Lead Generation

B2B Prospecting on LinkedIn: Best Methods & Practices (2023 updated)

if you're a salesperson looking to make the most of LinkedIn for B2B prospecting in 2022, this guide is for you! Get ready to discover the best methods and practices for B2B lead generation

Saurav Gupta
Founder & CEO
January 12, 2023
Table of contents

Nowadays, it's all about leveraging the power of LinkedIn, the ultimate professional networking site. With over 500 million members, LinkedIn gives B2B salespeople the ability to connect with potential customers and grow their businesses like never before.

But let's be real, having a LinkedIn profile isn't going to magically turn you into a sales pro. You've got to know how to use it effectively for prospecting if you want to tap into its full potential. So go forth and sell, my friends. Just remember to keep it professional (but maybe throw in a joke or two to break the ice).

Looks like social outreach is the hot new way for B2B salespeople to find customers.

According to a report by Forrester, 77% of B2B decision-makers said they would accept meeting requests from salespeople if the request came through a social network like LinkedIn. And can you blame them?

LinkedIn makes it easy for salespeople to connect with potential customers and build relationships. So if you're a salesperson looking to make the most of LinkedIn for B2B prospecting in 2022, this guide is for you!

Get ready to discover the best methods and practices for finding and converting potential customers on LinkedIn

What do we understand by B2B prospecting on LinkedIn?

B2B prospecting on LinkedIn refers to the process of finding potential business partners or customers through the platform. With over 500 million users, LinkedIn is a popular choice for companies looking to expand their reach and grow their businesses.

In today's digital age, social media has revolutionalized the way prospecting is done, and LinkedIn is a valuable tool for identifying and connecting with potential partners or customers."

b2b prospecting on linkedin statistics

You may be wondering how companies are able to close deals through LinkedIn and if it is possible for startups to use the platform to grow their businesses?

LinkedIn has a vast database of professionals from around the globe, providing an easy way to connect with potential customers or partners. This is known as prospecting on LinkedIn. When you connect with people with the intention of potentially doing business together, you have found a prospect. However, there are some things to consider when prospecting on LinkedIn, which we discuss further in this blog.

4 powerful techniques for B2B prospecting on LinkedIn

Salespeople have a variety of techniques at their disposal for prospecting on LinkedIn, but not all of them are equally effective.

In this section, we will introduce four powerful techniques that salespeople can use for LinkedIn prospecting:

#1. Connect with the right people:

One of the key components of LinkedIn prospecting for salespeople is connecting with the right people.

LinkedIn offers the ability to connect with almost anyone, but salespeople should not waste time connecting with people who are not relevant to their business.

Instead, they should focus on connecting with individuals who may be interested in their products or services.

There are several ways to find relevant people to connect with on LinkedIn. One way is to use LinkedIn's search function, which allows users to search for people based on location, industry, and other criteria.

Another option is to join LinkedIn groups, which provide an opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals who may be interested in what you have to offer."

#2. Personalize your messages:

After connecting with the right people on LinkedIn, it's essential to personalize your messages.

Generic messages are often ignored, so to stand out from the competition, you need to tailor your messages to the individual.

Take the time to learn about the person you are messaging and what they are interested in and looking for. Then, craft a message that is relevant and interesting to them. Personalizing your messages will increase their effectiveness and make them more likely to be read and responded to.

#3. Offer value:

When prospecting on LinkedIn, it is important to provide value to the person you are connecting with, not just sell to them.

  • Share relevant and interesting content with your connections.
  • Offer advice and guidance when you see someone who may benefit from it.

Remember that the goal of prospecting on LinkedIn is to connect with potential customers and grow your business, so use the right techniques to be successful.

#4. Use Automation:

Time is a valuable resource, and with the help of artificial intelligence and automation, many tasks can be streamlined.

LinkedIn prospecting is no exception. By using tools such as Sales Navigator, Overloop, Apollo.io, Linked Helper, and Salesrobot, you can save time and streamline your work. These tools are paid, but they can be well worth the investment.

By following the techniques outlined in this guide, you can make the most of LinkedIn and B2B prospecting in 2022. However, it's important to keep in mind that implementing these techniques can be time-consuming and may hinder your potential growth if you try to do everything at once.

