RareAgent's LinkedIn Revenue Workbook and Guide by RareAgent

LinkedIn Revenue Workbook & Guide Innovative Strategies for Leveraging LinkedIn for Business Development and Converting Conversations into Cashâ&#x201E;˘

Presented by: Marge Bieler Presenting Business Development Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Methodologies and Content

Sales trainers sharing proven results-driven strategies that produce qualified appointments and more sales – without ever having to cold call again!

LinkedIn for Business Development Acknowledgements I’m on LinkedIn, Now What? Creating a Complete Profile, First Impressions and All Getting Started, Using your Home Page How Do I Find the Right Groups to Post My Stuff? Twitter Meet LinkedIn What Can I do with My Newsfeed? Connecting with My Network on LinkedIn How to Leverage LinkedIn and Your Client Relationships Identifying Ways to Build Rapport Before Even Meeting with Anyone Magic: Maximizing Strategic Alliance Relationships Become a Business Connector Advanced Searches can be Career Altering I Found My Perfect List, Can I Save it for Later? I’m Sold, Now Help Me with What to Say Organizing My Contacts Using Questions and Answers and Polls to Attract Others Creating and Marketing Events Leveraging Your Warm Market to Break into a Company I Need a Plan S.M.A.R.T. Activity Goals and Goal Sheet Creating a Group is Work, But it Could be Worth it! What are You Waiting for? Evaluation time, enter to win a FREE LinkedIn Webinar for up to 24 people! About RareAgent

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Acknowledgements “Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings joy and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you. “Eileen Caddy Our Story

RareAgent was created in 2005 with the power of a virtual team at its core. Our concept is a simple one—create a virtual team of seasoned professionals who work with B2B start-ups, entrepreneurs and growing companies to accelerate business growth via the Internet, social platforms and telecommunications. RareAgent focuses solely on executive strategy workshops, LinkedIn training, researching, calling, qualifying and assessing business development opportunities. We work as a virtual marketing and sales team allowing our clients to take advantage of executive-level expertise without adding full-time employees. RareAgent offers an alternative to current lead demand process by providing a personal touch that enables marketing and sales teams to meet their revenue projections. In a nutshell, we create conversations that convert into cash™. RareAgent was founded by Marge Bieler. She began her career as an office manager and then moved into the role of executive assistant to several software company CEOs. She was instrumental in organizing these executives’ meetings, projects and travel. She “jumped" in with both feet and excelled despite having no previous experience in sales. Marge's success as McAfee's first remote sales rep was the springboard for many other remote employees. She’s enjoyed moving from EA to sales director to business owner and, through these roles, learning the importance of understanding every call. After leaving McAfee, previous CXOs started calling her on a regular basis, asking for her help to set up meetings with companies they wanted to do business with. CRMO Debbie Qaqish summed her skills up nicely, “Marge,” she said, “I don’t know what it is about you, but I swear you could get a wall to talk back to you.” After hearing similar sentiments over and over, she realized she had a special gift for networking and building relationship. When Marge was introduced to Brynne Tillman, President and COO of Business Development University (BDU), she realized that Brynne had the gift of relationship too. She’d read BDU’s LinkedIn workbook for developing business relationships, enhancing business development and ultimately increasing revenues and was so impressed, she reached out to Brynne. She offered to leverage BDU’s hands-on training as a partner and, as they say, the rest is history. Together, they’ve now developed that gift into a technique, which is taught in RareAgent’s LinkedIn Workshops. We enjoy bringing laughter into our training programs and will break up the shop talk by playing several YouTube videos to help brighten your day and refresh your brain power. RareAgent is passionate about building the American Dream and sharing our expertise and experience to obtain it. There is no greater reward than helping other entrepreneurs, midsize and large B2B corporations grow their businesses, and seeing the good brought to mankind through their prosperity.

I’m on LinkedIn, Now What? “The one thing I know is that we don’t know what we don’t know” -Werner Erhard As sales trainers and coaches, we are frequently asked LinkedIn questions. The most common question we get is...."so I signed up on Linkedin, but I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. Does it have any value?" Wikipedia reported that on March 22, 2011, the day LinkedIn went public, it had more than 100 million users and 500,000 professionals sign in everyday. The average age of the LinkedIn user is 43-years old, with $110k in income. Every Fortune 500 company is listed/represented on LinkedIn. LinkedIn users represent over 150 industries and over 2 million companies. LinkedIn gives us the opportunity to search and filter these members and identify who we know that knows who we want to know.™ Back in the day when we began our sales careers, we would make 30, 40, 50 calls a day, foot canvas for prospects and work incredibly hard to get even one qualified person to take a meeting with us. And, the key to truly successful prospecting was the client referral. A conversation used to look something like this: Salesperson: “Ms. Client, thank you very much for your business. Are you happy with the products and services we have been able to help you with over the last few months?” Client: “Oh, yes Mr. Salesperson, we have been very happy and we love working with you and your company.” Salesperson: “That is terrific, Ms. Client, the way we grow our business has always been through introductions and recommendations from our happy clients, by chance, do you know of anyone else that could use our products and services?” Client: “Hmm, let me see, I can’t think of anyone off hand right now, but if I do think of someone I will certainly be happy to introduce you.” Bummer – not exactly how we had hoped it would go. But now we have LinkedIn as a powerful tool and this conversation will be much more productive. Before you go out on the client visit, do the following:

 Connect with your client on LinkedIn  Suggest they look through your connections as you would be happy to make introductions on their behalf  Check out their contacts  Make a list of 5 prospects that meet your criteria and bring the list with you And here is how the conversation may go now: Client: “Hmm, let me see, I can’t think of anyone off hand right now, but if I think of someone I will certainly be happy to introduce you.” Salesperson: “Ms. Client, when we connected on LinkedIn I noticed that you were linked to a few folks who would be great introductions for me, would it be alright if I ran them by you?” Client: “Of course, I would be happy to help!” Wow, just that alone is magic, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. So, the answer to "does it have value" is YES. Though as with most things in sales and marketing that have value, it requires more than just "signing up." We wish we had pixie dust to sprinkle over all of our clients, but we don’t. So, we have to put in some upfront effort and then we have to keep working it. We have to establish our goals, put a SMART plan around all of our activity (which we cover in Page 30), measure the results and tweak for future success. The following workbook and guide is designed so that you can leverage LinkedIn from a business development perspective, the same way RareAgent students and clients have done with great success. We have filled the pages with strategies, tactics, techniques and customized templates as well as LinkedIn’s step-by-step instructions on navigation. We highly recommend that you work with this book alongside your live profile on LinkedIn. For more information on these and other navigation instructions visit: http://help.linkedin.com/.

Creating a Complete Profile “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.” .-Judy Garland In many ways, your LinkedIn profile is like a landing page – your personal website. This is your opportunity to get your message across to your contacts and prospects. It is critical that this message is authentic and represents you as a professional and as an individual. RareAgent’s leverage of Business Development University’s LinkedIn strategy, as you will see, is primarily reaching out to your network to get warm introductions to the people you want to meet. “Identify who you know that knows who you want to know.”™ Because this is done through LinkedIn, the likelihood that your prospective new contact will be checking out your profile is high, so make sure there are no spelling errors, your message is clear and concise, and you are giving them a reason to want to connect with you. The other thing to keep in mind is to use, throughout your profile, key words and phrases that your prospect would use when searching for your product or service. Sites like Google Adwords (adwords.google.com) can help you determine the most frequently searched words and phrases to optimize your profile. List 5 key words and/or phrases that you believe your prospect would use when searching for your products or service: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The following checklist will help you create a complete reader friendly Search Engine Optimized profile. Your profile can be updated by clicking on Profile tab and Edit Profile and click the edit links (each section has its own hyperlink)

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Name Your name goes here. Use the name that you use in business. If your given name is Michael but you call yourself Mike, use “Mike”. You can write a specialty after your name as well, i.e., “Estate Planning Attorney”

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Title/Tagline Make sure what you write here focuses on your message. This is an area that is critical for search engine optimization (SEO). In addition, when you come up in searches this is the information they see, so they should be able to determine who you are and what you do by your title/tagline. Brynne’s official title is President & COO, but for search engine and identification reasons, we have added key phrases that explain to the viewer exactly what it is that Brynne does. Marge has listed similar search engine friendly keywords and added symbols to her title/tagline. There is no right or wrong way to do this, just be sure that when a viewer is looking at your information box, they know what you do immediately.

RareAgent Tip: As you may notice, Marge has a tag line that let’s readers know that she is a LinkedIn Revenue Trainer, which often gives her immediate credibility to professionals looking for LinkedIn training and coaching. Some folks list the name of their company here, but we don’t believe it is nearly as impactful as listing products and services. And if you can add a small value proposition such as Brynne did in “Results Driven Trainer and Coach” it can generate even more interest. www.RareAgent.com 770.367.2795 RareAgent: Authorized Partner of Business Development U, LLC All rights reserved

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Industry Your listed industry is one of the criteria that is searchable, so listing the most suitable industry is critical to your SEO (Search Engine Optimized) profile. In addition, your industry listing triggers LinkedIn to recommend connections for you as well as list events on your home page that is relevant to your industry.

