Although the majority of people perceive LinkedIn like just an online résumé, especially those in sales, this social media platform goes far beyond that. The modern salesperson and anyone engaged in social selling can increase sales by using LinkedIn. When one switches to a LinkedIn Premium account, the value increases.
We’ll go over the advantages of the various LinkedIn Premium membership tiers in this article. We’ll also discuss if paying for a LinkedIn premium subscription is worthwhile and how contemporary salespeople may make the most of it.
Free Account
LinkedIn can be used by salespeople to locate, interact with, and connect with high-quality and qualified prospects. After that, start having prospective business interactions with those relationships.
Social commerce is all about generating additional discussions and fostering current relationships. Fortunately, professionals can create a free LinkedIn account to establish their online profile and begin corresponding with potential clients as they expand their professional networks.
Did you know that when considering speaking with a sales representative, 75% of decision-makers opt for an insightful LinkedIn profile? Some online training courses (it’s not a shame to take one, even though you have some notable sales records), show sellers how to make the most of their LinkedIn profiles to attract more customers. You’ll learn how to increase your exposure, engage more successfully, develop TOMA (Top of Mind Awareness – when a buyer immediately thinks of a specific brand when they consider a certain market or specialty; that’s a sort of brand awareness) and subject matter knowledge, as well as use LinkedIn more successfully in the online, on-demand course. Use LinkedIn Kudos (i.e. so-called Thank You Card) as a quick method to increase your visibility.
Let’s look at some more free strategies to enhance your LinkedIn account now.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile on a Free Account
You can enhance your profile by doing the following:
- Include a LinkedIn banner in your profile that represents your company brand.
- Use the 220-character headline on your LinkedIn profile to describe how you assist your client.
- Include a 10-second audio introduction to LinkedIn (only on a mobile version).
- Include a 30-second LinkedIn profile clip outlining how you assist your clients (only on a mobile version).
- Under your headline, include a clickable CTA (Call to Action. (only for users who have Creator Mode enabled, for now).
- Create a buyer-centric profile and write in your target audience’s language.
- Increase the amount of informational content and multimedia in the “Featured” area for your customers.
- Utilize a CTR (Call to Read) and then all 2,600 characters to optimize the “About” section.
- Inform your target audience about important and pertinent updates.
Your sales team can begin looking for new customers and putting on a schedule for distributing valuable material once they’ve optimized your company’s LinkedIn accounts. But no sales pitches!
However, this is when salespeople, entrepreneurs, and business owners begin to see the limitations of the standard LinkedIn free account and may start to think about the extra capabilities offered by the premium account. How much does LinkedIn Premium cost? We’ll see.
Does LinkedIn Premium Make Sense?
For free users, LinkedIn has a monthly search cap. You’ll receive a notification if LinkedIn believes that you’re using the platform to attract or generate leads. If a LinkedIn member isn’t just looking for connections but also seeking to attract or hire, LinkedIn will monitor their accounts to find out.
A profile would become constrained if:
- many profiles of people who aren’t first-degree links are seen;
- there are searches for particular businesses;
- there are searches for personnel at a particular company;
- outside of their network searches happen (third-degree people searches).
Honestly, LinkedIn has a point here. Prospecting must be compensated for if your sales representatives are doing it (which is to be hoped for!). Among other advantages, switching to a LinkedIn Premium membership gives users access to more searches.
The fact that sellers can only send direct messages to LinkedIn users they are connected to is another restriction with a basic account. InMail fills that role.
What’s LinkedIn’s InMail?
LinkedIn InMail is an additional service available to Premium subscribers. Members of LinkedIn can send messages to others with whom they aren’t linked via InMail. It’s similar to possessing an email address but not utilizing the recipient’s default mailbox. According to LinkedIn, InMail is 2.6 times more powerful than emails by itself. The volume of InMail messages you receive each month will depend on the sort of paid subscription you have.
The title line and content of an InMail message are limited to 200 and 8,000 characters, respectively, based on the plan selected. After 90 days, unused InMail credit expires. However, you receive your credit back when the person you InMailed replies.
Let’s now take a closer look at LinkedIn Premium…
Membership Types and Cost for LinkedIn Premium
What’s the price of LinkedIn Premium? It comes in various forms (from the most expensive to the cheapest):
- Recruiter Lite – $119.99 per month
- Sales Navigator – $79.99 per month
- Business – $59.99 per month
- Career – $29.99 per month
Should You Buy a Premium LinkedIn Account?
Which level of LinkedIn membership is top-notch? It varies. Which level of LinkedIn Premium is ideal for you should be the real question.
What are your objectives? Exactly why do you use LinkedIn?
- Employing salespeople? Select Recruiter Lite.
- Do you search for new clientele on LinkedIn? Decide on Sales Navigator.
- Are you extending your network in business? Avail yourself of LinkedIn Premium Business.
- Do you have a new career strategy or are you looking for work? Pick the LinkedIn Premium Career option.
Let’s now analyze all these membership tiers, but this time from the one with the lowest price to the most expensive.
Benefits of LinkedIn Premium Career
LinkedIn Premium Career provides several helpful resources for job searchers, whether they are sales leaders or sales representatives seeking their next position.
Additionally, Premium Career gives you three InMail credits to contact recruiters directly and gives you access to information on who has seen your account in the previous ninety days. Additionally, you get information on salary, employment prospects, and how you stack up against other candidates for particular positions.
Accessibility to LinkedIn Learning, which delivers a selection of video courses, is included with Premium Career and the remaining LinkedIn Premium tiers. By the way, Employer Engagement with LinkedIn and B2B Marketing with LinkedIn are two courses that stand out on LinkedIn Learning.
