LinkedIn Myth #2: I need a large number of connections
Do you still feel you don’t know how to use LinkedIn despite being on all the right training course?
Ultimately, success in our business is measured by our ability to reach our financial targets, and this comes down to winning new sales.
To win sales, we need sales appointments. To book sales appointments, we need a compelling Call to Action that has a person want to speak to us.
If we want to book 10 sales appointments in the next week, we need to get very clear on who our ideal audience is, what problem they need to solve and why they would want to speak to us.
Then we need to find them, start a conversation and invite them to speak to us.
Inviting people to speak to us doesn’t really come down to the number of followers we have, but rather whom we are connected too and how well we can capture their imagination.
When we have a clear sales outcome – i.e. Win five new clients in the month of May with an average sales value of £5k (£25k), based on our previous conversion rates, we can work out we need 20 sales appointments and 50 new leads. Of course, when you are doing this well, these figures don’t have to be exact. The end goal is the number of appointments you book!
For example, I take on five new clients a month and need between 8-10 sales appointments to achieve this. In my world, a new lead is usually a new connection (person who reached out to me on LinkedIn, an introduction/recommendation or someone I met at a networking event).
With these results, I don’t need to think about ‘leads’ because honestly what does that mean anyway? What I need is Sales Appointments. If I am building up a conversation and a relationship, and I have a compelling offer for my prospect – a LinkedIn Profile and Strategy Session – asking the question and inviting the person to book is simple and natural.
Of course leads are important and will be measured differently and with a different focus depending on your industry, but its important to consider what a ‘lead’ really means, because ultimately, it is simply about having a person come into your sphere that you can invite to your strategy session and add value too aka sales appointment.
Thus, you don’t actually need a lot of connections, you just need to do a lot of inviting.
Connect with the right people. Invite them to an enticing sounding strategy session and actually add value. When we add value, we not only show off our expertise and what we can do, but we also leave people able to recommend us to other people. And this is where word-of-mouth really comes into its own.
For more on these strategies, I invite you to download a free copy of my new book The Expert Economy
Expert LinkedIn Profile Writer | Business Strategist
Naomi Johnson is a leading LinkedIn trainer and Business Strategist based in the UK. She has a passion for helping individuals build businesses around their expertise using LinkedIn. You can read Naomi’s own story here.
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