21,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Combine LinkedIn and AI to multiply your selling potential
Most sales professionals and entrepreneurs are desperate to find new techniques to help them break through the overwhelming noise and get the attention of high-value decision makers. They want to make fewer cold calls, face less resistance, and have more meaningful conversations.
This is why Jeb Blount (the world's most Fanatical Prospector) and Brynne Tillman (the LinkedIn Whisperer) joined forces to create The LinkedIn Edge—the definitive playbook for combining LinkedIn, AI, and proven outbound prospecting strategies to build bigger, better, and more qualified pipelines. In this highly practical guide, you will learn the tactics, techniques, frameworks, and secret shortcuts that transform LinkedIn into a list-building, prospecting, referral-getting, lead-generation machine that will help you sell more, win more, and earn more.
You'll learn how to:
- Leverage LinkedIn + AI to build better, more effective prospecting lists
- Integrate LinkedIn into your outbound prospecting sequences to increase engagement
- Find decision-makers on LinkedIn using smart targeting strategies
- Use AI tools to streamline research and get crucial contact information
- Write prospecting messages that convert with proven frameworks + AI
- Multi-thread and penetrate buying committees to bend win probability in your favor through deeper relationships
- Jump over gatekeepers and get direct introductions to c-level decision makers
- Leverage your network to warm up cold calls and generate referrals
- Get prospects to accept your LinkedIn connection requests
- Turn LinkedIn into a powerful lead-gen engine that brings hot buyers to you
- Deploy the 5s familiarity framework to build name recognition, authority, trust
- Get more prospecting done, in less time, with better results
The LinkedIn Edge is not the typical “social selling” book focused on vanity metrics or going viral. There is no fluff or shallow “moon launch” techniques that never really work.
This is a step-by-step playbook, written by practitioners. It is about what works in the real world, in the grind of the sales trenches—blending fast prospecting outreach with systematic relationship building sequences to engage prospects with confidence, consistency, and relevance.
With each chapter and every lesson, you'll learn how LinkedIn mastery combined with an AI edge can give you almost superhuman prospecting powers that will explode your pipeline and your income.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 325
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
Ähnliche
Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Other books by Jeb Blount
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
PREFACE
Why LinkedIn, Why Now
A Vibrant Sales Ecosystem
This Is a “Fill Up the Pipeline” Book
We Meet You Where You Are
PART 1: Fast Prospecting
1 The Pipe Is Life
Fast
Slow
Running Fast and Slow
Building Pipeline Fast Doesn't Work When You Are Moving Slow
Note
2 Targeting Your ICP
Go Where the Money Is
Analyze Data Points to Identify Your ICP
Develop Your ICP
3 Build Prospecting Lists Fast
Inbound Leads
Closed‐Lost Deals
Prospects in a Buying Window
Inactive Customers
High‐Intent Prospects
4 Building Lists from LinkedIn Engagement Signals
LinkedIn Post Engagement
People Who Visit Your Profile
5 Job Transition Trigger Events
LinkedIn Free Version Notifications and Manual Job Change Search
6 Leveraging LinkedIn Search for List Building
Free Basic LinkedIn Search
Sales Navigator Search Filters
Boolean Search
Saving Leads in Sales Navigator
How to Add Contact Information to LinkedIn Lists
7 Prospecting Sequences
The Sledgehammer Approach Is Dead
Break Through the Noise with Sequencing
Key Elements of Effective Sequences
8 Integrating Soft LinkedIn Touches and Tags into Your Prospecting Sequence
Warming Up the Cold Call
Prospecting Lubrication
Visiting Your Prospect's Profile
Engaging with Your Prospect's Posts
Tagging Your Prospect in Posts
9 Using InMail in Your Prospecting Sequence
The Good
The Bad
Do It Right or Don't Play
How to Do It Right
The Four‐Step InMail Prospecting Framework
Note
10 Integrating LinkedIn Direct Messaging into Your Prospecting Sequence
Skip Past Gatekeepers
Fast Prospecting Use Cases
Navigating the LinkedIn DM App
Indirect Touches
Direct Touches
