What mistakes do you need to avoid when using LinkedIn as a sales tool?

How do you make sure you’re attracting – not repelling – potential customers on LinkedIn? Discover five sales mistakes you need to avoid! 

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a heavy-handed sales approach – from the networking bore who gracelessly dumps you as soon as they realise you’re not a potential sale, to the cold caller who just won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

But, in the new era of online and social selling, how do you ensure that you don’t unknowingly break a sales taboo and alienate customers and earn an undesirable reputation?

Five mistakes to avoid when selling via LinkedIn

When it comes to modern sales tools, LinkedIn is becoming increasingly more popular. But it only works when used properly! Here are five mistakes to avoid if you want to attract, rather than alienate, potential customers.

1) Sending blanket connection requests

The easiest way to make someone NOT feel special is to send them an automated connection request. If your connection request is the first step in a potential sales conversation, make it feel personal. Write a bespoke message with your request making it clear that you want to connect with them, and that you’re not just harvesting connections to pitch to later on.

2) Posting irrelevant status updates

LinkedIn is not Facebook, and your professional connections on there don’t want to know what you had for breakfast or to watch a funny cat video. Make sure your status updates are relevant to why you (and your connections) are on LinkedIn and enhance your professional reputation.

3) Too many notifcations

Yes it’s important to be active on LinkedIn regularly, but if you’re appearing in someone’s newsfeed every five minutes, they’ll soon get sick of you. So pace your updates, and if you’re making a number of changes to your profile, update your profile settings first so it doesn’t broadcast every edit.

4) Not maintaining your relationships

If you’re actively using LinkedIn to nurture relationships and make sales, you need to be active. That means nurturing your relationships, and not simply amassing contacts you don’t actually have any contact with. This can be as quick and easy as liking their status updates, or as personal as sending them messages.

5) The hard sell

If the moment you connect with someone you engage in an obvious sales pitch, it’s likely to put them off. They’ll assume (rightly) that the only reason you wanted to connect was to get something out of them. Instead, take the time to get to know your connections and establish trust. Build a genuine relationship before you introduce your offering.

Learn how to attract and impress customers on LinkedIn

Are you confident that your LinkedIn profile will make the right impression on business contacts and potential customers?

Our online course Love LinkedIn guides you step-by-easy-step through writing and sharing a profile that you’ll feel proud of, and teaches you 20 strategies for using LinkedIn to grow your reputation and connect with others.

From identifying the right keywords to use and constructing a brilliant summary, to understanding how to use LinkedIn as a networking tool, Love LinkedIn will turn you into a confident LinkedIn pro in just a few hours.

Find out how Love LinkedIn will help you use LinkedIn with confidence today!