Attracting Dozens of Leads on Auto-Pilot: The Sales and LinkedIn Automation Guide for SDRs and Account Executives
Going after the wrong type of prospects is a complete waste of time. One of the most overlooked secrets of successful salespeople is that they only follow prospects who are more likely to give listening ears to whatever they have to say. Well, read on for our LinkedIn Automation Guide.
However, It starts with the realization that all outreach and lead generation channels are not the same. If you want your offer or message to resonate with potential leads, you have to reach out to them via channels where they engage and ‘hang out’ online.
While millions of sales professionals say LinkedIn is an important part of their sales strategy, a lot of them barely use the platform efficiently. Yes, there are over 690 million users on LinkedIn and you can connect with executives of Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing companies, technology startups, and the list goes on.
The thing is, many SDRs and account executives are good at using LinkedIn effectively. And they probably might have closed a few deals on the platform. However, there’s a huge difference between salespeople that use LinkedIn ‘effectively’ and those that use the platform ‘efficiently’.
Anybody can search on LinkedIn to generate millions of users who fit whatever filters they might have used. So, SDRs can find prospects, send connection requests, and write sales messages to dozens of people on LinkedIn.
However, this process is a huge time-waster for sales professionals who have targets to meet. It’s almost impossible to accomplish so much when you have to spend hours searching profiles one by one. Let’s assume that you have a search list of 2500 LinkedIn users who match your ideal client profile (ICP), the slowest way to connect with these people is to manually send requests to each one of them.
A better and smarter way to do this is to have someone that can help you handle the boring and repetitive parts of this process, while you focus only on areas that need your attention the most.
You can think of this ‘someone’ as a LinkedIn automation tool that can help you connect with prospects on LinkedIn, send automatic follow-ups, and even provide feedback whenever you want to check the numbers. However, let’s be clear, we’re not saying this robot is capable of doing all of the work that needs to be done.
You’re looking to connect with humans. So, it’s enough to send automated requests or follow-ups that won’t resonate with the readers from a personal angle. This is not to say that you need to know a prospect’s ‘height’ or some other weird details. When you mention a mutual LinkedIn group to a prospect on the platform, you’re 70% more likely to gain their attention.
The best way to get meaningful sales calls off LinkedIn is to personalize your outreach right from the connection request, far before prospects even agree to jump on any call. It’s much easier to close deals with prospects that are educated, qualified, and excited about your offer.
Who are you selling to?
The first step towards success on LinkedIn is knowing who you want to target. The clarity that comes with this simple step plays a huge role in how well you’re able to approach and message leads. There are important attributes and psychographic details that you need to know about prospects that might fit your ideal client profile.
If you already have an ideal client profile (ICP) for your business, it means a prospect would have to check a few boxes (revenue, company structure, etc.) to be considered as a prospective fit.
However, Janet Comenos, the CEO of Spotted Media also suggests that you focus on the three primary roles that you sell to and give attention to the following:
- What are the buyer’s primary daily responsibilities?
- How can your company make the buyer’s daily responsibilities easier?
- What are the buyer’s long-term goals?
- How can your company help further the buyer’s long-term goals?
Are your ideal prospects on LinkedIn?
When you have a good knowledge of the prospects you want to attract, it becomes easier to find them on LinkedIn. With your ICP as a guide, you can search for prospects using filters such as location, current & past company, language, interests, and more. LinkedIn makes it so easy to go from clueless to hyper-targeted prospecting.
And if you’d prefer a bird’s eye view while prospecting, you can choose to use Sales Navigator. With the Advanced Search Filters, you can sift through dozens of prospects using more filters that allow you to narrow your search on LinkedIn. Moreover, the goal of every prospecting strategy is to find the most relevant and high-quality prospects.
Apart from finding highly targeted prospects, the quality of your LinkedIn profile also determines whether prospects would be eager to talk to you or not. LinkedIn has a Social Selling Index (SSI) that measures your profile’s effectiveness based on four key SSI pillars:
- Create a Professional Brand
- Find the Right People
- Engage with Insights
- Build Strong Relationships
The score ranges from 0 to 100 and you can check yours here. Those who are leaders in social sales attract 45% more sales and are 51% more likely to reach their quotas.
Sending outreach messages
If you already have a list of prospects on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator, the probable next move would be to send connection requests or messages. This is where a LinkedIn automation tool like Salesloop comes into the picture.
Instead of wasting your hours on sending connection requests, and other manual tasks, you’re better off focusing on aspects that truly need ‘human’ attention. That’s why it makes a lot of sense to leverage tools that can help your workflow become faster and efficient.
While LinkedIn automation might seem like the missing part of your sales strategy, It’s only effective when you send out messages that are highly relevant to your prospects. The CEOs and other upper-level executives that make up more than half of LinkedIn’s user base wouldn’t regard a ‘salesy’ connection request that doesn’t strike any chord.
For prospects to connect with you and see your company as an authority, your messaging must demonstrate your understanding of them and their pain points. Moreover, closing the sale depends on the trust that a prospect might have built over time.
Most sales reps personalize their messages with the prospect’s name or company name. However, the superpower lies in tailoring your message to include a relevant context that might resonate with the prospect. For example, buyers are 71% more likely to engage with a salesperson who mentions specific information that’s relevant to their current role.
As a cloud-based platform, Salesloop is a safe tool that SDRs and account executives can use to automatically connect with highly targeted lists of LinkedIn prospects. It only takes a few seconds to sign up (14 days free trial) and it’s easy to connect your LinkedIn profile in your Salesloop dashboard.
Unlike chrome extensions that risk the health of your LinkedIn account, Salesloop allows you to use a dedicated IP that’s based in your country.
Since Salesloop is integrated with LinkedIn, you only have to paste the search link from LinkedIn or Sales Navigator to automatically build a prospect list in Salesloop.
Afterward, the platform allows you to personalize connection requests and you can schedule relevant follow-up messages that would make the prospect feel heard and understood.
You can choose to provide value upfront using articles, whitepapers, ebooks, and other sales assets that may help you gain the attention of your ideal prospects.
Performance tracking
The most successful SDRs and account executives are those who track relevant metrics, monitor their performance, and look for hidden opportunities. That’s why Salesloop makes it so easy to track data that influence your LinkedIn outreach campaign. The platform tracks all the connection requests you send out and monitors both open and response rates for all messages.
Conclusion
Although LinkedIn automation is becoming a very popular concept among sales professionals, only those who can efficiently address the needs of prospects with their messaging would see astounding results. Regardless, It doesn’t have to take some form of ‘FBI investigation’ for you to craft a message that would resonate with an audience. You can check their connections, their shares, or even comments to find interesting angles that would demonstrate why they have to listen to you.
