Episode 464: List Building Steps and Strategies for LinkedIn Success

Bob Woods | 00:22
Hey—greetings, salutations, and post-Thanksgiving-coma greetings to everyone out there. Thanks for joining us for Making Sales Social Live, coming to you from the Social Sales Link virtual studios. I’m Bob Woods. Stan Robinson Jr. is off today, but Brynne Tillman is here. How are you doing, Brynne?

Brynne Tillman | 00:44
I’m great, Bob. How are you?

Bob Woods | 00:46
I’m doing well, thank you very much. Your last live of the year.

Brynne Tillman | 00:50
I know. Mixed feelings—happy, but I’m really going to miss joining everyone on Mondays at 12:30 Eastern. You all will still be here through the 26th, and then we’ll be continuing onward from there. So that’s great.

Bob Woods | 01:09
So, you’re here today because you’re somehow involved in the revenue-generation side of things for your company or yourself. You want to leverage LinkedIn and its tools in a strategic way to start those all-important first conversations with prospects—without being salesy, our favorite line.

So what’s next? This podcast episode, plus our free ebook on how to do exactly that. Let me pull that up here—this is what happens when you try to produce, direct, and star in the show at the same time. There it is.

Brynne Tillman | 02:30
For those of you listening, it’s socialsalslink.com/listbuilding.

Bob Woods | 02:41
And we’ve got a QR code on the other side as well. You can scan that—QR codes aren’t just for restaurants anymore. I think I’ve used that line before, but it’s still pretty funny.

So on the podcast, we’re going to talk about the why, and the ebook will cover the how. Otherwise, we’d just be reading the ebook, and that wouldn’t make much sense.

Brynne Tillman | 03:11
Exactly. As we said earlier—death by a thousand steps.

Bob Woods | 03:15
Yes, exactly. And I am officially stealing that line.

Before we get into things, it’s important that your LinkedIn profile is positioned as a resource, not a resume. It should provide useful information and brand you as an expert in your field. We’re not going to dive into that today, but it’s critically important.

We do have several ebooks on that topic at socialsalslink.com/ebooks. I believe at least three focus specifically on profile optimization.

Brynne Tillman | 04:13
And the reason Bob started with that is because we’re talking about list building. When you approach people, the first thing they’re going to do is vet you. That’s why it’s important to start there.

Bob Woods | 04:28
Exactly. With that, Brynne, let’s talk about nurturing your network.

Brynne Tillman | 04:36
We all make this mistake—every single one of us. No one uses LinkedIn perfectly. We fail to take inventory of our first-degree connections.

List building starts with auditing your first-degree connections. If you go to the search bar and hit enter, you’ll access LinkedIn’s search filters. Things are changing as LinkedIn experiments with AI, so filters may look different, but if you have “All Filters,” that’s where you’ll want to work.

You can now tell LinkedIn what you’re looking for. For example, first-degree connections in the greater Philadelphia or New York metropolitan areas who are in professional services. This allows you to build a list of people you’re already connected to who meet your ICP—your ideal client profile.

You can also build a list of first-degree connections who are ideal centers of influence or networking partners. The core message is this: before prospecting net new, we must nurture the connections we already have, and that starts with an audit.

Bob Woods | 06:25
You did wonderfully. This is so important because most of us unintentionally ignore our first-degree connections, even though they already agreed to connect with us.

The easiest next step is to reach out with a personal message—nothing generic. Share something relevant: an ebook, a podcast episode, or a recent post. Always ask permission before sending a link so it doesn’t feel spammy, especially if it’s been a while since you last connected.

With that, Paul Smith asked a great question: “LinkedIn has AI assistance now?”

Brynne Tillman | 08:06
Yes, that’s a fun one. If your LinkedIn search bar says “I’m looking for…,” you have it. I wouldn’t call it a full AI assistant yet—that will be more in Sales Navigator—but this is an AI enhancement.

Not everyone has it yet; it’s rolling out. If you do, you’ll see it in the search bar. You tell it what you’re looking for, and it changes how filters work in the background. We’re learning it as we go.

Bob Woods | 09:04
Give it a try and see what happens. You still have access to traditional filters if you prefer more control. One advantage of AI search is that it might surface things you didn’t think to search for.

Now let’s move from first-degree to second-degree connections.

Brynne Tillman | 09:53
This is extremely underleveraged. You can search your connections’ connections. For example, second-degree CEOs in the New York area. You’ll get a list of people who meet your criteria and share a mutual connection with you.

You might find 85 first-degree matches, but 4,000 second-degree matches. These are pathways into your ICP.

From a list-building perspective, second-degree searches with the right filters are incredibly powerful. Bonus tip: save these searches as bookmarks. LinkedIn doesn’t let you save lists in the free version, but the URL contains the filters. Bookmark and name it.

What’s great about second-degree lists is they update automatically. When someone connects with a prospect or changes roles, they’re added to the list.

