How Tech Companies Can Use LinkedIn to Grow Sales
Tech is a massive industry in the United States. In fact, we have the largest technology sector by revenue in the world, with an astounding 585,000 tech companies nationwide employing 8.9 million people. The competition is fierce, so technology companies need to utilize all the tools at their disposal to grow sales and stand out in this crowded marketplace.
As the world’s largest professional network with more than 875 million members globally, LinkedIn is one tool that provides technology companies an opportunity to connect with customers. When you think of LinkedIn, you might not immediately think of it as a sales and marketing tool, but we have highlighted a few ways your team can use it to engage with current customers and reach new prospects.
Grow Sales with LinkedIn
Tapping LinkedIn to cultivate client relationships and boost sales is different than other marketing tactics. Often advertising is handled by an internal team or agency that develops messaging and creative for the target market and places advertisements independently without involvement from the sales team. With LinkedIn, however, the sales team can do what it does best: Build relationships that lead to purchases.
Here are some ways sales and marketing can collaborate for optimal outcomes on LinkedIn:
Network – A lot of sales is networking, and the size and quality of this audience can directly impact an associate’s performance. LinkedIn can offer a “foot in the door” to companies or people that might otherwise be hard to reach. The sales team should use LinkedIn’s TeamLink feature to divide and conquer when targeting prospects so multiple representatives of your company aren’t reaching out to the same person. From there, they can send InMail with valuable information directly to the prospect.
Sales Navigator – This native tool within LinkedIn’s ecosystem allows associates to prospect through advanced filtering options, track leads through the list function, offer integrations with existing CRM tools, send alerts about saved contacts and companies and more.
Ads – LinkedIn offers several different advertising options to build and cultivate an audience, including lead generation and document ads. Lead generation ads serve a form that collects prospect information which the associate can then use to contact the lead. Document ads let a company serve marketing materials like e-books, case studies, white papers, presentations and more directly to the user within LinkedIn. This allows prospects to obtain useful content in exchange for their contact information without leaving the platform.
Research – LinkedIn provides salespeople with a valuable resource for researching not only potential customers but also competitors. Before connecting with an organization, identify its needs and scope out the background of the purchasing contact. When the sales team knows more about the target and the competition, they can develop a tailored pitch to help them stand out.
Recommendations – Perhaps one of the most important social selling points is that buyers want to do business with people they trust. LinkedIn “recommendations” are reputation-builders that offer an edge over the competition and can provide the nudge it takes to turn your prospects into customers. Don’t be shy about asking current satisfied customers for recommendations.
Monitoring – You can’t close sales in a vacuum. Knowing what’s going on in your industry can make a significant difference in your sales numbers. Use LinkedIn to monitor industry news and trends, discover customer pain points and learn of barriers to purchase.
Thought leadership – LinkedIn provides an opportunity to set a company apart from its competition, by creating and sharing thought leadership pieces that show that the organization and team are educated about the space and staying ahead of the curve. Even better if the thought leaders are active on LinkedIn so that your sales team can share and comment on their individual posts.
LinkedIn Like a Pro
In such a competitive landscape, tech companies need to stand out to secure new sales and retain current customers. LinkedIn can help your sales team build its network and provides other helpful tools and insights. It’s important that if your salespeople are going to use LinkedIn that their profiles be optimized to bolster the reputation of your company and product.
Want to use LinkedIn to grow sales? Beyond Fifteen can help your sales team get the most out of the platform. Give us a call to connect with one of our LinkedIn marketing specialists!