Connection Request and LIDM Bad Behavior
11 Crafting Prospecting Messages That Break Through the Noise
Targeted Messages
Crafting Targeted Messages with LinkedIn
Personalized Messages
Using AI for Personalization
Note
PART 2: Slow Prospecting
12 Familiarity
The Familiarity Threshold
Creating Fans Is a Slow Process
A True Competitive Edge
13 A Slow, Deliberate Prospecting Journey
A Gradual Process
Playing the Long Game
The Importance of Patience
A Dual Approach: Balancing Slow Prospecting with Fast Prospecting
14 The Law of Cumulative Impact
Randomness Is the Enemy of Effectiveness
Slow Prospecting on LinkedIn Is Hard Work
Time Blocking
LinkedIn and Slow Prospecting Time Investment
Treat LinkedIn Like a Key Sales Activity, Not an Afterthought
Define Clear Objectives for Each Session
Prioritize Engagement Over Passive Scrolling
Workflow Where It Makes Sense, but Keep It Personal
15 Develop a Slow Prospecting Plan and Metrics
Set Clear Objectives and Activity Goals
Focus Your Plan on Targeted ICP Prospects
Implement, Monitor, and Adapt
16 Managing Your LinkedIn Inbox
It's More Personal Than Email
Time Blocking for Consistency
Prioritize for Speed
Move Faster with Message Templates
Integrating LinkedIn Messaging with Your CRM
17 The BTN Method
The BTN Methodology
Why Doing “Just a Little Bit” Matters More Than You Think
Getting Past the Mental Hurdles
Applying BTN to Prospecting
The Law of Cumulative Impact
Something Is Better Than Nothing
Adopt a No Zeroes Mindset
PART 3: Your Network Is Your Net Worth
18 Your Network Edge
The Heart of It All
Be a Strategic and Targeted Networker
Network Levers
Your Network Is a Sales Safety Net
19 The Seven People You Need in Your Network
Decision‐Makers and Key Influencers in Your ICP
Existing Customers
Channel Partners and Distributors
Vendors and Suppliers
Referral Partners and Connectors
Industry Thought Leaders and Experts
Colleagues and Internal Team Members
Align Your Network to Your Sales Objectives
20 Optimizing and Refining Your Existing LinkedIn Network
Get a List of Your Current Connections
Organize and Clean Your LinkedIn Connections
21 Always Be Connecting
Opportunistic by Design
Engineering Serendipity
You Reap What You Sow
22 Sending Effective Connection Requests
Generic, Spammy, and Forgettable
How to Write Effective Connection Request Messages That Get Accepted
Connection Request Messaging Templates
Optimizing Connection Request Timing to Familiarity Peaks
Withdrawing a Connection Request
23 Avoid the Bait‐and‐Switch Connection Request
Build a Foundation of Trust One Brick at a Time
24 Rules and Best Practices for Accepting Connection Requests
Evaluate Each Invitation Carefully
It's Okay to Say No
Ask for Clarification
Engage in Conversations with Inbound Connections
Build a Network That Works for You
25 Nurture Your Network
The Law of Reciprocity
Play the Long Game and Be Consistent
Lead with Value
Make Me Feel Important
A Systematic Approach to Making People Feel Important
Connector Currency
26 Multi‐threading
The Benefits of Multi‐threading
Relationship Explorer
27 Making the Shift from Cold Calls to Warm Introductions
Social Proximity at Work
A New Level Playing Field
28 Social Proximity and the Best Path In
Look at Mutual Connections on Their Profile
Use LinkedIn Search and Filters
Use the “Connections” Tab on Your Mutual Contact's Profile
Boolean Strings
Sales Navigator's Relationship Mapping
“Best Path In” on Sales Navigator
The GEAR Introduction Request Framework
A Powerful Interconnected Ecosystem
PART 4: Personal Branding and the LinkedIn Profile Lead Machine
29 If You Are Not a Brand, You Are a Commodity
A Level Playing Field
30 Personal Brand Audit
Start Your Personal Branding Journey with an Audit
Virtual First Impressions
People Do Not Make the Distinction Between Personal and Business Posts
Manage Everything You Allow Others to See
Define the Brand You Want to Build
31 The LinkedIn Profile Makeover
Grabbing Attention Above the Fold
Step 1: Save Your Profile Before Editing
Step 2: Cover Image Banner
Step 3: Headshot
Step 4: Headline
Step 5: Name Pronunciation and Elevator Pitch
Step 6: Make It Easy to Contact You
32 The Middle Hooks
Step 7: Tell Your Story in the About Section
About Section Examples and AI Prompts
Step 8: Elevate the Featured Section
Step 9: Leverage the Services Section
Step 10: Check Your Activity Section–Are You Showing Up or Sitting Out?
