Imagine how you and your personal brand would look today if you had committed time a year or more ago to developing your professional story and created context for yourself.
Consider the opportunities you may have had in your pipeline, funnel or network if you had focused more strategically on building a smart network filled with people who could help you move your career or business forward.
Think about the value you’d create if you generously shared your expertise.
Can you see it? Would the upcoming year look different?
If you’re like most people we talk to, you know someone who is using LinkedIn to bring in new business, find new markets, uncover new candidates, survey clients more effectively, drive more traffic back to their site and more.
You want what they have.
You should.
Here is your 5 step plan to get started so that you, toward the end of the year, can claim your own success and be just like your colleague.
Review your profile and make sure you provide substance and value and answer a straightforward question. Would you respond to someone like you?
Gather your digital assets; add a background image, update your photo, select a group of blog posts, articles or videos to use on your profile and in your messaging.
Finalize a group of personalized messages for connecting and follow-up
Develop a LinkedIn workflow and decide to commit to Sales Navigator for at least 90-days.
Add four 40-minute “LinkedIn Activity” to your calendar, set a reminder and do NOT change the appointment.
- Set up your searches (identify your ideal client or candidate)
- Send out your connection requests
- Begin follow-up with those who connected with you
- Add value to your network and be gracious in sharing your expertise
Do not sell anything. Remove that from your mind. Do you want to be sold? Doubtful.
Trying to sell on LinkedIn before you’ve established yourself, interest or any relationship with the other person is akin to walking into a room full of prospects with a megaphone. It’s a sure fire way to push people away from you.
If you polish your profile, gather your resources, mobilize your best 1st-degree connections, commit the time and mental energy and stay with your approach for 90-days you will begin to see results. Also, to manage expectations, results do not automatically relate to revenue. Results may include:
- A stronger profile and personal brand
- More profile visits
- A better network of senior-level professionals
- More engagement on your blog posts and status updates
- Actual interaction among your connections
- The ability to talk with people you wouldn’t have met outside of LinkedIn
- The chance to turn weak connections into 1st-degree connections
- Speaking engagements (pro-bono)
- New opportunities that are often pure serendipity
You see, results often seem small, insignificant but you can’t look at it that way. You need to talk to a large number of people. You need to be seen, in-person and online to be remembered. Big results are there. We see them every day. A $350,000 contract traced back to a Group discussion, over $390,000 of net new revenue traced back to a CEO ’s centers of influence, more than a $975,000 in new revenue based on fourteen months of sourcing and outreach.
When you don’t think you can do it alone, no worries, we’ve thought it through for you. We created in:side, Your LinkedIn Mastery Program. It’s designed to give you what you need to master LinkedIn once and for all. We serve as your guide, and we keep you accountable.
If you’re not sure what you need, set up a time to talk and we will help you determine your best course of action. I don’t want you to miss another year of opportunity. Do you?
Disclaimer: The information shared in this post is current as of the publication date. To ensure you have the most up-to-date information, refer to the sites we mention.
