How to Mine Your LinkedIn Rolodex: 7 Tips for More Sales Leads

If you’re responsible for business development, sales or marketing and have never considered using LinkedIn to build your business, here are 7 tips on how to used LinkedIn to generate sales leads.

1. Be Easy to Connect With

The size of your “Two Degrees Away” network really does matter, and matters more than your direct connections, as these individuals open up whole world’s of possibilities which your direct network isn’t currently providing.

LinkedIn is a little more closed than other social networks. You often need the email address of the person you’re connecting with to verify that you know them.

Many people get around this by including their email address and phone number in the tagline of their profile so that anyone can reach out and connect with them.  Another alternative is to include these details in your Summary section.  Yet another alternative is to include your details in your Personal Information section (use the address field).

2. Become an Active Group Joiner

LinkedIn allows you to join a maximum of 50 groups.  Research and select the most popular groups in your industry and join them.  This is so that you can connect with individuals interested in similar topics, without having their email address. Here are some popular generic groups to start with:

3. Find, Connect with and Serve Decision Makers

This is the top benefit of LinkedIn. You can search by industry, job title, etc.

Once you have joined 50 groups, start searching for interesting people to connect with and send a well worded introduction request.  Avoid using the generic LinkedIn text suggested.

It might be worthwhile to upgrade your account so you can search through more people. (LinkedIn places limits on the free accounts.)

LinkedIn provides some good education on advanced search query features.

4. Use Descriptive Website Links

This is possibly the most overlooked feature of LinkedIn.  Instead of using the generic “Personal Website” or “Company Website” text, customize your site links with descriptive titles by selecting “Other” in the Websites drop down list and then keying in something descriptive.  In this way, those curious about your company get any immediate sense of what you can offer.

5. Ask and Answer Questions

Responding to LinkedIn Answers with meaningful and well thought through responses is a fantastic way to publicly display your expertise and is a good way to sell through education.  Ideally, set aside a little time each week to go through questions relevant to your business, and answer a few in a way that positions yourself as an expert.  In other words, take your time – don’t simply rattle off half-baked responses.

You can also follow new questions through your RSS newsreader, and this is a good way to be aware of issues as they are raised.
delivers online professional networking support to LinkedIn™ premium members  Our clients include senior executives and entrepreneurs seeking to build new B2B relationships using innovative new social networking methods which are founded on personal brand development, credibility and intelligent use of the world’s best online professional networking platform.delivers online professional networking support to LinkedIn™ premium members responsible for business development, sales or marketing.  Our clients include senior executives and entrepreneurs seeking to build new B2B relationships using innovative new social networking methods which are founded on personal brand development, credibility and intelligent use of the worlds best online professional networking platform.

One of the obstacles to online professional networking is time. We’re all about liberating our clients so their professional networking is limited to qualified conversations, not exhaustive research and administration.

How Can We Help?

Together with my good friend, Tim Bond from the UK, we have an innovative LinkedIn Managed Service which frees up your time and delivers qualified leads directly to you.  Here’s a brief video of what we do:

Interested? Contact me for details.

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