33 Credentials and Credibility
People Don't Like Change
Emotional Baggage
De‐risk Yourself
Credibility Sections
Step 11: Build Out Your Experience
Step 12: Optimize Your Education Entries
Step 13: Add Licenses and Certifications That Mean Something
Step 14: Skills and Endorsements
Step 15: Get Recommendations
Note
PART 5: Differentiation, Thought Leadership, and Authority
34 Authority in the Age of Transparency
Selling in an Ocean of Sameness
People Buy You
Building Authority
35 Socially Surrounding Targeted Prospects with the Five S Framework
The Five S Framework
A Steady Drumbeat of Credibility
36 Streaming: Creating and Posting Original Content That Builds Your Authority
Posting Original Content Gains More Visibility
This Is Hard Work
Consistency Matters
37 Sharing: Building Authority Through Content Curation
Be Aware and Know Your Space
Tap into the Right Sources
The FIRE Method
Feeding the Stream
38 Stop the Scroll: Creative Inspiration for Content That Connects
The Five Elements of Magnetic Content That Stops the Scroll
Creative Inspiration Is All Around You
It's Really About Understanding Your Audience
39 Search and the LinkedIn Algorithm
The Two Algorithms at Play
Know What You Want to Be Found For
Engineering the LinkedIn Algorithm
Note
40 Showing Up in Comments and Conversation
Practice the 10:1 Method
Avoid the Post and Ghost
Showing Up Is a Daily Discipline
Comments with Substance
The LinkedIn Edge All Comes Down to Showing Up
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 ICP Blueprint
Table 2.2 Example ICP Blueprint for a Fractional CFO Service Compan...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Boolean Search Operators
List of Illustrations
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Sales data tools paired with LinkedIn's unmatched datab...
Chapter 9
Figure 9.1 A bad example of InMail. Jeb has been happily married f...
Figure 9.2 Another bad example of InMail. This message lacks clari...
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 LinkedIn Direct Messaging mobile app.
Figure 10.2 LinkedIn Direct Messaging desktop version.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 ICP trends.
Figure 11.2 Emotions.
Chapter 23
Figure 23.1 Example of a bait‐and‐switch request.
Chapter 25
Figure 25.1 LinkedIn Network Catch‐up feature.
Chapter 38
Figure 38.1 LinkedIn post analytics.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Other books by Jeb Blount
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
PREFACE
Begin Reading
About the Authors
Index
End User License Agreement
Pages
ii
iv
v
xi
xii
xiii
xiv
xv
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
297
298
299
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
Other books by Jeb Blount
The AI Edge: Sales Strategies for Unleashing the Power of AI to Save Time, Sell More, and Crush the Competition (Wiley, 2024)
Selling in a Crisis: 55 Ways to Stay Motivated and Increase Sales in Volatile Times (Wiley, 2022)
Selling the Price Increase: The Ultimate B2B Field Guide for Raising Prices Without Losing Customers (Wiley, 2022)
Virtual Training: The Art of Conducting Powerful Virtual Training that Engages Learners and Makes Knowledge Stick (Wiley, 2021)
Virtual Selling: A Quick‐Start Guide to Leveraging Video, Technology, and Virtual Communication Channels to Engage Remote Buyers and Close Deals Fast (Wiley, 2020)
Inked: The Ultimate Guide to Powerful Closing and Sales Negotiation Tactics that Unlock YES and Seal the Deal (Wiley, 2020)
Fanatical Military Recruiting: The Ultimate Guide to Leveraging High‐Impact Prospecting to Engage Qualified Applicants, Win the War for Talent, and Make Mission Fast (Wiley, 2019)
Objections: The Ultimate Guide for Mastering The Art and Science of Getting Past No (Wiley, 2018)
Sales EQ: How Ultra‐High Performers Leverage Sales‐Specific Emotional Intelligence to Close the Complex Deal (Wiley, 2017)
Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, E‐mail, Text, and Cold Calling (Wiley, 2015)
People Love You: The Real Secret to Delivering Legendary Customer Experiences (Wiley, 2013)
People Follow You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Leadership (Wiley, 2011)
People Buy You: The Real Secret to What Matters Most in Business (Wiley, 2010)
THE LINKEDIN EDGE
NEW SALES STRATEGIES FOR UNLEASHING THE POWER OF LINKEDIN + AI TO COLD CALL LESS AND SELL MORE
JEB BLOUNT
SALESGRAVY.COM
BRYNNE TILLMAN
Copyright © 2026 by Jeb Blount and Brynne Tillman. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per‐copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750‐8400, fax (978) 750‐4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748‐6011, fax (201) 748‐6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.
