In today’s issue, I’m going to share my 4-question process to find qualified prospects on LinkedIn.
If you can replicate this process, you’re much less likely to get ignored by prospects, because you’ll have a good reason to reach out.
Unfortunately, most SDRs don’t have a solid process for finding qualified prospects, so they are burning through lead lists and starting too few conversations as a result.
Without identifying and using this footprint, a few challenges arise:
Challenge #1: No relevance: it’s hard to get replies if you’re not using personalization in your outreach.
Challenge #2: Bad timing: your prospects are most likely not actively looking for the solution you’re offering.
Challenge #3: It’s harder to connect: your prospects ignore your message because they feel you have no clue about the problems they are trying to solve.
You can overcome all of these challenges by building a better system to find qualified prospects on LinkedIn.
Here is the 4-question process I follow:
My first step is to clearly understand who I’m trying to find. I like using an ICP matrix with the Ideal Customer Company and the Ideal Customer Title.
I also use the ProActive Selling methodology to differentiate between Above The Line buyers (ATL) and Below The Line buyers (BTL). Here’s an example ICP matrix:
Now that I have precise ATLs and BTLs to go after, I’m asking myself about their problems. In general, they have problems related to initiatives they are working on.
For example, Head of Sales Development/SDR Managers have initiatives around outbound pipeline creation. They face problems like:
low reply rates
spray and pray from SDRs
SDRs miss their targets regularly
I could go on forever, but these are common problems Heads of Sales Development are trying to solve.
(Note: if you’re interested in building problem-oriented cold messages, step-by-step, go check my Cold Message System.)
When my list is done, I’m able to look for people who speak about these problems on LinkedIn. I recommend using the LinkedIn search bar to find influential people speaking about these problems.
For example, if I type “reply rates”, “spray and pray”, or “SDR targets”, I can find relevant posts or people who regularly post about these topics.
You can then check the LinkedIn profiles of of these people who post and find out if they regularly post on the topic. In my example above, Tom Alaimo would be an excellent influencer to follow.
Finally, I’m checking where my prospects are interacting. They are often active in the reaction/comment section of the posts related to the problems they are trying to solve.
Let’s take the post we found from Tom Alaimo. He talks about an SDR being stressed because she missed her June target. He then gives tactical and mental tips to solve the problem.
I went to the reactions/comments section, and I found 17 prospects I could reach out to (SDR Managers, Head of Sales Development, VP Sales).
Now I can get in touch with them and mention Tom’s post as a trigger + ask them about the problem mentioned in the post. Some prospects may have liked the post because they are aware of the problem, or looking for a solution. Two good reasons to start an outbound conversation.
(Note: if you’re interested in building an outbound prospecting system with a 38% reply rate, go check my New Outreach System.)
And these are my 4 questions to ask to find qualified prospects on LinkedIn.
TL;DR:
Question 1: Who am I trying to find?
Question 2: What are their problems?
Question 3: Who are influential people speaking about these problems?
Question 4: Where are they interacting?
Cheers,
Thibaut
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