How To Use LinkedIn To Generate

High-Quality B2B Leads Without

Advertising Or Complicated Sales
Funnels
By Leigh Hankin

Introduction

LinkedIn is the number one social media platform for B2B lead generation without a
doubt. Here are few key stats to hammer home this fact:

● 45% of LinkedIn users are in upper management

● 91% of executives rate LinkedIn as their first choice for professionally relevant
content
● 50% of B2B web traffic originating from social media comes from LinkedIn
● 80% of B2B leads generated on social media come from LinkedIn
● 79% of B2B marketers believe LinkedIn is a very good source of leads

If you need to reach B2B decision makers then there is a strong chance that LinkedIn is
where you need to be. In this Workbook, I’m going to show you everything that I have
learned about using LinkedIn to generate leads and get clients.

My Backstory

I started freelance copywriting way back in 2014. Although I knew how to write sales
copy, I had no idea how to generate leads or get new clients. I remember it used to
terrify the daylights out of me even getting on a call to speak with a prospect about my
copywriting services.

It’s a little funny when I think back on it now.

This was when I first dabbled in LinkedIn. I didn’t try it for long though because I had no
idea what I was doing.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

However, I did pretty much everything wrong. My profile was garbage, I used to cold
pitch everyone I connected with (yep, I once did that), and in general, just had no idea
how to use it effectively even though I was aware of the opportunity available in front of
me.

As a result of my cluelessness, I stopped even trying to get leads on it after just a

couple of months.

After that, because I had no idea on what I was doing to get leads and clients, I relied
almost 100% on getting clients using freelance job sites.

Eventually, in 2016, I got a job working for a digital agency as their copywriter and
content writer. I did this for about a year and then got a promotion to Marketing Account
Manager. This is really where I began to get a solid overall education in digital
marketing and lead generation.

I was responsible for many different areas of marketing for clients of that company from
SEO, paid advertising, social media management, and alas, LinkedIn.

It was here where I started to learn how to use LinkedIn properly. We offered lead
generation services to clients using LinkedIn which covered everything from optimising
LinkedIn profiles, strategy, outreach messaging, and more.

This gave me a firsthand education in how to effectively use LinkedIn for B2B lead
generation and we got solid results for our clients. I remember one account I was
managing where we got the client 94 leads in 4 months.

It was pretty amazing.

Eventually, I left that agency to work on my own again about halfway through 2018 but
this time I was much more confident due to my skills and experience gained that I could
actually get leads and clients on my own this time.

So what did I do?

I used LinkedIn and began to offer clients help with their B2B lead generation on
LinkedIn.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

Thankfully, after about 6-8 weeks of prospecting heavily on LinkedIn, I got my first two
clients.

I began helping these clients use LinkedIn for lead generation and client acquisition.

They also got great results.

One client, a business coach, got £51k in new proposals and £14k in new sales.

Another, a sales training consultancy, got £22k in new proposals and £5.5k in new
sales.

Importantly, these clients had a system to reliably get sales conversations with
prospects in their target market and it didn’t require a cent in ad spend.

In this report, I want to show you the principles that will allow you to also achieve similar
results. And unlike other guru’s out there, I’m a direct practitioner in what I preach.

I still use LinkedIn today to prospect for new clients (although my Partner who I trained
up does most of it for me nowadays) and I want to show you what I know is proven to
work based on my own experiences.

No matter if you’re a freelancer, small business owner, salesperson, CEO - this

information will help you better leverage LinkedIn.

The Key Components Behind Every Successful LinkedIn Lead

Generation Strategy

The biggest mistake I see so many people make is that they just want to launch straight
into outreach messaging on LinkedIn. You can do the same if you want but I can assure
you that you’ll be disappointed.

The thing is with LinkedIn, and any marketing in general, is you need to follow a correct
sequence of strategic steps in order to get results. You can’t just skip one step and go
to the next one.

