How local media sales teams can use LinkedIn to build relationships that convert

I don’t know if there is anything more annoying right now than a bad LinkedIn pitch. And there are plenty of examples out there it seems.

Have you experienced this?

• You accept a request from someone who looks interesting
• In two minutes they pitch you on their product
• They follow up in a week either guilting you or pushing too hard

This does not work. LinkedIn can be an incredible sales machine but it takes effort, love and the right tone.

If you’re interested in building relationships on LinkedIn, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Fix your own LinkedIn page first

If you’re going to try and make sales connections on LinkedIn, it’s important that your page looks good and is discoverable.

To do this, I would look at a few things:

Your headline: Make sure it has keywords in it (so you can be found) but that it’s also clear what you do “Helping local businesses grow through digital, social and sponsored content solutions.”

Your profile page: Make sure that your profile tells your story (how you got where you are) but very clearly explains what you are doing today and how you help people. Use formats that aren’t just narrative, but are organized in chapters (like sections and headers) and use bullets to explain your services.

Feature sections: This area lets you show off what you are most proud of from awards you have won, podcasts you are featured on or articles you really love. This is an important area to fill out.

Be a helpful and useful local resource

LinkedIn is not a place for hard pitches but rather a process to get to a meeting.

This means that you have to first be useful, helpful and insightful. You can do this by:

• Sharing a story about your industry that someone could act on.
• Happily promoting an achievement by someone in your community.
• Featuring some interesting behind-the-scenes information about your media company.

This content doesn’t take a ton of lift or massive thought leadership, it simply is helpful to your followers and shows your knowledge and involvement in your community.

Take it easy with new connections

As I noted above, it’s super annoying to be pitched by someone who you just became a connection with. All they want from the relationship is a transaction, so I just don’t think this kind of cold outreach works well at all.

You have to think of LinkedIn as a slow-drip sales process with relationship building being the No. 1 goal.

Here’s how you could approach this:

• Follow the person or company you want to eventually make a connection with.

• Start reading their past posts, like a few and share them if appropriate.

• Where it feels natural, share a comment. This has to come across as authentic.

• Send a connection request.

Only do those things if you personally found them valuable and then when you make that connection, share something you liked and why.

So when should you pitch them?

I don’t actually suggest you hard sell someone, even after they have engaged with you but rather keep the conversation going by sharing something insightful.

That could be a recent report that came out that you think they may find interesting based on their industry or a prior post. Or maybe that is something that you worked on with an advertiser that worked.

As you are sharing content with the connection, make sure you are being active on your public feed at the same time. This means taking a trending topic and offering your take on it, creating a short video from a local event you attended and promoting something unique you’re doing at your media company.

Doing this, while also sharing a few things with your new connection, will put you in front of them in direct but also indirect ways. I find this approach is so much better than asking if you can talk to them about that half page ad you’d like to sell them.

They will eventually come to you and spend way more than if you were pitching them hard.

With all of this being said, there may come a time when asking for a conversation is the right approach based on the engagement you have put into the relationship.

If that’s case you could say something like: “I’ve really enjoyed following what you’re doing and seeing the conversations around your business. If it’s helpful, I’d be happy to share a few things we’re seeing from our audience right now that might be relevant for you.”

LinkedIn can be a great prospecting tool but it’s very different from email or phone calls, it takes time and engagement has to be at the center of your strategy.

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