A lot of people in my Skillshare classes ask me whether you should send LinkedIn messages when reaching out to prospects?
Short answer: avoid this at all costs.
In this video below I discuss WHY reaching out someone on LinkedIn hurts your chances of getting a response and the framework I use to determine which method of communication is best for engaging prospects.
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In general, I almost always approach people via email because that is where people I do business with interact with contacts they know and trust. That’s the bucket you want to be in – not the random people from Indonesia asking you to join their mastermind group of 28,678 “strategic consultants.”
Using one of the methodologies in this post on …
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I recently talked lifehacks, BD, WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER LINKEDIN MESSAGE SOMEONE etc at the New York Lifehack Meetup. Thanks for having me Sam Hysell!
Below you’ll find some video fun where we talk about:
How I got involved with SP
How to take the 80/20 approach to hack networking (shhhh…don’t tell anyone)
Ways to “create value” for people when trying to network with the big boys
The art of “creating serendipity” and how I got Keith Ferrazzi, author of my favorite book Never Eat Alone to buy me dinner
How to give people a personal update on your life without it being a “ME, ME, ME” fest
What the law of reciprocity is and how to leverage the heck out of it to convince someone to meet you …
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I’ll make this short and sweet. I previously wrote about how to find prospect’s full name when you encounter a private profile like the example below (sorry Marco for using you as a a guinea pig!).
Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t always work because some people choose not to display their public profile…sigh.
Fear not! I found a work-around that almost always solves this problem. Check out the brief video below to learn this tactic.
Note* if have trouble viewing the presentation it’s because BContext files might not work with older versions of Chrome, Safari, and Firefox…update that guy.
Linkedin Hack Addendum
Do you like Lifehacks and creative ways to do things more efficiently? Check out my online community HackingNYC where hundreds of people share their …
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I’ve been playing LinkedIn like a keyboard this week and thought I’d share one of my favorite LinkedIn hacks.
An essential task when building out a hitlist is identifying the first and last name of the decision maker. I’ll use this information to figure out their email address and have a name to call.
Let’s say I’m trying to connect with an app developer at the NFL. Unless you have a tricked out LinkedIn account, you’ll often run into this….
I need to get Marco’s last name in order to contact him and don’t feel like shelling out a couple hundred bones. A simple trick you can do here is google the target’s name and title as it appears in this profile.
Would you look at that!? …
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Business Development professionals live and die by their network. Thus, many of us end up living and dieing by our LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s greatest value is that it provides transparency to the personal networks of my immediate network in the form of 2nd degree connection. This information is often the gateway to the deals, partnerships, and sales we strive for on a continuous basis. Consequently, it’s in all business development practitioners best interest to expand their *true LinkedIn network. After all, the difference between the deal of a lifetime and no-deal could be just one warm introduction. But in order to even identify these opportunities there must be transparency.
A best practice to make sure you’re effectively engaging in this is to schedule …
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There are effective practices when asking for email introduction that respect the time and circumstance of all parties. I’ve really come to appreciate these and wish more people approached introduction requests this way.
Here’s how I approach asking for an email introduction:
Step 1: Preliminary Request for An Introduction
You’ve identified that someone in your network is connected to the person you’re trying to reach. Send them a brief preliminary intro request to gauge the strength of their relationship and willingness to connect. An example script:
Hi X,
I was looking to get introduced to Johnny Dealmaker from Project X and saw you were connected to him. Not sure how well you’re connected to him, but if the relationship is strong, I’d really appreciate …
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When I first signed up for LinkedIn I was semi-belligerent. I had no LinkedIn Etiquette whatsoever. Any fleeting interaction seemed like a reasonable excuse to connect with someone. At first the perceived notion of having an escalating professional network felt good. 500+ connections here I come! But when it came time to put these connections to work, I realized how how ineffective this behavior actually was.
I mainly use LinkedIn to see who is inter-connected in and out of my network. This information provides transparency and context which can be leveraged in a variety of ways. Requesting intros and recommendations along with preparing for important conversations are my most typical use cases. This is exactly where my initial strategy fell short. …
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