Veterans of the trade will tell you that a fundamental tool for business development is information. The stereotype of the salesperson who is highly social, talks to a lot of people, listens a lot, asks many questions and knows the backgrounds of people, companies, and entire industries inside out, is because of this fact. You just can’t be effective at business development without knowing and understanding the network of people and companies that you must navigate in order to find and act upon opportunities. Successful networkers and business development experts have been using these tricks of the trade for years. They’ve been harnessing rumors, insider tips, social chatter, google, press releases and other sources of information to piece the puzzle together.
Enter LinkedIn. The barrier to entry just got lowered by a lot. Anyone with a browser and a brain can get a massive information head-start in a matter of a few hours. So here’s my list of actually productive things you can do with LinkedIn to improve your networking reach without leaving your desk. Note: I’m focused on business development tasks here, so I will skip the more obvious tasks that relate to hiring people or finding a job for yourself. You already knew about those, right?
1. Break the ice: Chances are that you share something with someone in this meeting or event tomorrow. You went to the same college, their previous job was with your best client, your wife is from their hometown, there’s always something. 5-10 minutes spent looking up someone’s profile can break the ice and make for a smooth start in your conversation. It also shows you’re interested enough to look them up. Indeed today, many people are coming to expect that you’ve looked them up before you meet them in flesh and bone.
2. Watch your clients: If you’re a B2B business, changes in the management structure of your clients can have an effect on you relationship and business development strategy. There’s a “follow company” feature on LinkedIn that allows you to keep track of who’s moving in, out, up and sideways. A new Strategy Director in one of you clients? Probably a good idea to ask for an introduction and discuss how your product can fit into his needs and future plans – before your competitors do.
3. Discover opportunities: If you’re doing something right, there will be people from client companies that trust you and appreciate your product. Chances are they will someday get promoted to a position with more decision-making power, or take up a job in another company that you’d like to do business with. When that happens, you want to know. A Director you’ve worked with at an old client just got promoted to C-Level? Call for congratulations and find out if and how your product can play into his future plans.
4. Find the right events: For most industries there’s 1-2 events that are well-known and popular and a gazillion smaller events that you have no way of knowing if it’s worth attending. The “worthiness” of an event usually comes down to whether the type of people/positions you want to meet is actually attending them. Look up the event on LinkedIn and check the list of people who have signed up for it. It’s not accurate of course (only people who update their profile regularly tick the events they attend) but it will give you a better sense about the event than you could get by the brochure.
5. Keep an eye on competition: Much like clients, management changes in your competitors are worth knowing and understanding. Profiles and past experience of new hires (or posted positions) also indicate something about their plans and focus. A new regional sales director for Latin America tells you they’re working on opening or restructuring their business there. Looking up his past company and the clients he handles there tells you what strong relationships (and sales targets) they might have just inherited.
6. Assess a company: Whether it’s a future partner, supplier, competitor or client, a company’s management team and employees’ profiles tell a story about who they are and what skills they have. Beyond the current employees, searching for the company you’re assessing as “past company” you can get a sense of the turnover, or find direct references from people that have worked there (you may be connected to some of them).
7. Get advice: The best people to help you start with something new are often the ones who have done it already. Want to start business in a new region? Find a non-competitor company that is well-established there and look up their current or former business development director in the region. Investing in selling your product to a different industry? People who have worked in the industry for a long time can help you understand how business works in that market, what are their needs, what are their priorities, who are the decision makers, etc. Find them, approach the ones closest to you in your network.
Did I miss a clever way to use LinkedIn? Post a comment and share your wisdom.
The “follow company” sounds a great feature. I hadn’t noticed that before, but the but the benefits you describe give a whole new perspestive for its use.