Here is the correct sequence of strategic steps to follow to turn LinkedIn into a lead
generation tool for your business:

© Leigh Hankin 2019

 A) You need a clearly defined ideal client for LinkedIn
B) You need a clear value proposition
C) You need a LinkedIn profile that is optimised towards your LinkedIn ideal clients
D) You need to locate those ideal clients using Advanced Search and connect with
them
E) You need a Magnetic Messaging System that gets people responding interested
in what you offer
F) You need a nurturing system that builds relationships and trust with your
prospective clients

Step 1: Defining Who Your Ideal Clients Are On LinkedIn

You need to know with very specific and detailed clarity who your ideal clients are on
LinkedIn.

Most people already know who their ideal clients on a surface level, which is your
demographic factors. These are things like job titles, industry, company size,
geographic location, seniority, company type, etc.

However, to really know your ideal clients, you need to go DEEPER. Most people don’t
do this but it’s the key foundation behind the success of all marketing in my opinion.

You need to know with crystal clear clarity (in their words, not yours) what they want (as
in results, outcomes, wants, needs) and what they want to get away from (as in pains,
hates, frustrations, etc).

Getting this deep is what will allow you to really understand who you’re marketing to and
how to best communicate to them in a way that gets their attention. Believe me, this is
where it all starts.

I have a training video on this very topic that walks through how to do proper target
market research and define who your ideal clients are. You can watch the ​video here.

Step 2: A Magnetic Value Proposition

This is super important because your value proposition is going to be the one thing,
your main marketing message, that grabs the attention of your target market.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

In order to create a powerful value proposition, there are ten main things you need to
define:

1. Your target market

2. Your target market’s big desire
3. Your target market’s big obstacle to that desire
4. The old solution or their current way of getting that desire
5. Your new solution and improvement on their current way of getting that desire
6. Your personal/business backstory (why you do what you do)
7. Their internal objections
8. Their external objections
9. The big outcome/result your solution provides
10. Your big plain English statement

Once you’ve defined these ten elements, you can then start piecing together your value
proposition.

There are three main components to an attention-grabbing value proposition.

- Be emotionally compelling

What can you say that will get them excited or emotionally charged? Whatever you say,
it needs to be able to move them in some way, whether by hope, love, fear, or
excitement.

- Primary promise

What is the big benefit they get from using your product or service? What is the
outcome or result that it provides? You need to be able to communicate the main
outcome/result that your ideal clients want and most desire.

- Unique mechanism

What is the characteristic that provides that result or outcome, big benefit? What is the
unique way in which you solve that problem they have? Do you offer it in a way that is
different from your competitors? Does your system or process get results faster than
others and can you emphasize this?

© Leigh Hankin 2019

This core piece of messaging is what is going to grab the attention of your target market
and get them interested in what it is you offer.

If you're not sure how to do that, you can use this simple marketing message that does
the job well:

I help [WHO] to [solve their PROBLEM] and [achieve their GOAL] through [HOW you do
it].

Having a clear and compelling value proposition when you message your prospects is
the difference between being ignored and getting responses like:
- No thanks
- You’re no different to anyone else
- Maybe another time

To getting responses like below:

© Leigh Hankin 2019

 Step 3: An Irresistible LinkedIn Profile Optimised Toward Your Ideal
Clients

The days of using LinkedIn as a CV or resume are well and truly over. You MUST turn
your profile into a client-facing promotional tool that specifically calls out your ideal
clients on LinkedIn and showcases how and why you are the solution to their pains,
challenges, and problems.

These are the key areas to focus on with your LinkedIn profile to achieve this:

1) Your headline
2) Profile photo
3) Background cover image
4) Your Summary section
5) Your Experience sections
6) Recommendations and endorsements

1) Your Headline

The most important part of your LinkedIn profile because it’s what people will see when
you send connection requests, comment on any posts in the Home Feed, etc.

