42

Ken Krogue
insidesales.com

Jamie Shanks
42 LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips By Ken Krogue and Jamie Shanks

INTRODUCTiON

42
The 42 LinkedIn Inside Sales Tips eBook is designed to help you drive new business. Youll learn critical practices to help you connect better with prospects and customers and increase revenue. Traditional selling channels of email and phone are tried and true, but LinkedIn and other social channels can greatly increase sales performance. Here is a preview on just one of the powerful tips did you know LinkedIn performs 7 times better than email in some cases? Get social and leave old school selling in the dust. These 42 tips were originally presented by Ken Krogue and Jamie Shanks as a webinar which you can watch here.

LiNKEDIN iS
OUT-PULLING EMAIL

7-TO-1
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LiNKEDiN CHEATSHEET
JAMIE SHANKs TIPs
1 BE A ThOUghT LEADER 2 DRIVE OppORTUnITy 3 ThE SECRETS wIThIn GROUpS 4 SKILLS AS A SEO HUnTIng TOOL 5 SAVE YOUR InMAILS 6 HOT PROSpECTS In GROUpS 7 FOLLOw HOT PROSpECTS 8 TIMIng WIThIn FOLLOwERS 9 TIMIng WIThIn SIgnALS 10 ATTACK FOLLOwERS 11 InSIghTS InTO ThEIR BUSInESS

KEN KROGUE TIPs

12 GRAB YOUR NAME 13 USE A GOOD PICTURE 14 COMpLETE yOUR PROFILE 15 MAKE yOUR WEDDIng/FUnERAL LIST 16 COnnECT TO yOUR CUSTOMERS 17 FOLLOw yOUR CUSTOMERS COMpAnIES 18 COnnECT TO yOUR EMpLOyEES 19 HAVE A POInT PERSOn 20 COnnECT TO yOUR PROSpECTS 21 RESpOnD By EMAIL ThEn COnnECT 22 COnnECT AT TRADE ShOwS 23 JOIn InDUSTRy GROUpS 24 JOIn LOCAL GROUpS 25 UpDATE On TwITTER 26 COnnECT A WIDgET On yOUR BLOg 27 SEnD MESSAgES InSTEAD OF EMAIL 28 USE TAgS TO CATEgORIZE 29 USE LInKEDIn EVEnTS 30 OFFER VALUE TO COnnECTIOnS 31 RECOMMEnD OThERS 32 USE LInKEDIn FOR InTRODUCTIOnS 33 DO A 3X3 AnALySIS 34 FOLLOw PROSpECT COMpAnIES 35 USE 3 FREE SEO LInKS 36 LInKEDIn EVEnTS wITh TRADE ShOwS 37 PROMOTE & ShARE EVERy EVEnT yOU ATTEnD 38 TARgET PROSpECTS By SIZE, TITLE, InDUSTRy 39 ASK FOR RECOMMEnDATIOnS 40 ASK FOR CUSTOMER RECOMMEnDATIOnS 41 MAKE IT EASy TO ASK FOR REFERRALS FROM yOUR CUSTOMERS 42 DOnT SPAM

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Tips: 1-11
Sales for Life provides two things for clients. First, they train sales teams to drive business through LinkedIn and Twitter. Second, they become the sales rep themselves. Sales for Life has a social selling, lead generation program that takes over a companys LinkedIn and Twitter accounts and begins driving new opportunities similar to traditional B2B lead generation.

Jamie Shanks

Managing Partner Sales for Life

Tips: 12-42
Throughout Kens career, he has worked to grow the inside sales industry from a small department into an industry. Through his professional experiences, Ken has conducted research on the best practices and methods of sellingincluding socially. At InsideSales.com, Ken has used his experience of the inside sales industry to create a powerful sales automation software platform which increases the effectiveness and efciency of an inside sales department.

Ken Krogue

President & Co-founder InsideSales.com

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1 LEADER
BE A THOUGHt
To start generating results from LinkedIn and social selling, you need to become a thought leader within your industry. There are two avenues of approach to being a thought leader in business.

