How to get Clients from LinkedIn - 7 Steps for Beginners

Created on: March 7, 2022
by Christopher Prouty

Linkedin is a powerful tool for business owners, for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs.

But many don't know how to use LinkedIn to get more clients.

In this video today, I'm going to show you seven steps to getting more clients from LinkedIn.

Watch the training video here.

Hi, I'm Chris, and in this video I'm going to show you seven simple steps that will help you get more leads and clients from LinkedIn.

Whether you're just starting out using LinkedIn or you've been using it for a while, I would encourage you to sit back and relax and get ready to learn how to get more clients from LinkedIn.

For the past 21 years, I've helped thousands of entrepreneurs and solopreneurs wildly grow their business by attracting clients through the Internet.

All right, let's get right into this.

Step number one is going to be spending some time optimizing your LinkedIn profile.

Your profile is the first stop anyone makes on the platform when they're checking you out.

So it makes sense for this to be the place where you spend a lot of time, especially if you're just getting started.

So you want to have an optimized profile.

This means having a great banner, a great profile picture, a really good headline that describes what you do, and then making sure you fill out every single section of your LinkedIn profile.

We don't want this thing looking empty, so go through and fill this out.

First step, head to your profile and make sure that it is optimized so that when someone is looking at it, it's very clear what you can do for them.

And in doing so, make sure you're using the words and phrases that they might be searching for when they're looking for someone who does what you do.

These are your search phrases, and if a prospect is looking for what you do, they're probably going to be searching for that phrase.

So let's make sure you use that phrase everywhere in your profile so that you show up inside of LinkedIn search when prospects are looking for what you do.

Now I have a whole additional training on how to do this and where to focus.

I'm going to include a link for that at the end of this.

So if you are just getting started and you want to check that out at the end of this video, I'll include a link for that training so that you can head over there.

Step number two is building your LinkedIn connections with your Ideal prospects.

Now, if you're just starting out, this is a great thing to include at the beginning of optimizing LinkedIn to attract clients to you.

And if you've been using LinkedIn for a while, it's always good to revisit this.

So what I recommend doing is going through your mailing list, going through all of your connections that exist outside of LinkedIn, looking through your Facebook friends or your Instagram connections and identifying the people who are your perfect prospect, who are your ideal clients, and then connect with them inside of LinkedIn.

You see, when you fill your connections on LinkedIn with your perfect prospects, you're more likely to get those people to see your message when you're creating content.

That leads us to step number three, which is using LinkedIn Search to find additional prospects, additional ideal prospects.

And you can use LinkedIn Search just by typing in some key phrases that might represent your ideal prospects.

Or you could get more advanced and you could use boolean search queries inside of LinkedIn Search.

Now, I created a whole training on how to use bullying searches.

I'm going to include a link for that at the end of this training as well so that you can jump over there and you can learn how to use advanced searches in LinkedIn.

So you can really Zoom in and narrow down your focus on who your ideal client or your ideal prospect is.

Once you're able to do these searches, you can then send connection requests to these ideal prospects.

They can become part of your professional network, and then they, like the others, will see the content that you create.

And when you're creating content that demonstrates what you do, they're more likely to express interest in learning more.

Ok, so wrapping up step three, use LinkedIn Search to find more ideal prospects and use bullying search queries to narrow the focus and really Zoom in on who that ideal prospect is, and then make connections with those people.

Let's move on to step number four, which is what happens after someone accepts a connection request from you.

So if you're just starting out or you've been using LinkedIn a while, you're sending connection requests regularly to your ideal prospects and they're accepting it's wise to send them a message once they've accepted.

Now, the mistake that many people make is that when someone connects with them, they jump all over them and they Slam them with a sales message.

We don't want to do that.

No one likes getting sales messages in LinkedIn messenger, especially when it's the first message that's sent.

So I would advise never sending a sales message through LinkedIn messenger, but in particular, don't send a sales message as the first message after someone's connected with you.

Instead, I advise that you send a note of gratitude.

And if you'd really like to personalize this, hop on to that person's LinkedIn profile.

Look at the last post that they made.

And in your thank you message where you're thanking them for connecting with you, comment on their latest post, tell them something meaningful that you got out of it.

Don't lie.

Actually look at their posts and get something meaningful out of it, and then comment on that in your thank you.

What we're doing here is we're putting these social into social media and you're making that human connection with someone.

My promise to you is this, you do this regularly and consistently, you're going to stand out and your connections are going to come back and say, wow, thank you.

I don't usually get notes like this because they don't usually get notes like this.