When you register for a Premium Career membership on LinkedIn, you get:
- 6x more views on profiles;
- 3x more requests for connections;
- 2x quicker hiring process. Recruiters see you as a great applicant when you submit through LinkedIn, and your submission is elevated to the front of the line.
Features of LinkedIn Premium Business
Unlimited individual searches are available through Premium Business, and you receive 15 InMails each month. This is a terrific way for your salespeople to broaden their networks and get in touch with important prospects.
Actually, salespersons, especially sales leaders in your company should be included in decision-making throughout all phases of your marketing plan. For instance, contrary to many thoughts, salespeople ought to have more influence even over the company website. How can sales leaders facilitate B2B selling and buying if they don’t participate actively or at all in their organization’s principal digital presence? Not sure which of the pricing plans for website building is ideal for you? Will the Wix-built website allow you to sell goods? Consult the sales department! Damn it, talk to them about the most minute details of the selling procedure. Without that, using LinkedIn Premium won’t do you any good.
The extra functionality of the LinkedIn Premium Business account is as follows:
- Business Insights
- Online Video Courses
- Who’s Viewed Your Profile
- Career Insights
What Does This Mean for LinkedIn Premium?
You could be considering now whether a Premium membership is pricey. Are all those additional features actually necessary for you or your sellers?
We think LinkedIn is a valuable resource for launching sales conversations. Additionally, sales representatives have a better probability of maintaining a full pipeline the more discussions they have. You might necessitate more than the basic (free) account in order for it to happen.
For instance, the seller can utilize InMail to get in touch with a prospect if they haven’t replied to a customized connection request. They are unable to use InMail with the basic account.
The “Who’s Viewed My Profile” feature is another use case. A LinkedIn member can only view the most recent five visitors to their open profile when using the basic account.
Sellers must be aware of the people they are drawing to their profiles when prospecting. A profile visit functions as a trigger event, inviting the seller to get in touch and establish a connection. Reps will be losing many opportunities because the basic account solely permits the previous five views.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator: What Is It?
You and your team need to sign up for a LinkedIn Sales Navigator Professional account if you’re interested in the use of social media for sales and prospecting through LinkedIn. Despite having many more capabilities, Sales Nav costs only $20 extra monthly in relation to LinkedIn Premium Business.
Each seller gets 20 InMail messages each month in addition to advanced search filters, a lead-builder tool, sales analytics, lead recommendations, and the option to save leads. These features enable sellers to target prospects by position, company, location, and other factors.
How to Find Warm Leads Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator
One of the most effective social selling tools now accessible is LinkedIn Sales Nav, but most teams aren’t using it to its full potential. The typical adoption rate among our clients is just approximately 20–30%, and even many power users aren’t making the most of LinkedIn Sales Nav’s amazing potential.
There are high hopes for LinkedIn Sales Nav’s ROI due to the size of the investment. Furthermore, the ROI can significantly exceed even those lofty estimates when the correct program is in place. It’s the responsibility of the leadership to make sure that their staff is equipped with a daily sales action plan and templates that are in line with your KPIs rather than getting lost in random social interactions.
Features of LinkedIn Sales Nav
Many elements in Sales Nav can assist sellers in prospecting and managing their client interactions. The following are the key characteristics:
- Lead Recommendations
The Sales Navigator software offers sellers personalized suggestions of individuals at their target accounts in addition to letting them search for their own prospects.
- Advanced Lead and Company Search
With a search experience that presents the most pertinent prospects, this lead generation function enables sellers to locate the appropriate people and businesses.
- Real-time Sales Updates
This useful function gives you information on your accounts and leads, along with any changes in employment.
- CRM Integration
With just one click, you can add Sales Navigator actions to your CRM and instantly save leads and accounts.
- Who’s Viewed Your Profile
Who has visited your LinkedIn profile within the last 90 days is listed in greater detail in Sales Navigator.
- Notes and Lists
Lists and notes that can be synchronized back to CRM allow sellers to arrange their leads and accounts.
- TeamLink
Through your company’s collective network, you can connect with any potential customer using this tool.
- Smart Links Presentations
You can distribute sales material from within LinkedIn using Smart Links. The information can be viewed by your receivers without having to download it, and you can keep tabs on who has done so.
- LinkedIn InMail Messages
As was already noted, sending an InMail message to a LinkedIn user who isn’t affiliated with you is a fantastic approach to reaching out to the possible lead personally.
Do You Really Need a Sales Navigator?
It’s not sufficient to provide your salespeople access to LinkedIn Sales Navigator. We’ve said it. Sorry. Teams of sales managers who use Sales Navigator are all too familiar with this tale. They only offer product training from LinkedIn, but they expect their workforce to be ready to go right away.
The in-house training for LinkedIn Sales Navigator covers the product’s functionality, but it leaves out a plan for using the platform to achieve goals. Salespeople require social selling training if you want them to be successful social sellers and make the most of Sales Navigator.
How to Initiate a LinkedIn Premium Account
To see if you enjoy any LinkedIn premium features, you may join up for a free 30-day trial and try out all the features prior to subscribing to LinkedIn Premium.
You must learn how to use LinkedIn Premium Business, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or LinkedIn Premium Career after you and your team have those accounts. Just opening these accounts is like having a car without a driver’s license.
If you don’t know how to use them, having all the fantastic sales prospecting capabilities of LinkedIn Premium or the free account won’t help you. That’s why there are digital training courses so that you and your team could learn how to use LinkedIn for this reason.
Conclusion
To bear the fruits of LinkedIn Premium, you must discover the most efficient connection practices that will assist you in reaching the proper prospects, as well as how to construct a profile that is appealing to buyers and upload material that promotes your reputation.
As a seller, you must develop the necessary skills to engage in more conversions with prospects and close more deals. That’s the whole point of LinkedIn Premium but also the goal of your company. Are we right?