Step One
If youre a sales rep at Company ABC, you need to be subscribing to pieces of thought-leadership that you can share with your prospects, vendors, and clients. For example, Ken is a fantastic creator of great thought-leadership. Jamie subscribes to Kens blog and views the information using Feedly, a product used to visualize RSS feeds into a newspaper. Other tools he uses to capture quality content to share with his prospects are Scoop.it and HootSuite.

Step Two
Create original content. Easy ways of distributing content are using a blog, SlideShare or YouTube (video is becoming extremely important).

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2
Example

DRIVE OPPoRTUNITY

After relevant content has been curated and digested by your prospects, you can start driving meeting requests through LinkedIn. Remember, LinkedIn is not a repository for your resume. Its a place to actively drive business. If your prospect posted an article (update) on LinkedIn four minutes ago, you can see they are engaged online. Whether you use the telephone to call them or send a message through LinkedIn, you know the chances are high that they are available to pay attention to your message. Additionally, make sure youre using a call-to-action at the bottom of every message. This creates a much higher ROI. Its a great method to booking meetings.

PLACE TO SIT pASSIVELY REpOSITOrY FOr rESUME

NOT

TO USE CALL-TO-ACTION ACTIVELY DrIVE BUSINESS

IS

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3 GROUPS
SECRETs WITHIN
THE
Nothing is more powerful within LinkedIn than groups. As a member of LinkedIn, you are allowed to join 50 groups. Use every one. When deciding which groups to become a member of, think in three levels.

GrOUpS TO JOIN

First
Join ve to ten groups that everyone else in your industry is joining.

THINK IN 3 LEVElS
INDUSTRY CLiENT INVOLVED BUYERS PERSONA

Second
Go a layer lower within specic verticals. For example, join groups that clients are involved in.

Third
Most importantly, is to understand the persona of your buyer. At Sales for Life, they sell to VPs of Sales and Sales Directors. Therefore, they need to be involved in every major group in North America that these buyers are part of.

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4 HUNTING TOOL
How to Target
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SKILLs As A SEO

At the top of a companys LinkedIn corporate page there is a button called Insights. This is where LinkedIn provides a prole outline of that particular company. For example, on InsideSales.coms LinkedIn page, it shows the most common skills that InsideSales.com employees have. If youre targeting companies like InsideSales.com, you can select a skill like Lead Generation. The link will take you to a page that shows all the most inuential companies relating to that skill and the most populous groups youd want to join. This tool is extremely useful when mapping out groups to join.

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5 INMAiLS
If you arent connected to someone on LinkedIn, you are unable to send them a message without using InMail, a paid service. However, if youre a member of Sales 2.0 and Inside Sales Experts you can send anyone within that group a private message even though you arent a 1st degree connection. There isnt enough data yet to determine if InMails are opened more frequently and have a greater ROI than other LinkedIn messages. Regardless, sending messages through shared LinkedIn groups is the best avenue.
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

SAVE YOUR

SEND MESSAGES
THrOUgH A grOUp pAgE

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6 IN GROUPS
How to Find Prospects
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HOT PROSpECTS

The great part about groups is that they provide numerous prospects. After sending a message and starting a conversation with a quality prospect, go back into that same group and target other group members. You can do this by conducting advanced searches based on targeted keywords, key company functions or seniority. This will provide you an endless prospecting pool, all of which is available with free messaging.

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HOT PROSpECTS

FOLLOW

LinkedIn allows users to follow up to 5,000 people. Following is different than connecting but the benets are the same.

Best Practice
To build your database, go into any group you are a member of and pull up the list of group members. Youll notice that at the bottom of the proles of the people who you are in 1st degree connection, it will say, Unfollow. If you start scrolling into the 2nd and 3rd degree connections, youll notice that the button changes to Follow.

