Ryan Dohrn shares three LinkedIn tactics for sales: warm up prospects by engaging with their posts, research their profiles deeply to find common ground, and build thought leadership by posting and helping in groups. He notes 40% of LinkedIn users visit at least three times weekly, so relevance and consistency matter more than hard selling.
What's going on, friends and fans? Ryan Dohrn here answering your listener questions, your listener questions sent into ryan@ryandohrn.com. All right, here comes our next question. This is from Becky out in Arizona. Hey Becky, it's warm out in Arizona. Ryan, I just am not believing that LinkedIn is really that great of a sales resource. I have tried it for multiple weeks now and I'm just not getting any action on LinkedIn. Is there something that I'm doing wrong? So Becky in Arizona, I don't necessarily know there's anything I just don't know exactly what it is that you're doing. And so let me share with you 2 or 3 things that I do with LinkedIn, and maybe you'll go, oh my gosh, I'm really not doing those. But also recognize that on the podcast, on the videos and stuff, just search for LinkedIn and you'll find a bunch of other information as well. But let me give you the 3 main things that I want to do on LinkedIn. Okay, the first thing on LinkedIn is I like to use it as a warm-up strategy. So if I have brand new customers that I'm trying to get on my sales calendar, I use it as a warm-up strategy. So by connecting with them, it puts my name and face in front of them. If they will accept the connection, that's great. By following them, which they don't have to do anything, if you follow them or you follow their company, then what you want to do is when they post things, if appropriate, you would like those things, you would comment on those things, you would share those things. So the first thing that I like to do is use LinkedIn as some type of warm-up tool. All right, and you might be doing that, Becky, and if— or I'm sorry, you might be— yeah, Becky, you might be doing that, and if you're not, you should be. Okay, the second thing that I love is the research that comes. So I'm always talking about relevancy. You might have heard on the podcast, or you might have heard on one of the videos about the relevancy protocol. So relevance is everything in sales. If you can prove to somebody you're relevant, You almost always get further faster in the sales business. So I love the research aspect. I can find out where they go to college. Do we have an alumni connection? I can read their about. I can hear, you know, do they like movies like I do? Do they like great coffee like me? Do they like '80s rock and roll music like me? I can find out things about them. I can look at their resume. I can read their recommendations. I can see who they're connected to. So that's the second thing that I love is the research ability that really is there. The third thing I love about LinkedIn is the ability to be a thought leader, and that is to get online, to post, to share, to get involved with groups. I mean, it's all about you just kind of putting yourself out there. You don't have to write books like I do. You don't have to do big long blog posts like I do. You don't have to do all that stuff. But instead, you can get involved in groups on LinkedIn, share your expertise, be curious. Don't sell now. Be curious. Be helpful. I would say, Becky in Arizona, LinkedIn is by far one of the best sales resources going out there. It's been around way before Facebook, Instagram, or any other platform. I think other than MySpace, it might've been around even before MySpace. Recognize LinkedIn can really be beneficial to you if you use it correctly. So I guess, Becky, I'm going to toss the ball back to you. Are you doing those things? If you are doing all 3 of those things and it's still not effective, maybe it's your business, maybe it's your industry, maybe it's about the amount of time that you're putting out there. All I can tell you is this, Becky, and I'll leave you with this statistic. Of those that actually use LinkedIn, 40% access it on at least a 3 times a week basis. So you might not be using LinkedIn, but 40-some percent of people are using it at least 3 times a week. Keep those questions coming, Becky. I appreciate it. And everybody out there, send your questions to ryan@ryandohrn.com. Friends, love to come to your office, love to train your team, love to motivate your team at your national sales meeting. Reach out to me, the website, is ryandohrn.com. All right, we'll see you next time.
