About three weeks ago, I got kicked off of Facebook. We had a situation where someone in our Sales Talk group was calling people’s bosses and complaining about what they said in the group. This occurrence made me livid. Who does that shit?
Anyway, I went on a rant and posted in the group. I said some shit that goes against Facebook’s policy and they gave me a 30-day ban.
Truth is, FB did me a favor. I needed a break.
But that’s a whole other story.
Since I’ve been off Facebook, I’ve made the transition to LinkedIn. I mean, I’ve always been on LinkedIn. I check it once or twice a week. This time, I got serious. I told myself I was going to get to know LinkedIn and make some sales from it. That’s exactly what I did.
Over the last three weeks, I’ve made $30,000 in sales from DMs on LinkedIn. These sales come from people joining my programs. Turns out, the average user on LinkedIn earns $100K or more a year. It’s a literal kangaroo-free zone. When people show interest there, they have the means and mean business about it.
I thought I’d share the ways I’ve made sales from LinkedIn, so you can do the same. These may seem too easy, but the easiest shit is always what sells the most. Remember that. Here’s how you can get free leads from LinkedIn using some finesse and earning sweat equity.
Recommendations: This is my favorite way to engage someone on LinkedIn. Start with flattery. First off, you need to mean what you say, but aside from that, flattery gets you a long way. I leave recommendations for my top 100 prospects. These recommendations also show up when people look at their profiles. I get double exposure, a chance to talk with the prospect and everyone wins.
Articles: Each week, I publish two articles on LinkedIn. I just copy and paste existing articles from HardcoreCloser.com. If you don’t have a blog, congratulations; LinkedIn is now your blog! It’s free, and you can share articles you write anywhere. You can even add lead traps into your article so you can use them for lead gen.
Groups: Have you ever noticed how groups on LinkedIn email the shit out of you? I mean, you can swim to the middle of an ocean, get to a deserted island without a computer, and an email from a LinkedIn group will still come to you somehow. Look, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Use this spamming feature to your advantage. Just don’t abuse it.
Posting Content: Find articles you like from sites like Entrepreneur.com, Inc.com, Success.com, Forbes.com and the usual suspects. Only when you post the content, ask for commentary. So many people forget that statements end with periods; questions go on forever. Post viral content and ask for people to chime in. Engage them accordingly.
Sending DMs: I’m a big fan of connecting with people and sending them DMs. Especially since on LinkedIn you don’t really see people post too much. That’s because, on LinkedIn, it goes down in the DM. Seriously, having a professional, behind-the-scenes DM chat is a powerful way to close a prospect. Especially if you use my CATCH method.
Commenting on Posts: LinkedIn is the land of the silent. Hardly anyone engages on there. And when they do, they get emails and notifications out the ass. This leaves a wide-open opportunity for someone like you. You get their attention, engage them and then most likely you’ll show up in their inbox. They will see you so much; they’ll think they know you.
Sharing Posts: If one of your prospects posts something useful or even something self-gratifying about themselves, you can share it and get their attention. If they were featured in the news and they post the link, you can share it and congratulate them. People eat that shit up. It’s a way to get cool points and strike up a relationship.
Commenting on Articles: Once you comment on a popular article, your comment is there forever. Most people post an article and don’t ever check comments. Meanwhile, if you’re a sales beast and not a sales bitch, you’ll go in and strike up conversations with people who’ve commented and turn them into connections.
Searching Hashtags: Hashtags are a used on LinkedIn, and most people overlook them. Yet, they are full of gold. Mostly old gold, but gold nonetheless. You can connect with other people who’ve shared the same hashtag as well as get your content found more easily by using common hashtags in your posts.
Emails: Like I said earlier, LinkedIn is a beast at emails. No matter what you do, you can’t escape them. Group updates. Notifications. Daily recaps. Fucking LinkedIn will email the shit out of you, even when you tell it not to. That being said, you can use it to your advantage. Think about the actions that would cause LinkedIn to send emails, and do them. Things like conversations in groups, shared posts, popular content. The Link loves to email.
If you’re not spending a few hours a week prospecting on LinkedIn, you’re seriously missing out on a no-bullshit opportunity to connect with professionals who get it. If you’re looking to learn more about the Link, we teach it in our BFA Entourage program. You can get all the details at www.breakfreeacademy.com/entourage
