The Two Strategies You Need To Use To Start Closing More Deals On LinkedIn

It’s a fact that sales people much prefer ‘warm calls’ to ‘cold calls’ and they always will. Fortunately, if you possess a LinkedIn account and have a number of connections, then you’re in a great position when eliciting power referrals that can make warm calls a lot easier.

Here are two strategies to consider when using LinkedIn:

Targeting a specific referral

Say for example ‘Carl Client’ is a first-degree contact of yours, and you happen to notice that he is connected through LinkedIn with ‘Phillip Prospect’, who you want to be connected with. What do you do?

It’s pretty simple, send Carl this message: “Hey there Carl, I happened to notice that you are connected with Phillip Prospect over at ABC Company. Do you know her well? If so would you be willing to introduce me?”

Normally Carl would reply with something similar to “Sure, I know Phillip, and I will happily introduce you.”

You would then respond with “Carl I got your message and thank you for that. In my experience in this situation is an email introduction can work best for everyone involved. I have attached a template for your review. Please feel free to edit it in any way you want.”

This template will introduce you as a potential resource for Phillip, and close by suggesting that he should reach out to you.

Usually Carl will send your message to Phillip and copy you onto the email. You should keep a keen eye out for this email, and preferably reply within a few seconds of receiving it to both Carl and Phillip. You should reply with this message:

“Hey there Carl. Thank you very much for the introduction. Phillip I’m looking forward to speaking with you soon. It will probably be best for me to reach out to you by phone, what’s the best number to use to contact you?”

Normally Phillip will reply with their number, then you have just set up the worlds easiest warm phone appointment.

Requesting multiple referrals

You can use this strategy to ensure you leave every meeting with a warm referral. At the end of a phone call with Carl Client, say something along the lines of this:

“Ken, if I could send you a list of the people who you think would benefit from working with us in the same way you have. Would you help me target the individuals you believe it would make the most sense for me to talk to?”

Because you’re doing most of the heavy lifting, it’s a relatively simple answer for Carl, and they should reply with “Sure, send the list, I’ll be happy to take a look at it.”

If you identify 10 first-degree contacts on LinkedIn whom you would like an introduction with. You should then send Carl the list accompanied with something like this:

“Hi Carl, as we discussed here’s a list of names of people who might be good prospects for me, but I need your help qualifying them. Would it be possible to scratch out the names you think wouldn’t be a good fit? Then if there’s anyone left, let’s talk about why you think they’ll be a good fit and how we should handle the introduction.”

With the follow-up discussion with Carl you should narrow down the names, then send him the introduction email previously mentioned. If done correctly, you could find yourself with some powerful referrals you can call with your contact’s blessing.