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Summary Many will say the Summary should be similar to the top of your resume’s Professional Summary: a synopsis about your professional experience. We see this as your one opportunity on LinkedIn to share with others what you do and who you help. If you apply any of RareAgent and the Business Development University’s warm market concepts, you will have a significant number of your prospects checking out your profile, so wow them, and offer them incentive to accept your phone call. Let them know how you are making a difference, your competitive advantage and your value proposition. In addition, be sure to add those critical key words and phrases.

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Specialties Point out your strengths and skills here. This is an area where you can toot your own horn, talk about your success and sell yourself. Again, important to list (SEO) key words and phrases so that you can be found.

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Experience If you are in the job market, your experience should follow your resume as close as possible. Otherwise you can have a simplified version that just includes bullet points of your job responsibilities. Go back only about 10-12 years unless you had a job that is really relevant or there are people from a company that you would like to connect. Based on your listed experiences and dates, LinkedIn will suggestion people that you may know that worked at your past companies during the same tenure. LinkedIn also uses the Experience section for key words and phrases (SEO).

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Education Insert relevant education. LinkedIn requires dates, which helps identify classmates that you might know and want to connect with. In addition, if you are looking to join Alumni Groups on LinkedIn, the group manager will most likely check out your education section before confirming your request to join. Lastly, when researching a company, LinkedIn offers a list of the alumni from your listed schools that work there, which is great to know when prospecting.

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Contact info This is the one area on your profile that no matter what your privacy settings are, everyone can see. Make sure that you’re easy to reach! Nothing is more frustrating or anti-productive than not being accessible to professionals who wish to reach you. If they can’t find your contact information easily, they will move on quickly and you will lose opportunities. Be sure to include your email address at the very least, and phone number if possible.

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Personal Settings You can see your current account information and preferences on the Settings page. Move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page and click Settings. From this page, you can: ► Change your primary email and password. ► Compare account types and see how many InMails and introductions you have left. ► Manage any jobs or LinkedIn Ads you've purchased. ► View and manage settings for your Profile

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Get recommendations – There is no better way to get a prospect interested than for them to see how you have helped others. Your recommendations are more powerful than any other sales pitch you can make. Not only does your prospect get to see what your clients have said about you, but they can click through to see their name, title and company information. Back in the day, when we were about to sign on a new client to our business, we would be asked for references – which often took days if not weeks while your prospect and your client played phone tag with each other. Now, when a prospect asks us for a client reference, we send them to our LinkedIn recommendations, have them read through them, and choose which clients they would like to speak with. Since we’ve been doing this, we rarely have had a prospect come back to us with an introduction request; they have felt that there are enough recommendations from a diverse group of professionals that they were satisfied that we do what we say and do it well.

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To request a recommendation from a connection ► Hover over Profile and click “Recommendations” ► On the Request Recommendations Tab Choose what position you wish to be recommended for, whom you’d like to ask for the recommendation and write a personal note ► Click “send” RareAgent Tip – be sure to ask for recommendations from professionals that know your work, work ethics and can truly speak to your character. Client recommendations are the most powerful, so collect as many of those as you can. In addition, if you have worked with someone that you respect, write one for them.

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Customize your Personal URL – This is a must do for anyone actively using LinkedIn. You are able to add this link to your signature, on your business cards, or even in an email when requesting someone connect with you. Example: www.linkedin.com/in/margebieler Customize the URL of your Public Profile by the following steps ► Select “Profile” > “Edit Profile” from the drop down menu at the top of any LI page. ► Click on “Edit” next to the URL listed on the “Public Profile” line. ► Click on “Edit” in the “Your Public Profile URL” section at the top of the Public Profile page. This will expand the section that shows your current URL to allow you to update the URL address. ► Enter your desired custom URL. All custom URL's begin with “www.linkedin.com/in/” and end with your unique identifier. You are able to change what will appear after the last slash to customize the URL to your needs, e.g., “www.linkedin.com/in/yourname" or "www.linkedIn.com/in/yourtagline.” Your custom URL is limited to 5-30 alphanumeric characters. Do not use spaces, symbols, or special characters. ► Click on “Set Address” after you have entered your custom URL. Warning: When you change your Public Profile URL, your previous URL will no longer be valid.

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Add your Twitter account ► Click “add a twitter account” ► Type in your twitter handle and password ► Click “authorized app”

A common question we hear all of the time is, “Should I really be doing the twitter thing? I just don’t get it.” And what we say without hesitation is: it doesn’t matter if you don’t get it or even like it because Google gets it and likes it. So if Google searches are pulling up twitter feeds, and we want to be pulled up on Google, use it.

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Connect your shared update posts to twitter. Folks search for your products and services through Google and are more likely to find you based on your tweets. Fortunately, it is rather easy to keep up with the tweeting if you have connected twitter to LinkedIn. Once you have added a Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile, you can click the Twitter icon in the sharing module to post your LinkedIn update on Twitter. ► Share your update from your home page or profile. ► Click the box next to the Twitter icon. ► Click “Share”

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Add up to 3 website links Click on the "Add Websites" link:

RareAgent Tip – When adding your websites always choose other in the drop down and list a description of what your viewer will see when the click through. It draws more attention and more clicks – which is what we want!

Checklist Continued ► Click on the drop down window and pick from a variety of options, including your personal website, company website, blog, and so on. You can see that I am taking advantage of all three of the fields by specifying which link goes with which site. My second link is to a networking group that I run, and because it didn’t have a listing for that, I choose “other” in the drop down menu and am able to customize the name of the link on my profile. Be sure you specify the "http://" prefix on your Web site addresses - click on the "Save Changes" button on the page and now the links section on my profile is complete.

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Determine your Public Profile View - We recommend you set your profile to “complete view” and show all sections you have completed (especially websites for SEO). ► ► ► ►

Hover over your name on the top left/right hand side (varies upon if you have a free or paid license) Click settings On the right hand side of the bottom box click edit public profile Click on the boxes you wish to make public

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Add your photo – By far one of the most important elements to a completed profile. LinkedIn is a warm market tool, and if others can’t see your face, they may be quick to disregard your connection request. Be sure that your picture is professional and close up. ► Click on Profile ► Click edit below the gray picture box ► Click choose file (file size limit is 4MB) ► Upload file ► Click who can see your photo and Save Settings Set your Contact Settings - This is where you determine your contact settings (introduction only or introductions and emails), about what subjects you are most interested, and how you want to be contacted (some rules of engagement). ► Hover over your name ► Click settings ► On the left side of the bottom box click email preferences ► Choose each hyperlink and set your preferences Add Applications - You can add, remove and control where applications appear from the Applications page. Applications allow you to share content, collaborate with others, and gain insights to help you do your job more effectively. ► From the More menu at the top of your home page, click Get More Applications. ► Click an application icon for more information. ► Choose your display options - "Display on my profile" and/or "Display on LinkedIn homepage". ► Click Add application and complete prompted steps. To control where an application appears From the More menu at the top of your home page, click Get More Applications. Click the application icon. Choose "Display on my profile" or "Display on LinkedIn homepage" and click Update Settings.

RareAgent Tip: Choosing the right applications is very important. For a professional in business development we recommend 3 applications that have a significant impact on your profile. The first is Slideshare where you can post Videos PowerPoint presentations. This lets you get your message out 24/7 to anyone viewing your profile. The other alternative to Slideshare is Google Docs. Next Box.net allows you to post whitepapers, marketing materials, press releases or any other document that is easy for the viewer to download. And third, Events is important, this allows your viewers to see events that you have created, are hosting, speaking at, or just attending. There are many others to choose from as well.

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Creating or Editing Your Company Profile -A Company Page helps others learn more about your company's job opportunities, work culture, products, and services. You can create one from the Add a Company page. To add a Company Page: ► Click Companies near the top of your home page. ► Click the Add a Company link in the upper right area of the page. ► Enter your company's official name and your work email address. ► Click Continue and enter your company information. If the work email address you provide is an unconfirmed email address on your LinkedIn account, a message will be sent to that address. Follow the instructions in the message to confirm your email address and then use the instructions above to add the Company Page. Currently, companies without their own distinct email domain (e.g. yourcompany.com) can't create a Company Page. In this case, you might create a group.

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Employees Associated with Company Page When LinkedIn members add or edit a position on their profile, they specify their company. If they select a company from our list, then they'll automatically show up on that organization's Company Page. To make sure you're associated with the right company: ► Click Profile at the top of your home page. ► Click Edit next to your current position at the company. ► Click the Change Company link. ► Type the full company name and Select the correct company name from the drop down list and Click Update.

CONGRATULATIONS!! Your profile is now complete. Let’s have some fun and start leveraging LinkedIn to drive revenue.