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8 FOLLOWERS
TIMING WItHIN
Timing is everything when it comes to getting in touch with prospects. This is where LinkedIn is so helpful. By using LinkedIn as a time trigger, you know the moment a prospect posts an update. Because of this, there is a strong possibility they could still be on their computer. Use this as an opportunity to time your message and increase the likelihood of making contact with a message on LinkedIn or a phone call!

Tip
If your prospect has the time to be using LinkedIn right now they probably are available to take a phone call. You have a much higher probability of getting him on the phone at this time than at any other time.

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9 SIGNALs
TIMING WItHIN
Use this tool to create between 30 and 50 trigger words using competitors and key industry phrases. Check this tool three times per day: in the morning, at lunch and in the evening.

How To
On the top bar within LinkedIn, hover over the option that reads News. Within that drop down menu, select the third selection called, LinkedIn Signal. This tool allows you to create trigger words to keep track of particular topics. You can probably imagine how powerful this tool is. If someone says the words social selling and thats one of your keywords, you will hear it and will be able to respond accordingly.

Tip
Sales for Life has found, from their own business, that 70% of every lead created is through this method.

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10
3 tYPEs OF

FOLLOWERS
First

ATTaCK
In addition to the LinkedIn Signal feature, there is another technique that is equally important for driving business with LinkedIn. Pick a client with a strong success story from using your product.

FOllOWERS
DIRECT COMpETITOR COMpETITIVE EMULATIOn COnSUMER

Next
Go onto their corporate LinkedIn page and click on Followers. This immediately tells you theyre going to be the most receptive to a message that includes a success story featuring that client.

Why?
Because if you are a follower of a company you are one of three types of people: the direct competitor (they want to know what youre doing), competitive emulation (other companies in your space with the same target audience), or consumer that have used your product (vendors, partners and past clients).

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11 BUSINESS
INSiGHTS iNTO THEiR
In addition to viewing the followers of a client, you can also gain powerful information by clicking on that same companys Insights button.

How To
This feature within LinkedIn will retrieve six similar businesses that you can target. These are the people who would probably care about the success story of that similar company. Start messaging these peoplethey could provide great value.

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12 NAME
GRAB YOUR
Make sure that your public prole URL is shortened to contain just your name, i.e. http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkrogue. If you leave the default assigned by LinkedIn, your personal URL will have a series of random letters and numbers. It looks like a mess and is hard to remember and link to. Make sure you grab your name before someone else does.

Tip
If you arent able to grab your own name, try adding something that says something about your professional expertise or industry. For example, if Ken Krogue had been taken, I would have chosen /kenkroguesales. Sales says a lot more about me than /kenkrogue1, which is the typical fallback selection.

DO
www.linkedin.com/in/kenkrogue

DONT

www.linkedin.com/in/kenkrogue www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-krogue/2/4a/328 www.linkedin.com/pub/ken-krogue/2/4a/328

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13 PICTURE
How To
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USE A GOOD

LinkedIn is a professional siteits not a personal site like Facebook. That being said, make sure your LinkedIn prole picture portrays you in a professional manner. You probably wont have the same prole image as you do on Facebook. To ensure your picture looks professional, use a good, close-up picture that stands out. At InsideSales.com, we use a black and white, short-cropped head shot. Why black and white? It stands out. Make your picture unique while maintaining a professional appearance.

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14 PROFILE
COMPLETE YOUR
Set up your prole correctly to keep it fresh. This will help you gain credibility within the LinkedIn environment. Its actually not as hard as it sounds. LinkedIn provides the user with the necessary steps to complete their prole. By following all the steps, your LinkedIn prole can be 100 percent complete within a few hours. Take the time to ll in educational history and professional experience. It will be easier to expand your professional network. More importantly, it sends a message of proactivity to prospects who may look at your prole. Warning: Using LinkedIn with an incomplete prole is a mistake. It shows a lack of credibility and professionalism.

