Build Your Ideal Buyer Persona Before Prospecting on LinkedIn

Are you looking for a way to learn more about your target audience? Creating buyer personas will reveal vital information about your ideal client—information you can then use to find more prospects just like them. But building your typical buyer persona for marketing and sales is slightly different when you’ll be using it for LinkedIn. The key is being able to pinpoint your clients’ attributes that line up with LinkedIn’s search filters, which will enable you to quickly build a qualified list of your targeted buyers.

Creating a LinkedIn buyer persona is a relatively simple process, but should be taken seriously and have the proper time devoted to it. Many factors go into a comprehensive client persona, but for now, I am going to cover the key components that will have the greatest impact when leveraging LinkedIn to find and engage prospects.

Start by selecting three clients that you wish you could clone, and make them the focus of your research. Look up the company page as well as the people that you’ve worked with pre- and post-sale. Research and record the following characteristics to create your LinkedIn client personas:

Company Page:

1. Industry
2. Specialties
3. Type (Public or Private)
4. Headquarters location
5. Number of employees
6. Take note of “related” and “people also viewed” companies on the bottom right of the company page, as these will often be ideal prospects for you

Individual Profiles:

1. Title
2. Location
3. Industry (although this may be the same as the company page, often individuals will choose an industry based on their title, not the company)
4. Previous Employers
5.  Schools they attended
6. Groups they are part of
7. Keywords in their summary and skills sections
8. Years of experience
9. Years at this company

Once you’ve identified the key search criteria, create a search string using titles and keywords, paste it in the search bar and complete the appropriate filters on the right-hand side. You will quickly identify prospects that match your ideal clients, which you may never have discovered any other way.

*Many of the corresponding filters are only available on Sales Navigator.

BONUS: If you choose the 2nd-degree relationship filter in the advanced search box, you will get a list of prospects that someone in your network is connected to, which will enable you to leverage your relationships to get warm introductions. Here is a sample message you can send your shared connection:

I hope this note finds you well. As you may know, I’m leveraging LinkedIn to grow my network and noticed that you’re connected to XXX at XXX. I was wondering if you would kindly provide an introduction for me. If you could copy us both in an email or LinkedIn message, I can take it from there. To make it easier for you, I’ve included a short paragraph below that you’re welcome to copy and paste.

Also, please feel free to look through my connections, as I’m happy to make introductions for you as well.

Thanks so much!

Brynne

I’d like to introduce you to Brynne Tillman, CEO of Social Sales Link. I thought it might make sense for the two of you to connect and investigate how you might work together. Brynne helps enterprise sales teams build their pipeline, reduce the sales cycle and close more business through leveraging the power of LinkedIn. Brynne really understands how to monetize LinkedIn, and has created programs that have made a significant impact on the way professionals are growing their business. Brynne will be contacting you in the next couple of days. Please take her call, as I believe it will be well worth your time.

If you would like to reach out to Brynne, her contact information is: brynne.tillman@socialsaleslink.com | 215.499.0499

http://www.linkedin.com/in/brynnetillman | @BrynneTillman

Building a buyer persona is key to finding and engaging with your ideal prospects. Spend some time to truly identify who it is you want to meet, as it will make a significant impact on your business development activities.