My Profile is Complete - Let’s Get Started Already! "All glory comes from daring to begin." Eugene F. Ware Great, we are thrilled that you are itching to start leveraging some of the power of LinkedIn! We thought we’d start with a visit to your LinkedIn HOME page. So many fabulous opportunities are waiting for us every day on our home page but we are going to start with the obvious –- Shared Update. Much like Facebook, this is your opportunity to share what is going on in your world. But keep it brief and keep it professional. Honestly, no one really cares where you are going for lunch, unless you’re Brad Pitt! So, when you post, think about what the readers want to see. Maybe it is new product information or a news article on your industry. The purpose of these updates is twofold -- first, to establish you as an expert in your area and second, to drive traffic to your website, email and phone. Rule of thumb: ONE self-promoting post for every five you put out there. If you spam your promotions, people will stop reading your “stuff” – we promise, so don’t do it! Okay, so you’ve decided what you are going to post, you have the URL (website link) and you type in your message, click on attach link, copy and paste link, connect to twitter and press send. Fabulous, you sent your message out and if you are lucky, over the next 15 minutes or so, depending on how many connections you have, 10 of your contacts might see your post. It will be on their wall for a small window, and then it falls down under the mass newsfeeds that are shared 24/7. That’s no fun. I know you were hoping we would be getting your message out virally. You did spend all that time preparing the information and it would be nice if more than a dozen or so people could appreciate your hard work. Well, guess what? LinkedIn felt the same way and they invented the “Share” button that appears below your posted status – and that share button can create magic! RareAgent wants to share a BDU success story with you: The BDU Team was preparing for one of its public classes, and with two days left for registration they realized they still had a few open seats, so they decided to exercise their “one out of five” and posted the LinkedIn Class Event, which we will cover on page 28 on our respective status bars. Off went their classroom invitations with the Eventbrite link, but they wanted to hit more than just their warm market as they were well marketed to. They wanted to get their message out virally. They clicked over to their profiles, clicked on share and in less than 5 minutes posted it in many of their local groups, (which we will be discussing on the next page.) The invitation was listed in the respective groups as a discussion, and based on each group members’ settings; an email with the event link was sitting in their inbox, both on LinkedIn and their email server. By the next morning they were sold out! If they tried to prospect through cold calls or an email campaign, the results would have never been that quick and easy. Why? They were able to reach out virally to people they didn’t even know existed. Sharing Shared Updates with Groups ► Post your message in shared update ► Post your Link ► Share ► Click on Profile Tab ► Click the share button on the bottom center of Shared update box ► Click post to group(s) ► Start typing the name of the group and select ► To pick additional groups type and select them as well ► Fill in the subject and Type in details and Share RareAgent Tip: Share in your groups at least once a week to brand yourself as an expert in your field. Also, be sure to fill out Subject and Details, as that is what will appear in the description in the groups.

How Do I Find the Right Groups to Post My Stuff? “Figure out where your prospects are hanging out and buy them a drink!” – Gavin McMorrow Many professionals advance their careers and business goals by counting on industry and professional groups, alumni organizations, industry conferences and corporate alumni groups to help them make new vital business contacts. Groups are also fantastic opportunities to find qualified prospects. LinkedIn Groups allow event organizers and group organizations to strengthen and expand their brand's reach by providing additional value through LinkedIn Group features. LinkedIn Groups allows you to join and organize communities of professionals who share a common experience, passion, interest, affiliation or goal. LinkedIn Groups’ features offer members a private space to strengthen old business contacts, and to be introduced to new ones. The space offers a forum for topics to be discussed and solutions to be discovered. Group members are also able to communicate freely with one another through LinkedIn messaging. To create a group (of which you will be the owner) take the following steps: ► Click "Create a Group" from the "Groups" drop down menu (found in the top navigation bar of the home page). ► Follow the instructions to browse and upload a group logo and enter your official group name. ► Choose your group type from the drop down list. Alumni Group - membership composed of former members of schools, universities, frats or sororities. Corporate Group - membership often composed of current or past employees from the same company. Conference Group - membership composed of people attending the same trade shows or conferences. Networking Group - membership often composed of people with networking as one of its primary goals. Non-Profit Group - membership often composed of people in support of a similar cause or value. Professional Group - membership often composed of people with similar industry interests. ► Enter a brief summary and group purpose for the Groups Directory. (300 character limit.) ► Enter a full description for the group page. (2000 character limit). ► Enter the website for your group. ► Enter the group owner email address which may be used for potential members to contact you. ► Check the box to display your group in the Groups Directory. ► Check the box to allow group members to be able to display the group logo on their Profiles. ► Check the Location box if your group is based in a single geographic location. ► Check the box to confirm you have read and accept the Terms of Service. ► Click "Create an Open Group" or "Create a Member Only Group" to complete the process. What are the differences between members-only and open groups? The main difference is who can see the discussions. Members-only group discussions can only be seen by other group members. Open group discussions can be seen by anyone on the web and can be shared on other platforms. In members-only groups:  There's a padlock icon next to the group name.  You must be a LinkedIn member to join.  Discussions won't show up in search engine results.  Discussions are visible to group members only.  The group manager has the option to switch to an open group.  This change can only be made once and cannot be undone.  Members are notified if the group is switched to an open group. In open groups:  There isn't a padlock icon next to the group name.  You must be a LinkedIn member to join.  Discussions created before switching to an open group are archived and visible to group members only.  Discussions created after switching to an open group are searchable and visible to anyone on the web.  Discussions can be shared using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.  Group managers have the option to allow LinkedIn members who aren't group members to contribute

Twitter Meet LinkedIn “The answer my friend, is twittering in the wind.” – Bob Dylan Twitter is an animal unto its own. Its power, reach and influence -- in 140 characters or less -- baffles many. If you are wondering if there’s any real value in twitter, let us tell you this – whether or not you see the value, remember who does. Google loves twitter, so in order to get the most out of Google we must embrace twitter. RareAgent and BDU are sales training and coaching companies that are experts at LinkedIn for Business Development, we are becoming social media gurus. To know Twitter well and to learn more check out #smallbizchat to learn the twitter magic! Posting Your Twitter Update on LinkedIn If you add a Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile, you can click the Twitter icon in the sharing module to post your LinkedIn update on Twitter. Share your update from your home page or profile. Click the box next to the Twitter icon.* Click Share * If you have more than one Twitter account, a drop down list next to the Twitter icon lets you select which Twitter account you wish to use

Twitter to LinkedIn and Back again Hashtags (#) are a way to provide additional context for your tweets. Use #in or #li to publish your Twitter updates to your LinkedIn status. Just make “#in” part of your tweet (for example, “Working on a new blog post about design optimization. #in”), and it will be displayed as your LinkedIn status. These can be added to your tweets at any time and will override your sharing settings. If your tweet is personal and you don’t wish to share it with your professional crowd, just exclude #in or #li. You can choose which LinkedIn status updates you share with Twitter, as well as which tweets are displayed as your LinkedIn status. This gives you complete control over which networks see your updates and what they see, automatically or manually. To share updates from Twitter to LinkedIn, visit the settings page. Here you have the option to share all tweets, to share only tweets that contain #in or #li, or not to share tweets at all. You can change these settings at any time by clicking “Edit” next to your Twitter account name. To share updates from LinkedIn to Twitter, check the box next to the Twitter icon on the LinkedIn home page. The first time you do this, Twitter will verify your account name and password. Whenever the Twitter box is checked, that update will publish to your Twitter feed. Note that LinkedIn filters out “@ replies” so if you begin a tweet with @linkedin, for example, it will not appear in your status. Also, if your tweets don’t show up in a Twitter search, they won’t show up on LinkedIn.

By the way, follow us at twitter.com/RareAgent (Shameless plug, we know)

What Can I do with My Newsfeed? “I look at it this way. I'm not an eavesdropper; I have an attention surplus disorder.” -Robert Brault Interestingly, this is an area that most LinkedIn users are aware of, but do not use to its full potential. “Who cares,” many say, or “I don’t have enough time to deal with my own stuff let alone read about other people’s stuff.” We get it, and promise you will LOVE your newsfeed once you know what to do with it. A few months back Brynne was looking through her connections’ new contacts and noticed a networking buddy of hers was newly connected with a Vice President of Sales of a large local organization. A smile came over her face in 2 seconds flat and she knew this was going to be her number one prospecting priority that week. She dropped her buddy a LinkedIn message mentioning that she saw she was newly connected with “Dan” and that he is someone that would be a great lead for her. This was her response: (names were changed to protect the innocent!) Hi Brynne, “Dan” and I recently met an Autism fundraiser in the city. We spoke for a while and really hit it off. This is a charity that is near and dear to both of us, and I believe we will stay in contact. I know you work with Sales Managers and I would be happy to introduce you, what would you like me to say? “Lauren” OMG, as my kids would say. How hot is this? Brynne quickly threw together how she wanted to be introduced (verbiage shared on page 23) Within a week she had a phone appointment and within 3 weeks she was working with them providing LinkedIn Webinars for Business Development to their sales team. This relationship continues to grow. She would never have had this kind of success without her warm introduction; in fact, “Dan” most likely would have blown her off along with all of the other vendor calls he gets on a daily basis. Oh, and by the way, her time invested from prospecting to close – no more than 2 hours! Could that have happened with a cold call? I think not! So, how do I efficiently identify my connections new connections? Great question…it’s easy! From the HOME screen ► Hover over the more button next to All Updates and Click on Connections ► The list comes up, your connections are on the left - their new connection on the right. Hover over the new connection and you are able to see the prospect’s basic information You will notice a list in the drop down menu, recommendations is one of the filters LinkedIn provides. This is also a great way to see who in your network is being recommended and who they are recommending. This is a great opportunity to ask for introductions as both connections are foremost on each others’ minds and clearly have respect for each other. So the opportunity to request an introduction couldn’t be riper!

