How the World’s First Business Technology Certification Body Uses LinkedIn Sales Navigator for Growth Hacking

Doing business in a data-driven economy, where the financial ecosystem is decentralized and the market is customer centric, is challenging. But it also presents an immense opportunity for business professionals with the right skillsets to excel. Institute of Business (IIB) Council seeks to equip them with just that—but, first, it has to reach and convince them.

IIB Council is the brainchild of EC-Council, a cyber security technical certification body best known for its ethical hacker program. The division was created to train and certify business professionals who are entering, or already operating in, fast-paced and digitally-empowered business fields. It provides the world’s first professional training and certification programs in business technology and enterprise digital transformation, anchored in the concept of corporate growth hacking.

“Our challenge, without a doubt, is to grow our sales effectiveness in a saturated market. Our target audience is pretty wide. It includes organizations — such as colleges, universities, training institutes and consulting firms — as well as business professionals, particularly current or future practitioners of digital marketing, project management and blockchain technology,” explained Irene Dima, Director, IIB Council.

“LinkedIn is great for us because it is an online destination where our target audience is professionally active, and serves as a sales and marketing platform with the capabilities to help us identify, connect and engage with prospects on a personalized basis.”

Before LinkedIn, our sales process was fueled by online campaigns and press releases. Our messages were targeted but impersonal, and didn’t allow us to build meaningful relationships with our prospects. LinkedIn Sales Navigator changed all that. - Irene Dima, Director, IIB Council.

Getting Personal with Professionals

“We found that LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables us to identify and connect with prospects on a personal level. This allows our team to approach prospects with highly targeted messages that address their actual needs. This creates much higher engagement levels, because nobody wants to be targeted and retargeted just because they fit a certain demographic or buyer persona, when, in real life, they have no interest in the product,” said Dima, who led the roll-out of LinkedIn Sales Navigator across IIB Council’s worldwide offices.

“With Advanced Search, which is one of my favorite features, we are able to play with filtering options that range from educational background and professional experience, to the exact keywords that prospects have used in their LinkedIn posts. Targeting at this detailed level allows us to quickly identify potential clients, decision-makers and qualified candidates. And the beauty of it is that we don’t even have to exit the platform to drive meaningful conversations with them,” Dima said.

The ability to target with precision has helped IIB Council accelerate its pipeline generation, dramatically cut sales cycle time by between 25% and 75%, and enjoy a 22% improvement in quality conversations from leads. Beyond the tactical, Dima and her sales teams have found LinkedIn Sales Navigator to be an indispensable tool in developing sales strategy.

“We also use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for preliminary market research. Before we even start defining our market strategy and budget allocation for regional resources, we rely on it to assess potential. Using the advanced filtering options, we are able to generate a precise number of prospects per region and/or industry, which gives us a good idea of market size and allows us to frame our strategy accordingly,” she said.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator has definitely improved the way we sell. With precise targeting, we’re seeing better lead quality. Combined with deeper insights about our prospects and a mindset shift from selling to consulting, it has significantly accelerated our sales cycle. - Irene Dima, Director, IIB Council.

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