One Weird Trick To Double Your Pipeline With LinkedIn

Bob Woods

Don’t you absolutely hate those “one weird trick” ads? You know… those online advertisements—now in print and on the radio, too—that promise you:

• Incredible weight loss
  
• Testosterone boosting
  
• Amazing riches
  
• Beautiful skin
  
• A PhD in nine credit hours (seriously?)
  
• Many, many, many other things…
  
• (Insert your own self help-related desire here… it’s probably been the subject of a “one weird trick” ad somewhere out there.)

What I’m about to reveal, though, isn’t weird. It isn’t even a trick, per se; it’s actually a strategy. You can begin implementing this strategy right now, and follow up on the beginning steps of it just once a week. What’s more, doing it well (and regularly) can help you double your pipeline.

And unlike all of that advertising you see, you don’t have to pay a dime (or anything else) to find out what it is.

So…. what is it?

Drumroll Please

Get more client referrals.

Yep, just one thing strategy. Once a week.

I’m not going to lie to you. It’ll take several steps to accomplish. And technically it’s more than just one “thing;” after all, what strategy doesn’t take more than just one action step to implement? But if you could double your pipeline, and make a tremendous impact on your business (possibly right away), wouldn’t it be worth it to try?

Thought so. Here goes:

1. Every week, pick five (5) clients who love you.
   
2. Identify who they know that you want to meet. From their Profiles, click on their Connections link in the box where their Profile Photo and Headline are located (lower right). This will take you to a box where you’ll see a magnifying glass at the top right. Click on that.
   
3. In the box, type in the title or keyword(s) of the people you want to meet using boolean searches “TITLE” OR “WORD” OR “PHRASE,” and hit Enter. Experiment with this to see what works best for you.
   
4. When you see the results pop up, click on the ADVANCED link near the top left of the Connections box.
   
5. On the resulting page, drill down by using the filters on the left-hand side of the page. At a minimum, I recommend ticking the “2nd Connection” box, so you can see your client’s 1st-degree Connections.
   
6. Make a list of the people you want to meet.
   
7. Then go to those fave clients and ask them: Ms./Mr. Client: I noticed you are connected to quite a few people I am looking to meet. If you’re comfortable with this, can I run these names by you? …
   
8. Follow through, meet, and sell!

If done correctly… you should be able to secure three introductions from each client, for a total of 15 each week. Hopefully you’ll be able to convert ten of those into conversations, and then two of those ten should then turn into two immediate opportunities. And those other eight? Those might turn into clients, with the proper Social Selling techniques. I think you can see the power of this, especially if you do it every week.

Give this “one weird trick” (that’s not weird and not a trick) a try. It can definitely help you and your business to grow!

Originally published on LinkedIn, and featured in LinkedIn Pulse’s LinkedIn Tips channel.

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