Finding and connecting with the right prospects on LinkedIn can be a game-changer for your small business. However, doing it effectively requires more than just sending random connection requests to anyone you come across. By using LinkedIn’s powerful features strategically, you can target the right people – those who are genuinely interested in what your business offers and who are more likely to become customers.
This guide is designed for small business owners with no marketing or technical background. It focuses solely on how to find and connect with high-quality prospects in a way that maximises impact with minimal investment. By following these simple, actionable steps, you’ll be able to build a strong network of potential customers that will help you grow your business.
Download and print the 'LinkedIn Prospecting Success Checklist'. This way you can mark each task off as you follow each step of this guide.
Step 1: Build a Highly-Targeted Prospect Profile
Create an in-depth understanding of the ideal people you want to connect with.
Before you start reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn, it’s essential to know exactly who you are targeting. A highly-targeted prospect profile ensures you focus your time and energy on the right people – those who are more likely to become customers.
Segment Your Audience with Precision
Go beyond simple details like job titles and location. Segment your audience by understanding the specific challenges they face, their business goals, and how they make decisions.
Industry Pain Points: Think about the problems your target customers are trying to solve. Are they looking to improve efficiency, reduce costs, or expand their market? If you understand their pain points, you can position your business as the solution they need.
Decision-Making Power: Identify whether the person you want to connect with is the key decision-maker or someone who influences decisions. For example, a business owner might make final decisions, while a manager could be the one who evaluates new solutions. Knowing this helps you tailor your message to the right person.
Actionable Step
Write down the typical challenges and goals of your ideal customer. Then list the job roles of those involved in decision-making, such as “CEO”, “Operations Manager”, or “Head of Marketing”.
Target Based on Company Needs
To ensure you’re connecting with prospects who are likely to engage with your business, focus on companies that align with what you offer. This means looking at the company’s size, growth stage, and the specific challenges they may face.
Company Size and Growth Stage: Are you targeting small startups, medium-sized businesses, or larger enterprises? The needs of each vary, and understanding this helps you find the right prospects who could benefit from your product or service.
Current Challenges: Research the trends in your prospects’ industries. What are they focusing on? Perhaps they're aiming to expand their market share or adopt new technology. Aligning your messaging with their current business challenges will make your connection requests more relevant and valuable.
Actionable Step
Make a list of the types of companies (e.g., industry, size, growth stage) that would most benefit from your offerings. Use this as a reference when searching for prospects.
Step 2: Master LinkedIn’s Advanced Search Function
Use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search filters to find your exact target audience.
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search is a powerful tool that allows you to find and connect with highly relevant prospects. By using its filters effectively, you can narrow down your search to focus on the people who are most likely to engage with your business.
Start with Basic Filters
Begin by using the “People” search option on LinkedIn. You’ll find a range of filters that allow you to quickly refine your search, ensuring that you’re only targeting relevant prospects.
Location: Narrow your search by location to focus on prospects in the regions where your business operates. This ensures you are connecting with people who are geographically relevant to your offerings.
Industry: Use the industry filter to target professionals working in sectors aligned with your products or services. This helps ensure that the people you reach out to have a genuine interest in what you offer.
Current Company: If you have specific companies in mind, you can use this filter to find decision-makers or employees within those businesses. This is particularly useful if you’re targeting larger organisations or known brands.
Actionable Step
In the LinkedIn search bar, select “People” and apply filters such as location, industry, and current company to create a highly targeted list of potential prospects.
Refine with Additional Filters
LinkedIn’s Advanced Search also includes more detailed filters that can help you zero in on even more specific groups of people.
Past Company: This filter allows you to connect with professionals who have worked at companies relevant to your industry. It’s particularly useful if you want to engage people who have experience in key sectors.
School: If you share an educational background with a prospect, the school filter can help you connect with alumni. People are more likely to engage with those they share common experiences with, so this can increase your chances of forming a meaningful connection.
Years of Experience: Use this filter to target professionals who are at the right level of seniority for your needs. Whether you’re looking to engage decision-makers or influencers within an organisation, this filter helps you identify people with the right experience.
Actionable Step
Once you’ve used the basic filters, refine your search by adding additional filters like “past company”, “school”, or “years of experience” to make your results even more targeted.
Utilise Relationship Filters
LinkedIn allows you to filter prospects based on your relationship to them. This can be particularly effective in increasing your connection success rate.
2nd-Degree Connections: These are people who share a mutual connection with someone in your existing network. Since you already have a shared contact, they are more likely to accept your connection request, making them a warm prospect.