100% profile completeness

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15
Why?
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MAKE YOUR
WEDDING/FUNERAL LIST

To begin building out your network, the rst thing you can do is make a wedding or funeral guest list. This is an old prospecting technique with a new twist. Im told that wedding planners and funeral directors estimate the average wedding or funeral at 250 attendees if they dont know how many people are coming. Imagine if you linked to 250 people who care about you. Wouldnt they be the best place to start prospecting and looking for introductions, recommendations, and referrals?

MY NETWORK

NETWORK
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BUIlD YOUR

16 CUSTOMERS
Within the B2B world, nobody is more important than your customers and clients. With that in mind, it makes sense that you should connect to each of them, adding them as part of your LinkedIn network. By receiving their LinkedIn updates and content posts, I get to know them and can start to connect to others that have similar interests and pain points. From connecting with your customers, they become your biggest resource for prospects. We recommend that your CEO, VP of Sales, VP of Support, among others, reach out as part of the welcome process to each new customer and connect. Then reach out to them now and again to ask, How are things coming?

CONNEcT TO YOUR

Tip
Be sure to organize your customers with tags. That way you can easily nd them.

ORGANIZE CUSTOMERS WITH TAGS

REACH OUT TO CUSTOMERS

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17 COMPANIES
CUSTOMERS
FOLLOW YOUR
After connecting to your customers, follow their companies so that you can see the news ow that comes through LinkedIn. Similar to Jamies previous idea, by following customer companies you gain insight into the biggest news coming out of that company.

Keep in Mind
Customers like when you know things that are going on in their organizations. It shows that you care and that you are invested in keeping them as a customer.

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18 EMPLOYeeS
CONNEcT TO YOUR
When deciding who to add as a connection, start with the people youre surrounded by every dayfellow employees. If youre in a management level position, spend time and teach your colleagues and employees the value of using LinkedIn as a team.

Tip
Do it from day one in the onboarding process for all new hires. In order to gain the maximum results from LinkedIn, this should be a group effort. Make sure you get your people together and coordinate your efforts and strategies.

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19 PERSON
HAVE A POINT
LinkedIn works by letting you view people who are two levels deep meaning you can connect to a person through a series of two other people starting with the one you know.

Best Practice
Have at least one person in the company who reaches out to a lot of connections. Make sure these are real connections and that your connection requests arent spam. If everyone else at the company is connected to the point person, they act like a doorway with great connections for everyone else. At InsideSales.com, I am the point person. Within my professional network on LinkedIn, I am connected to over 3,100 people. Through me, all of my sales reps have the potential to connect to far more people. Beware: If headhunters and recruiters connect with your point person, they have access to all of your people. Connect with caution!
Whos Viewed Your Profile? Your LinkedIn Network

Your profile has been viewed by 6 people in the past day. You have shwon up in search results 44 times in the past day.

3,101

Connections link you to 14,680,285+ professionals New people in your Network since October 2

44

20,395

Add Connections

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20 PROSpECTS
Just as you should connect to all your customers, you should also connect with your prospects. Our salespeople are asked to connect to their prospects right after the rst contact attempt. Do they always do it? The smart ones do. They understand that by asking to become connected on LinkedIn it increases the rate of building a relationship and rapport.

CONNEcT TO YOUR

How To
You can search by keyword to nd prospects. For us, anybody with inside sales, lead management, or salesforce.com in their LinkedIn prole is a prospect. Find out what the keywords are that target your audience and begin generating your prospecting lists.

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21
How To
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RESPOND BY EMAIL

THEN CONNECT

People always ask, How do you build your connections? Personally I use the technique, respond by email and then connect. This method is a great way to make connections with interesting and valuable people. Whenever you receive an email from someone you think would be a valuable connection, simply respond by email and mention in the email that you will be connecting by LinkedIn. In your connection request remind them you just emailed them. LinkedIn penalizes you if you try to connect to too many people who reject you because they dont know or dont remember who you are.