RareAgent Tip - You can certainly look through the other filters and come up with your own strategies on how to leverage the information provided by LinkedIn to get qualified appointments and close more business!

We like working smarter not harder, so doing some of the upfront work – solid preparation -- will pay off later. Take some time and list out some criteria that would trigger you to make an introduction request. Ultimately, who is a good prospect for you and how do you quickly identify them? This is meant to be a guide that you can pull out when making your introductions request to help save you significant time. Here is one of our client’s examples:

Luke Warm – See Warm – Know on a occasionally through first name basis mutual acquaintances or

Your Relationship with 1st Connection

Hot – Could Call in the Middle of the night for a favor

Prospect Titles

VP Sales

Sales Director

CEO

Company Size

Medium 50-500

Large 500+

Fortune 500

Industry

B2B

SaaS

Non-selling Professionals

IT Company

Geographic Location

Philadelphia

New York

Washington DC

International for Webinar Classes



  



Cool – Met at a networking event Marketing Director

Your relationship with 1 Connection – this is ranking how well you know your connection. Some folks use a scale from 1-10, while others use Hot, Warm, Cold. Whatever works best for you is fine, but this is an important element. If I am requesting an introduction from a dear friend with whom I don’t have much of a business relationship, I may pick up the phone to have a conversation about what I am doing and how I am leveraging LinkedIn. If it happens to be a networking buddy who already is aware of how I’m using LinkedIn, I may just drop an email or LinkedIn message with my request. Prospect Title- This is pretty self explanatory, if you were to cold call into an organization, who would you ask to speak with? Company Size – Look at some of your best clients and determine the size of their companies often that is the best place to start. Industry – This is specifically industries that you have had success in. RareAgent and BDU are Industry Agnostic, but if we come across SaaS companies, IT Organization or non-selling professionals such as CPA, Attorney and Engineering firms, we jump at that introduction – as we have had many success in that space. It is certainly not meant to limit the requests, but a good guide none the less. Geographic Region or Territory – We are confident that you know your territory, and we do recommend that you stay within those boundaries, however, if there is a hot connection it is always good Karma to pass the lead on to a co-worker.

What does yours look like?

RareAgent Tip- Often we are asked, shouldn’t we always start with the CEO or at least the C suite and get pushed down? We believe in many cases you should go warmer over higher! Focus on getting your warmest introduction into an organization and then ask them to make internal introductions on your behalf.

Connecting with People on LinkedIn A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world. ~Leo Buscaglia Inevitably, at every class someone asks us about who they should be connecting to. The question is usually, “Should I connect with people I don’t know?” There are a couple of thoughts on this subject, and we in no way want you to think that our opinion is the “right” one. This is a very personal decision, and you have to determine what makes the most sense for you. RareAgent teaches LinkedIn as a warm market tool. Our rule of thumb is to connect with folks that you can ask for introductions. If it happens to be someone that you don’t know but might make a good prospect, referral source or prime introduction for an existing connection, you might accept their connections and drop them a little note: Dear New Connection, Thank you for the invitation to connect with me on LinkedIn. I actively use LinkedIn to build my network, make business introductions for connections and prospect. I would like to have a conversation so we can get to know each other and our respective businesses, so if I come across someone that needs your products or services or requests an introduction, I will be comfortable making that happen. I have some time Monday afternoon and Wednesday morning for a brief conversation. If either of these work for you, please send me a calendar invitation with the best time and number to reach you. If not, shoot me back some alternatives. I am really looking forward to speaking with you. Marge Bieler www.RareAgent.com 678.855.6879 Marge@rareagent.com He who has the most connections doesn’t always win. Your connections are your river, don’t muddy the waters. If you are looking for specific people you can do this in a few different ways. Here is the fastest way, but there is the Advanced Search option that we will talk about later that works well too. Find People You'll find the "Search" box on all pages of LinkedIn in the upper right corner. The "Search" drop down menu defaults to search for "People" but can also be used to search for Jobs, Answers, Groups, Companies or messages in your LinkedIn Inbox. To find a person you are looking for using a name or other distinguishing characteristics, take the following steps: ► ►

►

Type a name or keyword into the "Search" box located on your home page. A drop down list might appear with suggestions of existing connections or company names that meet the criteria you type in. Take one of the following steps: If the person you seek appears in the drop down list, click on the name or company to view the Member (Company Profiles may also appear on the drop down list in case you prefer to search for a company instead). If the information you seek does not appear in the drop down list, hit "Enter" on your keyboard or click on the search icon (magnifying glass) to view your search results. Hover over an individual item in the search results to highlight the item in a blue box. You can then do one of the following from the blue box: ► Click on a name in the search results to view their Profile. ► Click on additional links on the right side of the blue box to contact the member (contact options will vary and are based on your degree of connection with the member). You may be provided with links that would allow you to add that member to your network, find references in your network that may know.

Inviting Others to Connect You can ask someone to join your network by sending them an invitation to connect. If they accept your invitation, they become a 1st-degree connection. We recommend that you only send invitations to people you know well. You can invite people to connect from the following areas: A member's profile - Click Add [name] to your network found on the right side of their profile. Search results - Click the Add to network link next to the person's name. The Add Connections page - Search your email address book to find contacts or enter email addresses where the invitations should be sent. You can also search for colleagues and classmates. People You May Know - Click Connect next to the person's name to send an invitation.

Withdrawing an Invitation In many cases, you can withdraw an invitation if the recipient hasn't taken any action. ► ► ► ► ► ►

Click Inbox near the top of your home page. Click Sent on the left. Click the Sent Invitations tab under the top navigational bar. Find an invitation without "Accepted" by the name. Click the subject line of the invitation. Click Withdraw.

If the Withdraw button isn't there, the invitation can't be withdrawn. (It may have already expired.) The recipient won't be notified about a withdrawn invitation. If you change your mind, you can send another invitation to the member 3 days after the initial invitation date.

Import Connections To import your address book from Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and other webmail providers: ► From the Contacts Tab select Add Connections. ► Enter your email address (and password if prompted) then click Continue. To import a file from Outlook, Mac Mail, other email applications or a spreadsheet like Excel: Note: Clicking on the box above the first contact will unselect everyone on the "Imported Contacts" list so invitations aren't sent. Remove a Connection ► You can remove a connection from the Remove Connections page. ► Click Contacts at the top of your home page. ► Click the Remove Connections link in the upper right of the Connections page. ► Check the boxes next to the people you want to remove. ► Click Remove Connections. Connections will not be notified that they have been removed from your connections list. Only the member that breaks the connection can reinitiate that connection.

How to Leverage LinkedIn and Your Client Relationships Clients are the life blood of every business, be sure not to hemorrhage! -Anonymous There are many different avenues that we can pursue with our current and past clients to grow our business. We can gather stories of why they like us, get recommendations on LinkedIn, identify upcoming projects, get introductions internally, get introductions to others in their network, and so on. Remember in chapter 1 when we showed up prepared with a list of our client’s connections that we believed would make sense for us to meet, well…do this every time at every meeting. This is an opportunity to look into your client’s electronic rolodex and identify ideal introductions for you. If you are not yet connected to your client on LinkedIn this is a perfect opportunity – confirm your appointment or call with them through a LinkedIn invitation, and if you really want to do it right, it might look like this: Dear Mr. Client, th I am looking forward to seeing you on Friday, May 18 at your offices. I wanted to connect with you on LinkedIn and invite you to look through my connections, if there is anyone that you would like an introduction to, I would be happy to make it on your behalf. Not only are you offering your client to identify who they would like to meet, but they won’t be shocked when you mention“Mr. Client, I noticed when we were connected on LinkedIn that you were connected to five people that would be ideal introductions for me, would it be okay if I ran them by you?” RareAgent recommends having a client visit checklist of all the possible ways to maximize that client relationship. Below, fill out what questions or information or introductions would you would like to glean from your clients:

√

Questions:

RareAgent Tip: If your client mentions some positive stories of how you have impacted their business, ask them if they would be willing to share that on LinkedIn – and if they say yes, send them a request for recommendation. You can ask your connections to recommend your work from the Request Recommendations tab. Go to the Profile menu at the top of your home page and click Recommendations. Click the Request Recommendations tab. "Choose what you want to be recommended for" from the drop down menu. If the position or school isn't listed, you can click the link to add a "job" or "school" to both this menu and your profile. "Decide who you'll ask" by either entering names of connections into the text field or clicking on the address book icon to search through your connections. In your address book's Choose Connections module, check the boxes next to the names you want to add and then click Finished. When you request a recommendation from multiple people in one message, each recipient will receive an individual email. "Create your message" for the recommendation request by using the message provided or personalizing your note. Click Send. RareAgent Tip: Use this method before meeting anyone - don’t show up to any meeting without your introduction list ready!

