“Don’t ever cold pitch on LinkedIn!” I’ve heard more than one (confused) professional say this in my time. Please know: Using LinkedIn for cold outreach is absolutely effective. But like most things in life, if you do it poorly, it won’t work.

Right off the bat, we need to make an important distinction between cold pitching and cold outreach. People often use them interchangeably. But they are not the same. Don’t confuse the two! 🛑

Cold pitching means you reach out to a stranger and immediately try to sell your services. This is a horrible approach.

Cold outreach means you simply strike up a conversation with a stranger, with the intention of ultimately selling your services.

This can work wonders.

So, are we clear on the differences between the two? And we all understand that in this blog, we’re talking about cold outreach? Awesome!

Let’s talk about how you can master cold outreach on the platform built for professionals, and use it to sell your services, close new clients, and make money.

Using LinkedIn for Cold Outreach Like a True Pro

Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Connect With Professionals Who Work in Your Field

I do my lead generation right on LinkedIn. It’s free and effective. So, let’s dive into this a bit more.

If you’re trying to land new clients as a social media manager, why reach out to a sales rep on LinkedIn? They have nothing to do with that company’s social media management. So, they’re probably not going to be interested in helping you.

Now, what if you reach out to the Director of Marketing for the company you want to pitch? Now we’re talking!

This person likely works directly with that company’s social media management, meaning they’re the perfect person to form a relationship with.

If you want your LinkedIn cold outreach to work, then you need to be reaching out to the right people in the first place. Otherwise, nothing else matters, because you won’t be connecting with the people best positioned to help you.
<h3″>2. Start the Conversation Before You Sell

Let’s say you’ve connected with that Director of Marketing. Sweet! 🍾

Then, you send them this message: “Hey Barb! I can provide high-quality Facebook posts for your company for $500 a month. Let’s schedule a call to talk more!”

Crickets. Barb never responds. Actually, Barb didn’t even finish reading your message before moving on with her day. Bye, Barb!

You know why? It’s because this is hard selling, and hard selling (in this capacity) is a no-no.

When we say “hard selling,” we mean that you’re very abrupt and in-their-face with your services. In the context of cold outreach on LinkedIn, I can promise you that people will not respond favorably to this. While they might very well need your services, they still don’t want to be sold to. Generally, people don’t like being sold to.

So, don’t sell to them.

“Well, why am I even doing this then?” you might be asking, and that’s understandable! Here’s what you have to remember: You need to form that relationship before you start selling. Otherwise, you’re just another stranger trying to get their money. And they’re already hearing from enough of those people.

I’m not saying you want to be pen pals and exchange 40 messages before moving the conversation forward. I’m saying don’t open the conversation by trying to get the sale.

Introduce yourself. Tell them what you do and why you’re reaching out. Ask them if they’re the right person to speak with about this. Express how interested you are in working with them, and that you’d love to talk more.

Once they engage back in the conversation, you’re ready to take the next step.

3. Take the Conversation to Email

We started on LinkedIn because it’s far easier to connect with the right person. But beyond that initial introduction, it’s not the best place to have a lengthy conversation.

So, you’re going to ask your lead (in a LinkedIn message) if it would be okay for you to email them to discuss more. Once you’re communicating via email, you’re better able to send them samples of your work, learn more about their goals and needs, and ultimately schedule a time to get on a phone call, which is a vital step in landing new clients.

Let’s take a step back and look at what we just did.

• We connected with someone on LinkedIn who works in our field, for a company we’d like to do business with. This is a great person to pitch your services to.
• We started a casual conversation in a direct message purely trying to get to know them.
• We gently moved the conversation more toward discussing how you can help them with your services.
• We’ve taken this conversation to email to discuss it more.

That is how you successfully use LinkedIn for cold outreach.

I have a good chuckle whenever someone says that you can’t land clients using LinkedIn. I’ve done it many, many times. In fact, I scaled my business to nearly than $20,000 a month in revenue largely thanks to LinkedIn. And now, I regularly teach others how to land clients using LinkedIn, with pretty crazy success.

These students are replacing their income, doubling their income, tripling their income, within a few weeks to a few months.

So yes, LinkedIn is a great tool for cold outreach. 😉

If you’d like more help beyond this blog, here are some things you might be interested in.

I created a free guide showing you how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. This will make you more visible on the platform and help to increase your engagement.

You can enroll in my mini-course, The 7-Day Secret, to learn how to make progress with your client acquisition in just one week.

And if you want to learn my entire process for landing clients from start to finish, check out Revenue Spark and book a call with me if you’re interested in enrolling.