My LinkedIn Sales Playbook

LinkedIn is a goldmine for potential leads, but most people struggle to convert connections into clients.

The truth is, your LinkedIn strategy can make or break your business.

By learning how to sell on LinkedIn, you’re investing in the growth of your business and unlocking a world of new opportunities.

In today’s letter, I'm going to show you my social selling playbook that will help you turn strangers into connections and connections into clients.

1. Profile Optimisation

Your LinkedIn profile is the first impression you make on potential clients. A well-optimised profile helps you present yourself as a credible individual.

Here are the 4 main sections that you must get right:

➤ Profile Photo: Use a high-quality, professional-looking headshot. Avoid using selfies or photos with distracting backgrounds.

Your photo should reflect a friendly vibe, making you look approachable and easy to talk to. In other words, smile!

➤ Headline: Clearly communicate who you are and what you do. Avoid vague terms. Instead use specific keywords related to your industry or expertise.

A simple headline formula is:
[Title] helping [prospects] do X

➤ Profile Banner: If you’re optimising for sales, you can use this space to call out your ideal target audience and show them how you can help.

Make sure that your banner is consistent with your overall brand image and messaging. This helps to create a cohesive and professional-looking profile.

P.S. City skylines and motivational quotes are a waste of precious banner space. Avoid these if you want to attract high-converting leads.

➤ About: Use this section to highlight your key achievements, skills, and how you help your clients get results.

Begin with a hook that grabs the reader's attention and entices them to keep reading. Keep your paragraphs short and to the point. Use bullet points or lists to break up large blocks of text and make it easier to scan.

Finish your About section with a call to action. Invite readers to connect with you, visit your website, or get in touch with you.

2. Content Creation

Three main reasons why you should post content on LinkedIn:

1. Build an audience and attract qualified inbound leads

2. Nurture your current connections and prospects

3. Establish authority and expertise in your niche

Content Pillars

Content pillars are core topics or themes that form the foundation of your content strategy.

1. Thought Leadership: Share insights, industry trends, opinions on relevant topics, and useful frameworks to establish credibility.
   
   Example: see this post.
   

2. Personal Content: Connect with your audience on a human level, showcasing your journey and lessons learned.

   
   Example: see this post.
   

3. Sales Content: share content that highlights a certain problem your audience struggles with and position your offer as the solution.
   
   Clearly state the action you want your audience to take, whether it's to visit your website, download a resource, or schedule a consultation.
   
   Try to add some value first and integrate your offer towards then end of the post as a soft sell.
   
   Example: see this post.

Content Formats

1. Text Posts: Engage your audience with informative posts that showcase your knowledge and expertise.
   

2. Images and Infographics: Visual content attracts attention and can convey complex information in an easily digestible format.
   

3. Carousels: Use multiple slides to share a series of related tips, insights, or information in a visually appealing format. Carousels increase retention and get more impressions.
   

4. Videos: Create engaging video content to share insights or tell stories that resonate with your audience. Video is a great format to build trust.
   

5. Personal Photos: Share behind-the-scenes glimpses or moments from your life to humanise your brand.

3. Engagement

1. The Spreadsheet: Create a list of your prospects in a spreadsheet and hyperlink the name of each person to their LinkedIn profile.
   
   This is a target list of all the people you intend to reach out to and offer your services. You’ll need this later to track your outreach.
   

2. The Notification Bell: Go to each profile on that list and turn on notifications for their posts. This way you’ll know when they post and you can engage with their content.
   

3. The Comments: Add value in the comments by sharing helpful insights or asking thoughtful questions that contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way.

Commenting and engaging with prospects helps to establish rapport and build a relationship with them. It also increases your visibility on their feed and the likelihood of them noticing your profile and content.

4. Direct Messages

This is the most important step in the process. Every step before this is just to warm up to your connections so that when you reach out to them directly, you’re a familiar face.

This doesn’t mean that you can skip any of the above steps. However, when your prospect doesn’t post or engage, you don’t have much of an option other than to reach out to them directly through the DMs.

If you apply these steps in the right order, the response rate to your DMs will be much higher. You’ll also find it easier to take conversations from the DMs to a call which is the ultimate objective of this whole process.

Connection request → Engagement → Direct Message → Call

How to Write an Effective Direct Message (DM)

A good direct message (DM) on LinkedIn is personalised, concise, and focused on providing value to the recipient.

It should start with a friendly greeting and a brief introduction, followed by a clear and specific reason for reaching out.

Avoid sending a message that pushy can turn off potential prospects and may lead to them ignoring your message or even blocking you.

Here’s an example of a high-converting DM that I use:

“Hi James, I hope you're having a great day!

I just launched a Fractional CMO Program designed to help startups accelerate their business growth without the cost of hiring a full-time marketing executive.

The program is ideal for startups who don't have a marketing leader on their team or have a marketer who would benefit from additional support and strategic guidance.

I made a short document that explains how the program works and how it can benefit your business.

Do you mind if I share it with you?”

A few reasons why this DM performs well:

1. It’s straight to the point and respects their time

2. It explains the value of the offer and who is it for

3. It has a low commitment ask (yes or no question)

4. It plays on the prospect’s curiosity to know more

5. It works for both cold prospects and warm prospects

And most importantly, they don’t have to get on a call to know more about your offer, they can check it on their own time and only if they want to.

Note: This approach doesn’t work if you don’t have an offer to send.

So, you’ll either need a lead magnet or an offer packaged in a pdf file.

Links to landing pages don’t perform as well in the DMs. An attachment feels more exclusive. Also, no one downloads a file without checking it out.

So, if you don’t have a pitch deck for your offer, consider creating one.

A few of my clients followed this strategy and closed more deals as a result.

If this approach is too direct for the kind of prospects you’re targeting, try a lead magnet instead. Just make sure it’s good enough to pique their interest.

Keep Track of Your Conversations

If you don’t have a CRM, use the same spreadsheet with your list of prospects to keep track of your conversations.

This is extremely important so that you know:

• Who you messaged

• When you messaged them

• When to follow up with them

Which brings us to the next step…

5. Follow Up

The money is in the follow up. Without follow up, all your previous efforts are wasted. The better you become at following up, the more deals you’ll close.

When to follow up

• If someone replies, the sooner you reply to them, the better. The more responsive you are, the higher your chances to convert them.
  

• If they don’t reply, follow in 3 to 5 business days. If they don’t reply to your second message, give them a week before you follow up again.
  

• If they still haven’t replied after your third message, leave them alone.
  
  You can keep engaging with them and circle back to them later down the track. Don’t waste your time on unresponsive leads.
  

• If you've requested a meeting or a call, follow up a few days before the proposed date to confirm or reschedule if necessary.

The money is in the follow-up because it allows you to stay top of mind, address concerns, strengthen relationships, and ultimately close more deals.

I hope this helps you book more meetings and close new deals. Selling on LinkedIn can be a bit of a grind, but if you’re persistent, you’ll make it work.

If you enjoyed this, hit reply and let me know.

Until next time, keep creating!

Omara

Quick Picks

1. If you want to up your LinkedIn content game, watch this video.

2. If you’re looking to start your own business and still haven’t taken that first step, you might find this podcast useful.

3. Allan Dib, author of the 1-Page Marketing Plan just released a new book: Lean Marketing. Worth checking out!

P.S. If you want to build your online presence without wasting months on guesswork, book a 1:1 Coaching Session with me and let me help you.