Identify ways to Build Rapport Before Meeting with Anyone A close connection marked by common interests or similarity in nature – thefreedictionary.com Obviously connect with your contact on LinkedIn, but you knew that! Then check out all the areas that you may have something in common. Do your due diligence; it will pay off big time! Check out the full profile including all websites, twitter accounts, past employment and Alma Mater. Be sure to read their entire Summary and Specialties for some real insights into their business.

Discover who your common groups and connections, and even make a call or two to learn more about your new connection. And watch the videos, PowerPoint Presentations and Documents that are posted. Valuable information lives here!

RareAgent Tip: What have I learned about Mindi before our meeting? We have 3 shared groups and 72 shared connections – I can pick just one or two to call to get more background for sure! She is an Employee Benefits Advisor who works with Megro, a boutique firm but is connected to UBA, a large association; she graduated Penn State, worked at Aetna Insurance prior to Megro. That is just at a glance – pretty good head start before our first meeting! In addition, you should always look through their connections and identify who they know that you’d like to be introduced to. Send a message confirming the meeting and invite them to look through your connections. This gives them a heads-up that you will most likely be doing that as well.

This is All Good Stuff, but Where’s the Magic? “Ask not what your connections can do for you, but what you can do for your connections” – Adapted from John F. Kennedy We invested hours upon hours at networking meetings, Chambers of Commerce, business card exchanges as well as various associations and groups. We met a lot of great people and collected countless business cards. Occasionally we would meet someone and schedule coffee. Typically, we would learn about them, share what we do and who we help and hope they would come up with someone they can introduce to us, and we would rack our brains for them. And, if each of us left with one introduction we were lucky. LinkedIn has made this process practically seamless! With the export connections tool, we are able to share a complete list of each others’ connections in a spreadsheet. When we execute the export connections function it will include email address and quite a few empty columns – be sure to delete these columns and only share name, title and company. In my networking group, each month we partner with a member and meet one on one. We share our respective connection filled spreadsheets and invest an hour or two highlighting prospects and doing a bit of research pre-qualifying our list. We try to come up with 20 or so requests; we discuss each prospect; whittle it down to 4 or 5 each; and make thoughtful – productive introductions. If that isn’t powerful I don’t know what is! We have the opportunity to leverage these relationships in ways we never could before, we can see into the rolodex of our clients, friends, colleagues, prospects and referral sources and get significant warm introductions. But, in the mindset of JFK, give first, introduce first, and become known as a business connector. People will value your professional relationship and it will come back to you many fold.

Export Connections To export your connections list ► Click Contacts at the top of your home page. ► Click the Export Connections link in the bottom right corner of the page. ► Leave the Export to field as it appears and enter the security text if prompted. ► Click Export. ► Save the file in a location where you can easily find it, like the Desktop. Note: If you're using Internet Explorer and see a yellow pop-up blocker across the top of the page, click the yellow bar and then select Download File.

RareAgent Tips –Get really good at explaining how to do this step. It could be the most valuable piece of the LinkedIn puzzle. We have many of our clients meeting with one strategic alliance a week to exchange introductions, and that and saved searches have become their primary source of prospecting.

Become a Business Connector “You’re happiest while you’re making the greatest contribution.” – Robert F. Kennedy We are not saying that our strategy here is “give to get”, however, it works. If we can help others succeed it will come back to you many fold. Becoming a business connector is one of the most prevailing ways to create a reputation and attract others to you. We highly recommend Jeff Gitomer’s, Little Black Book of Connections, a must read if this is a strategy you would like to embrace. Traditionally, we would call these folks “Centers of Influence” – professionals we all would like to take to coffee, pick their brain, and learn how they got to where they are now. They are successful and have made a difference in others’ lives – as that is what makes them powerful influencers in the business world.

“How can I establish a reputation as a business connector you ask?” It’s easy; follow RareAgent’s steps – read Jeff’s book and you will soon yield respect and a position among the Centers of Influence in your market. Detach from what you will get out of it Invest the time in learning about others and who they want to meet Take notes on each person in your network Ask your folks for a paragraph on how they would like to be introduced Go through your network and make proactive introductions on a consistent basis Offer your new contacts to go through your connections and identify a few people that they would like to meet Do not stop your other networking, this doesn’t take place of the face to face, it just makes it more

efficient There are many other ways to build your reputation. Consider starting a monthly referral source group as we mentioned earlier Run Speed Networking or Round Table Networking events Join Chambers and Associations with members that are aligned with your business and volunteer on committees Become an ambassador of a Chamber of Commerce or similar groups At events ask each professional you meet who they would like to meet. When you meet those folks throughout the night, proactively make the introductions for them. Carry a list of the prospects or referral partners that you’d like to make introductions for – share it with your new connections to see if there are any vendors they are looking to meet and offer to add them to the list This is just the beginning, but if you are consistent and authentic in your approach – it will work. And, when they come up nd on that 2 generation search and you request a warm introduction, they will be more than happy to make that happen.

RareAgent Tip – Make it your practice to facilitate 1-3 warm introductions for every networking or prospecting meeting you have. Don’t look for anything in return – just make them. If you adapt this into your business relationships, and don’t worry about what is or isn’t coming back to you, you will become an authentic business connector, and it will pay off many fold.

Advanced Searches can be Career Altering! "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler" -Albert Einstein In our opinion, Advanced Searches are what makes LinkedIn the King of the Social Media World! If you take nothing else away from this guide – take this! There are many ways to leverage advanced searches, and we urge you to spend some time exploring here. This is the quintessential working smarter not harder concept. Advanced Search lets us know very quickly who in our warm market knows who we want to meet. The prospecting power when leveraging this tool is endless. Spend a little time, get to know Advanced Searches – they will be your new best friend!

RareAgent Tip -Use the Relationship button to filter 2 know.

Generation –this is how to identify who knows who we want to

The search feature allows you to search LinkedIn multiple ways (including Boolean searches). You can specify what type of search you would like to run by selecting from the search menu of one of the drop down menus mentioned below. In some cases an "Advanced" link is made available to the right of the "Search" button. Search People - Search for specific names or use advanced search to narrow your search using additional fields to filter your results (e.g., title, company, industry, language, school, etc.). Search Jobs - Search for general position or use advanced search to narrow your search using additional fields to filter your results (e.g., job title, company, job function, industry, etc.). Search Companies - Type in a company name and get results of people you or your connections know at that company. LinkedIn does not support wildcard searches but we do support Advanced Search Operators and Boolean Logic. You can also use these Boolean search types to refine your results. Quoted searches - If you would like to search for an exact phrase, you can enclose the phrase in quotation marks. Example: If you want to find Profiles that contain the words "product manager", in that exact order, type the following in for your search: "product manager" NOT searches - If you would like to do a search but exclude a particular term, type that term with a NOT immediately before it. Example: If you want to avoid seeing any Profile containing the word "computer", type the following in for your search: NOT computer OR searches - If you would like to search for Profiles which include just one of two or more terms, you can separate those terms with the upper-case word OR. Example: If you want to find Profiles containing either "CEO" or "President", type the following in for your search: CEO OR President AND searches - If you would like to search for Profiles which include two terms, you can separate those terms with the upper-case word AND. However, you don't have to use AND; if you enter two terms, it will assume that there is an AND between them. Example: If you want to find Profiles that contain both "manager" and "director", type in either of the following for your search: manager AND director manager director Parenthetical searches - If you would like to do a complex search (for instance, finding vice presidents or directors of divisions) you can combine terms using parentheses. Example: To find people who have "VP" in their Profiles, or have director AND division in their Profiles, type in the following for your search: VP OR (director AND division)

I Found My Perfect List; Can I Save it for Later? A lot of show business, as you know, is about all the contacts you make and who you know. -Denise Crosby Not only can you retrieve it, but on a weekly basis LinkedIn will update the new folks entering your network who fall under those criteria. When we help our clients come up with a LinkedIn prospecting plan, this is the number one activity they are nd encouraged to do every week. Think about this, you have created your ideal criteria (hopefully leveraging the 2 generation search) one time, and LinkedIn is kind enough to keep you in the loop when new professionals who meet those criteria join your network. So, last week I connected with 5 new contacts – and don’t have the time to look through their connections to see who they know that I may want an introduction to. But luckily I have a saved search - Directors of nd Sales within 50 miles of my zip code that are a 2 connection to me. Every Monday morning I log into LinkedIn, click on my saved searches and I see that I have 6 new professionals in my network that meet that criteria. I then click the hyperlink “view” and the full list comes up in the window. I then can click on shared connection and ask for my warm introduction. POWERFUL stuff, wouldn’t you say? There isn’t an easier more productive way to identify new prospects as they enter your network, whether through a new connection of yours, or one of your current contacts’ new connections.

