Introduction:
As a Sales Development Representative, you can never have too many tools in your arsenal. A big part of our job is to make the prospect’s life easier, right? Our product or service is going to solve problems they’re experiencing. With that in mind, it’s important to meet your prospects where they already are! Many times, that place will be LinkedIn.
Alleyoop SDR, Daisy Ithier is a strong believer in the power of LinkedIn. She, like many SDRs, was not quite sure how to get started. She joins us in the video below to share how she went from novice to pro on LinkedIn – and how you can do the same!
Building your profile
When you begin to build your profile you need to remember this is not your regular social media platform. While it is a place to showcase who you are, it is not a place for unprofessional behavior or imagery.
Professional Imagery
So avoid that Snapchat filter on your profile photo and leave that photo of your friends on the beach for your last birthday on Facebook. Work with your marketing team to find company-branded LinkedIn headers. Chances are they have a whole library full of options for you. Next, if getting a professional head shot taken is not an option, ask your marketing and/or creative team for pointers on how to take a professional photo for LinkedIn at home. They should be able to share some great resources with you and help you get the best possible photo without having to spend a bunch of money.
What to Share
Now, while LinkedIn is not Facebook it is still a place to share about yourself. Rather than sharing about what you got up to at the bar over the weekend, you should be sharing about your career goals and expertise. This can be a daunting ask. So to get yourself started, consider sharing posts from your company’s LinkedIn – you’ll have the option to simply repost or to “Share with your thoughts” which will allow you to write something in addition to the post. This can be a great way to get your feet wet with posting on LinkedIn.
Attracting your ICP
Now that you have your personal LinkedIn looking professional its time place yourself directly in your ideal customer profile’s (ICPs) sphere of influence. How do you do that? Follow them and who they are following! Most of the people in your ICP will be following industry experts, will be members in popular industry linkedin groups, and will be highly engaged with people who create the content they are interested in. Pay close attention to these things and insert yourself into their sphere of influence.
Of course you yourself cannot become an industry expert or influencer overnight, but you can become highly engaged with these people. React to, comment on, and share their posts. Ask good questions, offer insights, and continue to grow your network. Doing these things may not land you any meetings on their own, however, they will all you to build an interesting and credible profile on LinkedIn which will allow you to attract people in your ICP.
Engaging with a prospect
Your profile is built, and you’re becoming involved with your ICP’s sphere of influence in a meaningful way, now what? Now, you need to engage with your prospects individually. Like and comment on their personal posts and on their company’s posts. Eventually, they’ll start to wonder, “who is this person who is so interested in what I’m doing at work?!” and they will visit your profile.
A feature unique to LinkedIn, compared to other social platforms you may already be familiar with, is that you will be notified (via the site, your app, or email depending on your preferences) when someone has viewed your profile. As an SDR who has just put in all this work to engage with your prospects in a meaningful way on LinkedIn that notification means it’s game time! As soon as you see that the prospect has viewed your profile, pick up the phone and call them.
Social Selling and Q4
Now that you know how to set up and use your LinkedIn profile, let’s talk about how to use social selling on LinkedIn to help you hit your goals in Q4. The end of the year is a notoriously difficult time to get prospects on the phone at all, let alone to get them to commit to a meeting. Using LinkedIn during this time allows you to engage with your prospects end of year and holiday posts – employee appreciation, holiday get-togethers, yearly goal recaps, etc. These kinds of posts are great opportunities for you to engage with your prospects in a genuine way on a topic that matters to them.
On top of engaging with your prospects about their end of year and holiday activities, post about your own! Share about what you’re celebrating, what personal and professional goals you’ve achieved this year, and what your company is doing! This will open the door for your prospects to engage right back with you.
Conclusion
If you’re not using LinkedIn to aid in your outreach, now is the time to start. Get started by setting up your profile with good images and by sharing content from industry experts. Before you know it, you’ll be on your way to setting meetings based on LinkedIn interactions.
Try some of Daisy’s tips throughout this final quarter of 2022 and let us know how they work for you.
Post Written By:
Becca Fields-Poniskaitis
Head of Marketing
Video Script Written & Recorded By:
Daisy Ithier
Sales Development Representative