There are different approaches to this and you’ll need to experiment with what is going
to resonate best with your target market.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

There are three specific approaches I recommend:

● The big benefit headline

This is where you make a big result or benefit about what you offer. Typically, would
look something like:

“I help hoteliers increase their bookings by as much as 22% in less than 90 days with
zero advertising”

“Helping companies double their sales revenues in 6-9 months by improving the
performance of their salespeople”

● The statement headline

This is where you just make a statement.

“High-Ticket Closer™ | Ask Why Time-strapped Coaches & Entrepreneurs Trust Me To

Close HOT Leads On Their Behalf”

● The achievement headline

This is where you want to highlight your biggest success or achievement.

“I’ve Generated More Than 1,000 B2B Leads In The Past 12 Months, Ask Me How”

“$400 Million In Sales Generated For My Clients | I Help People Rapidly Scale Their
Businesses”

Don’t blatantly copy these headlines, use them as inspiration to come up with your own.

2) Profile Photo

You need a professional-looking profile picture. Not one of you at the beach or down the
pub drinking a beer.

3) Background Cover Image

© Leigh Hankin 2019

Get a branded background cover image created that communicates your value
proposition or a tagline. This is so easy to do and you can do this in 10 mins using a tool
like Canva.

Alternatively, you can use a cover image that communicates personal branding. By that,
I mean of you speaking at an event, some product or service you’re promoting.

Whatever you do, don’t use the default cover image LinkedIn provides, use something
that adds to your personal or business brand.

Here is the one I have at the time of writing this:

4) Summary Section

This is the most important part of your profile because it’s where you’ll sell what you do
to your ideal prospects on LinkedIn.

Here is an effective framework to follow:

A) A powerful opening statement explaining what you do, how it works, and the
outcomes you provide
B) The clear process to results you implement
C) Results you’ve gotten clients using your solution
D) Client feedback or testimonial
E) Call to action (book a call, email you, visit a landing page, etc)

Take a look at the way ​my Summary section​is structured if you need a bit more
inspiration with this.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

I recommend you also add some supporting rich media collateral to your Summary
section that helps with building your credibility and authority. This is where you want to
add in something like a video training, ebook, PDF report, case studies, that
demonstrate your authority and credibility.

5) Your Experience

This section doesn’t need to be too different from your Summary section. In short, it
should be consistent and more so of a rehash of what you already communicated in
your Summary. Although in this section, you may want to add a bit more about client
results or expand upon your process, or something similar.

For your older job/work positions, you want to be sure to communicate some company
branding/story, what you did, results achieved, things you learned.

6) Recommendations & Endorsements

This is self-explanatory. You want to get Recommendations from either former work
colleagues or even better, clients. I recommend aiming for 3 as a nice starting point. If
you don’t have clients, just ask some of your former work colleagues if they’d be happy
to write something good about you.

Whatever you do, don’t go into Facebook groups asking random people to write
Recommendations for you. I’ve seen this occur in some cases and it’s unethical and
plain wrong.

Next is endorsements. I don’t think these are hugely important, they certainly don’t hold
as much weight in terms of social proof as a Recommendation. The reason why is
because it’s very easy to go on some random person’s profile and endorse them for
skills listed even if you have no idea if they’re competent at that specific skill.

Believe me, this happens all the time.

However, with a Recommendation, you won’t get one unless that person trusts and
believes in what you can do because a Recommendation also puts their reputation on
the line as well, hence why it’s such a more powerful form of social proof.

Step 4: Locating Your Ideal Clients Using Advanced Search

© Leigh Hankin 2019

You’ll need Sales Navigator to do this and it’s an essential requirement if you want to
fully utilise LinkedIn as a lead gen platform.

Sales Nav gives you many different targeting options. The most important are:

● Job title
● Location
● Company size
● Seniority
● Relationship
● Company type
● Industry

This is why you need to know with specific clarity who your ideal clients are because if
you don’t then how are you supposed to find them on LinkedIn?