You can save a search and receive alerts when new people match your search criteria. This feature prevents you from not having to re-enter search criteria with continuing importance. After you get your search results, click on the "Save this search" link across the top of the search results next to the results number. You can view and manage all of your Saved Searches by taking the following steps: ► Click on the "Saved Searches" link in the "Search tools" box on the right side of the page. ► Click on the "View" link to view any new results currently available. "None" will appear if there are no results to show. ► Click on the "Edit" link to select how often you wish to receive an email alert of new results. ► Click on the name you gave to the search to view a current search using the original criteria. The number of saved searches and the frequencies of notification vary by subscription level. All LinkedIn members are allowed at least 3 saved searches that allow you to name the search and receive updates. A box to the right of your saved searches will tell you how many saved searches your have. Compare account types at http://linkd.in/accttypes RareAgent Tip: If this is the only strategy that you commit to on LinkedIn, you will see results. This is so powerful – we can track significant business just from using saved searches and asking for introductions on a consistent basis.

I’m Sold, Now Help Me with What to Say! "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." — Dr. Seuss Requesting an Introduction Dear Friend, I hope this note finds you well. As you may know, I am leveraging LinkedIn to grow my network and noticed that you are connected to XXX at XXX. I was wondering if you would kindly provide an introduction for me. If you could copy us both in an email or LinkedIn message with our respective contact information I can take it from there. To make it easier for you, I have included a short paragraph below that you are welcome to copy and paste. Also, please feel free to look through my connections, I am happy to make introductions for you as well. XXX’s LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/theirnamehere (copy this from their profile) Thanks so much! Marge GENERIC: I would like to introduce you to Marge Bieler, the Founder and CEO of RareAgent. I thought it might make sense for the two of you to connect and investigate how you might work together. RareAgent helps sales and marketing professionals build their pipeline, reduce the sales cycle and close more business. In addition, RareAgent is doing some innovative things with LinkedIn for prospecting and it has made a significant impact on the way professionals are growing their business. Marge will be contacting you in the next couple of days, please take her call, I believe it will be well worth your time. If you would like to reach out to Marge, her contact information is: marge@rareagent.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/margebieler www.rareagent.com 770.367.2795 CLIENT: (each one must be semi-customized) I would like to introduce you to Marge Bieler, the Founder and CEO of RareAgent. We have worked with RareAgent for over 2 years now and they have made a significant impact on our sales and marketing team’s productivity. Through their custom social media program and LinkedIn classes and coaching reinforcement, we have exceeded all of our revenue goals this year. Marge will be contacting you in the next couple of days, please take her call, I believe it will be well worth your time. If you would like to reach out to Marge, her contact information is: marge@rareagent.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/margebieler www.rareagent.com 770.367.2795

RareAgent Tip: Let those clients shout your praises; there is nothing more effective than a warm referral from a happy client.

How to Respond to the Introduction Friend, thank you so much for the introduction. New Friend, I am looking forward to learning more about you and your business and seeing if there are opportunities to work together. I have some time Monday afternoon for a brief phone call, if this works for you, please send me the best time and phone number where I can reach you. If this isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t convenient, please send me a few dates and times and we can figure out a mutually beneficial time for us to meet.

Reaching out to a Strategic Referral Source from a Shared Group Dear Friend, I hope this note finds you well. We are both members of XXX Group on LinkedIn so I thought I would reach out and introduce myself. RareAgent is a sales and marketing training and coaching firm that helps sales/marketing teams build their pipeline and close more business. I notice you are in the marketing field, and I believe there could be some synergy between our businesses. One of the ways I leverage LinkedIn is to connect with professionals like you, share our contacts with each other and make warm introductions where it makes sense. I would love the opportunity to set up a brief conversation to learn more about you and your business and share what I am doing and possibly set up a time to meet. My cell # 770.367.2795 and my email is marge@rareagent.com. I am looking forward to meeting you. Marge Bieler RareAgent

Making the Introduction for Others Hello Friend 1 and Friend 2, I hope this note finds you well. I am using LinkedIn to expand my network as well as connect other professionals with each other. The purpose of my email today is to make this introduction, as I believe there could be some synergy between the two of you. Friend 1 does lots of great things with widgets friend.1@email.com www.friend1company.com (678) 855.6879 Friend 2 does lots of great things with widgets friend.2@email.com www.friend2company.com (215) 555.1111 Enjoy networking! If either of you would like introductions to specific people that I am connected to, please let me know I would be happy to make those introductions as well. Marge Bieler RareAgent

New Connection Request from Someone You Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know This is always an interesting dilemma. Our suggestion is to evaluate if this is someone that would bring value to your network whether as a prospect, referral sources or introduction for one of your existing contacts. If the answer is yes, then this is how we might respond to the invitation: Hi Friend, Thanks for the LinkedIn connection invitation. I typically like to get to know the folks I am connecting with; understand how you are using LinkedIn and see if we can help each other out in the networking world. At your convenience, Ii would love to have a phone conversation. I can be reached at 770.367.2795. I am looking forward to talking with you. marge@rareagent.com www.rareagent.com 770.367.2795 RareAgent Tip - There is no right or wrong way to respond to unsolicited requests to connect. Just keep in mind that LinkedIn is best used as a warm market tool, and more is not always better. This might be an opportunity to actually have a real live conversation like in the olden days!

Competition Decline

Hi Friend, I appreciate your invitation to connect with me on LinkedIn, but I have to respectfully decline. I am actively using LinkedIn for prospecting and feel that connecting with competition creates temptation. I hope you understand. I wish you a prosperous year!

RareAgent Tip: All this messaging is for template purposes. In many situations it makes sense to just pick up the phone and have a conversation. The templates can help guide those conversations, because the power in the dialogue far ways out any email you can send.

How Do I Organize All of My Contacts? “Don't agonize, organize.” – Florynce Kennedy As sales professionals, we need as much organization as we can get, and with LinkedIn Tags can get you there. Tags are very similar to a distribution group in Outlook. Tags are simple keywords that you can create to organize your connections for quick filtering on LinkedIn. You can create up to 200 new and unique tags or delete old ones. I recommend only 50 connections per tag, as 50 is the maximum you may send a message to at one time. To add a tag or remove a tag from "My Connections": ► Click on "Contacts" at the top of your home page. This will take you to your "My Connections" page. ► Select the name of a connection from the middle panel. ► Click "Edit tags" in the mini-Profile found in the right panel showing your contact's information. ► Take one of the following steps: Select or unselect tags from the tag box. Type a new tag name into the empty text box and then click on "+".

We have tags for folks that have taken BDU’s LinkedIn webinar, so when we launched the advanced class we were able to quickly send a message that was relevant to them specifically. Below the contacts tab there are some other functions that can be very effective when prospecting and, unlike tags, LinkedIn actually does this organizing for us. Companies – At a glance you are able to view everyone you know in a particular company. We were hired by Joe, a very successful Benefits Advisor to help him take his business to the next level. Before we visited him, we took a quick glance of all the folks we were connected to at this company and wrote their names down. There were people on our list who we had met at one time or another but hadn’t really established a relationship. We made it a point to poke our heads in to say hello to each of them, and Caroline was a connection we barely remembered meeting. Caroline asked what we were doing there, and when we told her how we were helping Joe, she said, “Me too, help me too!” And we were able to pick up another client. Moral of the story – use this section before you visit any client or prospect. Industries – This is a great tool to quickly identify all companies in a particular industry. When we hold classes that are specifically for Staffing Agencies, we make sure that we click on the Industries hyperlink, and message everyone at one time. Geographic Region - Time and territory management is critical especially when we are traveling. LinkedIn gives us the ability to see all of our first connections locations at a click of the button. It might make sense, before any business trip or even day trip, make the most of your time and let everyone know you are headed their way – in a quick email. RareAgent Tip – under the tags feature you will see categories that LinkedIn organizes your connections by company, location, industry and recent activity.

