How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART7

Before you start with these tips, you need as you in the first part of this series may have read good first to define your target market and your LinkedIn network to build. Even though the previous weeks we shared strategies one and two, three and fourstrategies, strategies, strategy five and sixand seven eight, nine and ten strategy.

4 Strategies to contact people after you've found Them

After you have applied one or more of the 10 strategies, you now have a whole laundry list of potential customers.

What to do now? There are four options:

You know this person himself.

That is the easiest: you can contact him directly.

You know this person is not itself and he is a 2nd degree contact.

Call someone of your common contacts. Yes, via the phone!

Explain your purpose and mentioned that they know someone you want to achieve. Ask him how they know each other. On LinkedIn you can see that they are linked, but not what their relationship is and how well they know each other. If he knows that other do really well, then thank him and call the following common contact. It is important for your result that the Know, Like, Trust factor between the ones you want to achieve and your own contact high enough!

When your common contact agrees to help you, ask him to introduce you to the person you want to reach and vice versa in an email, what we call the Magic Mail.

You know the person is not and it is a 3rd degree contact.

Go to that person's profile.

At the top of the right side click on "Get introduced through a connection" (represented by a connection).

Choose the 1st degree contact where you have the best relationship with it.

Write a message to the final recipient why you would like to contact him and ask your contact to 1egraads this message forwarding.

What happens, is that you 1st degree contact receives both messages and then decide whether or not to send them. If he then forwards them in the 2nd degree, the person can also decide whether or not to forward it. So this process is sequential. What many people don't know is that everyone in this "chain of messages" can read all previous posts. So be sure professional in your communication!

This approach works for many people not really good. The first reason is that they write a message too intrusive that afknappen one of the people in the chain is doing. The second reason is that you might be an excellent relationship with your 1st degree contact, but that he is the person in the 2nd degree not so well know. Usually the result is that your message remains stuck on the road somewhere. It's so much better to devote more time to search for 2nd degree contacts instead of 3rd degree contacts and to build your network first. We therefore recommend to build your network before you need it.

You know the person and he is a member of the same group.

You can send him a direct message (if he has not dropped off that option). Make sure you have enough Know, Like and Trust factor in the group have built up and preferably also with him personally. For instance by his messages or comments to respond.

If you Know, Like, Trust factor not yet high enough, you want to use a different approach than a "cold message" to send. Search for common connections and let introduce yourself via a Magic Mail. If you still have no common contact, you may prefer to further expand your network first. Because you both belong to the same group, it would not be difficult to find common contacts.

Now you have not only the right people 10 additional strategies to find your goal to achieve, but also 4 strategies to contact them. If you have downloaded the document of the Magic Mail, then you also have a better understanding of how such a Magic Mail works and how to ask.

You get the best results when preparing yourself and take action when you first the right people have found. Two crucial steps that are often overlooked or minimized!

PART - 1

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART6

Before you start with these tips, you need as you in the first part of this series may have read well you first define target group and your LinkedIn network to build. We also shared the previous weeks one and two, strategies strategies already three and four and five and six and finally strategies strategy 7.
Below you can find eight, nine and ten to strategy to find new customers:
Strategy 8: look at "Network Updates"

An interesting source of information is the "Network Activity" or the "Network Updates". You see them on your "homepage" and you also receive via email, if you have that option not deposed.

There are many "Network Updates" that you can click on or off. These are the ones for you ever might be of interest:

New Connections in your Network (new connections in your network). Not so long is also the "Professional Headline" shown when people link with each other. That way you can often discover new potential customers. Another way this can help you when you see that a customer links with one of your counterparts, you then could contact to insure that you are still "top of mind".
Status Updates from your Connections and Posts from your Connections. By a message to comment or "liken" do you love yourself on the radar of your network.
When connections change Profile information (when connections change their profile information). You can congratulate them on a new project or a new position. When you contact of position changes, can you ask him to become his successor proposed. If they change of organization, you can ask them for an introduction and possibly supplier of their next company. Or when a connection comes suddenly in a position in which they appear in the possibility to buy your products or services, then you will want to know this. As a recruiter, you can discover that someone who does not fit in the picture (for example, because they lived in a different country), now known as a suitable candidate.
Groups your connections have joined or created (groups who have established or joined your connections). This is another way to find interesting groups join itself.

