Why You Aren't Getting Appointments on LinkedIn1

By Jeff Molander

Ninety-five percent of sales reps using LinkedIn are getting few-if any-appointments. They're using premium services, Sales Navigator, sending InMail, joining groups, spiffing up their profiles. And yet they're chronically underperforming. All because they're making three easily correctable mistakes when firing up their Web browsers each day.

Mistake No. 1: Asking for Connections First

The most deadly-and common-mistake most reps make comes right at the beginning: asking prospects for connection requests. Being connected is useful for nurturing leads-not effective for earning near-term meetings or starting discussions.

Stop asking for connections as a first step.

Outside of InMail or Group messages, don't try to make initial contact with prospects on LinkedIn. You may get connections accepted sometimes, but you'll rarely spark conversations after the connection is accepted.

Connecting first is not an effective practice. It's also against LinkedIn's terms of use and is punishable. You can be banned. Wait until the prospect knows you, and they will be more likely to accept your connection request.

Initiate contact first-then connect on LinkedIn to nurture the conversation forward. This takes full advantage of what connections give you (and avoids the risk of being restricted).

Mistake No. 2: Forgetting to Slow Prospects Down

Customers are busy and getting busier. So our first job is to help them take a breath for a second. Literally. That's where your first couple of email or InMail messages come into play.

These very brief, blunt and basic messages should disarm the customer-not ask them for an appointment. Don't ask them to direct you to the right decision makers. Don't ask them to have a demo with you. These are all extremely common mistakes. Don't ask them for anything other than a reply!

Get out of the ninety-five percent of underperformers and into the top 5 percent of LinkedIn users.Yes, you must grab a prospect's attention and hold it. But your first message must shock the prospect by putting them in control of the contact with you. Because once prospects feel control the good ones will in a better position to discover something:

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Jeff Molander Author's page Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell. He co-founded what became the Google Affiliate Network and Performics Inc., where he built the sales team. Today, he is the authority on effective prospecting communications techniques as founder of Communications Edge Inc. (formerly Molander & Associates Inc.) He's been in sales for over 2 decades. He is author of the first social selling book, Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You.Jeff is a sales communications coach and creator of the Spark Selling technique—a means to spark more conversations with customers "from cold," speeding them toward qualification.