Do your sales reps know how to use LinkedIn^® for sales prospecting? B2B sales professionals are missing out if they’re not using social media, and especially LinkedIn^®, in their sales prospecting efforts.

Modern B2B buyers are now harder to reach through traditional channels than before. Therefore, modern sellers need the skills to find, engage and connect with prospects digitally.

If your sellers are targeting accounts on LinkedIn^® (or plan to) they can turn their LinkedIn^® profile into attractive channels that encourage people to engage with them.

Read on to learn three Sales Prospecting Tips that you can teach your sellers today.

1. Using the Search Feature to Find Prospects

Here are two ways your team can find potential customers using the Search feature on the free version of LinkedIn^®:

Boolean Search Strings in LinkedIn^® Search

Boolean search strings utilize the modifiers OR, AND, NOT, quotation marks and parentheses to obtain specific search criteria to match what sellers are looking for.

To learn more about Boolean search and a step-by-step guide on how to use it, read this article by LinkedIn^® Expert, Viveka von Rosen.

Advanced Filters in LinkedIn^® Search

To access this feature, just click on the search box and hit enter. Then click ‘All Filters’ on the top right corner.

There you can search for prospects filtering results by:

• Location
• Current Company
• Past Companies
• Industries
• Profile Languages
• Schools
• Interests
• Services

Once you establish your target account and their attributes, you can use these two options to improve the results of your sales prospecting on the top social media platform for B2B.

2. Sharing Valuable Content to Attract Prospects

If you’re getting lots of Profile Views, that’s great. But the magic happens when the conversations begin.

Transforming your profile into an inbound channel for people to engage with you is a lot easier with relevant content. If you’re not sharing anything or only posting once a month, you’re not giving your network the opportunity to learn from you or to interact with your content.

Share relevant content with your own meaningful insights and don’t forget your hashtags! Adding a question to the end of your posts is an effective tactic to inspire more responses.

The more you share, the better, as long as it’s content your target audience finds useful. Don’t post just for the sake of posting.

Sharing content allows people the chance to learn about your expertise. Include photos or video if either helps to communicate value in your content.

Watch the video below to learn from Viveka von Rosen the multiple benefits of sharing content on LinkedIn^®, such as the opportunity to turn a connection into a conversation.

3. Asking for Referrals and Introductions

Referrals are a great way for reps to find prospects. Their current connections on LinkedIn^®, can introduce them to prospective buyers who may be second or third degree connections.

In the following video, Viveka explains a two-step digital referral process that includes looking at the mutual connections between the target prospect and the seller and then asking at least three mutual connections to make the introduction.

Step up Your Team’s Prospecting Efforts

From multiple decision-makers, to limited access to the buying committee and increased competition, there are plenty of prospecting challenges sales leaders face.

In a recent webinar, Ray Makela, CEO of the Sales Readiness Group, and Mario Martinez Jr., CEO of Vengreso, discussed three proven prospecting strategies for sales leaders to guide their team to increase the rate of contact to engagement, resulting in more sales pipeline within key accounts.

Click on the image below to listen to the free recording of the webinar.

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