Strategy 9: change your Profile Settings

When we ask people in our workshops or presentations to agree who the "who's Viewed Your Profile" feature, confirm that she has looked most have already done so. With the following question: "who wants to know who those people are with a description like" someone from the bank industry in the region of Amsterdam ", go almost all hands in the air. And if there is asked how she can find, this most replies: "you need to upgrade your account paying".

However, that is not true and one of the biggest misunderstandings regarding LinkedIn. You can never see unless they allow you somebody's profile, whether you're a basic (free) account or a paying.

Since we have no direct impact on what others are doing, it is interesting to reverse the situation. When you allows others to see who you are when you visit their profile, this may be to your advantage.

Our personal experience is that in some cases potential clients call us after we have visited their profile and they can see who we are. The difference is that they take the initiative, which is much stronger than when you do that yourself.

Does this happen often? No, but many little ones make one great and it is a strategy that no money and very little time.

This Is a good strategy for everyone? No, not always. Sometimes you want more remain anonymous. LinkedIn gives you that possibility. But, if you're in that "mode", you can not see who has visited your profile.

To change the settings around what people see, follow these steps:

At the top of the page, click on "Your Name/Settings".
Log in again (this is a security check).
Scroll down and in the middle of the page click "Select what others see when you have viewed their Profile".
Choose "Your Name and Headline".
Click "Save Changes" (save changes).

If you're not into the anonymous mode you can see a few profile statistics (if you click on "who's viewed my Profile" on your "homepage" or on your own profile). What you will see depends on whether you have a basic (free) account or a paying account.

These are the statistics that you will see:

Profile Stats. Available for free account holders just like you your name and Professional Headline shows up when others view their profile. It shows:

To 5 results of whom has viewed your profile.
Number of visits to your profile.
Number of times that you're featured in search results.

Profile Stats Pro. Available for all premium account holders. It shows:

The full list of who has visited your profile (Note: you will not see additional information about that visitor if they have elected to remain anonymous in their "privacy" settings).
Trends.
Total number of visits to your profile.
Number of times that you're featured in search results.
Classes of people who look to your profile.

These additional statistics about who has viewed your profile if you have a paying account, are therefore still reasonably basic and General. For us, it is certainly no reason to upgrade our account. But who knows, LinkedIn still comes with interesting extras in the future.
Strategy 10: create "Alerts"

We have the most powerful strategy for last kept.

LinkedIn allows you to create so-called "alerts" every time so you don't need to go to LinkedIn to search again.

How to make these "alerts"?

Go to "Advanced Search" and create a search with the parameters from your preparation.
Watch the search results you get. If you've found the right people, go to step 3. If not, then refine your search until you are satisfied with the result.
In addition to the number of results you click on "Save". You're going to save this search. In other words create an "alert".
Enter the saved search ("Saved Search") a name.
Choose the frequency for your "email alert": weekly, monthly or never. Weekly means you get an email every week, monthly each month and never should go to the website that you go to the search results look. We suggest that you select "weekly" (weekly) and then on "save" button.

What will happen now? LinkedIn will automatically wrap and this search for you your results emailed to yourself. Clicking on the link, you simply need to look at their profile and find out who you know common!

With a basic (free) account you can keep up to 3 searches. If you pay and your account "upgrade", you can have more (this is depending on which registration model you choose).

If you go to the results of the searches that you want to watch or have kept them customize/erase: you can find them via: "Advanced Search" ("Advanced" link on your "homepage") and then button 4 "Saved Searches".

