How To Connect with Decision Makers on LinkedIn

I am sharing 3 things with you today:

1: Why your goal determines your strategy on LinkedIn

2: Connecting to decision makers

3: The most important influence on your posts  

Let’s get into it.

Why Your Goal Determines Your Strategy on LinkedIn

One of the most annoying problems I have ran into several times with LinkedIn clients is confusing goals. They say they want one thing and then they get pissed that they didn’t get another thing.

For example, someone would say, I want a lot of reach and want to go viral. And then, after going viral, they would say, “I didn’t get a lot of leads”.

Well, you didn’t say you wanted leads initially. If you had said that, the strategy would have been different.

The strategy to get leads and the strategy to go viral on LinkedIn are two different things. And yes, you can have the best of both worlds, but you would need to prioritize one over the other (at least at the early stages).

Just because you are going viral doesn’t mean you will get leads. This is a fact.

There are people who love to brag about inbound leads on LinkedIn. “I made one post and got 5 leads”. And that is the anomaly. If you want to consistently get leads, you have to go do outreach.

Get Sales Navigator and target the people you want to reach with a message that appeals to them. No matter how good your content game is, you cannot depend on organic content for lead gen.

You absolutely cannot.

The secret to a steady flow of leads is outreach. Reach out. It is lazy to expect leads to come to you. Go to them, at least if you want predictable, consistent revenue.

You have to be clear about your goals. What exactly do you want from LinkedIn? Right now, my priority on LinkedIn is getting a job. And therefore, I don’t care about lead gen or going viral.

Instead, I care about connecting and conversing with people around subjects that can lead to opportunities. I make over 100 comments per week. And I am selective about the posts I write comments on.

Your goal determines your strategy. What is your goal?

And you must be honest with yourself about your goal. Don’t ask for virality if what you really need are leads.

Connecting to Decision Makers

Connecting to decision makers has been my top priority in the last few weeks on LinkedIn. I have tried several ways, and there is a path that seems to work better than others.

But first, let’s talk about what doesn’t work…

Cold DMs. The problem with cold DMs is that the success rate is very low. And it is worse when the person sending the cold DM is a salesperson or has a sales title. That immediately sets off alarm bells in the head of the recipient.

I rarely send cold DMs to anyone. And when I did that as a strategy, it didn’t work so well.

What works (from everything I have tried) is comments to DM. First, engage on comments and then DM.

Now, is it automatic? No, it is not. But the response rate is much higher when they have had a conversation with you in the comment section.

I have made a pitch in the comments, and while it didn’t get me a quick answer, I did get some kind of response.

One big problem about getting ghosted in the DMs is that you don’t know whether they saw your message at all. In the comments, you can be sure they saw your message. And if they are the type that respond to comments on their posts, they will respond.

When you comment on the post of the decision-maker, you are giving more impressions (and visibility) to their posts. Meanwhile, if you send a DM, you are asking for attention. And my rule is – give before you ask.

Business decision makers are people like you. They want interaction, not a pitch slap.

Engage in the comment threads before you DM or send a connection request (if they are active on LinkedIn). It would make your life easier. I can’t emphasize this enough.

The Most Important Influence on Your Posts

The LinkedIn algorithm is not designed to send your post to your ideal client. Instead, your post will be sent to people who consume a similar kind of post.

LinkedIn mostly connects you to your peers. Not who you want to reach, but others like you. This is why the biggest influence on your post is undoubtedly your LinkedIn headline.

I have done several experiments on this. And every time I change my headline, my content distribution gets affected.

Your headline must mention the right keywords. This is the most important. If you mention too many keywords, the essence is lost.

Your headline must appeal to both humans and the algorithm. The keyword density of your headline and bio will be used as a major factor in who is shown your LinkedIn post. It will also determine who shows up on your feed.

Remember that these platforms are no longer social media. They are interest media. They are trying to show you what you would be interested in.

Make it easy for the LinkedIn algorithm to push your post to the right people. It is easier for founders to reach founders. It is easier for executives to reach other executives.

Call yourself the closest thing you can that matches the people you want to reach.

I rest my case

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