The manufacturer's authorized representative according to the EU General Product Safety Regulation is Wiley‐VCH GmbH, Boschstr. 12, 69469 Weinheim, Germany, e‐mail: [email protected].
Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762‐2974, outside the United States at (317) 572‐3993 or fax (317) 572‐4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data is Available:
ISBN: 9781394316717 (Cloth)ISBN: 9781394316724 (ePub)ISBN: 9781394316731 (ePDF)
Cover Design and Image: Wiley
If you're not on LinkedIn, you simply don't exist in the professional world.
—Forbes
PREFACE
Most sales professionals are desperate to find new techniques to help them break through the noise and get attention, make fewer cold calls, avoid rejection, and have more conversations. Most salespeople want a bigger pipeline filled with qualified opportunities and everyone wants to sell more.
Yet most salespeople overlook or underutilize LinkedIn—the most powerful prospecting tool ever created that, when combined with AI, can give you almost superhuman prospecting powers.
Those who harness the lessons in The LinkedIn Edge will transform their prospecting strategy and explode their pipeline with high‐quality opportunities. This book is destined to become your essential resource for generating more leads, opening more doors, and engaging in more meaningful conversations.
You should expect nothing less when Jeb Blount, “The Fanatical Prospector,” joins forces with Brynne Tillman, “The LinkedIn Whisperer,” to teach you exactly how to leverage LinkedIn + AI to cold call less and sell more.
Why LinkedIn, Why Now
It can be argued that the moment that the sales profession changed forever and the door opened to modern selling as we know it was when Alexander Graham Bell said, on the very first telephone call, “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
The telephone's impact on the sales profession was profound and lasting. Then, as now, the phone remains the most efficient and effective means for conducting real time, synchronous human‐to‐human conversations with prospects and customers.
Bell made his call to Mr. Watson 150 years ago. Since then only a handful of pivotal technologies have advanced the sales profession with such impact:
The automobile gave sellers the freedom to cover wider regional territories more efficiently.
Air travel literally gave sales professionals wings, expanding their reach nationally and globally.
The internet put unimaginable data at the fingertips of both sales professionals and buyers.
Smartphones put powerful computers in our pockets and made communication ubiquitous.
Video calling shrunk the globe and accelerated sales cycles.
CRM (customer relationship management) made it possible to efficiently capture, organize, and access data.
Artificial intelligence is transforming the way we develop insight from this data—revolutionizing targeting, outbound prospecting, deal strategy, and forecasting.
But, of all these advances, none has had a more dramatic impact on the sales profession and your ability to connect with almost anybody, anywhere, at any time than LinkedIn.
A Vibrant Sales Ecosystem
LinkedIn is a vibrant ecosystem where a billion business professionals are linked together. Here sales and business opportunities abound. It's a sales Swiss Army knife with dozens of tools and applications for a variety of purposes:
Prospecting and building pipe
Networking and referrals
Research and qualifying
Multi‐threading and stakeholder mapping
Pre‐call planning
Discovery
Communicating
Networking
Building familiarity
Personal branding
Projecting thought leadership and authority
And so much more
But what makes LinkedIn truly unique is that this giant database and sales ecosystem is constantly self‐updating. This means that the data and contacts are never stale. In fact, it is the only sales data center where you are always working with the most current information about prospects and their companies.