I have a short ​training video here​that explains how to perform an Advanced Search
using Sales Nav.

Key things you should keep in mind when looking for prospects to target using Sales
Nav is if there is an abundance of prospects and how active they are on the platform.

This is really important because you can have a niche that may have 5000 prospects in
total but there are only 150 of them that are active. In this case, you’d be wasting your
time using LinkedIn to reach that group of people and better off using other platforms.

Once you’ve got your list built out and saved, you need to actually start connecting with
those contacts. I recommend about 50 per day, and definitely, no more than 100 MAX
or you face your account being restricted. In general though, you shouldn’t really be
doing more than 50 per day.

A little hack here - ALWAYS start with the active group of people first from the list you
build out using Sales Nav. These people are going to be way more responsive and
much more likely to accept your connection request because they’re people that tend to
use LinkedIn more often than other people.

When sending your connection requests, do not use the default message LinkedIn
includes. Write your own message. Now I’m going out on a limb here and telling you

© Leigh Hankin 2019

that you don’t need to write some super personalised message for everyone that you
want to connect with.

In my experience, you can write a semi-personalised connection request and still see
anywhere from a 20%-30% or more connection acceptance rate, which is pretty
standard.

The best way to write a connection request that is likely to get accepted is to always
highlight similarities or commonalities with the person you want to connect with.

This is quite easy. For example, it could be the industry you work in, job titles, the
location you’re based in, mutual connections, etc.

As an example, let’s say you wanted to connect with IT Directors in London. Here is an
idea of something you could write that utilises a commonality:

“Hi NAME,

I’m looking to connect with senior IT leaders in London as I’m also based in London and
IT is an area I have done a lot of work with previously.

Thanks,
NAME”

Keep this stuff simple, seriously, keep it simple. You don’t need to overthink sending a
connection request.

I’ve even seen good connection acceptance rates when sending something like,

“Hi NAME, was hoping to add you to my network on here as we’re both based in CITY.
Thanks, NAME.”

Lastly, test the response you get with NO message as well. I have seen cases where
not sending a connection message gets a higher acceptance rate than a connection
request with a message.

Test out the different approaches yourself and see what gets you the best response rate
for your specific business and target market.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

 Step 5: Identify Interest In What You Offer Via A Magnetic Messaging
System

Direct outreach messaging is where most of your lead generation is going to start on
LinkedIn.

However, this is probably the area I see most people struggling with. They just don’t
know the best way to get conversations started with their ideal prospects.

So how can you get a dialogue started and get responses?

These are the three frameworks or messaging types I have had most success with:

1. A Magnetic Welcome Message

2. A Magnetic Lead Generation Message
3. Straight To The Punch Message

With these messages, you’re only trying to achieve one single goal. That goal is - ​to
identify if a need exists for your solution in order to transition into an offline sales
conversation.

Let’s unpack each of these in a bit more detail.

1. Magnetic Welcome Message

This is the first message you’ll send after connecting with someone.

In this message, I do nothing but thank them for connecting and then tell them what I do
in one concise sentence. That’s it. Nothing more. No pitching. No asking for a call.

In a formula it would look something like this:

THANK THEM > TELL THEM WHAT YOU DO (YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION) < ASK
A QUESTION OR COMMENT ON SOMETHING ABOUT THEM

Think of a networking event, you meet someone, you tell them what you do, and then
you carry on with the conversation. You want to keep this principle in mind with your
Welcome message.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

You can ask a question at this point if you want, something like, “How are things going
with your business? What do you think of SOME TREND lately? How’s your week
been?”

Just normal, human conversational questions. Granted, many people won’t reply but
that’s fine. You just don’t want to be pitching in your first message to someone. You
want to be human and authentic.

