With more than 875 million professional members worldwide and more than 400 million monthly active users from various industries with a wide range of business roles, LinkedIn is the best place to prospect. Do you know how to use LinkedIn for prospecting?

To prospect on LinkedIn, you can use several different tactics, such as using advanced search filters to find potential clients or partners, engaging with relevant content and groups, and sending personalized connection requests and messages. You can also use LinkedIn Sales Navigator, a premium tool that provides additional features for prospecting and lead generation. It's important to research and target your prospects strategically and ensure that your outreach is relevant and valuable to increase the likelihood of a response.

How to prospect on LinkedIn?

Stay tuned if you want to know how to prospect on LinkedIn effectively.

We’ll here intend to cover how to work with LinkedIn for prospecting. So let’s get started.

Since the process of prospecting is very significant in any business, you as a marketer or business owner, to successfully attract new clients, need a strong and professional tool that helps you in this process.

LinkedIn is the best channel for prospecting

LinkedIn is the best channel for prospecting

According to the statistics published by HubSpot, more than 70% of sales reps believe establishing a professional relationship and trust with prospective clients is one of the most effective and efficient strategies for conducting the prospecting process.

With the world’s largest database of B2B valuable & qualified leads, LinkedIn is the best social media for building real and professional connections that provide easy access to an ocean of potential customers.

As such, LinkedIn is perfect for sales prospecting since it allows you:

To find your targeted audiences

To expand your business by making strong connections and creating business pages

To introduce and promote your products and services by posting them on your LinkedIn company page

As a whole, we all know how powerful LinkedIn is by providing marketing, advertising, lead generation, job searches, recruiting, and sales solutions.

Social selling on LinkedIn

An important thing to know about prospecting is that social selling.

It’s a vital part of prospecting that is a way of life for most marketers and salespersons.

Social selling on LinkedIn

They take advantage of a variety of LinkedIn-related prospecting techniques to achieve successful sales.

Here are some of these methods that you can use:

  1. Looking up potential prospects’ LinkedIn profiles before calling or emailing
  2. Analyzing posts that potential customers share in their groups on LinkedIn
  3. Reviewing the potential customers’ reposts on their LinkedIn company and personal page
  4. Improving and optimizing their LinkedIn profiles
  5. Sharing relevant and quality posts to get the most views and to make noticed on LinkedIn
  6. Searching for potential prospects based on filters such as industry, company, location, and other specifications
  7. Gathering potential customers’ business data such as job experiences, interests, contact info, employment history, skills, and other details
  8. Analyzing the potential prospects database and prospecting strategies for their competitors

The bottom line is that salespeople and marketers are well-versed in the basics of LinkedIn prospecting.

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

To social sell on LinkedIn and fill your sales pipeline, you need to use new ideas to find prospects on LinkedIn.

1. Use the sidebar “People also viewed”:

Wouldn’t you like to explore contacts similar to your business and interests on LinkedIn?

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

The “ People also viewed” box shows users similar to your connections and audiences which is one of the best tools for hunting for your ideal prospects on LinkedIn.

By looking at this sidebar, you can identify your best sales leads, as well as prospective customers, then see their profiles, add them to your network, engage them, and finally, convert them into regular customers.

2. Navigate your client’s skill endorsements on LinkedIn:

In addition to the “People also viewed” technique, your best bet for finding your prospects is to use your good customers’ Skills section on their LinkedIn profile.

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

You can head to their LinkedIn profile and then on their profile page, scroll down to the Skills section to see who’s endorsed them.

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

Always keep in mind that people like to entice others like themselves into their network and sometimes, approve of those who are completely like themselves.

3. Find and reach out to many prospects in new roles

It’s interesting to know that job change is one of the most effective driving factors in sales.

This means that when a person takes a new job position in a company, she or he is more ready than others to buy your new products or services because of their new status.

So, don’t miss this golden opportunity, it’s better to choose the right time to interact very well with those who have taken new roles.

And as a result, try to build a network of potential customers for yourself.