Group Connections: If you and a prospect are members of the same LinkedIn group, you can use this as a relationship filter. Being part of the same group creates common ground, making it easier to start a conversation.
Actionable Step
Apply the relationship filter to focus on 2nd-degree connections or group members. Mention your shared connection or group when you send your connection request to increase the likelihood of engagement.
Step 3: Implement Boolean Search Techniques
Supercharge your search results by using Boolean operators for precise targeting.
Boolean search techniques allow you to refine your LinkedIn searches and focus only on the most relevant prospects. By using Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT, you can create highly specific search queries that help you find the right people faster and with more precision.
Understand the Power of Boolean Search
LinkedIn’s Boolean operators enable you to narrow down your search results by combining or excluding certain terms. This is particularly useful if you’re looking for specific roles, industries, or experience levels.
AND Operator: Use AND to include multiple search terms. This ensures that all the specified terms appear in the profiles you’re searching for.
Example:
“Marketing AND Director AND London”: This search will find profiles that include “Marketing Director” based in London.
OR Operator: Use OR to broaden your search by including alternative terms. This is helpful if your target prospects might have different job titles or roles.
Example:
“Founder OR CEO”: This search will find profiles that include either “Founder” or “CEO”.
NOT Operator: Use NOT to exclude certain terms from your search results. This is particularly useful when you want to avoid irrelevant profiles.
Example:
“Sales NOT Intern”: This search will exclude profiles that mention “Intern”, focusing instead on senior professionals in sales.
Actionable Step
In the LinkedIn search bar, enter your desired terms using AND, OR, or NOT to refine your search. For example, type “Marketing AND Manager NOT Intern” to find marketing managers but exclude interns.
Use Quotation Marks and Parentheses
You can further refine your search results by using quotation marks to search for exact phrases and parentheses to group terms for more complex queries.
Quotation Marks: When you need LinkedIn to find an exact phrase, place the words within quotation marks. This ensures that LinkedIn only returns profiles where the words appear together in the specified order.
Example:
“Business Development Manager”: This search will find profiles that contain this exact job title.
Parentheses: Use parentheses to group different Boolean operators together. This helps you create more complex queries that refine your results even further.
Example:
“(Marketing OR Sales) AND (Director OR VP) AND London”: This search will return profiles of people who work in marketing or sales, hold the title of Director or VP, and are based in London.
Actionable Step
When entering search queries, use quotation marks around exact job titles or phrases (e.g., “Operations Manager”). Combine Boolean operators and parentheses to search for different variations of roles and locations in a single query. For example, “(Founder OR CEO) AND (Technology OR Software) AND UK” will help you find top executives in the UK’s technology or software industries.
By mastering Boolean search techniques, you can create highly targeted LinkedIn searches, ensuring you find and connect with the most relevant prospects for your business.
Step 4: Leverage LinkedIn’s “People Also Viewed” and “People You May Know” Features
Discover hidden prospects through LinkedIn’s built-in suggestions.
LinkedIn offers helpful features that automatically suggest potential prospects based on your activity and network. By making the most of the “People Also Viewed” and “People You May Know” features, you can uncover hidden prospects with minimal effort.
Use “People Also Viewed” for New Leads
When you visit the profile of a potential prospect, LinkedIn displays a list of other professionals under the “People Also Viewed” section, found on the right-hand side of the page. These individuals are typically in similar roles or industries, providing an excellent source of new leads that match the attributes of your target prospect.
Actionable Steps
Visit a prospect’s LinkedIn profile.
Look at the “People Also Viewed” section on the right-hand side.
Click through the profiles of the suggested individuals to see if they match your target audience.
If they are relevant, add them to your list of prospects and consider sending a personalised connection request.
This feature helps you find more people who fit your ideal customer profile without having to manually search for them.
Explore the “People You May Know” Feature
LinkedIn’s “People You May Know” feature suggests new prospects based on your existing connections. This feature is particularly useful because LinkedIn’s algorithm recommends individuals who share mutual connections, similar backgrounds, or interests with you.
Actionable Steps
Navigate to the “My Network” tab on LinkedIn.
Scroll through the “People You May Know” section, which will display potential connections based on your current network.
Review the suggested profiles and identify those that align with your ideal prospect profile.
Send personalised connection requests to those who are relevant, mentioning any shared connections or common interests to increase the likelihood of acceptance.
