Generate Leads from LinkedIn and Become a Rainmaker Now

There are approximately 167 million LinkedIn users in the United States alone; and 660 million users in around 200 territories across the globe! However, many business users struggle to find new prospects on LinkedIn because they don't know the best ways to connect. If you want to become a rainmaker and increase your sales, it's important to generate leads from LinkedIn and Matt Clark shares his secrets to social selling in his recent interview on The Virtual CMO podcast.

In this episode, The Five Echelon Group's founder- Eric Dickmann, has a conversation with Matt Clark - "Chief Rainmaker" and founder of The Virtual Edge about maximizing your full potential by generating leads from LinkedIn.

Matt started his sales career selling door-to-door. According to him, these experiences made him develop a thick skin and a more motivated spirit to pursue his passion for selling. It was the lessons from his failures and successes that drive him to build The Virtual Edge. Matt Clark believes that people are hiding behind too much technology. He urges people to start initiating conversations and building relationships rather that overly relying on technology. For Matt, LinkedIn is the platform that holds so much potential for businesses because it's like virtually knocking on the doors of potential clients. And by implementing a few simple changes, allowed him to communicate better with his market and generate leads from LinkedIn. In this episode, Matt shares some of those tips to help you better connect to potential clients.

Rainmaking and Rainmakers

Sales is all about connections. It's digging deep into your core clients and giving them the tools they need to have better lives. Building communities, networks, relationships, and generating conversations are what we need to grow together. Though it's raining a lot here in Orlando, Clark thinks of Rainmaking as “money clouds”. A rainmaker is someone who comes in and makes cash inflows consistently. Even if rainmakers don't make the most sales every month, they continue to play at a very high level and are able to generate leads from LinkedIn consistently. Matt had worked with rainmakers when he was still making door-to-door sales. He described them as predictable, reliable, and, most importantly, people who get the work done.

For the last two and a half years, Clark and his team were able to help over 1,500 entrepreneurs in 23 countries with their group coaching and one-on-one sessions better leverage LinkedIn as a lead source. His "Rainmaker System" allows people to build consistent lead flow and generate leads from LinkedIn. This system helps people identify what level they are at in the business and list down the goals they aim to achieve. Their online courses and training allow you to understand easy-to-follow, predictable, and repeatable systems that convert your gathered leads to real paying customers. It is not enough to learn something; you also have to apply it in your business and see how it works. 

According to Rainmakers, these are the the skills that define a rainmaker:

1. Listening - Listen to what your prospects say. Customize your response to solve the heart of the problem of your clients. People love to engage in conversation with a generic-sounding, almost scripted salesperson speech.
2. Become an Expert - You can't sell something if you don't understand what you are selling. You are at the greatest disadvantage if you are a marketer who can't satisfy your customers' problems and inquiries in person and on online platforms. Work hard to build on your skill, knowledge, and experience to move your business forward and generate leads from LinkedIn.
3. Questions - Before engaging in a call with a client, ensure that you are ready to answer all kinds of questions they have in store. You've got to prepare ahead of time and list all the possible questions that may be asked- from the simplest to the trickiest.
4. Control - In today's world of sales, control is the primary key to success and company stability. You should be the one who will dictate the flow, speed, and direction of your conversation with the customers. Take note that you could be talking to anyone on the phone: from a rainmaker like you to the company's founder. Establish control cleverly by reasoning why you have to contact the people from senior management. You can't implement change to the lower brackets of the organization!                                        

How to Find Clients and Generate Leads from LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a tool that allows you to create messages that invite people to your business and satisfy their problems with your ideal and most effective solutions. Clark finds LinkedIn very convenient and helpful for non-tech guys like him because it helps you reach out to potential market even if you are not a marketing, copywriting, or tech expert. All you need to do is build bridges with your clients and communicate with them on a deeper level. Your LinkedIn profile tells the client that you understand his/her needs by using a methodology to elaborate how you will serve them in the issues they are encountering. From 20 doors a day in his door-to-door sales job, Matt was able to knock on 60 doors a day with the aid of LinkedIn. From there, he was able to organize meetings and gather clients. Matt describes the ability to generate leads from LinkedIn as- "The simplest process ever."