Do you know how to reach your connections on LinkedIn who recently got a new position and joined a new company or organization?

The best tool to do this is to look at your LinkedIn Notifications page.

The good news is that LinkedIn will notify you of your connections’ new job positions, birthdays, new posts, comments, and more.

💡 Additional read: How to Add Birthday on LinkedIn?

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

By clicking on the Notifications tab at the top of your LinkedIn homepage, you can discover which one of them has updated their LinkedIn profile with a new job.

With this trick, you can easily add qualified potential customers to your target list.

So don’t hesitate and reach out to them as soon as possible.

4. Let’s see who’s commented or liked on LinkedIn posts of your clients

Since a large number of the people who interact with your prospects are clearly active on LinkedIn, you can easily reach a targeted community of your new prospects. but how?

On top of the above, another great option for prospecting on LinkedIn is to take a look at the posts of your big and good clients and see who’s commenting or reacting to their posts (Love, like, or celebrate on LinkedIn posts).

To view the comments and reactions to your target connections’ posts, just you need to follow the steps below:

  • Navigate their profile and scroll down to the Activity section.
  • Then on their profile page, click on the Show all activity tab.
How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?
  • On the Activity page, select the Posts option.
  • Below their posts, click on the Comment or Like tab and find what you’re looking for.
How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

5. Come across your prospects from LinkedIn groups

LinkedIn is one of the best professional platforms that include an incredible number of professional groups from different industries across the world.

How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?

By searching for groups related to your interests and business on LinkedIn, you can create the best opportunities to contact your target potential buyers.

As we all know, groups gather many people around common interests.

However, by joining LinkedIn groups, you are more likely to identify your ideal clients there.

6. Find your prospects at your target company by creating a job search alert

In order to reach the right person or a marketing and sales decision-maker at a potential target company, you have to think of a solution and choose the best one.

To do this on LinkedIn, you need to use search filters on LinkedIn and follow the steps:

  • Select Companies from the search filters at the top of your LinkedIn page
  • Enter or type the name of the company you want in the Search bar at the top right of your LinkedIn homepage
How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?
  • Go to the company’s LinkedIn page
  • Select the Jobs tab at the bottom of the company page
  • Click the Create job alert option
How to find new prospects on LinkedIn?
  • On the Jobs landing page, toggle on the Job alert button

The important tips to remember are that:

  • You can click on Manage alerts to find out about hiring news and new positions so that LinkedIn will notify you when they’re shared.
  • It’s worthwhile to know that you can save the jobs you wish on the Jobs page. For example, you can find and save job postings related to marketing managers and then review them with ease.

It’s worth noting that in order to connect with the potential customers that you’ve found from job ads, you can send them messages through the LinkedIn Messaging platform.

The best tool to retain prospects is to use the LinkedIn Messaging tool so that you can well engage with them.

Additionally, to effectively convert potential customers into loyal customers in your LinkedIn network, you must master the art of writing LinkedIn prospecting messages.

So if you want to know how to write killer messages for LinkedIn prospecting, read the rest of the article.

How to write LinkedIn prospecting messages?

Did you know that your LinkedIn sales prospecting performance is highly dependent on your sales message writing skills?

With the right strategies in writing LinkedIn prospecting messages, you can daily attract many users to your brand on LinkedIn.

To that end, to help you land a list of good prospects, we’ve put together some top tips on how to write a great sales prospecting message that you can make the most of.

Let’s dive in.

1. Write short and sweet

Did you know that according to published statistics from LinkedIn and many other studies, the shorter your message on LinkedIn, the higher the response rate you get than longer messages?

Accept the fact that no one likes to read very long messages. That’s why time is very invaluable for anyone.

So we strongly recommend that you avoid super long messages.

2. Start your message with your prospects’ first name

To let your potential customers know that you wrote this message specifically for them, as well as it’s not a copy of someone else’s message, greet them by their first name.

Always remember that LinkedIn members open messages that are relevant to them.

3. Introduce yourself

It’s important to note that when writing a prospecting message on LinkedIn, mention your name and company in the message.