Using these two features regularly can help you build a list of high-quality prospects without needing to conduct extensive manual searches, making it easier to grow your network efficiently.
Step 5: Engage with Prospects Before Reaching Out
Warm up your prospects by engaging with their content and activity on LinkedIn.
One of the best ways to ensure your connection requests are accepted is to engage with your prospects before reaching out. By interacting with their content, you can build rapport and increase the likelihood that they will be receptive to your request. Here’s how to do it effectively:
Follow Their Activity
Before sending a connection request, start by following the prospect’s LinkedIn profile. This allows you to observe what they’re posting, commenting on, or liking. By keeping an eye on their activity, you can gain insights into their professional interests and priorities, making your approach more relevant and personalised.
Actionable Steps
Visit the LinkedIn profile of your prospect.
Click the Follow button (you don’t need to be connected to follow someone).
Spend a few days observing their posts, likes, and comments to get a sense of their focus areas.
Like, Comment, and Share
Once you’ve followed their activity, begin engaging with their content. Liking their posts is a quick and simple way to appear on their radar. To make a bigger impact, leave thoughtful comments or share their posts with your network, adding your own insights. This helps build familiarity and shows that you’re genuinely interested in what they have to say.
Actionable Steps
Like their posts when you find something relevant.
Leave comments that add value to the discussion, such as sharing your own perspective or asking a question to encourage further conversation.
Share their content with your network, offering your own insights on the topic. Make sure to tag them in the post so they are notified.
Engaging in this way establishes a connection without making an immediate request, which increases the chances that they will accept when you eventually send one.
Send a Warm-Up Message
If your prospect shares something that resonates with you, use this as an opportunity to send a friendly, personalised message. Acknowledge their post or comment, and express genuine interest in their views. This approach makes your outreach feel more natural and less like a cold request.
Actionable Steps
After noticing a relevant post, send a message like:
“Hi [Name], I saw your post about [topic] and really appreciated your perspective. I’d love to connect and continue the conversation about [related topic].”
Keep it short, friendly, and focused on mutual interests rather than immediately trying to sell something.
By taking the time to engage with your prospects before reaching out, you warm them up to the idea of connecting, making your outreach more personal and effective.
Step 6: Use LinkedIn Alumni and Company Pages
Leverage shared experiences and organisational networks to build connections faster.
LinkedIn offers powerful tools to help you find and connect with business prospects by tapping into shared experiences and specific organisations. By using the Alumni Tool and exploring company pages, you can quickly identify potential prospects and make meaningful connections based on common backgrounds or company ties.
Find Shared Backgrounds Through Alumni Networks
Shared experiences, such as attending the same university, can make it easier to start conversations with potential prospects. LinkedIn’s Alumni Tool allows you to filter and search for people who attended the same educational institution as you. This common ground can serve as a great icebreaker.
Actionable Steps
In the LinkedIn search bar, type the name of your university.
Select the Alumni tab from the university’s page.
Use filters such as industry, location, or job role to narrow down potential prospects.
When reaching out, reference your shared educational background.
For example:
“Hi [Name], I noticed we both studied at [University]. I’d love to connect and hear more about your work in [industry].”
By using the Alumni Tool, you can create a more personal connection that often leads to better engagement.
Mine Company Pages for Key Contacts
LinkedIn’s company pages offer a quick way to find professionals working at your target organisations. You can search for employees by department, job function, or location, allowing you to pinpoint decision-makers or influential contacts who may be interested in your products or services. Tailoring your message to the company’s current activities or achievements can also improve the effectiveness of your outreach.
Actionable Steps
Visit the LinkedIn page of a target company.
Click on the See all employees button to view a list of current employees.
Use filters to search by job function (e.g., marketing, operations, business development) or seniority level to find the right contacts.
Explore the company’s recent posts or achievements and use this information to personalise your connection request.
For instance:
“Hi [Name], I’ve been following [Company] and saw that you recently [mention company achievement]. I’d love to connect and learn more about how your team is approaching [relevant topic].”
Using company pages allows you to target professionals who are likely to benefit from your services, while personalising your outreach based on the organisation’s recent developments.
By leveraging shared experiences through the Alumni Tool and targeting specific employees via company pages, you can make faster, more relevant connections on LinkedIn.
Step 7: Personalise Every Connection Request
Make every connection request feel relevant and customised to each individual.
One of the most effective ways to increase your chances of building meaningful connections on LinkedIn is to personalise every connection request. Generic requests are easy to ignore, but a customised message shows you’ve taken the time to learn about the individual, which makes you stand out.