Bob Woods | 13:28
Okay, that’s in terms of AI search. But for general searches, just to clarify for everyone, there is no restriction on filters based on your account level. A free LinkedIn user has access to the same number of filters as a fully paid user on the linkedin.com side.

Brynne Tillman | 13:57
And while you move into the next topic, I’m going to look into how that’s rolling out and which accounts have access.

Bob Woods | 14:03
That sounds good. The next topic is direct connection requests. In the ebook, we map out a very specific strategy for engaging with second-degree connections using direct requests, and that strategy is name dropping.

In other words, you have a conversation with someone, present them with a short list of people, and ask if you can drop their name when reaching out to those second-degree connections. If they say yes, you use that in your connection request.

For example:
“Karen, Dan Crane and I were chatting the other day, and your name came up. Dan says hello. If you’re open, I’d love to connect.”

This works because the request is warmer. You may not know the person yet, but you know someone who does, you have permission to reference them, and it creates a more genuine starting point for a real conversation.

Brynne Tillman | 15:33
I love this because this is where strategy really comes into play. We can show people great searches all day long, but most get stuck on what to do once they have the list.

Dr. Christine Thorpe commented that name dropping has helped her, and she’s absolutely right—but always get permission first. Never name drop without it.

Also, quick update: the AI assist is currently being beta tested with Premium accounts, but the intention is to roll it out to everyone.

Bob Woods | 16:40
That’s great to know. Let’s talk about referral-based list building—client referrals and referral conversations.

Brynne Tillman | 16:53
Let’s build a referral list. Go back to your bookmarked second-degree list—say, second-degree CEOs in a specific industry or location.

In the “All Filters” section, there’s a filter called “Connections of.” This is incredibly powerful. You can add one of your first-degree connections—like a client—and LinkedIn will narrow that list down to the people they know who meet your ICP.

In the free version, the list won’t be exhaustive. You might see seven to ten people, sometimes more, and it can feel a bit random. But it’s still very effective for building your own list.

Once you have that list, you can use Bob’s permission-based name-dropping approach. This ability to build second-degree lists by client or networking partner has been one of the biggest game changers for me on LinkedIn.

Bob Woods | 19:14
That was excellent. Now let’s talk about what to do once you have those connections.

You can use content to start conversations. In the ebook, we give three examples, though there are many ways to do this.

First, if you find content you believe would be valuable to someone, ask permission to send it and then share it.
Second, congratulate them if something positive happens at their company—an announcement, an award, or a milestone.
Third, use LinkedIn polls. We have an ebook on this as well at socialsalslink.com/ebooks.

Polls should be discovery-based, not sales-driven. For example:
“As a sales leader, what’s your team’s go-to outreach method—cold calling, LinkedIn, cold email, or other?”

Once the poll closes, you can share insights and start conversations based on the results. Polls have been around for a while, but now the good ones really stand out—and they work.

Brynne Tillman | 21:21
Polls are especially powerful for first-degree connections. You can also send a poll directly using the paper airplane icon and blind copy up to ten people at a time with a note like, “Your one-click vote would mean a lot. I’m happy to share insights once it closes.”

This is a great way to start conversations with people from the first-degree list you built.

Some questions in the chat weren’t directly related to today’s topic, so I’ll mention this again: we have a free community where you can ask anything. Go to socialsalslink.com/library, sign up for free, and Bob, Stan, and I are there regularly answering questions.

Bob Woods | 22:35
Our final topic is involving additional stakeholders. If you’re in B2B sales, you know purchasing decisions involve many people—around 6.8 on average, and likely more today.

You need to involve everyone in the conversation and connect with them.

Brynne Tillman | 23:06
I love this one, and I don’t think we’ve shared it on the podcast before.

This list is about identifying all stakeholder roles within an organization. In Sales Navigator, you can search by roles easily. On linkedin.com, you’ll need to use Boolean search.

For example: sales OR marketing OR VP OR CMO OR CSO. Then add the company name and location. This allows you to identify stakeholders inside a target account, regardless of connection degree.

When you’re talking with a champion, instead of asking who else should be involved, you can say, “Typically, the next step includes these people,” and reference them by name. For complex sales, this is a powerful way to move faster and engage the right people.

Bob Woods | 25:06
Couldn’t agree more. We covered more of the why today than the how. For detailed step-by-step instructions, visit socialsalslink.com/listbuilding and download the free ebook—yes, it’s completely free.

Brynne, I think we’ll take it home.

Brynne Tillman | 25:42
I’m already home.

Bob Woods | 25:49
Perfect. Whether you joined us live or are listening via the podcast, thanks for being with us for this episode of Making Sales Social Live. We do this weekly.

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Visit socialsalslink.com/podcast for more information and access to all episodes. And wherever you are this week and every week, be sure to make your sales social. Thanks, everybody. Have a great week. Bye.