Using Questions and Answers and Polls to Attract Others “An expert knows all the answers - if you ask the right questions.” - Levi Strauss Using LinkedIn Answers can advance our reputation and help position us as a subject matter expert. It’s also a fast and efficient way to get feedback on new products, services or concepts. Essentially it is a free focus group that, if used correctly, can help boost your business development efforts. LinkedIn members post questions in an open forum that all members are permitted to answer and/or leave comments. They are categorized and searchable. If you post a question, experts in those categories will offer their thoughts and solutions. If you are looking to answer questions, you are able to search on them based on your topic; if the questioner should pick your answer as the best answer you are awarded a green star that is visible on your profile. Be sure that your questions are thought provoking and filled with good content. They are representing your company and your brand. LinkedIn’s Answers feature is an outstanding marketing tool for your business because it offers us an environment to share what you know in your field. It also really helps you to create relationships and synergies with professionals with whom you may do business at some point in the future. When asking a question, you have the option to share it with the LinkedIn Network and/or up to 200 connections. To create a question in Answers and share it with others, take the following steps: ► Click on "Answers" from the "More…" drop down menu (found in the top navigation bar of the home page). ► Click on the "Ask a Question" tab towards the top of the page. ► Type your question in the open text field. ► By default, the question will be public (available to everyone on LinkedIn). You can adjust your sharing as follows: To share the question with up to 200 of your connections, and not post it publicly: ► Below the question text field, select "only share this question with connections I select". ► Click on the "Ask Question" button at the bottom of the page. ► Fill out the message form to send to connections you select. Polls are a fantastic way to gather your network’s opinions with one click. Unlike Questions and Answers, it is one question with a list of answers to select from. When BDU was pricing one of their webinars, they put a poll out there asking how much folks would pay for 45 minutes. In less than a week they had an overwhelming response, and their price was set at $59 per person. It was so much more effective than guessing, which could have resulted in losing money because of under pricing or losing prospects because of overpricing. You can ask one question and display up to 5 multiple choice answers for folks to vote on. ► Click "Polls" from the "More" drop down menu (found in the top bar of the home page). ► Click "Create a Poll" found on the left side of the page. ► Enter the poll question you want to ask in the "Question" field. ► Enter up to 5 answers the viewer can choose from. ► If desired, click on the box to "Display the answers in random order". ► Choose to share poll on LinkedIn or on Twitter. ► Click "Create Poll" After creating a poll, share it by taking the following steps: ► Click on "Polls" from the "More" drop down menu at the top of your home page. ► Click on the "My Polls" link which will take you to the "Manage My Polls" page. ► Locate and open the poll. ► Select one of the following "Share this Poll" buttons in upper right of open poll:  Share on LinkedIn - Choose who in your network you want to send it to.  Tweet - Sends message through your Twitter account.  Share on Facebook - Sends an update to your friends on Facebook.  Link - provides a link you can send out to others via email or post in a blog that readers can click on.  Embed - Provides a piece of code that allows you to embed the complete poll within your blog or website.

Creating and Marketing Events “Social media offers new opportunities to activate brand enthusiasm.” – Stacy DeBroff Events is a feature that RareAgent and customers use constantly. Between our networking groups, speaking engagements, classroom series, webinars, and programs we sponsor, Events has helped us promote quickly and effectively. Remember the story of how BDU filled seats in their class just by posting in Shared Updates and then shared in the local groups? Well, they began with listing their event. In under 5 minutes they were able to create an event and post it for the world to see. They made sure to have a link that drove the interested participants to their website where registrants were able to register and pay for the event. RareAgent and BDU uses Eventbrite, but there are many other sites that can operationally organize your ticket sales. Anyway, one of BDU;s participants didn’t find them from their update, nor did he see their post in a group. Eddie found them from just searching Eventbrite’s events in the Greater Philadelphia Area. Their event came up, he registered and they met for the first time at BDU’s event. Imagine how effective LinkedIn can be if you are promoting an event; filling a room couldn’t be easier. In addition, posting events is very good branding for your business. When you are active, it shows that you are a networker and you bring value to the business community. Invitations to events tends to get the most interest of any other post to your shared update. Anyone can add an event and have it appear on their profile. To enter in a new event ► ► ► ► ►

Go to the More menu at the top of your home page and then click Events. Click the Add an Event tab. Enter any information you have about the event. If you want the event to appear on your profile, click I'm attending and then select Attendee, Presenter, or Exhibitor. Click Publish Event.

A network update will be generated to your connections if you indicate you will be attending the event.

Leveraging Your Warm Market to Break into a Company? I used to focus on going as high as I possibly could within a company I was prospecting – my success is now from going as warm as I possibly can. – Fred Kaplan If you ever again cold call without searching a company on LinkedIn to identify who is already in your network, you are certainly missing the boat, spinning your wheels, working harder not smarter… the idioms could go on and on. Before we ever make the first call to a new prospect we have no known connection with (a typical cold call) we search the Company on LinkedIn to look at who in our network can provide an introduction for us.

In this case, if I am prospecting Campbell Soup, I pull up their profile to see if there is anyone at the company who I know. nd I learn that there are 186 2 generation connections that I can ask for. I click the 186 and the list comes up for my perusing. I find someone on my list that is closest to the title of my ideal prospect, or at least in that is in the department. Any warm connection, regardless of their position, is more powerful than any cold call can ever be. Again, I click on shared connection(s) and ask for my warm introduction – easy right? When prospecting a company, the more people you are connected within the organization the better. A great place to start is connecting with the new hires as they are not screening much yet; they have few phone calls and even fewer emails coming in so they are much more likely to connect with you. And, don’t forget to check who in the company is an Alumni of your school. LinkedIn lets you know all of that good information! Thanks LinkedIn! The ways to leverage our warm market is practically endless – and it is so productive when we have LinkedIn to make it as streamlined as possible. You can follow or stop following a company from its Company Page. You can follow up to 1,000 companies and get updates on key developments. ► Click Companies near the top of your home page. ► Under the Companies Home tab, search for a company name, keyword or select a location from the drop down menu. ► Click Follow Company in the upper right of the company's Overview page. RareAgent Tip – be sure to follow your top 20 prospects and check them each week – people come and go and that knowledge is golden when prospecting. www.RareAgent.com 770.367.2795 RareAgent: Authorized Partner of Business Development U, LLC All rights reserved

I Need a Plan! “Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” - Napoleon Hill Funny you should ask. As a sales training and coaching firm, we have compiled some very effective tools. Some we developed over the years, while others were inspired by some of the great sales training leaders of our time. And, although this exercise is a part of you Leveraging LinkedIn for Business Development Workbook and Guide, we encourage you to not limit this exercise to your LinkedIn efforts. Let’s begin with setting some goals for ourselves. Let’s just say 1 year from now we are sitting here talking about your LinkedIn success, the connections you have made, the appointments you have had and the business you have derived from utilizing all you have learned…what does that look like to you?

Now that we know what we are looking to achieve, it is important to figure out what LinkedIn activities we need on a daily or weekly basis to reach these goals.

D GOALS

Priority

Meets SMART Criteria

Make ___new connections per day Post shared updates daily and in groups weekly Request introductions from newsfeed Request introductions from my saved searches Meet with Strategic Alliance

We want to be sure that we can achieve these goals so we need to determine if these are S.M.A.R.T. Goals!

S.M.A.R.T. Goals Goals are dreams with deadlines. -Diana Scharf Hunt Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Realistic and Timed You may have heard of SMART Goals, it is a method that RareAgent and the BDU Team uses when working with all of our clients. It is simple, but critical to achieve our goals. You may ask, “Marge, why is it so important to put all of my goals in a SMART format?” Great question, thanks for asking. If I were to tell you I want to lose 10lbs by next week – is that a SMART Goal? Actually it is a SMAT Goal – it is Specific – 10lbs; it is Measurable - I can get on the scale and measure whether or not I achieved my goal; it is Aligned with my goals as I would love to lose 10lbs and it is Timed – my goal is 1 week. But it isn’t Realistic – so it doesn’t make the SMART goal test. If the activity doesn’t meet all 5 markers, it isn’t a goal, it is a wish.

Goal. Briefly describe each goal/objective and when the goal/objective should be met or accomplished. Measurement. How will the goal/objective be evaluated? (Use quantitative measures such as how many new connections were made, how many appointments were scheduled and/or use qualitative measures such as how many closed sales derived from the activity or how much gross revenue was brought in.) In this case we are using time commitment as a form of measuring whether or not the goal was accomplished. Priority. Rank the goal as Essential, Important, or Desirable as follows: A– Required for job performance B– Helpful for job performance C– Asset for job performance The end game here is to develop an activities goal plan – a check list of sorts that is drilled down to the most basic steps. “Marge, how detailed are we talking here?” Again, another great question, I love the participation! I am going to send you on vacation for 3 months– anywhere in the world – where do you want to go? Sounds like fun! But while you are gone, someone is going to have to do your job – right? No worries, I’ve got that covered. I am going to put someone in your spot with your same intelligence, same skill set, even your same personality but the one thing (s)he doesn’t know is what to do. Your job before you leave is to put a plan together so that when (s)he sits down at your computer there is a no guessing. Got it? There are two types of goals, activity and results. Activity is what we are going to do. We have complete control over whether or not we accomplish these goals. Then there are results goals, our best estimate of what our activities goals will achieve. We believe you must frame your goals in order to reach them. For the sake of this activity we are going to work with activities goals only. In addition, we may suggest you setting up your final Activities Goal sheet in a spreadsheet – it is easily tweaked and copied from week to week. Go back to your list and adjust the goals to meet SMART, set a priority to them and you may even delete some of these activity goals from your list if you determine that you won’t have the time or resources to accomplish the goals. The next pages are examples of the activities spreadsheet, keeping this up to date and using it consistently will be a key piece to your success.