Craft a Custom Message for Each Prospect
Avoid sending the default LinkedIn connection request. Personalise each one by referencing specific details from the prospect’s profile. This could be a recent post they’ve shared, a mutual connection, or a shared interest. Mentioning something unique about their work or background helps to create an immediate connection and shows you’re genuinely interested in them.
Actionable Steps
Review the prospect’s profile and look for something relevant to mention (e.g., a recent post, their job role, or a shared group).
When sending the connection request, click Add a note.
Write a personalised message.
For example:
“Hi [Name], I saw your recent post on [topic] and thought it was insightful. I’d love to connect and learn more about your work in [industry].”
Keep your message friendly, brief, and focused on their interests.
By showing that you’ve taken the time to learn about them, your connection request will be more likely to stand out from the crowd.
Highlight a Mutual Benefit
When reaching out, it’s important to focus on how the connection can be mutually beneficial. Rather than diving into a sales pitch, aim to provide value to the prospect. This could be sharing an idea, a relevant article, or simply expressing an interest in learning more about their work. Keep the tone light and focused on how connecting can benefit both parties.
Actionable Steps
In your connection request, include something that could be useful or interesting to the prospect.
For example:
“I noticed you’re interested in [topic]. I came across an article recently that might be helpful – I’d be happy to share it if you’re interested.”
Avoid mentioning sales or trying to pitch your product too early. Focus on building a relationship first.
By crafting each connection request to be relevant and beneficial to the prospect, you’ll increase the likelihood of getting accepted and building a meaningful business relationship.
Step 8: Monitor and Analyse Your Outreach Performance
Track your success to continually refine your approach and maximise results.
Once you’ve started connecting with prospects on LinkedIn, it’s important to keep track of how well your efforts are working. By monitoring your connection acceptance rate and engagement levels, you can fine-tune your strategy to get the best results over time.
Track Your Connection Acceptance Rate
To understand how effective your connection requests are, keep a simple record of how many you send and how many are accepted. This will help you identify patterns and figure out what’s working well. If your acceptance rates are lower than expected, revisit your approach. Are your messages personalised enough? Are you targeting the right people?
Actionable Steps
Use a spreadsheet or notebook to record the number of connection requests you send each week and how many are accepted.
If your acceptance rate is low, review your messaging and the type of prospects you’re reaching out to. Consider making your messages more personal or adjusting your target audience.
Evaluate Prospect Engagement
After your connections are accepted, it’s essential to monitor how prospects engage with your content or respond to your interactions. Are they liking, commenting, or sharing your posts? If you’re seeing little engagement, it might mean your content isn’t resonating with your audience, or you’re not actively engaging with their content enough.
Actionable Steps
Monitor how many of your new connections interact with your posts, either by liking or commenting.
If engagement is low, consider revising the type of content you’re sharing. Focus on content that provides value to your prospects, such as industry insights or practical tips.
Actively engage with their posts as well – the more interaction you have, the stronger the relationship.
Refine Your Search Criteria Over Time
As you gain more insights into which types of prospects are responding to your outreach, adjust your search criteria accordingly. You might find that certain industries or job roles are more receptive to your connection requests, allowing you to focus on these more in the future. Continually tweaking your approach ensures you’re always targeting the right people and maximising your results.
Actionable Steps
Review your connection and engagement data to identify patterns in the types of prospects who are responding well.
Use this information to refine your search criteria. For example, if you notice that people in specific industries are more likely to engage, focus your future searches on similar sectors.
Adjust your messaging to better align with what’s working, and continue experimenting to improve your results.
By tracking and analysing your outreach performance, you’ll be able to continuously refine your approach, ensuring that you’re connecting with the right prospects and maximising your success on LinkedIn.
Conclusion: Connecting with the Right People on LinkedIn
By using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search functions, Boolean search techniques, and personalised outreach strategies, you can effectively find and connect with the right prospects who are most likely to become your customers. Engaging with their content and following up with meaningful interactions ensures that your connections are not only accepted but nurtured into valuable business relationships.
This step-by-step approach allows you to focus your efforts on the most relevant people with minimal investment, helping you build a targeted network of prospects that can drive growth for your business. By refining your methods based on performance and continuously learning from your interactions, you can maximise your results and see a big impact from your LinkedIn outreach.
With these strategies in place, you’re well on your way to building a strong LinkedIn network that will help you grow your customer base effectively and efficiently.