PART - 7

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART5

Before you start with these tips, you need as you in the first part of this series may have read well you first define target group and your LinkedIn network to build. We also shared the previous weeks one and two, strategies strategies already three and four and five and six strategies.

Below you can find seven strategy in order to find new customers:

Strategy 7: use the "Company Profiles"

Another approach is to find the right people to search for them via the organization where they work or through the company where she owns his.

There are several ways to get the information in the "Company Profiles" to use to find the right people.

Step 1: find the right Organization

The easiest is if you already know the name of the organization. Go to "Companies" (top menu) and enter the name of the organisation you are looking for in the search field.
If you do not know the name of the Organization, but a few parameters, use the "Search Companies" function. Which can be found under "Companies" (top menu) and then the second button. Immediately get a "results list" of all the companies on LinkedIn. On the left you can refine the search. These are the parameters that you can use:
Keywords (key words): free text.
Location(location):
"Headquarters only" (only the head office): "Yes" or "No" (default).
"Locations": enter the city name in or refine it afterwards if you the results of your search.
Job Opportunities (vacancies): choose whether you want to select only the companies with vacancies on LinkedIn or not (default).
Industry: enter the name of a class or refine later if you zoekresutaten the back.
Relationship: all LinkedIn members, just 1st grade 2nd degree contacts, contacts, just just 3rd degree and beyond. Or a combination.
Company size (company size): you can make a selection between self-employed (1-10 employees) and very large organizations (10,000 +).
Number of followers (number of followers): you can make a selection between a few followers (1-50) and organizations with many followers (5,000 +).
Fortune: you can refine the search results of the Fortune 50 to 1000.

Note: If you have a basic (free) account, gives you a possibility of paying the Company search options in the "Advanced Search for People" to get around. In the "Advanced Search" you can not Fortune 1000 business size or use as a parameter, unless you have a paying account.

Tip: If you don't know what the current name of the company is, you could also try a product or service into the search box. For example: Apple iPad and you will see that, type in the search results. Because not all companies their products or services in their "Overview" (overview), this tip will not always work.
Step 2: useful information on a Company Profile

The interesting to the LinkedIn Company Profiles is that most information comes from the profiles of people who work or have worked for this company. This has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that a marketing or PR Department of the information does not affect. The downside is that not all data are current, because it is to all individuals to their personal LinkedIn profile to keep up-to-date.

What useful information can we get from the Company Profile?

The first page is the summary page(Overview page). Besides some general information you may receive the following useful:
Immediately you can see the first 5 people you know within the Organization (under the button "Your Network"). This gives immediate insight into your connections. Why is this useful? Because you maybe these people forget was when was your goals or maybe there is someone of company changed without that you knew.
The tab "Your College Alumni" gives you the people with whom you go to the same school, college, college or University've been (this comes from the "Education" in both their field if your profile). In some cases this can benefit you. Why? Because a common training Institute have sometimes forge strong ties even before you've met. The other much more open to you request.
The tab "New Hires" gives you an overview of the people who have indicated that they started on their profile with this organization. This may be interesting information regarding hiring, selecting or delivers services if you're educating people. After all, you cannot deduce that there are opportunities for you. At the bottom of this field, you can click on the "See all Activity" (see all activity) link. You get an overview of what happened with all the people that work for this company on LinkedIn. You can filter this in many ways: Profile Changes (changes to profile), New Hires (recently adopted), Recent Departures (recently departed), Promotions & Changes (promotions & changes), Status Updates, Job Postings (jobs) and Products & Services (products and services). Note: we have noticed that this last functions do not always work equally well, hopefully soon there LinkedIn.
Follow a Company(follow a company). Top right you can click the button to "follow" a company. "Why would you want to do that?", was our first response until we on the small arrow next to the "Following" button pressed (= the same button as the "Follow" button once you've clicked on it). If you do, you'll see what will happen and can you refine how you wish to receive this information.
Content: "I want to be notified when"(I want to be alerted as):
Employees leave or are promoted or recruited, layoffs in the first 3 degrees of your network ("in my network" to them) or all employees ("all employees").This is very interesting information:
It helps to be informed when your contacts change position to congratulate them and to them first so ask you to propose to their successor.
If she wants to change them both to an organization you on their radar to possibly introduction questions as a supplier of their next company.
Or if you had with the purchaser and click No personal if that was the only reason why you have never done business with this buyer and that changes of position, then this could be perhaps a good impetus for you to see if you have a chance at the new purchaser.
New job opportunities (New Job Opportunities). If you're looking for a new job or someone helps to find one, this is an excellent way to be kept informed. Instead of having to search for every day on LinkedIn, you can get an overview new vacancies for all companies who follows you.
Updates of the company profiles (Company Profile Updates). This option is for most more informative than that they there is a direct benefit. But it can be interesting to see what new products and services a business to add his profile, what developments there are or what opportunities there might be for a partnership.
Notification:

I want to be notified by Network Updates (I want to be alerted by network updates).
Weekly or daily Email digest:(daily or weekly email list). This concerns all companies who follows you.

Apply these settings to match your preferences. If you're looking for work, would you like to receive this information daily, but if you're just "curious", you want this information maybe just received via "Network Updates".

Check out insightful statistics about(Look for insightful statistics about) this company (on the right). When you click on this link you will come to a new page with information and statistics derived from the personal LinkedIn profiles and their behaviour on LinkedIn. There is a lot of information available, so take a look there. This is information that may be helpful:
You can find statistics about job functions (Job Functions), years of experience (Years Experience), training degree (Educational Degree) and University (University Attended). The "University Attended" statistics may be useful for recruiters as they do you see which universities campus recruitment: first, most employees have supplied (so that the potential is present) and then you can find colleagues who have studied there and yours can help with personal testimonies and a few connections. Maybe they want to also get involved with the campus recruitingteam.
Under "People also viewed" (people also looked to) you get a selection of other business profiles that were visited by people who also looked to the company where you are now looking at. Usually this will be yours direct produce counterparts (we prefer this word above "competitors"). These could be your next prospects!
On the right side of the page you will see "where employees came from before they joined" (where workers came from before she started at) the company where you are watching and "where they go afterwards" (where they go afterwards). This may also yield new ideas in terms of prospects.

A possible disadvantage of the use of "Companies" to find the right people is that many companies in different countries have different work or independent subsidiaries and have no clear strategy on LinkedIn here.

What is the result? For example: when you view the Company Profile of an international company with headquarters in the United States, you wouldn't be able to find the right people in Belgium or Netherlands. Why? Because you might get too many results or because they are linked to another Company Profile than what you are looking for.

So keep in mind that you don't always find the right information for you, but you certainly use the possibilities that LinkedIn Company Profiles in terms of offers!

PART - 6

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART4

These proactive strategies that produce the most if you're looking for new customers, employees, suppliers, partners, experts or other people who can help you to achieve your professional goals.

In this series, I share 10 proactive strategies in order to find new customers.

Before you start with these tips, you need as you in the first part of this series may have read good first to define your target market and your LinkedIn network to build. Even though the previous weeks we shared strategies one and two and three and four strategies.
Below you can find strategy five and six to find new customers:

Strategy 5: use Groups Where your target group Is Member of Linking people not only with their colleagues, but they also find ways to meet. On LinkedIn profiles, backgrounds and people with similar interests come together in "Groups".

There are 5 ways to find groups on LinkedIn. Because the search function in "Groups" still quite limited (there is no "Advanced Search" for "Groups" at the time of this writing), you will probably need them all 4 for you to find the correct groups.