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22
Best Practice
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

CONNEcT AT

TRADE SHOWS

My favorite task after going to a trade show is to take all of the new business cards given to me and connect on LinkedIn. When you send the request to connect, remind them of the common experience you had together at the trade show so they remember and dont reject you. We have a rule at InsideSales.com that we will never go to a trade show unless we are sure that we can set enough appointments before the show even happens to pay for the show. Before we went to one of our biggest shows, Dreamforce (a Salesforce show) last year, we already had over 700 appointments for demos at the show. This year it was over 1,000.

C OMMON

REMIND ABOUT

EXPERiENCE
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23 GROUPS
JOIN INDUSTRY
I strongly suggest that sales reps join industry LinkedIn groups. Why? Because the days of lunch networking groups are gone. A great group on LinkedIn for those in the inside sales industry is Inside Sales Experts. The group was created by Trish Bertuzzi, the Founder and CEO of The Bridge Group, Inc. in Boston. When I rst joined the group, there were 8,000 members. I recently checked and there are now over 20,000 members. I dont know anywhere else on the planet where that many inside sales professionals congregate. Over the years I have now met hundreds of them and I count them as friends. I did this by getting involved in their discussions.

Trish Bertuzzi

InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

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24 GROUPS
JOIN LOCAl
In addition to joining industry groups, join professional groups in your geographic area. This is a great tool, especially if you sell locally.

How To
Go to the Groups search window at the top right and type in your home city and/or home state to nd groups close to you. Now look for industries that you want to nd prospects in. These groups usually have quarterly or annual meetings. That are a great resource for prospecting locally.

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25 TWIttER
For the most part, you probably post similar content on LinkedIn and Twitter. At least occasionally. Why not kill two birds with one stone? By linking together your LinkedIn account with your professional Twitter prole, specied LinkedIn updates can be sent out to your Twitter followers as well. Its a great way for your prospects and followers to see the latest news about you and your company. Warning: Just like most tools, this can be overused. I like to lter it down to just the best updates.
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UPDATE ON

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26
Tip
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

BLOG

WIDGET ON YOUR

CONNEcT A

In the social media age, content is king. By bringing in quality content that your connections on LinkedIn would care about, you offer value. Check out the widgets available on LinkedIn. I love the WordPress widget that publishes my three most recent blog articles to my LinkedIn page. Just like with automated Twitter posts this can be overused. Make sure you are only pulling in the most relevant content to your connections. However, if your blog is targeted at the same audience as your professional LinkedIn audience you shouldnt have too much of a problem. If youre interested in inside sales, subscribe to my blog KenKrogue.com.

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27 EMAIL
INSTEAD OF
SEND MEssAGEs
Through LinkedIn, InsideSales.com constantly tests different media through which to send messages to prospects in addition to testing the content of the messages. In terms of response rates, emails range between .1 percent and .3 percent. The exact same message sent in our early in-house tests by LinkedIn responded 300 percent better. We recently released a new product, PowerSocial, that integrates social platforms into sales automation technology. Already we have seen increases in or response rates. PowerSocial gives your reps a social view without the distractions of going to the social networking sites.

POWER
SOcIAL
Enable sales reps to learn about and engage prospects more intelligently.

Learn More

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28 CATEGORIZE
How To
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USE TAGS tO

LinkedIn allows you to use tags to categorize your customers from prospects, friends, etc. tags are like Circles on Google+. As your connections grow, the tag allows you to slice and dice your LinkedIn network for all kinds of communication purposes. Tags are found in the Contacts section of LinkedIn and are absolutely invaluable for more advanced methods of using LinkedIn for prospecting, such as sending targeted emails to only specic categories.

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29 EVENTS
LINKEDIN
USE
Look for LinkedIn events that correspond to trade shows. By adding the event, you can network within the group and invite them to come meet you at your booth at the trade show. These groups attract hundreds of users that will be attending the same event. For example, if a group has 190 people who have said they are attending that gives you 190 people you can introduce yourself to before the event even begins.

Remember Tip 22
InsideSales.com has a rule to schedule enough appointments before the event to pay for it. LinkedIn groups are one way we accomplish this.

