Episode Summary
Did you know that LinkedIn can be your main channel for enterprise prospecting — and that virtually everything you need to educate and nurture leads is right on LinkedIn?
On this episode of B2B Power Hour, we take a deep dive into our carefully-crafted outreach playbook for LinkedIn.
It all starts with a tactic we like to call “mapping out the earthquake.” Wherever there’s an earthquake, there’s always an epicenter, which is where you can find those most affected by the event. Moving out from the epicenter, additional waves of people will also be impacted, going from most to least severe.
This is how you should think about building your list of prospects. Start with those who are at the “epicenter” of the pain point your solution solves and work your way out from there.
Once your earthquake list (or prospect list) is secured, identify where they’re most accessible. Whether it’s a social media channel, Slack groups, email newsletters, or even podcasts, you need to reach them where they already are.
And don’t worry: You can still work your strategy even if the names on your list aren't active on LinkedIn. Make connections with their coworkers or favorite thought leaders, and engage with them. You'll continue to build credibility in the eyes of their peers and, ideally, earn an introduction down the line.
Want to get the final steps for landing enterprise deals through LinkedIn?
Listen in as we break down exactly how we approach account-based sales development on LinkedIn. From mapping out who you should target to creating content that resonates to winning executive buy-in, this episode will turn you into a master at LinkedIn account-based sales.
B2B Power Plays
Top takeaways from this week’s conversation
💡 Map out communication flows before anything else.
Most people do this process backward — they dive right into the center of the problem they're trying to help solve without first creating a targeted prospect list.
Instead, you need to start by mapping out the communication flows within a company and which workflow drives impact and success. Without understanding the flow, you won’t get any traction.
We refer to this process as "mapping out the earthquake."
Start with the person or group of people who will experience the biggest impact when their pain point is solved. Then, focus on who this positive change would trickle down to. Now you should have a targeted prospect list to start your LinkedIn outreach with!
✍️ Writing a PR or FAQ document gives you the perfect value hypothesis.
Feel confident when you step into a meeting with your prospect by crafting a press release (PR) or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document.
The PR side of the document paints a vision of what’s possible if you build a relationship with your prospect. Use it to validate why you’re the best way they can invest their money to solve their problem and why they should prioritize your solution over others.
Then, use the FAQ side to address any and all questions a buyer or executive might have. You’ll use this document to answer concerns like:
- What are you going to transform?
- What workflows will be involved?
- Who will be involved?
- How fast will it work?
- When will we see ROI?
- What is the cost?
🔑 Pay attention to all five categories of account-based sales development.
The framework for a successful account-based management sales funnel consists of five main categories. Each step is equally important, and it’s best to follow them in the order listed below.
Here are five steps to account-based sales development:
- Map out the earthquake. The first approach to account-based sales is to think about your solution for a pain point as an earthquake. Identify the epicenter where your solution will have the biggest impact — who would be positively affected most? Then, work through each “ring” of people impacted, using these names as the foundation for your prospect list.
- Identify where your prospects are most accessible. Find out where your prospects already spend their time and where you can connect with them. That might be a social media channel like LinkedIn, a Slack group, an email newsletter, or even a niche podcast. Start building up your visibility and credibility on those platforms.
- Prepare a PR/FAQ. Write a PR/FAQ document that outlines exactly what is possible for prospects. This document addresses the bright future your solution provides and answers common questions you expect to receive from executives.
- Create content. Create 60-90 days of content to educate and nurture prospects. If you’ve already created your PR/FAQ doc, this step should be simple — repurpose each question and answer into multiple pieces of content. Remember: You don’t have to post every day, and only about 20-40% of posts should be account-specific.
- Create your lifeline. Outbound sales will never be 100% successful, which is why you need a few lifelines. The content created in previous steps is how you build these and how you start to become a familiar voice. Hopefully, a few months down the road, you’ll earn some introductions (some people might even reach out to you to set up meetings) thanks to your helpful content.
Episode Highlights
Inflection points from the show
[2:16] Mapping out the earthquake: Nick breaks down his earthquake analogy for account-based sales. Start with the epicenter and move to anyone else that might feel the aftershock. Then, use those names as your prospect list.
[9:27] Planning out personas: Just because two people have the same job title at different companies doesn’t mean you can use the exact same strategy. Use job descriptions to build personas you can tailor communications for.
[12:17] Tiers of trust: Morgan explains why it doesn’t truly matter if your prospects are on LinkedIn and how he leverages LinkedIn to get the introductions he needs, even if those targets aren’t active on the platform.
[14:54] The quickest path to your prospects: Learn where your prospects are most accessible, and meet them there. A quick Google search will reveal patterns within certain roles.
[17:12] Engaging prospects on LinkedIn: Morgan explains exactly how he uses LinkedIn to build relationships with prospects and how to engage with users based on their activity levels.
[21:29] Get into the mind of executive decision-making with a PR/FAQ: Outline exactly what your relationship will look like. Include who will be involved, what technology is required, and how fast the solution is expected to work.
[28:59] Content creation: Use your PR/FAQ doc to create 60-90 days of content that will nurture and inform prospects. (Hint: You can turn one question into multiple pieces of content.)
[34:19] Creating your lifeline: Your lifeline is the indirect way you nurture and educate your prospects. Eventually, potential prospects will recognize your name solely based on the content you’ve been posting.
[37:45] One-sentence summary: Prospecting ends with a champion but starts with an insight. If there’s no insight, there’s no point.
[42:01] Setting up ABM in Sales Navigator: Morgan explains how he sets up lead lists in Sales Navigator and his ideal notification settings.
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