Linkedin Account Based Marketing:

Researching prospects at target accounts

“LinkedIn Account-Based Marketing” is a Win At LinkedIn series for B2B marketers, entrepreneurs and freelancers that want to use Linkedin to sell high-value products or services to large enterprises. You can read previous entries in the series here.

I teach individuals how to use Linkedin to generate leads, nurture prospects and close deals – if you want to be coached and build on the learnings below, book a 1-2-1 coaching session over Skype with me HERE.

In this post, you will learn:

• Why it is important to research prospects before contacting them
• How to use Linkedin profiles to learn vital information about prospects
• Linkedin software to help you research prospects at target accounts

The importance of researching prospects on Linkedin

In the last post, I explained how to use Linkedin to identify the decision-making units at your target accounts. Now I want to show you how to research the individuals (prospects) that make up the decision-making unit.

Researching prospects is crucial to successfully winning new business. Before you pick up the phone or send an email or fire off a Linkedin InMail to contact a sales prospect, you should already be an expert on the people and organisation you are trying to reach. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, you’ll never get a meeting or return phone call or a positive response to your LinkedIn message.

Fortunately, Linkedin makes it really easy to learn about a prospect so that you can send a well-informed message to them (via Linkedin InMail or another channel). The key is knowing which insights to zero in on, where to find them, and how to use them to your advantage.

What a prospect’s Linkedin profile will show you:

By just spending a few minutes looking at a prospect’s Linkedin profile, you will uncover their:

Language/Personality: Study the words and expressions the prospect features in their headline and summary for insights into how they operate and what makes them tick. You want to scan for phrases that reveal their personality and interests in staying ahead of the curve. If you find indications that this person is directly responsible for purchase decisions, all the better.

Experience. Review the prospect’s experience section and job title to determine how well they fit the criteria you’ve surfaced. Pay attention to other hints about how they operate. For example, if they have worked in midsize companies from the start, they may feel quite comfortable navigating the purchase process, even if they’re new to the company. On the other hand, if they have mainly worked for start-ups and just joined a midsize company for the first time, they might need your guidance to ensure a smooth process.

Role & responsibility. In addition to noting your prospect’s tenure in the current position, examine their role history. If they have occupied a similar role even when changing companies, they might be a bit conservative in their business outlook. On the other hand, prospects that explore multiple disciplines or completely new careers probably have a healthy appetite for risk. At the same time, someone who has risen through the ranks in one company over a number of years has likely built up internal influence that can prove critical come decision-making time.

Common interests/mutual friends. Because a personal connection can help make inroads with prospects, look for common ground that you can reference when it comes time to engage. Obvious ones are shared connections, alma maters and LinkedIn Groups, but watch for commonalities when it comes to skills and even influencers you follow. If one similarity stands out, dig deeper to identifying a promising icebreaker. It’s wise to look over a prospect’s blog posts, social status updates, or their personal website for these types of clues.

Activity on Linkedin: Keep tabs on your top prospects and their activity levels on LinkedIn. Prospects who jump into discussions and post or comment more frequently than in the past might be shifting into buying mode. You can get a sense of this by visiting the “Activity” section of the prospect’s profile. Perusing the latest activities can even give you insight into the prospect’s top-of-mind issues. Using this information, you can draw parallels between what they currently care about and the value you can offer.

Linkedin software to help you research prospects

The is a large ecosystem of inexpensive (and sometimes free) Linkedin software that exists, some of my favourite to help learn more include:

• Crystal for Linkedin – is a web app and Chrome plugin which creates an accurate personality profile for any LinkedIn user profile that you are looking at. When you view a person’s LinkedIn profile, Crystal reveals how you should speak, email, work with or sell to them most effectively.
• Uproc – if you use a Chrome browser and download UProc for LinkedIn you will be able to see extra contact details when viewing a person’s LinkedIn profile including their email, phone, company address, gender and company office address.
• Discoverly – When you are on a prospect’s LinkedIn profile Discovery reveals extended information on that person including Twitter data and Facebook mutual friends. Use this to get introductions from your mutual friends.
• Ebsta – Allows you to quickly cross-reference Salesforce without leaving LinkedIn. If you use Ebsta whilst browsing a prospect’s profile on LinkedIn, it will reveal all of the information logged in Salesforce CRM that your organisation has on that individual prospect.

These are just a few of the Linkedin tools that you can use to learn more about your prospects and to improve your success in selling high-value products or services to large enterprises.

In Part 5 of the “Linkedin Account-Based Marketing” Series, I will show you some ways to develop buyer personas so that you can message them effectively on Linkedin and book more meetings. You can read previous entries from the series here.

Want private coaching to achieve Account-Based Marketing success?

My name is Jonny Rose and I’m the founder of Win At LinkedIn, a LinkedIn coaching service that trains professionals, entrepreneurs & freelancers to find leads, nurture prospects and close deals in a GDPR compliant way.

Let’s turn you into a Sales MACHINE, go here.