Don’t force your prospects to navigate your profile to see who’s messaged them on LinkedIn.

So it’s better to introduce yourself and your company to them right upfront so that instead of them thinking who you are, they figure out the text and purpose of the message.

4. Don’t underestimate the power of the question in your message

It is interesting to know that every conversation needs a thoughtful question to engage your prospective customers for a good starting and ending point.

You can begin and close your message with a great and relevant question.

Furthermore, to get a meeting with your unqualified prospect, you need to ask them a question in the first LinkedIn cold message so that they respond to your question if they’re willing to continue the conversation or not.

5. Try to create interest in your message

Since sales prospecting messages must be buyer-centric, it’s imperative that your message is accompanied by a sign of genuine interest.

As prospecting messages are inherently unpleasant, you need to warm them up somehow.

It’s better if you have something in common with your potential clients, such as a group or place of study – be sure to express this common connection as soon as possible.

This won’t only increase your credibility, but they’ll forget their concerns about being unfamiliar and trust you as well.

Best LinkedIn outreach templates

Now that you know how to write a strong LinkedIn prospecting message, let’s take a look at some examples of the most effective LinkedIn outreach messages that you can take advantage of for your LinkedIn prospecting campaign.

Template 1: Prospecting message for congratulations on LinkedIn:

To attract more of your potential customers, in the text of your prospecting message on LinkedIn, you can point out the achievements they’ve recently obtained and also are proud of them.

Hi [Your prospect’s first name],

My name is [Your name and company]. I saw your [Piece of content] about [Subject].

So, I just wanted to congratulate you on [Your prospects’ recent accomplishments].

It’s interesting to know that we’re both [Common contact expression]. So I’m looking forward to seeing how you progress and continue to shake up [Your prospects’ field].

Best, [Your Name]

Template 2: Prospecting message for targeting your prospects’ comments on their LinkedIn posts

As we all know, commenting on a post on social media is a great sign of their interest in a topic.

Fortunately, since all comments on LinkedIn posts are public unless only LinkedIn members disable comments on their LinkedIn pages, you can easily see comments on your potential customers and even your competitors’ posts.

Hey [Your potential customer’s first name],

I wanted to say that I saw that you commented on [Your potential client or competitor’s content] post about [Subject].

I’m doing a webinar on LinkedIn about [Event date and topic].

Here is the link: [Link to your webinar]

Since [Topic of post or comment], I thought you might find this interesting.

I would be happy if you could participate in this webinar and give your opinion about it.

Best, [Your name]

Template 3: LinkedIn prospecting message for thanking a prospect after connecting

To strengthen your business relationship, it’s necessary to send a thank you message to your potential customers who accepted your invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

It’s recommended that you don’t send a blank note to thank them.

For that, you should personalize your message. For example, mention their first name or the common content that you’ve seen in their profile.

Hi, dear [Your prospect’s first name],

I’m [Your name] and I wanted to sincerely thank you for accepting my invitation to be a part of my LinkedIn connections network.

I saw your profile and I was surprised that we’re both studying for [Major].

As someone with common interests and concerns for building new high-level business relationships, I wanted to reach out to you about the challenges you’re facing.

Do you know it?

Have a nice day! [Your name]

Best LinkedIn prospecting messages examples

Here are some examples to adapt to your needs:

1. Example of an outreach message about congratulating your prospects:

It’s a stunning example of a LinkedIn prospecting message for congratulations.

By sending it to your target prospects, you can offer an excellent opportunity to better connect with them.

In this sample, you don’t have to come up with anything, you just need to praise them for that new job promotion or a successful round of funding or company launch so they know you appreciate their success and how important the honor and credit of your contacts are to you.

The tactics used in this example are:

  • Introducing yourself and your company
  • Starting with your customer’s first name
  • Congratulating
  • Creating interest
  • Mentioning your prospects’ social media content

Hi Fiona,

I’m Cristina Brandi, a service sales representative of CUFinder. I read your recent LinkedIn post and article on New AI technologies and thought it was really interesting.