To find more prospects and convert them into customers, it can be helpful to use a tool that automates repetitive processes, allowing you to focus on your B2B sales strategy. The landscape of B2B sales has changed, so it's important to adapt your approach as well.

How can LinkedIn Sales Navigator boost your B2B prospecting efforts?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a B2B prospecting tool designed to help salespeople find and connect with potential customers on LinkedIn. It has several features that make it an effective tool for B2B prospecting.

Some of the features of the Sales Navigator include:

  • It can assist you in searching for people based on specific criteria
  • It also allows you to see who has viewed your profile
  • You can also send InMail messages to people you are not connected with

LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help salespeople save time and be more efficient in their B2B prospecting efforts. By using this tool, salespeople can focus on connecting with the right people and personalizing their messages.

However, it's important to be aware of the limitations of LinkedIn's in-built Sales Navigator before using it. Some of these limitations are listed below."

Are you getting the most out of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator? The downsides to consider.

The drawbacks of using LinkedIn's Sales Navigator include:

  • A contact limit of 300, which requires upgrading to a paid plan to increase
  • The tool is a paid option, which may not be suitable for those with a tight budget
  • Some users have reported that it is not as effective as they would like it to be, potentially due to LinkedIn's algorithms and self-contained platform
  • No guarantee of finding the right prospects
  • Alternatives, such as other B2B prospecting tools, are available
  • May not be the most cost-effective and efficient option for prospecting and identifying suitable individuals on LinkedIn for your business

Given the many limitations and cost associated with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it's a good idea to explore alternative tools that can work seamlessly with your LinkedIn profile. These options tend to be more cost-effective and efficient when it comes to finding and connecting with potential leads on LinkedIn. It's worth taking the time to look into these options and see if they can be a better fit for your business.

Prospecting Tools 101: How to Boost Your B2B Lead Generation Efforts?

Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) are valuable for B2B sales reps to drive follow-up activities, but they don't easily turn into sales-qualified leads (SQLs). In fact, the conversion rate of an MQL to an SQL is only 2%. That means a whopping 98% of leads don't progress to the next stage.

  • One reason for this may be a lack of thorough pre-qualification of prospects at the outset.
  • Many companies fail to get in-depth answers about marketing challenges during the sales cycle.
  • To overcome these issues, it's helpful to use advanced prospecting tools that can automate the process, saving time and increasing productivity.
  • There are many tools available in the market that can assist with prospecting.

It's important to remember that pre-qualification is key to a more effective conversion rate, and there are many tools out there to help streamline the process and increase productivity.

Optimizing Your B2B Prospecting Efforts on LinkedIn: How Automation Can Help?

To make your B2B prospecting process more effective when using a prospecting tool, consider these steps:

  • Pre-qualify your B2B prospects by asking targeted questions about their marketing challenges.
  • Use advanced prospecting tools that automate the process and save time.
  • Follow up with B2B leads consistently to increase the chances of converting them into customers
  • Continuously monitor and analyze the performance of your prospecting efforts to identify areas for improvement and optimize your strategy.

5 Tips for Effective B2B Prospecting with Sales Prospecting Tools :

  • Search Filters: Use filters in your tool or LinkedIn website, like priorities, statuses, and companies to quickly prospect for leads.
  • Research: Research the right person within a company to land the first meeting. Research can be done by company name or job title.
  • Narrow Search: Narrow your search to companies by 1-10 employees and filter by B2B or B2C. Refine your search by specific industry to ensure you're targeting the right prospects.
  • Connect Efficiently: Use your tool to connect quickly with prospects on LinkedIn. Sales Navigator is a great example, which allows you to target people based on their email ID, first name, and last name. Connecting efficiently saves you time and allows you to direct your conversation to the right person easily.
  • Fast Reply Rate: Use an advanced CRM tool in your prospecting process to save time and reply quickly. This will help you communicate with prospects on a one-to-one basis. For example, in Salesrobot, you can connect with 500+ contacts using an effective search that combines your existing company's CRM responses with new communications by your prospects.

