MSPs should skip the pitch after accepting a connection and start with personalized, witty messages instead. Three plays work: ask ideal clients a poll question then follow up based on their answer, use a framework combining personalization plus problem plus solution plus CTA, or send a blank request, wait 3-7 days, then ask trend questions to build rapport first.
Networking on LinkedIn. Here's what I don't want you to do: send a connection request, and as soon as it gets accepted, send them a pitch slap. It's all about you and your business. Try and open with something witty, like they have a business name. Can you make a wordplay with it? They do something. Can you make a joke? Just treat it like you're networking at an event to begin with. Say hi. Be normal. Later, after someone's been your connection for a while. There's quite a lot of plays that I use. So this is my favorite play. You create a poll that's specific to your ideal client. Here's an example of one of mine. This has booked me probably 6, 7 meetings every single time I've ever run it. It's just who's sourcing the most deals for your MSP. Then you follow up based on how they vote. So in order to get them voting, first I kind of send it to them and I say, hey, I really respect your MSP expertise and was hoping you'd vote in my poll, send the link. After the poll closes and all the votes are in, I follow up and then I specify that follow-up to how they voted. So I might say something like, I saw you mentioned that most of the deals at your MSP are being brought in by the owner. Does that have you on target for your 2024 revenue goal? Usually it doesn't. There are some other frameworks in here. AJ Quesada has one that's super similar, like super simple, which is just personalized first line, their problem and/or goal, briefly mention the solution result or possibly a unique selling proposition, and then a CTA. My second favorite is to send a blank connection request, then wait at least 3 to 7 days, then thanks for connecting, You're obviously an expert. Would you be open to answering 3 questions around trends you're seeing? So I might say something like, are you concerned with changes to HIPAA compliance? Is CMMC 2.0 rollout a priority for your org? Um, according to some report, this is a trend. Uh, is it true at your company? So I'm really just trying to build some rapport but also plant some seeds around what I do. Are you seeing this at your company? Then I tell them that I appreciate their feedback. I don't try to sell them anything. I hold the line. I wait until I have something relevant to say around the conversation we previously had. So I follow up. It's got to be at least a couple of days, but longer is kind of better in this case unless they give you a reason to think that there's something actionable right now. You're better off waiting because then you don't seem super overly hungry. Hey, we were talking today in an internal brainstorm about how we solve for one of the pain points that they agreed to. Is it worth discussing this in more detail? I think I have a solution that could change your work life. It's important to wait and try and be honest. So don't say you had an internal brainstorm if you didn't. But I mean, I brainstorm these— the problems that I solve every single day, and I hope you do too. So kind of wait until you've talked about something internally and then bring that to the prospect. There are 3 other frameworks in here that are just kind of like basic and straightforward. My 3rd favorite, super, super, super simple. It's just I send a blank connection request, then I say, can I ask you a question? And that's it. I just wait to see if they get back to me, and if they do, I ask a relevant targeted question. Um, so yeah, hopefully this is helpful in terms of how you can actually do outbound on LinkedIn.