They usually get slammed with sales messages.

So don't Slam with the sales message.

Instead, make a meaningful connection and comment on something that's important to them that you got value from.

The next step takes it even further.

What I advise that you do is when you connect with someone, set a calendar reminder, and after about a week or maybe two weeks, go back and send a message to that person building the relationship.

Some things that you can do to build the relationship are send them some sort of a pure value training, send them a lead magnet that you might have, or send them to a video that you recorded that you think they might like.

Or if you don't have a lead magnet or a video, do a little bit of research and find something interesting that might be of value to them.

Send them a message, ask them how they're doing, and send them a link to whatever it is that they're going to find a value.

If it's your lead magnet, send them a link to your lead magnet.

If it's a video, send them a link to the video and work to add value to their business.

Don't ask for anything in return.

And again, there's no need to do a sales pitch here.

You're simply looking to add value to your new connections.

Step number six takes the relationship building to a whole new level.

You see, if you've filled your connections with your ideal prospects, you have common interests with them.

So it would make sense for you to be a member of the groups that they're a member of or to participate in any forums that they participate in inside of LinkedIn.

So when you connect with someone, look what groups that they're in, join those groups so that you can meaningfully interact with them in those groups, and you can provide value within those groups as well.

Stands to reason that if your ideal prospect is in a group, other people who are your ideal prospects are in that group as well.

So when you join those groups, you're joining so that you can interact with the people who are already your connections and are your ideal prospects and you can look for new ideal prospects in those groups.

So your success step here is to spend some heads down time looking through the groups that your ideal prospects are in and joining those groups and contributing to the conversation within those groups.

Step number seven is to move the conversation with your ideal prospects off of LinkedIn.

You heard me say earlier, I don't advise selling on LinkedIn.

I don't advise selling through messenger.

You really should be positioning your service or your product outside of LinkedIn.

So for your ideal prospects who have an elevated interest and have expressed that elevated interest in what you do, move the conversation outside of LinkedIn.

That could be emailed, that could be a phone call, that could be a Zoom meeting.

Invite your ideal prospects off of LinkedIn into a conversation.

But the key here is don't invite them to a sales call.

No one's going to say yes to that.

Instead, invite them to a discovery call or a get to know you call.

Make it short.

And if they continue to express elevated interest, move that to a sales call that has a very natural feel to it.

You discovered them or they discovered you.

You had some meaningful interactions.

You build the relationship.

You're contributing to groups that they're in.

You had a short get to know you call.

Now it makes sense to have the sales call.

And if you follow these seven steps and you optimize each one, what you're going to find is that you have an abundance of clients to serve as a little bonus for you.

I'd like to answer some questions that I'm often asked about these seven steps, and the first question that I'm often asked is, how do I approach clients on LinkedIn?

So we talked about this in the training today, but my recommendation is you approach them in a very genuine way, in a way full of inspiration, in a way that's authentic to you, and you build the relationship without trying to sell to them.

How do freelancers find clients on LinkedIn?

Well, as a freelancer, you're a business.

And if you're servicing people who are on LinkedIn, then follow these seven steps and identify who your ideal clients are as a freelancer and connect with them and add value to their business lives so that you are seen as the person that they're looking for when they need whatever it is you do as a freelancer.

Does LinkedIn work to get clients?

I can tell you I have had thousands of people come through my program and each one of them has used LinkedIn and found a tremendous amount of clients through the platform.

So, yes, it does work to get clients.

I was just asked yesterday, how do I find high paying clients on LinkedIn?

So what I want you to do is when you're identifying who your ideal prospect is, make sure that you have the characteristics in there that are the same as someone who is a high paying client so that you're only connecting with people who would be high paying clients who have the potential to become those high paying clients, you would have to agree that LinkedIn is a very powerful tool for building your business.

And again, if you're just getting started or you've been using it a while, these seven steps are going to help attract those clients to you.

And clearly, this is a very short training video, and you have unique business and individual needs.

For this to truly work for you, you must make this work for your unique needs.

And I know that that can be difficult going at it alone.

That's why I'd like to offer you a free strategy session where we can look at your LinkedIn profile together, and I can make specific recommendations for you that will help move this forward fast.

Here is a link to my calendar.

If you're an entrepreneur or a solo prayer and you're serious about growing your business through LinkedIn, jump on my calendar.

We're going to spend about half an hour together working.

We're going to look at your LinkedIn profile, and I'm going to make specific recommendations for you so that you can get this done without having to guess and without having to wonder if you did it right.