How Can Automation Tools Improve Your B2B Prospecting?

Automation tools can improve your B2B prospecting process in several ways:

  1. Data collection and organization: Automation tools can help you gather and organize large amounts of data on potential prospects, including their contact information, company size, industry, and more.
  2. Lead scoring: Automation tools can help you score leads based on their likelihood of converting into paying customers, allowing you to prioritize your outreach efforts.
  3. Email campaigns: Automation tools can help you create and send personalized email campaigns to large groups of prospects, making it easier to scale your outreach efforts.
  4. Follow-up and tracking: Automation tools can help you keep track of when and how to follow up with prospects, and can send automated follow-up emails and messages to keep the conversation going.
  5. Reports and analytics: Automation tools can provide you with detailed reports and analytics on the performance of your prospecting efforts, allowing you to make data-driven decisions about how to improve your process over time.

By using automation tools, you can save time, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your prospecting efforts, and get a better return on your investment. And if you're looking for a ways to generate leads via LinkedIn then you can certainly explore LinkedIn automation tool which will help you do automate your B2B lead generation process.

Let's dive into some of the feature of our tool that will help you do hyper-personalized LinkedIn outreach in just few taps.

SalesRobot:

Easy Prospecting:

With Salesrobot, you can quickly and easily find the right prospects on LinkedIn using advanced filtering options. This helps you be more targeted in your search and saves you valuable time!

how to do easy prospecting with salesrobot?

Advanced Messaging Templates:

Salesrobot gives you the flexibility to select from a variety of messaging templates or personalize them for a more targeted approach in your prospecting efforts.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator Integration:

Are you tired of juggling multiple accounts on LinkedIn Sales Navigator and constantly switching between them to find the right prospects?

With SalesRobot, you can streamline the process by integrating all of your accounts - even the ones in a group - into one platform. This allows you to easily search and scrape prospects across all of your accounts, saving you time and hassle.

But what if one of your accounts gets banned? No problem - with SalesRobot, you can simply reuse prospects that you've already imported and keep them in a pool. This integration also allows you to make full use of the profile, and you can even view directly from SalesRobot if an account has an active Sales Navigator or not.

LinkedIn sales navigator

Stop the hustle and make your prospecting efforts more efficient with SalesRobot's integration of LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

B2B Leads Lists

You can easily export a list of prospects from your campaign that includes all the data collected during the campaign execution, such as scraped information and contact details. You can also apply filters to export only the most relevant prospects.

b2b leads on salesrobot

The exported CSV data can be used for your own internal processes or imported into other tools. Additionally, you can use this data to create additional campaigns within Salesrobot.

Blacklisting of Duplicate Accounts

You can Blacklist prospects by entering values directly or uploading them through CSV.

Blacklisted profiles will be skipped in all campaigns automatically.

salesrobot blacklisting feature

You can check out the blacklisted profiles in a campaign by visiting target profiles and applying the filter.

Blacklisting is done by doing an exact match with the company name or profile URL.

Advanced Dashboard

The Salesrobot dashboard is designed to give you a comprehensive view of your automation progress and target market. With the performance section, you can easily monitor the health of your automation and identify any issues that need attention.

The tags section is another useful feature that allows you to quickly understand the distribution of your conversations across different stages of the sales cycle. By correctly tagging your chats, you can gain valuable insights into how your outreach program is performing.

Additionally, the prospect insights feature allows you to gain a deeper understanding of your target market and use that information to improve your targeting approach.

salesrobot prospecting analytics

You can track all your performances and analytics at one glance!

salesrobot campaign monitor

Final Takeaways On Prospecting On LinkedIn:

Prospecting on LinkedIn is a crucial method for closing deals and expanding business opportunities. In this blog post, we examined how to effectively prospect on LinkedIn by discussing various techniques and tools.

We specifically highlighted the use of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, but also acknowledged its limitations and explored alternative options such as Salesrobot.

By integrating Salesrobot with your LinkedIn profile, you can enhance your prospecting efforts in various ways. If you're interested in learning more about Salesrobot and its pricing options, you can visit their website and even sign up for a 14-day Free Trial!.

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