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30
Best Practice
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

CONNEcTIONS

OFFER VALUE To

Its important to interact occasionally with your LinkedIn connections and build relationships with them. Offer valuable content to your connections including training materials, quality books, best practices, tips, tricks, and best of all, referrals. The best way to build a relationship is through providing quality, relevant content. I reach out about every six months to my LinkedIn connections in Utah and share my latest seminar with them for free. I probably have 70 to 80 people come. I do the same with webinars nationally and usually have a few thousand attend.

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31 OTHERS
RECOMMEND
I strongly endorse giving recommendations to contacts such as co-workers, colleagues, former employers and authors. Its a great way to build morale and friendships. Dont wait for people to ask.

Tip
Make a personal goal to reach out and recommend one person a week. If someone does something special, go tell them! You would be surprised what taking the time to show gratitude and respect can do to open doors and build strong rapport.

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32
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

LINKEDIN FOR
INTRODUCTiONS
MY

USE

I wanted to get in contact with the inside sales department at Novell. I looked up the company, found an old friend of mine that works there, connected with him, sent him a message and asked for a referral. The result was better than I could have hoped for. My friend called me up and not only knew who I was trying to get in touch with at Novell, but his ofce was only two doors down. He walked down the hall, knocked on his colleagues door and got me an appointment. It was amazing. That was my rst productive use of LinkedIn and Ive been hooked ever since.

FrIEND

Got me An

APPOiNTMENT

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33
How To
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DO A 3X3 ANaLYSIS

If youve ever had a call that you werent quite sure how to begin the conversation, this tip is critical. This is a technique that Steve Richard, from Vorsight, taught me. Before reaching out to your prospects take three minutes and nd three things you have in common. This will help you have something to talk to that prospect about. Keep this tip in mind when preparing to meet with anyone for the rst time whether its sales related or not.

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34 COMPANIES
FOLLOW
Tip
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PROSpECT

When following prospect companies, you cant follow too many or your feed gets overwhelmedjust as Jamie said. You have to be very strategic about the companies you are trying to get into. This is a great way to be able to speak intelligently when you have conversations. I would recommend that you look at your prospect companies every time before you call them back so you can know the very latest news from that company.

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35 SEO LINKs
USE 3 FREE
Most people dont realize that LinkedIn provides three free backlinks that anyone can use for Google juice. These links should direct your connections to content to gain more information about you, your company, or your industry.

First
In the Edit your prole layout, click on the Edit Contact Info, this section will expand.

Second
Next to Websites will be a + Add to website link, clicking the link will open a new page. Change the rst box to Other and type the content that you would like to be the backlink. Think of keywords that you want to rank for on Google. These keywords should be the text in your backlink.

Third
Insert the link the content will point to. For additional content on building quality SEO, check out Kens articles on Forbes.com.

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36
How To
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

EVeNTS WITH
TRADE SHOWS

LINKEDIN

We talked about LinkedIn Events in regards to trade shows. But how do you actually make connections at these events? Well, if you nd that the trade shows youre going to have the social media foresight to build a LinkedIn event, then all you have to do is bring up all the individual attendees. Send a message saying, Hi, I want to meet you and shake your hand. Come by my booth during the show and lets get to know each other. By using this method weve been able to add dozens upon dozens of additional visits to our booth, even if we cant set appointments.

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37
How To
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

EVeRY eVeNT
EVERYONE WiNS

PROMOTE & SHARE

YOU ATTEND
E Vents
W HEN YOU P ROMOTE

I speak probably 20 to 25 times a year and, often, I have found my prospect base within LinkedIn. I want to make my prospects aware of where Im speaking because I want to meet with them. Weve been able to move several LinkedIn connections from prospect status to customer because they come to the event were already going to. Everybody wins when you promote events. Its really easy to do. Go into LinkedIn, add the event to your calendar, and promote it through the share feature.

