What $1M in LinkedIn Sales Taught Me About Content, Branding and Social Selling

Accumulatively, I’ve made close to $1M in high-ticket sales through LinkedIn. A significant portion of that came from the relationships I’ve built here, with about 10% attributed to referrals. And to be fully transparent, this is spread over six years.

This journey has been messy, full of experiments, wins, failures and most importantly, lessons that can’t be learned any other way. If you’ve ever struggled to figure out how to make LinkedIn work for you, this article is for you.

Who is this article for?

This is for agency owners and consultants who want to build their pipeline and sharpen their sales process using LinkedIn. I’m not talking about gimmicks, hacks or spamming connection requests. I’m talking about leveraging content and personal brand to create a predictable, sustainable lead generation system.

Am I a LinkedIn or personal brand “expert”? No. I’m not here to sell you any courses or promise 10X results in 30 days. What I’m sharing simply comes from my experience. This is what worked for me.

Why am I qualified to write this?

1. I don’t care if I’m “qualified.” I’m here to share, not preach.
2. I’ve sold $1M of services leveraging LinkedIn, not in a year but consistently over six years.
3. Built a multiple six-figure agency largely thanks to LinkedIn.
4. I’ve closed $150K+ in high-ticket offers with senior executives at F500 companies using LinkedIn.
5. For my new venture Big Growth Group I generate about 2-3 qualified leads per week from LinkedIn, just three months after launching a new offer.

My aim is to help you replicate these outcomes while cutting through the fluff that holds most people back.

What I’ve learned...

1. Changing Your Offer Too Often Hurts Audience-Building

When I started, I didn’t realize how much changing your offer affects your audience. Think about it: your audience isn’t just watching—they’re trying to understand you.

Every time you shift your messaging, you confuse them. Are you a coach? A strategist? A service provider? They won’t know, and confused prospects don’t convert.

That said, finding your offer-market fit (OMF) is critical. You can’t scale without it. But here’s the reality: content is one of the best ways to figure it out.

When I was iterating on my offers, I posted openly about my thoughts, experiments, and what I was learning. Yes, it felt messy. I worried that people might think, “Does this guy even know what he’s doing?”

But holding back to “perfect” my offer would’ve slowed me down. I wouldn’t have found OMF as fast without testing through content.

My takeaway: Your audience can handle some ambiguity. They’ll stick with you if your content provides value, even if your offer evolves. Just don’t change so often that you lose focus yourself.

2. Content as the New GTM Strategy

If you’re in B2B - whether you sell agency services, coaching or SaaS - content is becoming the new GTM playbook. It’s no longer just about what you sell. It’s about how you distribute.

The businesses that are winning today are winning because they’re masters of distribution.

They’ve built what I call a “media layer” into their operations:

• Newsletters that build email audiences outside of LinkedIn.
• Podcasts that establish credibility and reach new audiences.
• Content engines that consistently create and distribute value across platforms.

Content isn’t just about generating leads. It’s about creating demand. When done right, it positions you as the go-to expert, so that by the time prospects reach out, they’re already sold.

If you’re not building this media layer, you’re falling behind. Content isn’t optional anymore. It’s foundational.

Here's our podcast by the way: Big Growth Series. Also available on iTunes and Spotify.

3. Content-Led Social Selling

Almost everything you hear from LinkedIn gurus about content skips one critical piece: content alone doesn’t close deals.

You need to pair content with outbound efforts to see results. In my experience, almost every serious player in LinkedIn-based sales is doing both.

Here’s how I approach it:

• I spend 2 hours daily in Sales Navigator and DMs.
• I don’t spam connection requests. I focus on building meaningful relationships.
• I qualify prospects through conversations, not assumptions.
• I make offers and often share my fees in DMs.

Last month, while travelling, I dropped the ball on DMs. Even though I kept posting content, my leads dried up. Why? Because social selling is active, not passive.

If you’re earning less than £20K/month, DM management isn’t optional. It’s where the bulk of your opportunities will come from.

