Here’s a simple playbook that works incredibly well for your first sales, using your LinkedIn profile. Note that even though this is simple, it’s not easy. There’s a ton of nuance that is easily missed—and even well experienced founders miss. Even in our experience working with serial entrepreneurs, most founders try to outsource this work too soon—not learning the nuances of their market themselves.
In general, the framework runs in 3 main stages:
1️⃣ Prospects to problems (read here)
Find your target potential customers on LinkedIn
Connect with them
Discovering their problems
2️⃣ Problems to pilots (read here)
Validate your discovered value proposition
Validate a pilot offer
Convert them to a signed pilot
3️⃣ Pilots to proof (read here)
Deliver value
Deduce what works and destroy what doesn’t
Double down
⚠️ This doesn’t always work
There are a ton of assumptions baked into this framework. If your efforts aren’t aligned with these assumptions, trying this framework will likely waste your time.
Here are some assumptions to check, before you get started.
It assumes your target has a LinkedIn profile and is active on LinkedIn. B2B Sales to professions like Teachers and Nurses, who don’t use LinkedIn frequently or during active business hours, won’t work. Consider alternative channels where these personas may be active and struggling. Not sure what channel they use? Go shadow a friend to see what they do on a daily basis.
It assumes that you’re targeting roles within companies with a specific JTBD—if you’re looking for consumers based on some psychographic or JTBD based on their current state—LinkedIn won’t help you there. Consider Google Ads or Facebook/TikTok ad placements to catch their eyes.
It assumes that you’re connected into your target market. Don’t have secondary connections in the industry yet? Target their thought-leaders, recruiters, and sales staff. Those are the most active accounts on LinkedIn with the most connections.
It assumes that this role has problems you’re able to solve. Selling to nurses during COVID was impossible—it was simply all-encompassing for them to deal with discovery calls. That said, many other roles within healthcare companies were interested in talking—as they were all working remotely and looking for a lot of help.
It assumes that they’re interested in learning or being considered an expert. Some roles attract more introverts than extroverts. You’ll always find a few accountants that love to share their knowledge—but most don’t.
Linked in this post are the details behind each stage of this framework—we encourage you to try this on your next startup! If you’re running a studio and need assistance, check out our AI offering that helps you automate the mundane parts of this work.