Another option here that can work well is to comment on something you noticed about
them. Maybe you noticed on their profile that they like working with charities, ask them a
question about it. Maybe there is a specific achievement on their profile, ask them about
it.

Your goal with this message is to try and start a dialogue with the person, not sell
anything.

Once you’ve sent that your Welcome Message, people will either respond or they won’t.
Sometimes people will be so intrigued by your value proposition that they’ll reply straight
away to learn more about what you do and offer.

Other times, you won’t get replies. It’s completely normal.

If someone doesn’t reply, you’re going to need to be a bit more aggressive and
proactive with your outreach. This is where you’ll use either the Magnetic Lead
Generation Message or the Straight To The Punch Message.

2. Magnetic Lead Generation Message

Your goal with the Magnetic Lead Generation Message is to get a response and get a
dialogue started by ​adding value to them first before selling anything.

We do this using a high-value piece of content, which will be your lead magnet.

This should be something that specifically addresses the problems, pains, and
challenges that exist in your target market, and shows that you have a solution to
overcoming that problem.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

Your content could be anything from an ebook, case studies, video training,
personalised audit or assessment, PDF report, etc. The most important thing with the
high-value piece of content you offer is that it’s specific to the problems that exist in your
target market.

If it’s not specific and it’s not a burning problem you’re targeting, it will fall flat no matter
what you offer and you’ll get zero responses.

The way you implement this approach is by sending them a message asking them if
they’d be interested in your high-value piece of content.

If they respond with a yes, you simply send that piece of content (your lead magnet) to
them and that’s it.

Here is a message I used for a client of mine that sells sales trainings:

“Hi NAME,

Is improving performance of your salespeople something you’re working on at the

moment?

Reason I ask is because I’ve written an ebook that covers important fundamentals for
improving sales performance that I’d be happy to share with you I learned in the last 30
years working in sales.

It’s based on our O

​ MNIMIND™, CONGRUENTMIND™, and S.O.L.D™ sales
methodologies​, which we’ve used to help some companies double their sales revenues.

Let me know if you’d like a copy of the ebook and I’ll send it to you.

Best,
Alex”​

Some will say yes to getting the content and some won’t. It’s totally normal, the whole
idea with this message is to see who is interested and who isn’t in a way that adds
value to them first before you sell anything.

I guarantee you that if you do this properly you will get people responding to you
interested in what you can do.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

Important:

Something I want to mention is DON’T just add in links to any content in people’s
inboxes. The reason why is because they didn’t ask for the content you’re sending
them, therefore it’s not really providing value.

It’s only value if they ask for it first. ​This is why I encourage you to reach out first asking
them if they want to see whatever your high-value piece of content is before you start
DMing people with links to the content you have.

Do Follow Up

If someone doesn’t respond to your Lead Generation Message, do follow up. Wait a few
days and send the follow up, don’t make it complicated or overthink it.

Send something simple like:

“Hi NAME,

Just wanted to follow up to see if you’d be interested in seeing/getting WHATEVER

YOU’RE OFFERING?

Thanks,
NAME”

3. Straight To The Punch Message

This is the most aggressive and straight to the point message to use and as a result, will
often yield a lower response rate but the upside to this approach is if you structure the
message correctly, the leads you get should be very warm and well qualified.

The way this message works is that you reach out to your prospect with a very short,
sweet, and straight to the point message that targets their pain points and offers a
solution to that pain.

Here is an example I have used before:

Hi NAME,

© Leigh Hankin 2019

If I could guarantee you an increase of appointments with qualified leads at COMPANY,
would you be interested in hearing more?

Thanks,
Leigh”

An example I used for a debt recovery firm:

Hi NAME,

If I could show you how to make sure all of your debtors pay back their debts in 30 days
instead of the typical 90 days, would you be interested in hearing more?

Thanks,
NAME”

As you can see from these two examples, they both target a big pain for these target
markets. So if that prospect has a high level of awareness around that pain, they will
reply interested, I can promise you.

