When I’m training sales teams to use LinkedIn to build their pipeline, I emphasise how critical is that you connect with prospects and grow your LinkedIn network.
Whilst LinkedIn offer InMail as a way to reach your prospects without connecting, having worked with over 100 sales teams, I can count on on hand the people that has had told me InMail works for them.
So, you need to grow your LinkedIn network. With a free LinkedIn account, you can safely connect with 5 new people each day. For paid plans like Premium and Sales Navigator – you can connect with 20 people per day.
This is non-negotiable If you want to build sustained demand for your services.
Why you must grow your LinkedIn network
Sometimes people approach me and tell me that they have a good network already. But in the years of doing social selling training, there is something many miss – your network half life.
Your half life on your LinkedIn network is 18-24 months. Within a short period, 50% of your network will have moved from their retired, changed industry. changed role or left the workforce entirely.
Your network is losing relevance every day -that will hit your content performance and limit your ability to get inbound leads.
In 2019, I downloaded my connections and reviewed them one-by-one. I analysed over 19,000 connections which had all been deliberately added since 2011. More than 8,000 of them were retired, changed industries and 134 were deceased.
8 tips to grow your LinkedIn network
If you’re growing your network here are some
- 360 Connect: Don’t just connect with decision makers, connect with the other stakeholders and influencers in the buying process.
- Connect before you need to: People hate being pitched by new connections. If a prospect is more familiar with you, they are more likely respond, so connect 2-3 weeks before you outreach and build some interaction with them.
- Avoid connecting between 9am and 12pm: Most decision makers are busy and your connection request may get buried, missed or forgotten – try to connect later in the day.
- Engage before connecting: If you can engage (like and comment) before connecting it improves acceptance rate. If you can’t worry, they’ll check your profile and decide based on that.
- No Connection Message: If you want to send a connection message it must be totally unique – it cannot feel like a personlised template – if in doubt, send a connection with no message.
- Don’t connect with 3rd degrees: Focus on growing with your ideal clients who are 2nd degree connections. They are more likely to accept you. As you grow, 2nd’s become 1st’s and 3rd’s become 2nd’s.
- Withdraw after 14-21 days: If someone hasn’t accepted, withdraw your requests. It minimises your rejection rate. If someone hasn’t accepted in this period, your request has probably been buried by others.
- Save Searches: If you search using LinkedIn.com, bookmark the search in your browser so you can return and use it again. If you use Sales Navigator, you can save searches using the save toggle.
Should I remove irrelevant connections?
It’s worth cleaning your network on a regular basis, but I wouldn’t make it a big focus to remove people. I’d focus more on connecting with the right people.
I’ve reached the maximum number of connections, so I have to remove people to add people. I remove 100 people per week and add 100 people. The best way to analyse your network is to download your connection list. Some of my connections date back to 2012 and I have no idea who they are, so I start with the people I really don’t know or remember.
One quick tip for removing people, flip your privacy settings over before you remove people – otherwise the people you are removing might see you visited their profile – that can can prompt them to send you a connection request.
Make connecting a daily routine
Most people don’t need hundreds of new clients – but by sending 5 connections per day (free) or 20 per day (Premium or Sales Navigator) you’re increasing your proximity to your prospective clients – they are more likely to see your content in their feed and as they build trust and get to know you, you’ll start to get referrals and inbound leads.
Success on LinkedIn is about building relationships.
Connecting is the first step in building relationships. Pair your network growth with a clear inbound social selling strategy to turn new connections into conversations.