How to generate leads on LinkedIn for your Career and Business

Written by: Adam Berguem

If you’re on LinkedIn, one of these two things will always be true.

• Your career is important to you.
• You want to generate leads and new business on LinkedIn.

Which is it for you? Both maybe?

LinkedIn is one of the best avenues to take control over your career and drive opportunities for yourself and your business.

That said, to level set with you, LinkedIn will not solve all of your problems. It’s a medium to a long-term solution that can help you win in the short term.

It’s going to take consistency and intention, and with a bit of structure, you too can see success on the platform.

Through this article, I’ll walk you through how you can start to generate leads via LinkedIn.

So you know you’re in good hands, here’s a bit about me:

• I’ve worked with enterprise sales teams, as well as individuals to help them create and improve up their personal brands on LinkedIn
• I’ve created 1000’s of posts netting upwards of 1million views
• I’ve helped people see an average of 8 new followers per post
• I’ve created a course on how to unlock LinkedIn for growth

I’m thankful to have had the opportunities that I have had and LinkedIn helped me achieve them.

Now it’s your turn, so let’s dive in…

What is a lead?

A lead can be categorized into a few different things depending on your reasons for using LinkedIn.

For example: 

• If you’re looking for a job, leads may be conversations with hiring managers or recruiters.

• If you’re selling a product or service, a lead may be getting in front of potential buyers.

If you’re selling yourself or if you’re selling a service, you’re still selling to a person.

The very act of seeing success on LinkedIn takes building real and authentic relationships with others.

Your first goal on LinkedIn is to start the conversation and get in front of the right people.

The wrong way to generate leads on LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn is about building relationships with others, we want to make sure that we’re humanizing the conversation and leading with the other person in mind.

Here’s what that doesn’t mean:

• Sending connection requests that are not personalized
• Automating messages
• Sending a pitch about yourself and your product immediately after connecting
• Automating follow ups when people obviously aren’t responding to your pitches. 

That is how you quickly lose credibility and the opportunity to have built real relationships.

How to get targeted on LinkedIn

Too many people lead with themselves when trying to sell on LinkedIn. The truth is that it’s not about you. It’s about the person that you’re talking to/targeting.

Write down this acronym: WIIFM

It stands for, “What’s in it for me.” Me being the person you are targeting.

Your profile, your ‘About’ section, your experience, and your messaging should all be written in a way that is relevant to the person that you are targeting.

That way when they check out your profile and engage with you, you’ll be seen as credible and relevant to them.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when thinking about getting targeted:

• Who are the people you are targeting? What do they do? What’s their title?
• What are they trying to achieve? 
• What pains or problems are they facing today?
• Where do they go to find the answers? What’s missing?

Once you can answer these questions, your actions on LinkedIn will become that much more relevant to your target audience.

Your job is to help them achieve their goals while removing their pains. 

While everybody else is sending automated messages, how will you fill in the gaps and be different?

How to build relationships and generate leads on LinkedIn

Instead of automated messaging, here’s how you can build relationships with the right people on LinkedIn.

Actively connect: Since you know who you’re targeting, use the search functionality on LinkedIn to actively connect with those in your target market. Set a routine for yourself to keep up on this activity.

Comment and Engage: Comment on posts of those in your target market. Make sure you’re commenting more than just ‘good post.’ Add value, share your perspective, and tag the poster/any relevant parties or connections. This is just like an introduction.

Respond to comments: Reply to comments that people in your target audience have made. They don’t have to be on your post. Add your perspective into the conversation and tag the person who commented. The more they see your face/name/profile, the more likely they are to engage with you again one on one. 

Create Content: Actively share and create content that is relevant to your target audience. Share your knowledge, create posts that solve problems they are facing. Creating content improves your credibility and established you as an expert in your niche.

DM: Start 1:1 conversations with your target audience. Preferably AFTER you’ve engaged with them in the above way. Don’t pitch your services right away. Start a conversation and when it makes sense to jump on a call, then move it there.

If you haven’t been able to comment or respond before sending a DM, be sure to be creative with your outreach. Send them a post or article that they might enjoy, ask them a question that you can’t find on their profile, or just start a conversation like you would in person.

And again, don’t ask for a call right away. Get them to respond, build a relationship, then when it makes sense move it into a call.

People don’t want to feel like they are being sold to. The more your face/name/profile shows up in front of your target audience, the more natural the conversation will feel.

Getting started

You don’t have to be an influencer or have hundreds of thousands of followers to see success. Establish a routine for yourself where you connect, engage, DM, and iterate.

Create goals for yourself and track your progress over time. Learn from what hasn’t worked and doubled down on what is working.

Through intentionality and consistency, you too can unlock the power of LinkedIn to drive more leads.

Related articles:

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3 Free LinkedIn Company Page Analytics to Grow in 2021 (with examples)

4 Steps to Powerful Personal Brand in 2021