Inside Sales Reps: Reaching a Decision Maker Through LinkedIn

Well, you’re stumped. You can’t find the decision maker’s phone number or email address and you don’t know what to do or how to contact them; however, there is a way you can still reach out, and that’s through LinkedIn.

Social media is growing in popularity for social selling and LinkedIn in particular is one of the largest professional networks around. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn’s intention is strictly business and connecting you with peers and colleagues. LinkedIn allows you to share your professional experiences, have recommendations posted to your profile, and let others know who you are and where you stand in a company.

But before you go reaching out to decision makers on LinkedIn, make sure your profile is complete. As LinkedIn is essentially a professional social network, try to build your connections. There are a lot of tips out there that can help you have a killer profile and help you look professional .

With LinkedIn, you are allowed to send messages to people you are connected with on the network. Unfortunately they have to accept your request before you can message them, making reaching out to someone you don’t know difficult. Sometimes, depending on who many people connect you to that person and what their privacy settings are set to, you can get a hold of their Twitter handle, blog, and other information that could get you in contact with them.

There is, however, a work around allowing you to send messages. This work around is groups on LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn you can join groups of people who talk about similar things you are professionally interested in and develop connections with. One little known fact is the ability to send people you are not connected to a message when they are in the same group. To do this you click on the ‘members’ tab in the group where everyone who is a member is listed. You find the person you would like to contact, and if you roll over their name, an option to send them a message will display on the right hand side of the page. A word of caution, however tempting this might be, don’t abuse this feature! People will resent you for it and it will do more harm than good. If you really can’t find any other way to contact the decision maker, contacting someone through groups might be a way to go.

What are some things you do when you’re trying to connect or contact with a decision maker you’re having trouble finding contact information for?

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