It’s no secret that building a LinkedIn Selling strategy is a powerful prospecting tool. In fact, LinkedIn has become even more important to professionals and brands looking for connection, networking opportunities and leading prospects in the virtual environment.

As in-person meetings, trade shows and networking gatherings have been placed on hold during these unusual circumstances, LinkedIn is a channel to feed the sales funnel. With or without a pandemic, LinkedIn is a powerful relationship-focused lead generation system and the results of a recent LinkedIn survey support this assumption:

• Sales technology is transforming the sales org. The number of sales professionals relying on sales intelligence tools (such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator) has increased by 54% in the past two years. It's part of a trend toward virtual selling that is accelerating in the current climate.
• Virtual trends are here to stay. 77% of respondents plan to continue holding virtual meetings even after they are no longer required to do so.
• Trust matters more than ever. Buyers seek to find trust in the sales process but find it in short supply. For sales professionals, achieving trust with buyers often the first step to getting deals done.
• Closing the sale may take more time and effort. 44% of respondents said their customers’ sales cycles had increased.
• Not using LinkedIn could put your sales effort at a disadvantage. 56% of top sales performers reported that they were power users of LinkedIn.

4 LinkedIn Selling Prospecting Trends

1. Sales has become data driven. Data is the secret sauce that helps businesses run. And, the sales channel is no exception to that trend. Businesses understand the power that data brings and chisels away at their sales goals with data science as a top tool to help them get there. LinkedIn is a leading tool for social media marketing and prospecting in accessing data that ranges everywhere, from identifying and accessing top clients to optimizing the customer journey. Sales data points that support the data-driven sales team include:
   • Understanding how customers perceive value
   • Diving into audiences to fine tune and target messaging
   • Increasing customer lifetime value through better customer experience insights
2. The sales process is driven by technology. Technology dominates the sales funnel. From 
   social media platforms like LinkedIn to CRMs to digital marketing, the sales process, the public profile page, and well-liked content has become ingrained in tech. Even pre-pandemic, these facts were relevant, but, now more than ever, technology is the tool sales teams are using to drive results.
   
   
   Here is a closer look at the common tech platforms used to optimize sales: 
   • Customer relationship management (CRM) - The data housed in the CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce) helps to nurture leads, communicate with current customers and identify potential areas of growth.
   • Social Media - From a B2B standpoint, LinkedIn is the number game in town for building a powerful personal brand and social selling. LinkedIn integrates with existing sales solutions that help identify prospects, generate leads and manage existing relationships while offering data-driven insights to improve strategy.
   • Digital Marketing - Marketing and sales have never been more in tandem than they are in this tech-dominated environment. From the prospecting of paid digital advertising to the customer experience communication flows, marketing is tuned into the goals of sales and supportive of their role with the use of technology in a way that is stronger than ever.
3. Prospects seek to purchase from businesses they trust. B2B buyers are looking longer and harder before making a purchase decision. They start to build trust long before the purchase is made. They look to their sales representatives for active listening, integrity and expertise. LinkedIn allows you to push out content that begins to foster trust long before a sale is closed.
4. LinkedIn is more than just a social media platform. It's a sales funnel for prospecting. LinkedIn is the B2B social media powerhouse that has increased in usage by over 70% over the past two years. Once the pandemic landed on global society, virtual options rose to the top spot for selling, prospecting and networking. Even post-pandemic, this usage growth is expected to keep trending upwards. 

How to Get Started?

Rutkin Marketing specializes in helping businesses of all sizes finetune their messaging, hone in on their marketing strategy and grow their sales initiatives. The professional team at Rutkin Marketing can help you identify a strong LinkedIn selling strategy along with an execution plan and KPIs to measure your success. Get started by downloading the Rutkin Marketing LinkedIn Prospecting + Selling guide.

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