The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to LinkedIn
The United Soccer Leagues Connects With Prospects and Drives Inbound Leads With LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Challenge
The United Soccer League (USL) is one of the most prominent Division II professional soccer leagues in the world. As an organization, partnerships and sponsorships are among its most important revenue streams, and it was looking for a way to reach prospects. It wanted to use a platform for prospecting that allowed it to:
• Research organizations that shared its mission and vision in order to partner with companies that make sense for it.
• Identify the people within target organizations who would make the best prospects and initiate conversations.
• Create and share content to drive inbound leads.
Solution
The USL selected LinkedIn Sales Navigator for its prospecting features, including the ease of searching for companies and people. It also liked the messaging component, as it allowed the company to reach out to prospects in a less formal manner and facilitate a more casual conversation.
The USL also found Sales Navigator useful for creating and sharing content. It used PointDrive, a key feature of Sales Navigator that allows users to share and track important presentations and documents, to create information packets about the USL Winter Summit and its Preferred Supplier Program. Matt Reda, Director of Business Development, put the presentations on PointDrive and shared them across his and the USL network on LinkedIn. Doing so not only got the information out there, it drove inbound leads from people who wanted to learn more about the USL.
Results
By using PointDrive, the USL saw an increase in the number of people who viewed its presentations about the USL Winter Summit and its Preferred Supplier Program. These presentations drove interest and attracted new inbound leads.
The USL has also seen success in prospecting with Sales Navigator. In one recent example, it had identified an organization to work with, but was unable to reach an agreement. The USL team kept in touch with the organization through LinkedIn via messaging, content shared on PointDrive and by liking and commenting on posts. By continuing the relationship through Sales Navigator, the USL converted the conversation into a multi-year agreement worth over $30,000.
“Those conversations were primarily conducted through LinkedIn,” said Reda. “I think that played a pivotal role in us creating a plan that made sense for both sides.”
| INDUSTRY: Sports |
| NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 51-200 |
| HQ LOCATION: Tampa, FL |
| Download Customer Story |
“Sales Navigator makes it easy to start conversations. It’s less formal than an email and eases the conversation right from the get-go, which is obviously very important when you’re building a relationship.”
“Sales Navigator is vital to our prospecting process. I strongly believe sales success is a direct result of prospecting ability and Sales Navigator is an important tool.”
Matt Reda
Director of Business Development at United Soccer League
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