no prior relationship by sending InMails, which LinkedIn assures will be sent. InMails that are easy to read and promise a benefit to the reader may initiate a dialogue that leads to a transaction.

Consider Participating in LinkedIn Groups

By joining LinkedIn groups, you will be able to meet others with similar professional interests. Before you choose the groups, consider who you want to reach out to in your targeted audience. Remember that in B2B sales, numerous persons are frequently involved in the purchasing decision.

You want to locate groups that appeal to each of the people involved in the decision-making process, therefore increasing your reach. If your company assists both sales and marketing experts, you may need to join both the ‘Sales Best Practices’ and the ‘Content Strategy’ groups.

Inspect the profiles of clients and prospects to find out which categories your decision-makers and influencers are a member of. They frequently list the organizations to which they belong. Examine these groups to see which ones are the most active. The more ongoing debates there are, the more probable it is that you will be able to locate ones to which you can offer value, demonstrate thought leadership, and meet new possibilities.

Conclusion

There are management technologies that can save time and effort as your connection count climbs. LinkedIn also produces a variety of proper B2B marketing tools that are fantastic for ambitious entrepreneurs.

Remember that both your own and your company’s profile need to look professional and active. Business Development is a process that takes time, but with the right strategies and devotion you will reap the benefits.

19-slide PowerPoint presentation
This document serves as a comprehensive set of templates for Key Account Management. Sections include Relationship Map, SWOT Analysis, Marketing Plan, Sales Pipeline, Competitive Footprint, and more. The templates are the same used by Fortune 100 companies when performing Strategic [read more]

Do You Want to Implement Business Best Practices?

You can download in-depth presentations on Sales and 100s of management topics from the FlevyPro Library. FlevyPro is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives.

For even more best practices available on Flevy, have a look at our top 100 lists:

These best practices are of the same as those leveraged by top-tier management consulting firms, like McKinsey, BCG, Bain, and Accenture. Improve the growth and efficiency of your organization by utilizing these best practice frameworks, templates, and tools. Most were developed by seasoned executives and consultants with over 20+ years of experience.

Readers of This Article Are Interested in These Resources


104-slide PowerPoint presentation
Why should you buy Breakout Sales Growth (ak; BSG)? "Because BSG is a best practice strategy designed to consistently achieve revenue goals, that's why! And… Breakout Sales Growth has just been updated to reflect marketplace changes, I think you will like it," Howard [read more]


 
141-slide PowerPoint presentation
 
 
15-slide PowerPoint presentation

About Shane Avron

Shane Avron is a freelance writer, specializing in business, general management, enterprise software, and digital technologies. In addition to Flevy, Shane's articles have appeared in Huffington Post, Forbes Magazine, among other business journals.


Complimentary Business Training Guides


Many companies develop robust strategies, but struggle with operationalizing their strategies into implementable steps. This presentation from flevy introduces 12 powerful business frameworks spanning both Strategy Development and Strategy Execution. [Learn more]

  This 48-page whitepaper, authored by consultancy Envisioning, provides the frameworks, tools, and insights needed to manage serious Change—under the backdrop of the business lifecycle. These lifecycle stages are each marked by distinct attributes, challenges, and behaviors. [Learn more]

We've developed a very comprehensive collection of Strategy & Transformation PowerPoint templates for you to use in your own business presentations, spanning topics from Growth Strategy to Brand Development to Innovation to Customer Experience to Strategic Management. [Learn more]

  We have compiled a collection of 10 Lean Six Sigma templates (Excel) and Operational Excellence guides (PowerPoint) by a multitude of LSS experts. These tools cover topics including 8 Disciplines (8D), 5 Why's, 7 Wastes, Value Stream Mapping (VSM), and DMAIC. [Learn more]
Recent Articles by Corporate Function

  

  

  

  

  

The Flevy Business Blog (https://flevy.com/blog) is a leading source of information on business strategies, business theories, and business stories. Most of our articles are authored by management consultants and industry executives with over 20 years of experience.

Flevy (https://flevy.com) is the marketplace for business best practices, such as management frameworks, presentation templates, and financial models. Our best practice documents are of the same caliber as those produced by top-tier consulting firms (like McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, BCG, and Deloitte) and used by Fortune 100 organizations. Learn more about Flevy here.
  


OUR CORE OFFERINGS
Flevy Marketplace: Top 100
· Strategy & Transformation
· Digital Transformation
· Operational Excellence
· Organization & Change
· Financial Models
· Consulting Frameworks
· PowerPoint Templates
FlevyPro (Subscription Service)
KPI Library
Streams (Functional Bundles)
Flevy Executive Learning (FEL)
PowerPoint Services

FREE Resources

About Flevy
Management Topics
Marcus (AI-Powered Consultant)
Partner Program
LinkedIn Influencer Marketing
FAQ / Terms / Privacy / Blog
Contact Us: support@flevy.com



CONNECT WITH US!
       
TOP 100 TRENDING TOPICS
Acquisition Strategy
Agile
Analytics
Artificial Intelligence
Balanced Scorecard
Best Practices
Big Data
Breakout Strategy
Business Continuity Planning
Business Plan Financial Model
Business Transformation
CMMI
COBIT
Change Management
Cloud
Communications Strategy
Company Financial Model
Competitive Advantage
Competitive Analysis
Consulting Frameworks
Continuous Improvement
Core Competencies
Corporate Culture
Cost Reduction Assessment
Customer Experience

BROWSE BY FUNCTION
Strategy, Transformation, & Innovation
Digital Transformation
Operational Excellence and LSS
Organization, Change, & HR
Management Consulting

Customer Journey
Customer Service
Cyber Security
Data Privacy
Decision Making
Digital Marketing Strategy
Digital Transformation
Digital Transformation Strategy
Due Diligence
ESG
Employee Engagement
Employee Training
Enterprise Architecture
Growth Strategy
HR Strategy
Hiring
Hoshin Kanri
ISO 27001
ITIL
Information Technology
Innovation Management
Integrated Financial Model
Kaizen
Kanban
Key Performance Indicators

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Business Strategy Frameworks
Case Studies
Consulting Training Guides
COVID-19 Trend Data
Digital Transformation
Financial Advising Services (FAS)

Knowledge Management
Leadership
Lean
Lean Manufacturing
Logistics
M&A (Mergers & Acquisitions)
Manufacturing
Market Research
Marketing Plan Development
Maturity Model
McKinsey PowerPoint
McKinsey Templates
Operational Excellence
Organizational Change
Organizational Design
Performance Management
Post-merger Integration
Pricing Strategy
Process Improvement
Process Maps
Procurement Strategy
Product Launch Strategy
Product Strategy
Project Management
Quality Management


Free Resources
KPI Library
Lean Management
Lean Six Sigma Training Guides
Marcus Insights
Operational Excellence

Real Estate
Remote Work
Restructuring
Risk Management
Robotic Process Automation
SWOT
SaaS
Sales
Scrum
Service Design
Six Sigma Project
Social Media Strategy
Strategic Planning
Strategic Thinking
Strategy Development
Supply Chain Analysis
Sustainability
Target Operating Model
Team Management
Total Productive Maintenance
Value Chain Analysis
Value Creation
Value Stream Mapping
Visual Workplace
Workplace Safety


Product Strategy
Small Business Owner
Startup Resources
Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning Process
Value Innovation Strategy


© 2012-2024 Copyright. Flevy LLC. All Rights Reserved.