For that, I just wanted to congratulate you on the new design of advanced software in the field of AI.

It’s interesting to know that we both work in a startup company in the field of AI. So, I look forward to seeing how you progress in this field and continue to shake up the field of new AI technologies.

Best,

Christina Brandy

2. Example of LinkedIn prospecting message on post commenters

Here’s a great example of a LinkedIn prospecting message, which uses some top marketing tactics, including

  • Linking
  • Mentioning your prospect’s social media posts and comments
  • Starting your prospect’s first name
  • Interesting
  • Requesting

Hey Mikel,

I wanted to say that I saw that you commented on your LinkedIn post about the generation of wind turbines by means of AI.

I’m doing a webinar on Skyroom with a topic almost related to your post next Monday at 3 pm.

Here is the link: https://www.skyroom.com/webinar/12345/

Since most of the tools that do this today don’t work well and use outdated methods, I thought you might find it interesting.

I would be happy if you could participate in this webinar and give your opinion about it.

Best,

Robert

3. Example of LinkedIn prospecting message after connecting on LinkedIn

In the sample LinkedIn prospecting message below, you can see the tips it contains:

  • Beginning with a salutation and your prospect’s first name
  • Requesting
  • Introducing yourself
  • Focusing on the common points
  • Creating interest
  • Asking a question

Hi dear Sarah,

I’m Tommy Twist and I want to sincerely thank you for accepting my invitation to be a part of my LinkedIn connections network.

I saw your profile and was surprised that we’re both studying for a Ph.D. in computer software engineering.

As someone with common interests and concerns for building new high-level business relationships, I wanted to reach out to you about the challenges you’re facing.

Do you know them?

Have a nice day! Tommy Twist

Related Questions

LinkedIn prospecting messages examples

LinkedIn prospecting messages should be personalized, relevant, and offer some value to the recipient. A few examples of effective LinkedIn prospecting messages include:

  1. Introduce yourself and your company, and explain why you think the recipient would benefit from connecting with you. For example, “Hi [Name], I noticed that we share an interest in [industry/field]. I work for [company], and we specialize in [product/service]. I think we could have a valuable conversation about [specific topic]. Would you be interested in connecting?”
  2. Offer a piece of content or resource that is relevant to the recipient’s interests or needs. For example, “Hi [Name], I came across your profile and was impressed by your experience in [industry/field]. I thought you might be interested in this article on [specific topic]. It’s been really helpful for me, and I think it could be valuable for you too. Let me know if you’d like me to send it over.”

Remember, the key to effective LinkedIn prospecting messages is to be genuine, relevant, and offer some value to the recipient. Avoid generic messages and make an effort to tailor your outreach to each individual prospect.

LinkedIn prospecting tools

There are several LinkedIn prospecting tools available that can help you find and connect with potential clients or partners. Some popular LinkedIn prospecting tools include:

  1. CUFinder: An AI-based lead generation platform that specializes in finding and engaging with prospects on LinkedIn.
  2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: A premium tool that provides advanced search filters, lead recommendations, and InMail messaging for prospecting and lead generation.
  3. LinkedIn Recruiter: A tool that allows recruiters to search for and engage with potential candidates for job openings.
  4. Crystal: A tool that provides personality insights and recommendations for how to communicate with specific LinkedIn users.
  5. Dux-Soup: A tool that allows you to automate your LinkedIn outreach and follow-up messages.
  6. LeadFuze: A tool that helps you generate targeted leads and automate your outreach to those leads.
  7. Linked Helper: A tool that allows you to automate your LinkedIn outreach and connection requests.

When choosing a LinkedIn prospecting tool, it’s important to consider your specific goals and strategies, as well as the features and pricing of each tool. Additionally, it’s important to use LinkedIn prospecting tools ethically and in accordance with LinkedIn’s terms of service.

How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting?

