B2B sales strategies and trends

How to Use the News Stream to Generate More Leads

how-to-use-news-stream-to-generate-more-leads

If you’re an account executive, your company depends on you for consistent sales lead generation. Generating qualified leads means uncovering new opportunities. It also means nurturing your “not quite ready to buy” prospects so that you gain access to the buying cycle once they transition from consideration to evaluation. Here’s four ways you can use the news stream to generate more opportunities.

Creating Saved Leads

The first step in setting up your news stream is to create a list of saved leads. You can import data from your CRM to receive automatic updates on key accounts and prospects. LinkedIn Sales Navigator also makes lead recommendations, uncovering potential industry targets based on data inputs for the prospects you are targeting.

Once you have a list of saved leads, you will be alerted to company news and status updates of your contacts, such as job changes and work anniversaries. Additionally, you’ll learn when prospects publish blog posts, join LinkedIn Groups and share content. Feed settings allow you to pick the specific updates you’d like to receive.

Monitor Buying Signals

Daily updates from your saved leads can signal where your prospects are in the buying process. For example, prospects often engage in LInkedIn groups to find answers to pressing questions or to ask about specific vendor solutions. When you see a prospect engaging in this manner, you can feel confident of their intent to buy.

Get an additional indication of prospect intent from company updates and news mentions in your news stream. For example, news of an acquisition or geographical expansion may trigger an additional need for the solution you offer. Find the trigger events that create demand for your solution and monitor them closely.

Staying on top of personnel changes at your target accounts can improve your sales lead generation results as well. Newly hired decision makers tend to make their mark early, which is why executives who move into new positions usually make major purchases in their first year on the job.

Engage with Insights

Once you have identified a buying signal, use insights to engage your prospects. For instance, you can engage prospects who ask questions in LinkedIn Groups by sharing insights from your company’s content.

When armed with the right insights, news regarding your prospect's company is also actionable. When key accounts make the news (and when there’s a relevant tie-in to your solution), try crafting a thoughtful InMail to your prospect that connects the dots between the current event and the potential business problem(s) you can solve.

Feel For Warm Paths To Prospects

The LinkedIn Sales Navigator news stream can help to secure warm introductions by alerting you to when prospects in your saved leads connect with someone in your network.

Knowing someone in common can build trust with a prospect so that a buyer is more receptive to outreach. The effect can be especially powerful when you use the system to get introduced to a prospect. A prospect is far more likely to engage through your shared connection than through cold outreach.

Taking a strategic approach to news stream updates can help you turn insights into actions, all without committing a great deal of time to prospecting. In the process, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority on whom B2B decision makers can rely.

For more tips on how to use LinkedIn for sales, download the LinkedIn Sandler eBook, “The Sandler Way: 25 Secrets That Shows Salespeople How to Leverage the World’s Largest Professional Network.”

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