Again, same with the Magnetic Lead Generation Message, if there is no response, do
follow up once to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities.

Step 6: How To Follow Up Without Being Annoying & Nurture

Relationships Effectively

One of the most important parts and often longest parts of a sales process is going to
be following up with leads and nurturing relationships.

So when you get a response to either your Magnetic Lead Generation Message or your
Straight To The Punch Message, not everyone will jump on a call with you right away.

I’ve found it totally varies for each prospect. I’ve had cases where a call will happen
quickly. Then I’ve had cases where I’ve needed to follow up over a period of weeks
before a call occurs.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

It really is going to vary on each person’s own awareness level and perceived need and
urgency for what it is you offer. Some prospects will have a greater awareness about
their problem than others, and some will feel a greater sense of urgency for a solution to
that problem than others.

So you’re going to need to follow up and nurturing the relationship, focusing on building
trust, authority, and believability.

How to follow up practically in a way that encourages an offline sales conversation?

The easiest way to do this is by following up with value.

This is really important. Most people be annoying with their follow ups. They will send
the same or similar hounding style messages/emails over and over again asking for a
call and all it does is eventually piss off the person they’re messaging.

And this is why following up with value is the way to go because most people do not do
this so you’ll stand out.

A good way to think of this is a dating analogy. For most people, you’re not going to
jump into bed with them straight away. There is dating and courtship that is involved
first.

And it’s the same with lead nurturing. You need to give a little bit upfront first (within
reason of course) to invest into the relationship before you can get the financial rewards
at the end.

Practically, the most effective way to do this is using content to provide additional value.

If you’ve got different pieces of content then you can follow up with them giving them
this content. Then what I recommend is that you ​ask for a call every other follow up​but
in a way that keeps it focused on the benefits your offer provides and is congruent to
what you offer in your high-value piece of content.

Example, let’s say you sent over a one page PDF case study of a great result you got a
client as one of your follow ups. You might write something like,

“Hey NAME, we just wrote up our latest success story on how we helped one client get
RESULT in TIMEFRAME, etc.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

Thought you might be interested in taking a look since you already expressed interest in
TOPIC a few weeks ago.

Would you be open to jumping on a quick 10-min call to see how we can get similar
results for you?

Best,
NAME”

So while you’re asking for a call, you’re doing it while still providing value. This is where
most people screw it up because they just don’t add value in their follow ups, instead
they hound and hound asking for the call with no value, and burn the relationship.

As a final tip here, don’t be afraid to use multi-channel follow ups. This is a super
effective way to remain omni present and top of mind with prospects.

Practical ways to do are using email, you can use voicemail drops, message them on
Instagram, etc.

The most effective way to do your follow ups and lead nurturing is to build it out into a
system that can be followed repeatedly for any prospect in your market.

So you’ll have your entire follow up system documented and templated so it’s easy to
follow, and easy to replicate if you end up someday using a VA you train up to do your
prospecting (which I recommend once you personally master it yourself).

Final Words

I’ve just taken you through step by step how you can turn LinkedIn into a lead
generation tool for your business and generate a steady stream of B2B leads
consistently each month using direct outreach messaging on LinkedIn.

Everything I covered is my own personal process and strategies I use to get results on
LinkedIn. When I first started offering my marketing consulting services on my own, the
first two ever clients I ever got were on LinkedIn.

As long as your target market is on LinkedIn and you follow the correct sequence of
steps I have just laid out, LinkedIn can work for you.

© Leigh Hankin 2019

 What Next?

If you haven’t already, ​join my Facebook group.

If you want more personalised help with your LinkedIn strategy then book a free ​Private
Lead Generation Consultation.​This is no sales pitch fest. This is a​free 30-min coaching
call​where I’ll be aiming to genuinely learn more about what you’re doing on LinkedIn
and offer you insights and advice on your strategy to help you get results.

© Leigh Hankin 2019