Many salespeople use the shotgun approach and try to target everybody; doing this makes them also miss clients on their target list and fail to generate leads from LinkedIn. You need to identify who the ideal client is. Let the people know who you are and what you are willing to do for them. Be transparent with your skills, and tailor your messages to a specific person! A lot of people fail because they are too general on why they are wanting to connect and what value they are offering a new connection.

The Best Way to Follow-up with Clients

Matt Clark says that making follow-ups to your clients is essential to this strategy. Some people may reply, and some won't. It is all part of the business! Composing great content is vital to making high converting follow-ups; bland ones don't do the trick. Personalizing your messages to a specific client will make people want to connect with you. Focus on your important clients; don't be afraid to reach out to them. Matt mentions that there are always times that he reaches out to clients on their other social media accounts since they are not always active on LinkedIn. Although it's easy to generate leads from LinkedIn, he also invites them to participate in Facebook groups or chats, and at times, follows them on Instagram. Clark reminds us, "Wherever they are at, keep them in the network. You know- multiple touch points."

Clark urges users to do whatever you can to reach out to your desired client. You can even use the classic cold calling and emailing if it suits your business. However, he suggests that it would be better to run retargeting ads and educate the client on your brand, product, or services than cold emailing them to help increase the chances they will recognize your content.

For the last six years, Matt has used HubSpot for his business. According to him, HubSpot allows him to organize his reports well and track everything in real-time. Matt Clark believes in quality over quantity. He ensures that the high-quality people listed in his CRM (customer relationship management) software are active and engaging.

Overseeing everything is what many business owners struggle to do. You may keep track of the activities with ten customers, but having a hundred or so active clients, all waiting for your interaction with them, is a hard thing to execute and keep track of. Matt currently has four salespeople handling an average of twenty conversations with different kinds of people every day. With HubSpot CRM, Matt Clark can monitor what is happening at each stage of the transaction and track their activity. This software allows him to manage his cash flow and projections to grow his business.

Real Time Results From the Rainmaker System

Expected results vary from person to person. People who are still unclear in identifying their ideal client might have a hard time generating leads from LinkedIn and increasing their sales effectiveness. However, those who are hungry for success and have identified what kind of clients they want to attract could generate leads from LinkedIn and receive multiple calls within the week. Clark and his team offer high-value coaching to people who want to make more high-value sales. To start, he recommends a short LinkedIn profile makeover and provides free resources on his website to those interested. Then, if people want additional coaching, The Virtual Edge provides a variety of courses, seminars, and coaching to help provide more tailored advice.

Sales Funnels

We hear a lot about sales funnels but at their core, they are just a sales processes. Traditional sales funnels may consist of choosing the place, driving out to the area, choosing a couple of doors to knock on, speaking to the receptionist, getting in touch with the owner, doing the presentation and the pitch, getting the client to sign up, collecting all the documents to submit for finance, getting approval, installing the product, and then getting paid. Manual funnels can be hard and stressful; it takes a lot of physical and mental power for you to pull off a sale. On the other hand, online sales funnels may consist of having your clients download and watch a free educational video (which is the education part of the presentation pipe), then displaying a call to action, and having the potential client reach out to you with questions or buy online.

The important thing to know if whatever funnel you're using, it's just a sales process. The key to either is providing value. If you're looking to become a rainmaker and consistently close businesses, learning to generate leads from LinkedIn should be an important part of your sales strategy. By learning how to engage new prospects in a way that adds value and builds credibility, you can increase the likelihood of building trust and getting the kind of engagement that could ultimately lead to more sales.

Live Stream Replay

FAQ

• Sales is all about connections.
• Be transparent with your intensions and tailor your messages to each specific person.
• Personalizing your messages to a specific client will make people want to connect with you.
• Understand your sales funnel and what value you can add at each step.
• Learn to generate leads on LinkedIn by understanding your idea client.

Episode and Guest Links