How are you using LinkedIn as a sales tool?

I didn't understand at first how networking on Linkedin would help my business & be a selling tool for me. But after a few months of actually building relationships I found I've gotten customers, have been asked questions relating to my field & developed connections with people who want to refer me to others they know.
I, on the other hand, have also found people I needed to go to for advise & have used it to find the marketing company I'm now working with.
Basically it takes time as building relationships anywhere does. I suggest you join groups that are relevant to your field & take part in the discussions. That should help you make some valuable contacts.
If someone sees your name often enough, you'll become familiar to them & hopefully they'll seek you out. This means being active on other sites besides Linkedin. Focus is a good option & I suggest you look into Merchant Circle: www.merchantcircle.com
I hope this helps. Good luck to you!

The secret to using LinkedIn is not to SELL, advertise, promote.

Doing any or all of these thing can potentially be a disaster for your LinkedIn reputation. In three years on the system I have seen many do this only to disappear months latter as no one will engage them.

The key is to use your networking skills to become invaluable to your connections. This gives you the leverage over time to get connected to just about anyone via your network. If you start that relationship with value you can then put yourself in a position to engage for business purposes.

LinkedIn is a "marketing channel" and works best when treated that way.

It is obvious that you can go into stealth mode and use it as a prospecting database. And I suspect that is what many do. However, if you take the networking/marketing approach you can make big gains that grow over time as you'll end up with people who refer you to others.

Linkedin can be used to help your sales efforts in two primary ways:

1. It is a great way to add to your contact list. That might be in the form of adding direct contacts to your already existing list or to append data that is valuable for your efforts. You can do this by adding connections to your profile, joining relevant groups with your target audience, or buying a premium account through Linkedin or an external vendor that helps you match LI profiles to contact information.

2. Build your reputation by contributing content around your expertise. Connect your LI account to Twitter account, to your blog, etc so that your connections can see what content your creating and consuming on and off of LI. Periodically find questions that you can answer on LI and gain expertise in areas that are important to you. Once you have a big enough following, start a group (not around your product, but around an industry or function). Manage the group, drive valuable discussions, promote good content. This will help you engage with your audience, build a reputation, and when they are ready to buy your product and service, you will have already built that trust and be ahead of the game.

Using LI as well as other social media outlets is all about content and building reputation/trust; it takes patience, but if done properly, it can pay off.

Flyn is one of the experts on leveraging Linkedin, as a good social media person he isn't selling himself in the comments so I will....(:

I wrote an blog post on this awhile back: http://www.funnelholic.com/2010/02/19/four-social-media-tips-for-salespeople/. I think a lot of people use Linkedin as a way to find contacts, and I think that is VERY good for that. (I particularly love the "Viewers of this profile also viewed...)

I believe there are some real opportunities for sales people on linkedin from better profile management:

Show that you are a top rep -- Believe it or not people want the top sales person on their account.

Show that you are a trusted advisor -- Following up on above, don't just talk about your heavy hitting sales numbers, show people you got there by “creating customer partnerships,” etc, and that you understand the target market (put up links to relevant websites not just your corporate site)

Show that you care about their business — Join relevant LinkedIn Groups and join in the conversations. Not from a perspective of defending your organization, but share helpful non-vendor-centric information.

Get 3 degrees of separation -- Remember, people look at your profile before you meet with them, they just do. Many times, the reason you don't have many connections is just because you didn't take the time to connect with them. Do it, I have had so many prospects break the ice with me because they backgrounded me before a call.

From my perspective I view LinkedIn a bit like pushing a car that has run out of fuel 300 yards from the nearest petrol station. You have to put in a lot of effort at the front end before you start to reap any tangible rewards.

I have had a LinkedIn profile for around two years now and as I provide services (not products) I found the most effective sales tool was to frequent the small business boards and to answer questions. Doing this can serve to position you as a subject matter expert and people like to deal with those who they feel some sort of "connection" to. This connection can be established regardless of whether you have answered a question posed directly by them or if they have merely viewed some answers that you have provided to others.

I back this effort with a link back to my blog which contains all of my answers posted within LinkedIn as well as some other articles.

I'd say that over the past six months or so I have had a regular trickle of people who have contacted me as a direct result of my LinkedIn profile with a view to engaging me to assist them in their businesses.

As with any sales / marketing tool though, although membership is free there is a cost in terms of time. As such I advise all of my clients to wrap metrics around all of their online activities as they would any other activities so that success (or lack thereof) can be measured.

I wish you the best of luck!

Andy.