When you consider that the very essence of selling is connecting with people, building relationships, and solving problems, it's easy to understand why LinkedIn is the most important technological advancement in the history of the sales profession.
This Is a “Fill Up the Pipeline” Book
The LinkedIn Edge is a comprehensive prospecting playbook. You'll gain tools, tactics, and techniques for building a robust pipeline with both short‐term and long‐game strategies for landing big, lucrative deals and dream accounts.
Prospecting on LinkedIn can feel utterly overwhelming, so we're going to teach you how to:
Get started.
Build better prospecting lists and find who and what you are looking for.
Develop messaging.
Help people find you and generate inbound leads.
Communicate and conduct more effective prospecting conversations.
Generate referrals and warm introductions.
Reduce resistance and objections.
Differentiate, build trust, and stand out in a world that wants to commoditize you.
Our mission is to teach you exactly how to enhance, elevate, and accelerate your prospecting efforts by blending LinkedIn seamlessly into your sales tool kit.
We Meet You Where You Are
The problem with most of the books about LinkedIn is that they follow a linear process that doesn't necessarily meet you where you are as a sales professional.
The LinkedIn Edge is different. It is a playbook that makes it easy to dive in right where you need to start, based on your unique situation and immediate priorities. You don't have to read the entire book to get what you need in the moment.
We've sequenced the book into five distinct parts:
Part 1
: Fast Prospecting
Part 2
: Slow Prospecting
Part 3
: Your Network Is Your Net Worth
Part 4
: Personal Branding and the LinkedIn Profile Lead Machine
Part 5
: Differentiation, Thought Leadership, and Authority
Within each part, you'll find the lessons chunked into short, easy‐to‐consume chapters. Since each aspect of a robust LinkedIn sales strategy is interconnected, you'll find that these lessons build layer by layer to connect the dots. This gives you the flexibility to read the book in either a linear or a nonlinear format.
By engaging fully with the content and exercises provided in this book, you are setting a foundation for leveraging LinkedIn for sustained sales success—to win more, earn more, and sell more. Let's get started.
PART 1Fast Prospecting
The more you believe in yourself, the faster you're going to get.
—Adam Peaty
1The Pipe Is Life
Here is a brutal and undeniable truth: The number one reason for failure in sales is an empty pipeline, and the number one reason you have an empty pipeline is that you are not doing enough prospecting.1
In sales, everything rests on putting qualified opportunities in your pipeline. Prospecting is the beginning and the end, alpha and omega. It is also the one activity that salespeople despise more than any other.
As a rule, we will do anything in our power to delay, procrastinate, or avoid it. But it doesn't matter how much you hate it; if you don't prospect, you will fail. That is a guaranteed truth.
In modern sales there are two types of prospecting: fast and slow.
Fast
When you need to build your pipeline right now, nothing works better than outbound prospecting. This means taking direct and immediate action to interrupt, engage, and convert leads into qualified pipeline opportunities.
Fast prospecting is rejection‐dense, which is why many salespeople shun it. On the other hand, it is incredibly effective for building pipe when done right.
Slow
Slow prospecting is a more nuanced approach. It is still outcome focused—putting qualified opportunities into the pipeline—but here we are playing the long game.
Slow prospecting techniques include inbound lead generation, leveraging your network for warm introductions, nurturing high‐value prospects, and cultivating future opportunities. It is relatively rejection‐free but requires faith that, by doing the right things consistently, in time you'll get a return on your investment.
Running Fast and Slow
Slow versus fast prospecting isn't a zero‐sum game. One isn't better than the other. It's a winning combination.
Embracing this dual prospecting strategy is essential for success in today's noisy marketplace. You must put new opportunities into your pipeline now while cultivating future prospects for later. Fast prospecting solves the first problem, and slow prospecting the second.
