[Please] Build relationships on LinkedIn before reaching out 🤝

"I see that you are [Insert Text Here] and I wanted to offer you to try out [Insert Text Here]".

Many of us receive similar messages on a regular basis, and it's a shame.

This is a shame on the part of the sender, a shame on the part of us reading it, and a shame on the part of this brand that uses such cold methods to sell its products.

The sleaziness of sales messages can be softened and the effort maximized by using several techniques.

Most people feel uncomfortable getting a message about a product or service they didn't ask for from someone they don't know.

There must be some connection between the person being approached and the applicant for outbound efforts to be successful. A superficial relationship is better than a cold contact.

Imagine you're at a conference and you meet someone at a conference. The conversation probably won't start with you offering them something to buy.

Assuming we've already chosen LinkedIn as a platform to reach out to, we should take advantage of it as much as possible:

1. Conduct brief research - Make sure the list of people you are going to contact contains people who are active on LinkedIn.

Click "Show all activity" on the person's profile you want to contact. You can then see who they liked and commented on in the column called All Activity. 

Also, you can see all their posts, including times, in the Posts column.

If they were active in the past two to three weeks, add them to your list.

2. Make a connection - Send a connection request to the person you are contacting. Remember, LinkedIn is not a closed golf club and most people will be more than happy to connect with you. 

In addition, you should connect with a few people in that person's organization - such as senior managers, employees in relevant departments, etc. 

It is likely that this person will feel more comfortable responding to your message if he sees that you are already connected with some of his colleagues.

3. Start engaging - Begin very gently and in a none creepy way to like and comment on some of the posts of the person you want to contact, their company, and their colleagues (managers and employees) posts as well. According to what I wrote in section 2, you can find all of these easily. 

Also, you can like or respond to their comments on other posts. The most important thing is not to overdo it. Two likes and one comment, for two weeks, every two or three days, is still reasonable.

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You come out of the darkness into the light when you follow steps 1-2-3, which means you enter the awareness of the person you wish to communicate with. 

Even if the relationship at this point is one-sided, accurate and proportionate work can establish some kind of connection with that individual.

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4. Make contact - Once you have been active for two or three weeks, you can contact that person. It is better to contact someone who responded to you in some way - whether it was passively viewing your profile or actively confirming the connection request. Even better is responding to your comments or liking your own comments on their posts.

* Tip - Messages sent through Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Premium appear less authentic. Before using these tools, it is wise to maximize your LinkedIn relationship-building efforts.

5. Be authentic when communicating - It is important that the first message you send is soft and authentic. Your first time out, you should not sell, and you should also break the usual format of the opening.

As an alternative to "Hello Name", try "How are you, Name?" Also, it's worthwhile to start some kind of conversation and not come up with a proposal right away.

A very soft example of text in a first message:

How's it going, Charles?

I wanted to let you know that I found your recent posts here very enriching and I learned a lot from them.

I'm building my professional knowledge in the GTM field and your content is spot on.

What resources do you use for building your own knowledge in this area?

Stay lit and keep on sharing your journey.

[In the past, I have used this tactic and it worked well for me for quite a while. Nevertheless, you should take it as an example with a grain of salt.  A lot of variables are involved, including language, jargon, industry, tone of voice, titles, the process of building our relationship, etc.]

I'll usually follow up with short conversations in which the relationship tightens up until I can send him a message a little more sales-oriented and encourage him to use my product or set up a demo with him.

In my experience, this is one of the quickest and most effective way to sell cold without burning any bridges.

There are numerous alternative approaches to using outbound efforts. Let me know what works for you and what you can add to the post.