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38 INDUSTRY
TARGEt PROSPECtS BY
How To
I love the concept of dynamic emails. LinkedIn sends me half a dozen dynamic emails with different sources of leads every morning. Ive found that the best companies to target are those who are hiring inside sales reps. Its a strong sign that they are growing.
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

SIZE, TItLE,

To help target prospects better, slice and dice your prospects through LinkedIns advanced search. The advanced search allows you to search for people and companies. When you search for companies you can target what you are looking for by the size of the company, industry, and title. Its all about the power of the list, and LinkedIn is becoming one of the best in the world.

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39
How To
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Just as you should give recommendations, you should also ask for recommendations from co-workers, colleagues, and former employers. Once you have lots of honest and frank recommendations, I like to move to asking for recommendations from customers. It works best when you ask for recommendations early in the process as a measure of how well you do. I also do this if a prospect is asking for additional pricing discounts or negotiating terms aggressively. You could say, Well, with this discount Im giving you, would you recommend me on LinkedIn if I have earned it?

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40
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

CUSTOMER RECOMMENDATIONS

ASK FOR

If you present at a seminar, ask for a grade from those in attendance through a LinkedIn recommendation. Having these recommendations for prospects to see can also help to shorten the sales cycle. This is similar to the Salesforce AppExchangebut here people recommend your apps that work with Salesforce from third party vendors. For our app, PowerDialer for Salesforce, we care deeply about recommendations that are left on the AppExchange for our product. In the social media world, recommendations and comments are the new currency used to promote your business (check out this article on Forbes.com for more information about social media currency).

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41
How To
InsideSales.com | Sales for Life

REFERRALS FROM
YOUR CUSTOMERS

MAKE IT EASY TO ASK FOR

To help generate more referrals, I tell my prospects, One of the best ways I grade myself on how well I do is whether or not you are willing to recommend me to other people just like yourself when we are done. I set up this expectation early on and remind them once or twice during the sales process. Quite often I need to prompt them with ideas. Recently, Ive been using LinkedIn. This makes the whole process easier for both parties. I often say something like, To make it easy for you and to help me grow my business with your recommendations, Ive found a few people you know that I would greatly appreciate an introduction to. Once they have given their approval you can use the normal LinkedIn process. The LinkedIn process is better than cold calling them on my own.

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42 SPAM
DONT
Overzealous marketers ruined contacting by telephone, faxing, and email by sending spam. Just dont do it. Its a mistake we should make only once. I wish we had a dye that turned their LinkedIn page red for a week when somebody uses LinkedIn to brazenly pitch their product!

Best Practice
Dont try and sell them something, its a turnoff. Just offer great content. If they want to buy something from you they will seek you out.

SpAM

DOnT

DO

OffEr

GREAT CONTENT
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SUMMARY

42
Now that you fully understand how to make the most of LinkedIn to drive business and results, you can now create a strategic plan to incorporate social media efforts to increase revenue. LinkedIn will play a large role in the future of sales the good news is, youre already ahead of the majority of the industry. Hardly anybody is using LinkedIn in a way to expand and grow business. For an additional, more in-depth discussion on using LinkedIn to drive business, watch this webinar featuring Ken Krogue and Jamie Shanks available here. Be sure to connect with Ken and Jamie on LinkedIn for inside sales industry updates and best practices.

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OFFERS
Thanks for reading 42 Linkedin Inside Sales Tips. While LinkedIn and other social media platforms can certainly help drive business and revenue, combining these tips with sales automation technology will increase the productivity and efciency of your sales team even more. For additional resources to support your inside sales team, check out some of the other solutions from InsideSales.com and Sales for Life.

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CREDiTS
CONTENT
Ken Krogue | http://kenkrogue.com Jamie Shanks | http://salesforlife.com/blog

42
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CO-AUTHORED BY JON MILLER OF MARKETO

WRITERS
Alex Orton | Jessica Winn |

COPY EDITORS
Jessica Dyer | Thomas Oldroyd |

DESIGNERS
Scott Humphries | Stephen Gashler |

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Copyright 2012 InsideSales.com

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