Use the groups list ("Groups Directory"). So do you do that:
In the top menu click on "Groups/Groups Directory".
There are a number of groups proposed in random order. Usually, you will find not really relevant groups.
You can use the search box on the left hand side with one or more keywords. You can refine your search with the type of group you are looking for or with the language. Be careful with this last option because a group can be a local Dutch or Belgian group, but still English as language can have.

When you click on the name of one of the groups, you come on the entrance page of that group (if it's an open Group) or on the profile page of the Group (if it is a private or group exclusively for members). In the latter case you get some information about the Group and about 10 people from the first two degrees of your network who are already a member (you can find the same information for open groups by clicking "More/Group Profile"). This can help you choose whether you want to be a member of that group.
Groups that you might interesting ("Groups You May Like")
In the top menu click on "Groups/Groups You May Like".
You get presented with groups that are similar to all the groups where you already are a member of.
Similar groups ("Similar Groups").

If you have found with the search function of the groups "Groups Directory" or via the "Groups You May Like" option, you will see the "Similar Groups" link on the right side of each group. Click it again raises a whole list of groups for which you could find in any other way.

If you select "More/Group Profile" in one of the groups where you are a member of, then you may find similar groups (Similar Groups) to the one where you already are a member of.

In this new overview of groups you can again click on "Similar Groups" for each of the listed groups.
People have also looked("People also explored")
Go to a "Group Profile".

At the bottom of the page you will find "People also explored". This gives yet another series with potentially interesting groups. For "Similar Groups" and "Groups You May Like" LinkedIn used an algorithm. "People also explored" resulting from human acts. Both approaches complement each other.

Look in someones profile.
This is a totally different approach. People have the natural tendency to form groups and clubs. LinkedIn shows that information on someone's profile, which is very useful information.
So go to someone's profile that is right for you (in this case a current or potential customer) and scroll down on his profile to see which groups he is a member.
This step can sometimes be more time-consuming, but delivers better results in many cases.

Note: it is very important not to sell in the groups. Groups are an excellent place to you Know, Like and Trust factor to build and the golden triangle of networks to use (Give, questions, Thanks), not to dump your promotions. That works even counter-productive: people consider it as spam and get a negative feeling about you and your organization. In that case, you had better have nothing done!
Strategy 6: use Groups of persons with access to your target group

In our experience of working with large international companies to one-man businesses, we have noticed that not many people take into account the strength of the second degree.

For example: if they already think of the power of a network, then think they only to their own network.

What we propose is to do the reverse: think of the network of your target group: who and what are their colleagues, customers, suppliers, partners, media, government contacts, etc.

If you have listed, then look to LinkedIn groups where you can meet the people who already have a relationship with the people you want to reach.

If you then builds a relationship with them, they can act as an intermediary or even Ambassador for you!

Tip: this may also work for groups where you may not join. Some groups require a certain skill, experience or degree (eg. Civil engineer) in order to qualify for membership. If someone in your network that has required you can 1st grade, ask him/her to go with that group and to act as an Ambassador for you. For example: recruiters are not welcome in some groups. As a recruiter, you can ask a colleague with the requirement profile of the Group and to place a vacancy.

PART - 5

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART3

In this series, we share 10 proactive strategies in order to find new customers.

Before you start with these tips, you need as you in the first part of this series may have read good first to define your target market and your LinkedIn network to build. Last week we shared even though the first two strategies.

Below you can find three and four to strategy to find new customers:

Strategy 3: Grass dunes in the network of your network

In strategy one and two we left your goals and then we looked at the people who came from the search results.

We leave In this strategy of our present network and look into their network to find the people who can help us to achieve our goals.

How do you do that?

Go to the profile of a 1st degree connection that you know fairly well, having the same function or role if the person you are looking for. Why?
People tend to link with their colleagues and peers. Chances are that they are linked with potential customers.
The Know, Like and Trust factor is already higher than with other people.
Scroll down until you see a field on the right hand side titled "name's Connections". At the bottom of that field, click "See all Connections".
Now you can look around in their network and find people who are interesting for you.