For agency owners scaling to £50-150K MRR, time is your biggest excuse. I’ve been there. The solution? Systematise the admin work. Free yourself up so you can focus on what matters - selling and building your personal brand.

4. Blending in is Death

One of the first lessons I learned was this: blending in is a death sentence.

Early on, I started questioning norms in the agency space. I called out the blind obsession with scaling and challenged the value of traditional coaching programs.

These opinions weren’t popular, but they sparked the right conversations. They helped me attract the people I wanted to work with: those who resonated with my contrarian perspective.

Here’s the truth: you can’t please everyone. You shouldn’t even try.

The key to differentiation is simplicity:

1. Be clear about your niche.
2. Be bold in your opinions.
3. Be consistent in your messaging.

5. Engagement KPIs ≠ Sales

One of the biggest myths on LinkedIn is that likes and comments equal revenue. They don’t.

Most of the opportunities I’ve closed came from people (lurkers) who never engaged with a single post. They didn’t like, comment or DMd me. They just silently followed my content until they were ready to buy.

Your target audience is watching. They’re paying attention, even if they’re not broadcasting it.

The lesson? Focus on the quality of your message, not vanity metrics.

6. Content Shapes Expectations

Here’s an example: just today, I met with an agency owner in person. The first thing he said? “Your content speaks directly to me.”

This isn’t a one-off. Almost every sales call I have starts with some variation of:

• “I liked what you said in that post.”
• “Your perspective on xyz really resonated with me.”

Your content isn’t just marketing—it’s pre-qualifying your audience. It’s setting the tone for your sales conversations before they even happen.

7. Depth of Content Matters

There’s a debate on LinkedIn about whether short-form or long-form content performs better. My experience? Depth wins.

This is the lesson I've learned and applied from a good friend of mine 🧲 Adam Kitchen . He's built one of the leading Klaviyo agencies in the world using his personal brand so I highly recommend you check his content.

The long-form, blog-style posts I write often get the most meaningful responses. But here’s the trick: it’s not about offering all the answers upfront. It’s about diving deep into the problems your audience faces.

When you go deep, you show your audience you understand them. And that’s what builds trust.

A Final Realisation...

The more I lean into sharing my authentic experiences, the clearer my own path becomes—not just with content, but with my business too.

When I started, my goal was simple: share what I’m learning as I build myself up. But over time somewhere along the way, I started holding it back.

Now, I’m committed to sharing more openly. Not just the wins, but the messy middle too. Because that’s where the real lessons live.

TL;DR: Key Takeaways

1. Content is King, but social selling is Queen. Pair content with outbound efforts for real results.
2. Differentiation is survival. Blending in kills your business. Stand for something.
3. OMF comes first. Use content to test your offer-market fit.
4. Engagement ≠ Revenue. Your best clients might never engage with your posts.
5. Depth wins. Focus on deeply understanding and articulating your audience’s problems.

This is what’s worked for me. What’s working for you? Let’s talk about it.

About what we do:

At Big Growth Group we help build scalable and self-sufficient agencies that let founders step away from daily operations and focus on strategic growth. We’re not just consultants who leave you with a list of ideas. We’re also Growth Operators who get in the trenches and work alongside you to deliver real, measurable results.

Are you an agency founder? Want to break free from operations and scale past $1M more easily and strategically? Apply for Strategy Consultation here.

Resources for agency founders:

• When your biggest client sends that email: "We need to talk."
• But what if what you do isn’t directly tied to lead gen, sales or revenue-producing activities?
• In the past 2 months, we've done 10 agency audits - mostly $50-100K in MRR. Here's what see across the board...
• "My COO and I got into an argument about the churn rate."
• 🧲 Adam Kitchen wrote a brilliant article called 11 Agency Rules For Life. Every agency owner should read it!
• And if you want no cookie-cutter advice, no hype... Just bold, polarising insights to help agency, consultancy and b2b service owners break through the $1M mark and beyond then watch the Big Growth podcast on YouTube or listen on iTunes or Spotify.