When you're running fast and slow at the same time, you become a prospecting‐lead‐generating machine, and you can make a lot of money.
Building Pipeline Fast Doesn't Work When You Are Moving Slow
When your pipeline is thin or empty it's like not having enough oxygen to breath. Your highest priority is to fix the problem, fast.
Moving fast means interrupting people, engaging them, and converting them into qualified pipeline opportunities. You must dial the phone, knock on doors, send emails, text messages, video messages, and LinkedIn direct messages—even smoke signals if that's what it takes.
When you're a brand‐new salesperson starting from square one, because you have no pipe and a short window to ramp up your sales, you cannot rely on LinkedIn alone.
From time to time however, we'll work with new sales reps who will challenge us on this premise. They'll claim that they've learned how to eliminate interrupting people and cold calling with a more powerful LinkedIn strategy that gets results faster.
So we challenge them. They can deploy their slow LinkedIn strategy for a week while Jeb will use a fast prospecting strategy. Here is a synopsis of one of our most recent challenges:
New rep:
At the end of the first day, the new rep proudly beamed that his LinkedIn connection requests had been accepted by 16 people and that he'd done a lot of liking, commenting, and sharing. “I made some great connections!”
Jeb:
That morning Jeb made 47 dials, had 12 conversations, made one small sale, and set a first‐time appointment.
We repeated this exercise for four more days. At the end of the week:
New rep:
Added 29 new connections, followed many company pages, posted content, liked content, and conducted lots of research. He'd made
zero
appointments,
zero
sales, added
zero
opportunities to the pipeline.
Jeb:
Set eight appointments for initial meetings, closed four more deals, and added three new opportunities to his pipeline.
Jeb used LinkedIn too, but strategically. He built targeted prospect lists, incorporated LinkedIn direct messaging into his multi‐channel sequences, and researched prospects to craft more compelling messages. The key difference: Jeb integrated LinkedIn into his complete prospecting system rather than relying on it as his only approach.
The false promise the new rep had bought into was that he could use LinkedIn to build a full pipeline, with minimal effort and no rejection. It doesn't work that way. LinkedIn is not a prospecting panacea. It will not provide an endless stream of inbound leads with little effort.
It is, however, a key component of a complete prospecting system. From list building and direct outreach to lead generation and long‐term cultivation of future opportunities, LinkedIn's panorama of features can be a crazy powerful weapon in your prospecting arsenal.
Note
1
See Jeb's book
Fanatical Prospecting: The Ultimate Guide to Opening Sales Conversations and Filling the Pipeline by Leveraging Social Selling, Telephone, Email, Text, and Cold Calling
(Wiley, 2015).
2Targeting Your ICP
Effective prospecting—fast or slow—begins with targeting the right prospects. Targeting means not random. Randomness is the enemy of effectiveness.
When you need to move fast, spray and pray is a wickedly stupid strategy. Precision will give you a much higher return on your time investment. Therefore, it's essential to have a clear understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
A clearly defined ICP ensures that you are targeting the right prospects and personas (role types), at the right time, with the right message. This clarity significantly enhances your prospecting outcomes.
It's also much easier to craft tailored prospecting messages that connect, engage, and convert when you are focused on a specific ICP.
AI PRO TIP
Including your specific ICP when prompting AI for help with prospecting messages produces more effective outputs and saves time.
Go Where the Money Is
When developing your ICP, go where the money is. Your focus is identifying the companies and individuals most likely to buy from you, benefit from your offerings, and become satisfied, profitable, long‐term customers.
The starting line for building your ICP is identifying the qualification data points that indicate a prospect is an ideal fit. Here is a list of the qualifiers that you should consider while developing your core ICP qualifiers:
Industry verticals
Company size and scale
Job roles and titles that make and influence buying decisions
Product, service, and software application
Geographic location
Technology stack
Competitor entrenchment
Credit worthiness and financial health
Compelling buying motivations, pain points, and triggers
Budgetary process and buying windows
Sales cycle, buying process, and decision timeline
The qualification data points you choose will become your targeting North Star.