Additional benefits of in someone else to his or her network grass dunes, are:

You can discover where you yourself would not synonyms or titles are defended.

For example: If you did a search with "Marketing Manager, Banking Industry, Netherlands", when you was looking for new customers as a speaker or events Agency, then you might be discover that people are also "Marketing Director", "VP Marketing" or "Marcom Manager". They will not come into your "Advanced Search" results from strategy 2.

And you can discover features such as "Event Coordinator" or "Events Manager", titles where you would have not thought of yourself.
You can discover people that may be useful in achieving a purpose other than that now where you're dealing with. For example: If you're looking for HR Managers as potential customer, then you may encounter an HR Consultant specializing in international payroll programs. Precisely the perfect profile to work for another project.

Note: anyone can put you in his network grass dunes? No, some people are unable to access their network. Of course, that is their choice, but we ask us always wondering what they expect: they expect others to open up for them without their network that they do that? Of course, if there are no expectations of their hand, then there is nothing to worry about.

Strategy 4: look at "Viewers of this Profile also Viewed"

If you have found someone with your corresponding parameters not in their network, you can still go look. He must first be a 1st degree contact.

However, there is interesting information for you at your disposal. If you scroll down in someone's profile, you'll find on the right side a field with the title "Viewers of this Profile also viewed".

What you will see is that many of these people work for the same organization or have the same role in another organization. So you can find that in this way extra persons are interesting for you.

If you click on their profile, you will often see a common connection appear where you had not thought of yet, besides people you went for help because you already ask them had found by the other strategies to apply.

In other words, these insights give you more ways for you to access interesting people. In doing so you do not always meet the same person to introductions to go and ask.

If you're in this newly found person scroll down his profile, you can find other interesting people again via "Viewers of this Profile also Viewed" and new common connections. And the same is true for these people.

The option "Viewers of this Profile also Viewed" for each new profile that you encounter can be used (and also for all your 1st degree connections). Consequently, so it represents a wealth of information!

PART - 4

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART2

These are the first two strategies to find new customers:
Strategy 1: search by name

If you know the name of your prospect, it is relatively simple: fill in the name in the search field at the top of the page. What if it is someone with a common name such as Andy Johnson (more than 4,600 hits)? Then you have a different approach is needed.

If you have "Advanced Search" and "Andy" used in the "First Name" field and "Johnson" in the "Last Name" field blank, but still about 1,600 hits.

Whence this great difference?

If you use the search field at the top of the page, search for LinkedIn to those words throughout the whole profile (this is the same as the "Keywords" field). If you used specific fields such as "First Name" and "Last Name", then it just looks in these fields.

Note: we have already seen several people with their first name in the field for the last name, and vice versa. This helps of course not to be found. So look after your profile or for you is correct.
Strategy 2: Search with parameters

When you think of your goals are left and they have specifically made, go have a few parameters that can be used in the "Advanced Search" screen (you can find the "Advanced" link next to the search field).

These are the fields available in "Advanced Search":

Keywords (keywords): Here you can fill in whatever. LinkedIn searches than in all fields (free text and lists).
First Name and Last Name (first name and last name.
Location (place): Anywhere (anywhere in the world) or "located near" (close to) followed by your own country.
Postal Code (zip code): you can search within a radius around a certain zip code. This helps to refine your search results, of course, just like that is useful regarding your goal.
Title (title): function. An interesting option is that you can choose to see just people who now have that position, people who held that position in the past, or both (default). Note: this field searches for the function ("current" or "past"), not on the "Professional Headline" (= description under your photo on your profile).
Company (company): an interesting option is that you can choose to see just people who now work for this company, people who have worked there or both (default).
School.
Industry (industry): you can search in all industries or in more specific branches.
Relationship (how far removed): you can search on LinkedIn or you search all members limit to people in your 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree network or beyond, or to people who belong to the same groups as you.
Language (language): you can limit your search to people who speak a specific language. We recommend this because you can miss, however, many people who still do not use this option.

