In the first article in this series, we introduced the BEEP Method, the concept of having 1,000 true fans, and how those two things combined will help your business succeed on LinkedIn.
Kevin Kelly’s 1,000 True Fans essay discusses how having at least 1,000 dedicated true fans is the key to success. You don’t need millions or billions of fans, but you do need that core group of around 1,000 true fans.
Of course, that number will vary based on how much money each fan puts into your business, but it’s a good starting point for all creators and business owners.
While the original essay discusses the concept as it applies to creative fields, our first article in this series introduced the idea that you, as a salesperson, are also a creator.
You create a business and a product, you create sales, and you can approach growing your business as a creative process.
We also briefly introduced each step of the BEEP Method, which is our strategy that is designed to provide a structure for you to use as you use LinkedIn for your business.
BEEP stands for Build, Engage, Educate, and Promote.
Here we will dive more fully into the Build stage of the process to explain what it is, why it matters, and how exactly it will help your business thrive.
Build Step Basics
At the very foundation of everything you do is the Build phase. This is where you are making new connections and expanding your network so that more people are aware of you and what you can offer them.
How do you get the right people into your network?
The process of getting people to join your network is very straightforward and involves sending out personalized invitations to people to request that they connect with you.
There are some best practices for sending these invitations, but first, we need to understand how to search correctly to find the right people to invite.
The computer science term “Garbage In, Garbage Out” represents the idea that if you put bad data into a program, it will always be impossible to get any good data out of it.
This concept can also be applied to marketing and your LinkedIn network. To get quality results, you must first find quality people to join your network.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
On LinkedIn, the best way to make sure you are connecting with quality people is by using the Sales Navigator subscription.
This is LinkedIn’s solution designed specifically for people who use the platform to find new customers and make sales.
Sales Navigator costs slightly more than the premium LinkedIn subscription and unlocks a separate interface with advanced lead tracking features and sophisticated filters that you can apply to search results to narrow down a list of the best people for your network.
With a limit of 100 invitations to connect each week, it is essential that you make every invite count.
Sales Navigator has a lot of useful filters to offer, including:
- Advanced Geographic Search Capability: specify zip or postal codes and define a radius around them for more precise and accurate geographic results
- Posted in the Last 30 Days: a Spotlight filter that helps you find active people on LinkedIn since the majority of users never log in at all
- Role, Tenure, and Company: more accurate than standard search results and allow you to find someone’s exact seniority and their company size and type
- Connections of: search for people who are already connected to people you know, including your competitors
- Groups: search for people who are members of certain groups on LinkedIn to find connections based on their interests
Once you select your filters and have refined your search to get the best results, you can save the search to refer back to later.
Sales Navigator offers many other helpful features, and LinkedIn offers a 30-day trial of the platform so that you can see if it is the right tool for you.
How to Make Great Connections
Inviting people to join your LinkedIn network is a fairly straightforward process.
First, visit their profile page. Then, click the Invite button to send them an invitation that will show up in their notifications.
You can add a note along with the invitation, and you should take the time to personalize this message a little bit, even if that just means adding their name or referring to their company.
Be careful here: a common mistake is getting too focused on the salesperson mindset and trying to use the invite message to pre-pitch or pre-qualify a prospect.
This might seem like a good idea at first. If the connection accepts, it seems to show that they are either genuinely interested or, more commonly, that they did not actually read the note and have just mindlessly accepted the invitation.
A lot of people find pitchy invites annoying and will consider them as spam. They will decline your invitation and could even report you to LinkedIn.
Depending on how many reports and complaints they get, LinkedIn can limit you and, if it gets bad enough, even ban you from the platform entirely and delete your profile.
How do we avoid this?
Adopt the Connector mindset instead. Focus your energy on simply finding great connections, and you will never have to worry about seeming annoying or pitchy to potential connections.
Keep the tone of your messages informal and polite, and make sure each one is personal enough that the person will want to connect with you.
Tactics to Build Your Network
Try to send 20 invites per day since there is a weekly limit of 100 invites.
Check-in on your invites occasionally. Make sure to withdraw any that aren’t accepted within about a month.
Monitor your profile views and reach out to people who have recently looked at your profile.
Using these tactics along with the Sales Navigator filters and connection strategies will increase your chances of making real connections with high-quality people.
Build a Credible LinkedIn Presence Today
It can be difficult for business owners to build up a solid presence on LinkedIn.
After all, there are a lot of steps involved in the process of finding and securing genuine, high-quality professional connections.
If you want help with building your presence, our new Done For You service, LinCredible, can do that for you.
Coaches, business owners, consultants, and other professionals rely on our service to build their LinkedIn networks.
We have also partnered with Credibility Nation, an online community of professionals who are committed to improving their credibility so that we can help you further boost your credibility.
With a LinCredible subscription, you will get full access to the Credibility Nation community and get access to masterclasses and hours of additional training.
Our platform and team make it easy to start connecting people to your business on LinkedIn and to make sure that you never have to worry about missing a connection.
Book a call with LinCredible today to find out more about our service and how it can benefit your growing business.