Analyze Data Points to Identify Your ICP
Once you've identified your core qualification data points the next step is analyzing the data you've collected. Then use that information to define and hone your ICP. The following exercises will guide you through this process.
EXERCISE 2.1 CURRENT CUSTOMER PATTERNS
Start by analyzing your current customer base. The objective is to find consistent patterns and commonalities among your best customers.
Question
Answer
Which types of customers tend to be most satisfied with your product, software, or service and are most likely to renew, be retained, and purchase more (category, industry, business size, segment, role type, problem solved, use case)?
List your 10 best/ideal current customers. (Give specific names.)
What is the title of each decision‐maker for these accounts?
What are the titles of the key decision influencers for each of these accounts?
What is the industry vertical and size of each account?
What makes these customers ideal? (Consider revenue, industry, buying process, relationship, growth potential, fit, enjoyable to work with.)
What problems, challenges, or pain points do you solve for them?
What made them decide to work with you in the first place?
What was the trigger event that caused each of these customers to buy from you?
How have they benefited since working with you? (List the measurable business outcomes you have delivered for them.)
Describe the common patterns among these top 10 ideal customers.
What signals on LinkedIn might help you identify similar prospects?
EXERCISE 2.2 CLOSED WON VERSUS CLOSED LOST
The next step is analyzing the patterns among the deals you are closing versus the ones you are losing. Pull all of your Closed Won and Closed Lost opportunities from the last six months.
Analyze these deals and write down the top 10 commonalities among each type in the comparison table. Look for patterns, including:
Industry
Company size (revenue, employee count)
Geography
Decision‐maker and influencer roles
Buying triggers (e.g., expansion, compliance changes)
Pain points
Sales cycle length
Objections raised
Competitors chosen
Reason for win or loss
Closed Won
Closed Lost
1. 2. 3. 4.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9.10.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.10.
Now take a closer look at the Closed Lost column to identify red flags that signal a prospect is a poor fit. Circle these traits or signs so you can avoid them in the future.
EXERCISE 2.3 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
By analyzing your competitors, you can learn more about their ICP, strengths, weaknesses, and customer segments that you can target and exploit.
Question
Answer
Who is their ideal customer? What patterns emerge in the types of businesses they serve?
What problems do they claim to solve? Are they addressing different pain points than you?
What is their core value proposition?
How do they position their offering? Are they competing on price, service, technology, customization, etc.?
What are their weaknesses? Where do they struggle, and what customer complaints stand out?
Where do they win? What types of deals or customers do they seem to attract most?
Where do they lose? Are there specific segments where they fail to convert customers or face high churn rates?
What are the commonalities among customers that they lose to you?
Consider doing a similar exercise with your competitor's salespeople. Analyze their LinkedIn profiles, messaging, and posts.
AI PRO TIP
Run your competitor's website, LinkedIn team members' profiles, and LinkedIn pages through your AI platform and then prompt your AI to answer the questions in the competitor analysis table. This can greatly speed up the competitor analysis process. Prompt: “Please analyze [company's LinkedIn page URL] [LinkedIn profile URLs] [website URL] and answer the following questions [list questions] in table format.”
Ask AI to run a SWOT analysis of your competitors and compare it to your own company's SWOT analysis. Ask it to identify your competitive differentiators and gaps. This will help you with positioning your strengths and overcoming objections when prospecting.
Another competitor analysis prompt to consider is this: “Compare the positives and negatives of these two companies: [company 1] and [company 2] for [your ICP] in [geographic area].”
EXERCISE 2.4 ICP INSIGHTS
Next, using the information you have gathered, review the ICP insights.
Question
ICP Insights
What industries do your best customers belong to? What company size (revenue, employee count, locations) best fits your solution? Where are these companies located (urban, rural, regional focus)?
Who are the key decision‐makers and influencers? What titles and roles are involved in the buying process? How much influence do they have in making the purchase decision? What are their common professional and emotional motivations for buying from you and your company?
What challenges do your ideal customers face? What priorities and desired business outcomes drive their decision‐making? What problems does your solution help them solve?
What trigger event(s) compel(s) potential customers to seek your solution (growth, regulation, leadership changes)? What objections and hard questions do they commonly raise? What is the typical length of their buying cycle?