If you have a paid account, then you get these additional search options:

Company Size (company size): different options, from 1-10 to 10,000 +.
Seniority Level: different options, currently: Manager, Owner (owner), Partner, CXO, VP, Director, Senior, Entry (Starter), Students & Interns and Volunteer (volunteer).
Interested in (interested in): any user (by default) or the specific profile with whom that person wants to connecting, as he has indicated (see bottom of the page on your own profile for the options thereabouts).
Fortune 1000: you can limit your search to the Fortune top 50, top 100, top 250, top 500 and top 1000.
Search only other open link members (just search on other "open link" members): people who take a paid account (upgrade) can send messages to each other free of charge if they do not sit in each other's 1st grade network. If you have a basic account (free), then you should "InMails" buy in order to do that. Checking this box means that you can restrict the search to those people where you can send a message to free.

After you have completed your search, you can sort the search results.

Relevance (relevance) (default): results are sorted according to calculations based on the keywords you have entered and your network of connections.
Relationship (relationship): the 1st degree, 2nd degree and groups are first shown (in that order). 3rd grade and "outside network members" are always combined. Use this option if you're not specifically looking to someone. 2nd degree contacts are easier to achieve (via the Magic Mail) than 3rd degree contacts.
Relationship + Recommendations (relationship + recommendations): agreements are shown on your level of connection and the number of recommendations (how more recommendations the higher in the list). Use this option if you're looking for a supplier or partner. The recommendations can give you a first impression.
Connections (connections): the people with the most connections are at the top.
Keywords (keywords): this arrangement gives the best agreement purely based on your question.
Views (view): how the search results are displayed: Basic (default) or extended. The difference between both is that the extended view also shows you the amount of connections, the amount of recommendations and current and past positions (functions).

PART - 3

How to Find new customers with LinkedIn - PART1

linkedin for dummies |  linkedin tricks | how does linkedin work | how to use linkedin | linkedin answers

One of the greatest misunderstandings about LinkedIn is that people and companies just use as a (passive) shield through their personal and business profiles. This often makes for disappointment regarding the results.

We need Proactive strategies that produce the most of the output, if you're looking for new customers, employees, suppliers, partners, experts or other people who can help you to achieve your professional goals.

In this series, i had shared 10 proactive strategies in order to find new customers. Before you start with these tips to get started, you need to be prepared about your goal and objective.

1. Define your target group.

This sounds logical, but hardly anyone in our workshops and trainings we see this do really well.

2. Make for a basic LinkedIn network

The power of your network is in the second degree, but you must of course be a first degree network to achieve that have second degree.

The good news is that LinkedIn helps you 4 ways to build up that fast. You can find this under the menu contacts/Add Connections (Contacts/Add Connections).

These are they:

Add connections (Add Connections)

You can upload the email addresses from your address book.

Nobody can see this.

Note When you contact: If you have uploaded fewer than 50 addresses than they are all ticked to get an invitation. Moreover, it is better to invite them individually, otherwise they get the impersonal standard invitation.

Colleagues (Colleagues)

LinkedIn uses the companies that you've listed in your profile to make a match with other people who have worked in the same company during the same period.

So make sure you've worked all relevant companies where you have listed in your profile for!

Former class or study mates (Alumni)

This works in a similar way as "Colleagues".

You can be extra filter on bv. year of graduation.

People who you might know (People You May Know)

LinkedIn used 18 parameters to find people that you could know.

The algorithm behind there is a secret, but probably displays the number of common contacts, groups, sector and geography along in the calculation.

If you have completed these steps, you are ready to proactively with LinkedIn to get started. In the following articles from this series get you 10 ways to find new customers and how to contact them.

PART - 2