Turning LinkedIn Connections into Results with EngagePro

LinkedIn is a wonderful source of potential leads and clients. Everyone I know feels there’s a myriad of ways to find potential clients and numerous tools to help you find and initiate contacts using LinkedIn. 

Yet many people are still unhappy with the results they get from LinkedIn.

The challenge is that there are so many people simply trying to pitch their products that its likely the people you want to talk to have put up barriers to keep out the noise. Some people have even decided to abandon being active on LinkedIn due to their lack or results and frustration with the noise.

EngagePro can help. The key is to get potential clients and relationships out of LinkedIn after you find them and make initial contact, and bring them into a discovery and relationship building process as quickly as possible. 

To do that, simply follow these steps.

1. When you find someone who you feel may be a great prospect or referral source, invite them to join you as a follower and connect with them in LinkedIn. I like to send connection invitations with a message showing the sincere intent to join together to seek ways to:

• Possibly support each other and build a collaborative relationship or
• b. Wanting to learn more about what they do as you work with people that you might know who you could introduce them to.

(Bonus) Here’s my LinkedIn 25 Magic Words: “How would you feel if we planned a short call to learn more about each other and see how we might potentially support each other?”)

2. Seek to set-up a short discovery call where you’re looking to learn how you might collaborate and offer the use of your calendaring app as that will gather their email address and maybe even their phone number. Again, it’s important to get the conversation moving ahead outside of LinkedIn as soon as possible.

Important: Don’t fill your calendar scheduling form with your own prospect qualifying questions. I hate those and some are intrusive and blatantly self-serving. If you want to include a question, ask something like “As we get to know each other, what would be a great introduction that I could make to you?” Or maybe, “If I met someone, how would I know they’d be a great person for me to introduce to you?”

These are “trust building questions” and help you learn more about how to approach the discovery call, you’re planning.

3. With the call scheduled, add that contact into EngagePro (its easy… click on “Add a Contact”). You’re then delivered automatically to their “Connector” page where you can add notes about them or even add a personal interest you’ve learned about them into the “Intelligent Connection” tool.

4. Also, quickly check out their website, LinkedIn profile or do an online search and see what you might learn and add to their Intelligent Connector interests. While in the Connector, add that person to your LinkedIn Connections “Key Group” (click “Save” too) so you can now manage these sourced contacts under the LinkedIn Group category.

5. During your discovery call, use their EngagePro Connector page to capture notes, find an interesting piece of news or article about their interests to add to your conversation as you go through the steps of discovering how you might work together. 

During the call, you’ll likely learn more about their interests and background to add to their Intelligent Connections information for future use.

6. Always end the call with appreciation and always set the agenda for the next steps if that’s warranted. Then schedule that next activity using the “Contacted” button.

7. A great habit to get into is sending a quick note of thanks with an easy to find article on something personal that matters to the person. You’re immediately triggering the appreciation switch with them and laying the foundation for a growing relationship.

When you follow this process, you’ll be amazed and rewarded by how quickly you can move a contact from LinkedIn into a relationship. As you make your interactions personal and reoccurring, engagement and trust grows immediately, along with the opportunity for new sales and great new introductions into their network.

Tip: set a goal for adding one person a day from LinkedIn into this process and you’ll see your prospect pipeline fill quickly and your results multiply. Imagine… 20 new potential advocates in 30 days… how would that make you feel?