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a premium tool that provides advanced search filters, lead recommendations, and InMail messaging for prospecting and lead generation. Here are some steps for using LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting:

  1. Define your target audience: Before using Sales Navigator, it’s important to have a clear understanding of who your ideal prospects are, including factors like industry, job title, location, and company size.
  2. Use advanced search filters: Sales Navigator provides a range of advanced search filters that can help you narrow down your search results and find high-quality leads that match your target audience. You can use filters like company size, seniority level, and keywords to find prospects that are most likely to be interested in your product or service.
  3. Engage with potential leads: Once you’ve identified potential leads using Sales Navigator, it’s important to engage with them in a meaningful way. This might involve sending personalized connection requests or InMail messages, or engaging with their content and building a relationship over time.
  4. Track your results: Sales Navigator provides analytics and reporting features that can help you track the success of your prospecting efforts and make data-driven decisions about your outreach strategies. By monitoring your results over time, you can refine your approach and optimize your efforts for maximum impact.

5 successful LinkedIn sales messages

here are 5 descriptive successful LinkedIn sales messages:

  1. “Our company has a track record of helping businesses like yours increase revenue by [specific percentage]. I’d love to chat with you about how we might be able to do the same for your business.”
  2. “Our product is specifically designed to address the pain points you mentioned in your recent post on [specific topic]. I’d love to give you a demo and show you how it could help streamline your processes.”
  3. “Our service has been used by [specific number] of companies in your industry with great success. I’d love to share some case studies with you and explore how we might be able to help your business.”
  4. “Our team has decades of experience in [specific industry/field], and we’ve helped companies of all sizes overcome a variety of challenges. I’d love to discuss how we might be able to apply that expertise to your specific situation.”
  5. “Our approach to [specific problem] is unique and highly effective, and we’ve seen great results with clients like [specific company]. I’d love to chat with you about how we might be able to tailor our approach to meet your needs.”

Conclusion

The key to success in sales and marketing campaigns in any business is to use the right prospecting tools and strategies. In the world of digital marketing, as LinkedIn gives you access to a huge amount of leads and potential customers, LinkedIn prospecting is a very powerful outbound strategy.

The good news is that you can take full advantage of LinkedIn’s great prospecting tools and features to help grow your business.

In this article, you learned how to use LinkedIn for prospecting through its killer techniques such as prospecting messages, prospecting filters, and more.

FAQs

Is LinkedIn good for prospecting?

Yes, LinkedIn is an excellent platform for prospecting. Given its professional nature, LinkedIn allows businesses and salespeople to identify, connect with, and nurture potential leads and decision-makers across various industries. Its advanced search and targeting capabilities make it a go-to tool for B2B sales and relationship-building.

How do I use LinkedIn for prospecting?

To use LinkedIn for prospecting, start by optimizing your profile to appear professional and approachable. Use the advanced search function to identify potential leads based on industry, job title, location, and other criteria. Join industry-relevant groups to engage and network. When reaching out, always send personalized connection requests and messages, focusing on building genuine relationships. Utilize tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator for more advanced prospecting features.

What is LinkedIn prospecting?

LinkedIn prospecting refers to the process of identifying and reaching out to potential clients or leads on the LinkedIn platform. This method leverages the network’s vast database of professionals and companies to find and connect with prospects who match specific criteria or profiles, making it especially useful for B2B sales and relationship-building.

What is a good prospecting message on LinkedIn?

A good prospecting message on LinkedIn is personalized, concise, and provides value to the recipient. It might start by mentioning a common connection or interest, followed by a brief introduction and a relevant offer or reason for connecting. Always ensure the message focuses on the recipient’s potential needs or challenges and how you might be of assistance, rather than a generic sales pitch.

What is the best LinkedIn message?

The best LinkedIn message is tailored to the recipient, clear, and genuine. It begins with a personal touch, such as mentioning a shared connection, recent content they posted, or a mutual interest. The body of the message introduces the sender, states the purpose of reaching out, and emphasizes mutual benefit. Ending with an open-ended question can encourage a response. Remember, authenticity and brevity are key; people appreciate when you respect their time and show genuine interest.

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