Creating Merchant Services Leads with LinkedIn

I recently read a great book called ”

The Power in a Link” by David Gowel and I wanted to share some key points with you today on how you can use LinkedIn to generate leads for Credit Card Processing.

1. Create your own LinkedIn profile Make sure you have a good picture on your profile, take some time to think about your summary and how to position your previous work experience. An investment of several hours will create a great LinkedIn profile that will act as your online resume for potential clients.

2. Use your LinkedIn profile to mirror your real life network. The goal is not to connect with a bunch of people like it is on twitter, facebook or YouTube. Rather, the goal is to map and utilize your real life relationships and connections. The reason you need to keep your connection list clean becomes clear in the next section.

3. Use the advanced people search to find 1st and 2nd degree connections that would be prospects for your business. A 2nd degree connection means that this person is a friend of someone you are connected to on LinkedIn. For my search I looked for people with the title of Owner, President or CEO within 25 miles of my location that are either a 1st or 2nd degree connection. If you have only connected with people that you actually know well, that means you are 1 phone call away from a warm introduction to each of these people and you know who to call.

4. Invite every business owner that you sell to join LinkedIn. Even if they only add 3 or 4 connections, if you get them to start using LinkedIn it will give you access to their connections. This is the fastest, most efficient way to get references and referrals and you don’t even have to ask for them, just send an email and invite to each business owner you service and sell them on the power of LinkedIn. Once they join, you will be able to see all of their 1st degree connections.

5. Go make some sales! There are two ways you can use LinkedIn to make sales.

First, you can make a list of all the second degree connections from your clients and go visit them. With this strategy you simply walk in and say, “Hi, My name is ______ and I am connected with Bob at XYZ Company on LinkedIn because I do his credit card processing. I noticed that you were also connected with Bob, how do you know each other?” From this conversation you haven’t said that Bob recommended you but, you did imply that he is happy with your service since he did connect with you on LinkedIn. This is a great way to start a conversation that will lead to a sale (Obviously only mention connections who are happy with your service).

The second way to use your LinkedIn profile to generate sales is on larger accounts. Let’s say you walk into a business and an employee will not let you speak to the business owner but, you get the owners name. Go to the people search and see if that person is on LinkedIn, if so, is he connected to one of your connections? If he is, call up that connection or stop by and say, “Hey Bob, I was trying to get a meeting with Bill over at XYZ Company and I saw that you two are connected on LinkedIn, I was just curious how well you know Bill and if you thought our service might be a good fit for him?”  Go to LinkedIn now!

Have a great day!
James Shepherd

Read the previous post:  Lead with Questions – Closing Techniques

Lead with Questions – Closing Techniques

Read the next article:  Closing Techniques – Responding to Yes, No and Maybe

Closing Techniques – Responding to Yes, No and Maybe