Our LinkedIn success stories have illuminated previously why it’s important to find the right person at a company. For Jeff Ragovin, doing just that has netted his company “over two to three million dollars”.
“I look at my network on LinkedIn,” Jeff tells us, “And I look at that as a gold mine.” As the VP of Sales and Business Development at Buddy Media, Jeff brings in marquis clients like Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft and New Balance by reaching out to the right person with a valuable proposal. Jeff says they’re more inclined to reply when approached via LinkedIn, because “they already have the opportunity to look you up … and maybe even see in your network where you have 14 recommendations. So there’s trust.” Perhaps that trust is why Jeff likes to keep his network “large but lean”.
“It’s not a numbers game,” Jeff says. “It’s not about how many people can I have in my network. With LinkedIn, it’s about how many qualified people that are valuable to me.” Jeff’s track record suggests that success is found in quality, rather than quantity. Though as quantities go, $2-3 million is nothing to sniff at.
How: Jeff has brought in “millions of dollars” through LinkedIn by finding the right person at a company to offer a valuable proposal to.
LinkedIn Tip from Jeff
Come recommended and reach out to the right person at the right company:
• Update your professional summary and request recommendations from your LinkedIn contacts who know what you do best
• Search for the right person to connect with by job title, company, location or keyword
• Review profiles to see if they’re a fit for your proposal and request an introduction through a common connection, or send an InMail directly to that person
If advertising execs have been watching AMC’s “Mad Men” with a knowing eye, it’s likely because they say the show nails the period, the culture, and the industry. Advertising is a tough business that requires a deft hand at finding and managing prospects, which in turn requires maintaining great relationships. Renegade President & CEO Drew Neisser knows a thing or two about advertising, having been in the industry for, he says, “decades, so to speak.”
“LinkedIn is part of the fabric of Renegade and how we do business,” Drew tells us. His executive assistant vets appointments; HR seeks out the best talent; biz dev finds and qualifies leads, all on LinkedIn. Drew even proposes LinkedIn to clients as a resource for reaching targeted niches. But most importantly, LinkedIn helps Drew stay connected with decades of clients while developing new ones.
Drew had to move on to his next meeting, a client that remembered Renegade from nine years ago. They had reconnected on LinkedIn. “That shows you the power of staying connected with people — it’s a long-term game.”
How: Drew needs to maintain relationships with decades of clients and former colleagues, as well as reach out to new business opportunities.
LinkedIn Tip from Drew
Cold calls are dead – know enough about someone to have a warm conversation:
• Research every contact before you reach out to them with LinkedIn’s next-gen Search
• Upload your address book to reconnect with colleagues and clients
• Maintain a robust profile to help old contacts find you and new contacts vet you
Darrel Rhea was a LinkedIn user who wasn’t sure how to leverage his professional network on LinkedIn effectively. A quick 10 minutes that he spent importing his Outlook contacts to LinkedIn yielded a chance encounter with a former client. One thing led to the other, yada, yada, yada and before he knew it he had signed off on a $1M project with his client.
Within the first week, a former client responded and we connected. Out of that came a $1 million consulting contract, just because we were able to connect and remember each others’ competencies and what each other were doing.
The value of your online professional network increases exponentially with the number of your real world connections that you populate it with. The more closely your online network reflects your real world network, the better are your chances of finding that million dollar client.
I think that was the first big Aha moment for me. It [LinkedIn] is just a way of expressing and valuing those relationships that will ultimately pay off in your career and pay off in your business.
And, the best part of the story was how effortless it was. As Darrel concludes (see video below):
That was a pretty good Return on Investment, probably the ten minutes it took me to make those invitations!
How: For those of you eager to replicate Darrel’s success, look no further than LinkedIn’s Webmail importer. Not only can you import your contacts from Outlook’s email client, but also check out the ability to bring in your contacts from webmail clients such as Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Gmail, and AOL Mail.
LinkedIn Tip from Darrel
Bring your real world professional network to LinkedIn through the Webmail importer
For the thousands who read last week’s blog post on LinkedIn user Andy Cohen (Caring.com’s CEO) and the others who watched the video, we’ve got more. Check out our most recent interview with Bruce Carlisle, CEO of “one of the fastest growing private companies in the San Francisco Bay Area” – Digital Axle. (San Francisco Business Times)
Bruce who’s been on LinkedIn “since the beginning of time”, talks about how the service has helped him reconnect with classmates he has lost connection with for the past 15 to 20 years. He also uses LinkedIn to stay in touch with his colleagues (past and present). Finally he talks about how he uses LinkedIn to collaborate with partners, associations he’s a part of as well (such as SF Interactive) as well as with CEOs of other agencies within the interactive industry.
Check out the video interview we shot with Bruce (see below) followed by a few tips-and-tricks that we gleaned from that discussion (after the jump). Check out the Digital Axle blog here.
3 LinkedIn Tips from Bruce
1. Reconnecting with former colleagues or classmates
Reconnecting with former colleagues or classmates is as easy as importing your webmail contacts. Here are the steps to make that happen:
* Click on either colleagues or the classmates tab to reconnect with lost connections
Please Note: This functionality is only as good as the depth of information you’ve added to your profile. Fill in the blanks about your past work experience here.
As Bruce mentioned, collaborating with other companies is a key need for him & other entrepreneurs that LinkedIn helps fulfill. Finding partners. CEOs in the marketing services business or in any other industries is a breeze. If I were to recommend two features that enable this interaction, one would have to be Company Profiles, which we launched recently.
And of course, another possible way to collaborate with your peers in your industry would be through LinkedIn Answers. Let’s say you have a question within the “Advertising and Promotion” vertical, you know where to turn to!
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