People generally approach the New Year as a time to start anew, a blank page to be filled, a network to be expanded upon, but January 2019 is not just a time to begin afresh but to re-engage with your existing network and develop the relationships for which you laid the foundations in 2018. Send personalized private messages. LinkedIn will permit you to send up to 100 private messages per day to your first degree connections. The key to these is to use them well: Personalize messages with the recipient's name and preferably mention their company, and offer something of value -- a company newsletter, a change in legislation that may affect them, a link to an interesting article. But, 78 percent of sales professionals are connected to either only one person or not connected at all into accounts they're trying to close. Look through your connections and then see who else with decision-making power also works at their company and connect with them; connect with the entire decision-making board. Endorse your connections. This has a two-fold positive effect: They will endorse you back, which boosts your profile on LinkedIn They will remember you exist and it will prompt them into scheduling a call with you. Ask your connections for their opinion and feedback I have yet to see a negative response when clients ask their connections for feedback on a new product or service. You can also use your headline to differentiate yourself from others in your industry.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
People generally approach the New Year as a time to start anew, a blank page to be filled, a network to be expanded upon, but January 2019 is not just a time to begin afresh but to re-engage with your existing network and develop the relationships for which you laid the foundations in 2018.
Here’s how you can successfully achieve this.
1. Send personalized private messages.
LinkedIn will permit you to send up to 100 private messages per day to your first degree connections. The key to these is to use them well: Personalize messages with the recipient’s name and preferably mention their company, and offer something of value — a company newsletter, a change in legislation that may affect them, a link to an interesting article. Publish an article using LinkedIn’s publishing platform and share the link to it in a message. LinkedIn says more than 1 million people use LinkedIn’s publishing platform, sharing over 130,000 posts each week. Think of this as a Christmas present to your connection, instead of a pitch. If you wish, sign off with a call to action such as “perhaps we can catch up in the New Year?”
2. Leverage your network.
According to LinkedIn, the average B2B purchase now involves 6.8 decision makers. But, 78 percent of sales professionals are connected to either only one person or not connected at all into accounts they’re trying to close. Look through your connections and then see who else with decision-making power also works at their company and connect with them; connect with the entire decision-making board. Did you know that as many as 50 percent of B2B buyers use LinkedIn when making purchasing decisions?
COMMENTS