Turn LinkedIn Connections Into Sales

As real estate agents, we generate leads from various social media sources including LinkedIn. As you make connections on LinkedIn, you'll need to do more than just accept invitations if you want to grow your sales funnel. Learn more about making connections, creating conversations, engaging prospects and building relationships to increase the chances of converting connections into a sales.

• Consistently generate new prospects
• Convert leads into sales to reach revenue goals
• Build a target network

Your Profile

Let's start at the beginning -- your LinkedIn profile.  An attractive profile can make the difference between making connections or not. Your profile should be about the prospect, not just you and your professional accomplishments.  Avoid turning your profile, or headline, into a sales pitch.

What can you say that will help make the prospect's journey better? What is your purpose? What would a prospect like to know about you that instantly sparks professionalism and trust?

• Start with a mission statement (aka: purpose) that has nothing to do with real estate
• Highlight what makes you different from other agents
• Consider using testimonials from clients to support your reputation

LinkedIn Headline

Make your 100-character headline interesting and catchy vs. generic (#1 Buyer's Agent in Georgia). Describe your role in real estate and what makes you stand apart from other agents (ex. "My role as an agent allows me to donate my time and money to non-profits and help children in need."). Add any accomplishments that might appeal to prospects (ex. "Realtor Achievement Award"). You might include something personal too, like "accomplished rock climber", that makes you more relate-able. Remember, it's important to avoid turning your headline into an unappealing sales pitch.

• What makes you unique
• Accomplishments
• Hobbies
• Family

Connecting on a Personal Level to Drive Sales

If you would like more prospects and more profits each month, you need to send a personalized message to each prospect, whether you found them or they found you. Your ultimate goal should be to determine the prospect's needs, build a relationship and convert them into a future sale.

Your message needs to sound like an in-person conversation, not a sales pitch. Frame it from their perspective to engage them. Look at the profiles of your connections to see which organizations they're in (ex. rotary club), what their interests are, or what you have in common. Then, reference relevant information to help build rapport. Consider what's important to them or the problems they face. To save time, create a message template you can repeatedly use but personalize it each time for the best results.

• Common interests
• Comment on something they recently shared or commented on
• Ask a question to get the conversation moving
• Thank people for connecting with you

Once you've built rapport, you can eventually move the conversation off-line by asking for their email address or phone number. Keep in mind, you will need to have a compelling reason for wanting to contact them off-line (how the contact can benefit from speaking to you). If they're comfortable with you as a professional and you've taken the time to build a relationship, this should be a smooth transition. 

Expand Your Connections

Instead of merely waiting for people to connect with you, grow your LinkedIn network by connecting with new people and by helping unknowns find you.  Consider using the following options to make relevant connections:

• Look at first-, second-, and third-degree connections
• Search for prospects using the LinkedIn advanced search and Boolean search
• Target groups
• Saved searches
• Build relationships with influencers

The three degrees of LinkedIn connections are a great start for connecting with others.  People already in your network are first-degree connections.  Those in the second-degree level belong to the networks of your first-degree connections and can be invited to join your network by simply clicking the "connect" option in their profile.  In order to connect with the third-degree connections, those connected with your second-degree connections, you'll need to subscribe to LinkedIn's premium option.  If you're already a subscriber, you can send an "InMail" (direct message) to start a conversation. 

You can also use your existing connections to target groups. As mentioned earlier, you can look at which groups or organizations your connections are involved in. Consider following the same groups, if they're relevant. LinkedIn will automatically send you connection suggestions based off of these new groups.

Other way to find more connections is to save a search that's already returning great results. If someone matches the search criteria, and you've set up automatic alerts, LinkedIn will notify you.  This is a great option for targeting prospects without a lot of extra work.

Another way to make new connections is to ask peers to introduce you to prospective clients (make sure they feel comfortable making introductions) or by connecting with influencers. Simply visiting an influencer's profile and looking at who they're connected with will provide opportunities to grow your connections.

Your posting activity on LinkedIn will also influence the number of prospects you generate. Share and write articles about the industry to boost your credibility and help prospects identify you as the real estate expert.  When prospects find value in your posts they'll share them with their connections, creating more of an opportunity to generate leads.

Conclusion

Utilizing LinkedIn to make connections is a great way to build up your network and boost your sales funnel.  Imagine increasing your average sales earnings from $15K to $60K by converting just 3 LinkedIn connections.  Avoid leaving money on the table each month by making the most of your LinkedIn connections.  It's easy if you're targeting the right people by using the suggestions in this article. Take 15 minutes in your LinkedIn account each day to begin building up your network.  You've got this!