What external events indicate that a prospect is ready to buy (mergers, funding, compliance changes)? What technology stack do they use that aligns with your offering? Do they belong to specific associations or attend industry events?
What types of customers do your competitors target? Where do they succeed, and where do they struggle? How does your value proposition differentiate from theirs?
Even when a prospect is a fit in every other ICP qualification category, which red flags indicate a poor fit? What stakeholder behaviors suggest a prospect is unlikely to convert?
Develop Your ICP
Once you've gathered up your insights, you have everything you need to develop your ICP. All you need to do next is synthesize these findings into a clear ICP Blueprint (Table 2.1).
Table 2.1 ICP Blueprint
Qualification Data Point
Your ICP Blueprint
Company Firmographics
[Industry, revenue range, employee count, geography]
Decision‐Maker Persona
[Titles, roles, job functions, authority level]
Pain Points and Challenges
[Operational inefficiencies, compliance issues, revenue growth struggles, etc.]
Primary Buying Triggers
[New funding, mergers, leadership changes, regulatory shifts, market expansion]
Sales Cycle Expectations
[Short‐term vs. long‐term sales cycle, buying committee size, approval processes]
Technology Stack
[CRM, ERP, accounting software, marketing automation tools]
Stakeholder Psychographics
[Risk‐averse vs. risk‐tolerant, innovation‐driven, service‐focused, etc.]
Disqualification Red Flags
[Low‐revenue, high‐churn industry, unwilling to change, misaligned needs]
Make your ICP as specific as possible. Vague and overgeneralized ICPs will cause your targeting to be scattered and less effective. See the example in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2 Example ICP Blueprint for a Fractional CFO Service Company
Category
ICP Details (Example)
Company Firmographics
Small to mid‐sized waste management companies (10–50 trucks), annual revenue of $5M–$50M, located in the southeastern US
Decision‐Maker Persona
Owners, CEOs, CFOs, and operations directors responsible for financial and operational strategy
Pain Points and Challenges
Cash flow management, budgeting and forecasting issues, inconsistent financial reporting, struggles with scaling due to poor financial planning
Primary Buying Triggers
Rapid business growth, entering new markets, dealing with regulatory compliance, recent leadership changes, struggling to secure financing
Sales Cycle Expectations
30–90 day sales cycle, decision‐making driven by financial pressures or growth initiatives, often requires multiple discussions with owners and advisors
Technology Stack
QuickBooks, Xero, industry‐specific ERP systems (e.g., Soft‐Pak, Trash Flow), fleet management software, payroll services (ADP, Paychex)
Stakeholder Psychographics
Risk‐averse but open to advisory support, highly focused on cost savings and efficiency, prefers industry expertise over generalist financial advisors
Disqualification Factors (Red Flags)
Businesses under $3M revenue, companies without structured bookkeeping, highly resistant to financial guidance, those looking for basic bookkeeping instead of strategic financial support
A Continuous Process of Refinement
The first rule of ICPs is that they are not static. Regularly updating your ICP is crucial. As the economy changes, as your company adds new product categories or moves into new markets you'll need to pivot, expand, and rethink your ICP.
By remaining adaptable and responsive to changes, you ensure that your targeting strategy continues to align with market trends, economic realities, and shifts in your customer base. This continuous process is essential to maintaining ICP clarity and remaining agile in the marketplace.
Coloring Outside the Lines
Effective prospecting activity on LinkedIn—fast or slow—begins with a targeted ICP. The time you invest in refining and applying your ICP pays off in efficiency, better alignment, and a healthier pipeline.
You'll achieve better prospecting outcomes when you make the commitment to stick to your ICP as you build your prospecting lists. Likewise, you'll sell more when you benchmark every prospect, pipeline opportunity, and customer against your ICP and develop the discipline to walk away when they don't fit.
We're not saying that every deal must always fit your ICP perfectly in order to enter your sales pipe. This is not how the real world works. For example, when you need to build your pipeline and generate revenue fast, sometimes you'll need to color outside the lines to find opportunities that you can close right now.
