November 10, 2017

What makes someone accept your LinkedIn connection request?

As a LinkedIn lead generation expert, one of the most important aspects of any companies lead generation funnel is to actually get their target market to connect with them, by accepting their connection request.

You might’ve seen my other article, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/stop-trying-get-me-bed-first-date-allan-fine/ where I spoke about what happens 90% of the time, once someone sends you a connection request and once you accept. The very first thing they do is try to sell you their products or services. (Your thinking WTF? I just met you!)

That is probably the number one mistake I see 99% of all people making on LinkedIn, who are trying to use LinkedIn for lead generation. It just doesn’t work and almost always, the results are just dismal.

About a year ago I decided to formalize my LinkedIn lead generation system,

and during the six years of being a LinkedIn trainer, training individuals and corporations all throughout USA and Canada, these are the main 8 mistakes and things you should do that I have seen, that get results.

Definitely do not try to sell someone your services or products if they except your connection request. LinkedIn should be about relationship building.
When clicking on the connect button, ALWAYS include a personal message, that includes the person’s name and spell it correctly. (I can’t tell you how many times people have misspelled my name, BTW it’s Allan not Allen or Alan). I believe that really matters, spelling someone’s name correctly, that shows that you’re actually paying attention to what you’re doing and that you care.

3. Social media marketing has definitely taken a big shift over the last few years. It’s now all about relationship building, and making sure that you when you contact somebody, you propose a win-win situation. Definitely ask them about their business and what they’re up to, as well as any challenges they are facing.

4. The next thing is make sure your profile is 100% rockstar, the first thing they’re going to do if they receive a cold connection request is go to your profile. If your profile has a

crappy picture, and you look like a serial killer (You know what I mean) then no one is going to accept your connection request.

Make sure all the information on your profile is up to date and all the links to websites and emails our working. Nothing says I’m really unprofessional more than someone clicking on the website in your contact information, and the site has been taken down and isn’t even on the Internet anymore.

5. The same thing for your website, if your website hasn’t been updated in years, guess what? People are judging whether to accept your connection request on that as well.

6. Is the message you are sending out congruent with what your profile says and what your website says. What is your call to action? What is your sales funnel?

7. On your profile do you have any endorsements, endorsements are like an testimonials, the more the better.

8. Lastly I only connect with people, and keep them as connections, if they fall into one of three categories:

A) Will they be my client?

B) Will they be a connector and send clients to me?

C) Can I joint venture with them on something else, or can I add value to them?

LinkedIn throttles your account from receiving new connections or building up your network at about 30,000. So while you may not be anywhere near to that, you have to think ahead a few years and if you are using LinkedIn for lead generation, eventually you will probably hit that mark. So I always ask people if they fall into one of those three categories, if after I connect with them and get to know them, they seem kind of wishy-washy, by giving me the thumbs up or not sure, response when I asked them if they want to have a telephone conversation. I disconnect and Block them.

I hope this article brought some value to you and I welcome all your comments and your thoughts on lead generation on LinkedIn and connections on LinkedIn. If I can ever answer any questions for you for free please let me know I would be happy to have a conversation with you.

Allan – https://leadwizard.ca/ – 403-246-7386

Make LinkedIn easier to use – 10 LinkedIn Shortcuts for quick LinkedIn navigation.

LinkedIn is the only tool I use now for lead generation, I used to do Google AdWords, Facebook ads and SEO for my site, but I’m in the B2B space like millions of other businesses on LinkedIn. As a LinkedIn trainer for six years one of the biggest complaints I hear is, when LinkedIn rolls out new changes like they did in 2016 at the end, there is no easy documentation out there to refer to how to use it. That’s where I step in and help my clients and hopefully you with some LinkedIn tips and tricks.

So here are some easy links to navigate LinkedIn that you can bookmark this page and use it over and over again as long as you’re logged in your own account, they will automatically redirect you to the appropriate page for your account.

1. Who’s Viewed Your Profile?

I really recommend having a premium account on LinkedIn especially for lead generation, and my view is if someone’s looking at your profile they’re interested in possibly hiring you, here is a quick link to it, view your profile

2. On desktop unlike mobile, when you accept someone’s connection request there is a link to quickly send them a message which I normally have saved on my mobile phone in my messages. On the desktop version though unfortunately it doesn’t work the same way so here is a link to your – New Connections

3. As a professional LinkedIn trainer, unless you’re starting out with no connections at all I recommend you only connect with people who follow into one of the three categories, especially if you are using LinkedIn for lead generation:

A) People that you have prospected and will eventually be your clients.

B) People that won’t be your client but will definitely refer people to you.

C) People who are influencers or have 10,000 connections or more that you might want to do something with later on.

Let’s face it 99.9999% of people out there including maybe you, have never reached out to all the people they have as first level connections on LinkedIn, to talk to them once in a while. With that in mind if the people that you are connecting to are not engaging with you or you’re not engaging with them on a regular basis, then why do you have them as a connection?

My recommendation, remove them as a connection, and then if you doing lead generation on LinkedIn I block them as well because if they are not going to be my customer now or do anything with me they probably won’t in the future.

LinkedIn also suggests People that you may know, so have a browse through once a week and see if you see someone you know – People You May Know

4. See who you already know on LinkedIn by importing your address book or a CSV file

5. We all have the ability to see how we rank in profile views on LinkedIn. The more active you are the more profile views you will receive so try and communicate/update on a daily basis. How you rank in profile views , while I don’t spend a lot of time on this one, if you want to be seen as the absolute expert in your field, then this is a good metric to measure that by. PS: People want to work with the absolute expert in your field, make sure all your “I”’s are dotted and “T”’s are crossed as far as the things you need to be viewed as, to be seen as the absolute expert in your field ( Contact me if you don’t know what those three things are)

6. We all now have the ability to “Publish a Post”. Don’t be salesy or Spammy, try to share great content information, ask a question, asked for people to help you solve the problem. (Like, Share & Comment) – Publish A Post

7. #6 Advanced People Search

Advanced People Search – Often neglected and it’s the perfect way to find your target audience!

If you look on the right side of the page, you will see many of the filters you used to see in Advanced Search before the new user interface launched. They’re not gone, they have just been moved

8. #7 View pending Invitations

Some of these could be your next customers! This one is extremely important I feel as this time as opposed to you reaching out to somebody, somebody is reaching out to you. Remember though to follow the three rules in #3. Unless you’re brand-new on LinkedIn and need to build a base once again LinkedIn will eventually throttle the ability to accept or create new connections at 30,000 ( I know that sounds like a lot but if you are doing some serious lead generation on LinkedIn that number can come up pretty fast) so don’t just accept someone’s invitation unless you truly believe it will be strategic.

9. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn groups are extremely important , make sure you only join groups of people who you believe will be your target market unless you’re goal is to network with other people in your profession and industry. Too often I see my clients who have joined groups that contain mostly people who are doing exactly the same thing they’re doing, and so the possibility of getting any new clients not group will be zero. See if there any Group Discussions that you can take part in and share your knowledge https://www.linkedin.com/groups/

10. See who you already know on LinkedIn by importing your address book or a CSV file . A good way to start your profile by importing people you already know on Gmail or Outlook.

Need help? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me, I’d be happy to answer any of your questions for free. 403-246-7386