Activities Goal Sheet Take your top priority SMART Goals and fill out your sheet.

Week of: February 7, 2011

EXAMPLE Activity

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Rollover

Request to connect with past clients

Request to connect with current clients

Request to connect with current prospects

Request to connect with SRS*

10 1 10 2 1

40 4 40 8 4

1 2 -

10 1 5 1 1 1 1 50

40 4 20 4 4 4 4 200

- 2 7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 1 10 10 10 20

1 -

Schedule SRS meetings** Request 2

Gen introductions

Schedule prospecting meeting** Reach out to new professionals in my saved searches Make introductions for others

Search Events Post a shared update

Share shared update in groups Join new groups Follow prospective companies Reach out to new employees Request connection with members

- 10 10 -

*SRS â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Strategic Referral Source â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a professional not in conflict with your industry with whom you share like clients ** Results goals, this is the goal that you are always working toward

Daily/Weekly/Monthly LinkedIn Activity Plan Week of:

Activity

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Rollover

Creating a Group is Work, But it Could be Worth it! The harder I work, the luckier I get. - Samuel Goldwyn Creating your own group takes some work – and we ask you to analyze the ROI (return on investment) on having the group before you dive in. You will need to establish the purpose of the group, its value proposition to its potential members and rules of engagement. Keep in mind who you are looking to attract and why. If you begin a group that is all about your industry, will you attract your competition vs. your prospects? Think all of this through and if the answer is still “yep, I want create a group”…then go for it. Create a Group You can start a new group from the Create a Group page. You'll be the owner and manager of any group you create. To create a group: ► Click Groups at the top of your home page and then click Create a Group. ► Fill out the Create a Group page. Fields with an asterisk are required. ► Click Create an Open Group or Create a Members-Only Group. Learn more about the difference between Open Groups and Members-Only Groups Invite People to Join the Group Owners or managers can invite anyone to join their group even if the invitee is not currently a member of LinkedIn. They will be asked to join LinkedIn prior to being allowed to join a LinkedIn Group. Note that LinkedIn does not automatically send out group invitations on a group's behalf. From a privacy perspective, we feel it is better for the group organization to initiate the invitations. Group owners and managers can invite people to join their group by taking the following steps: ► Click "Groups" at the top of the home page. This will take you to the "My Groups" page. ► Move your cursor over "Actions" under the appropriate group name and click "Send Invitations" from the o drop down menu provided. ► From "Send Invitations", there are three ways to list people whom you wish to invite: ► You can enter LinkedIn Connections by typing their names into the "Connections" field. ► You can click "Add other email addresses" then enter the email addresses, separate email address by a comma. ► You can click "Upload a file" to upload a file in CSV (comma separated value) format with three columns of information: First Name, Last Name and Email Address. (This is the suggested method for members with a large connections list.) To download a CSV file of your contacts take the following steps: ► Click on "Contacts" at the top of your home page. ► Click on "Export Connections" in the bottom right area of the "Connections" page. ► Export to "Microsoft Outlook (.CSV file)" format (whether you are on a PC or a Mac). ► Enter the text you see in the "security image" box. ► Click "Export". ► Open the file and delete all columns except for B (First Name), D (Last Name), and F (Email Address). ► Delete the rows containing any connections you do not wish to invite to your group. ► Save the file to your desktop or somewhere you will be able to quickly retrieve it. Use a new name to make its function clear (e.g., linkedin_connections_for_group_invitation.CSV). ► Click on "Groups" found in the top navigation bar of the home page. This will take you to the "My Groups" page. ► Hover your mouse over "Actions" under the appropriate group name and click "Send Invitations" ► Click on the "Upload a file" link above the "Subject" line of the Invitation. ► Click on "Browse" to locate your connections file saved earlier. ► Click on "Upload file".

The Invitation is viral, meaning that others can forward that message on to their peers. If the owner or manager has added the peer to the pre-approved list, then they would automatically become a confirmed member when they click on "Join Group" in the invitation. If a peer is not on the pre-approved list and joins your group, they will go into a "pending" state. It will be up to the owner or manager's discretion whether they want to approve any "pending" membership requests visible on the "Requests to Join" page.

LinkedIn does not offer functionality to identify prospective group members (through People Search nor a list provided by LinkedIn) which could then be used to message or invite prospective members in mass batches. Alternative methods managers might want to use include: Promoting your group on your organization's outside website using the "Group Join Link" in the left navigation area of the "Send Invitations" view of your Manager options for the group. Optimizing your group description to include keywords prospective members are likely to search for. Encouraging your members to share the group with their connections. Advertising your group on LinkedIn. Check out the "Advertising" link at the bottom of any LinkedIn page for more information on LinkedIn Ads. Group Member Settings To adjust your group member settings take the following steps: ► Click the "Groups" link at the top of your home page. This will take you to the "My Groups" page. ► Select "Settings" from the "Go to" drop down list under the group name. ► Adjust the appropriate setting and click on "Save Changes". A setting for a group member allows you to control some of the following items: ► Visibility Settings - Controls to display the group logo on your Profile. ► Contact Settings - Controls how and for what you want to be contacted regarding group communications. ► Contact Email - The email used when receiving communications from other group members. ► Digest Email - Activates a digest email containing group activity. ► Announcements - Allows the group manager to send you important announcement messages. ► Member Messages - Allows members of the group to send you messages via LinkedIn. ► Updates Settings - links you to the Network Updates controls in your account Settings. ► Email Preferences ► Group, Companies and Applications ► Account Deleting a Duplicate Profile ► Decide which account you are going to decide to keep ► Customize your URL which you can do in your profile, edit mode, next to URL click edit on top right type in – ex. My custom URL is www.linkedin.com/in/brynnetillman - copy URL ► Be sure that the correct email is connected to this account (if it is connected to the other account you will have to go through a few more steps to add a dummy email to the account, delete the correct email from the account, and then add it to the email to the correct account) nd ► Log into 2 account (that you will want deleted) go to inbox – compose message and send to all contacts: Hello, I am in the process of consolidating 2 LinkedIn accounts and I wanted to invite you to connect with me on the account that I will be using going forward. It is important for me to stay in contact with you, so if you could kindly click this link and invite me to connect with you I would appreciate it www.linkedin.com/in/yourcustomurl Contact LinkedIn at http://bit.ly/ogDLAp and give them the URL for the profile you want to remove (e.g. http://www.linkedin.com/abc123), the email address(es) associated with that account, your name as it appears on LinkedIn, and any alternate names you may have used. More navigation lists are available on https://help.linkedin.com

What are You Waiting for? You see, in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know. Knowing is not enough! You must take action. - Anthony Robbins To sum it up, LinkedIn works because you can…

“Identify who you know that knows who you want to know.”™ …and then you can reach out and get warm introductions to them.

So, that was a lot of information to grasp, but you have to admit, this is far better than cold calling. Take a deep breath and start with your plan, saved searches and messaging, when those three steps are in place you are ready to start setting appointments. You have the magic now. LinkedIn is an incredibly effective way to grow your pipeline, reduce your sales cycle and close more business. The only mistake you could make is not implementing the new skill set you now possess. Just by working your way through this workbook and guide, you are more knowledgeable about LinkedIn and how you can leverage it than 95% of the members. You have all the tools and strategies that have helped countless professionals succeed – and you can too. Remember, RareAgent is a Sales and Marketing Training and Coaching Company, so if you should face any challenges with the sales process including setting the appointments, running the appointments, presenting, overcoming objections or closing take a look at the other classes and offerings that RareAgent teaches, because we can certainly help you turn these qualified leads into clients. We would love to hear your success stories so we can share them with our clients, at our speaking engagements, in our marketing materials and website. We would also appreciate it if you could fill out the evaluation form and get it back to us. You could win a free Rareagent webinar for yourself and 20 of your closest friends and co-workers – now that is pretty cool! If you would like to build on this great information, bring us into your company for a live customized LinkedIn for Business Development training class.

The RareAgent Team wishes you good networking!

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Who We Are RareAgent offers an alternative to current lead demand process by providing personal touch that enables marketing and sales teams to meet their revenue projections. We are results driven marketing and sales training, coaching and consulting firm. We know that being well trained is great, but only if it is driving revenues and increasing the bottom line. It is all about the activity, the process, the conversation, and the closeâ&#x20AC;Śand we can help you get there. RareAgent offers a comprehensive approach to marketing, sales and business development. We offer solutions which through our research and development are customized to your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs. RareAgent works with owners of businesses, entrepreneurs, marketing managers, marketing teams, sales managers, sales teams and personal producers to help them: prospect, investigate client needs, overcome objections, present well, and ultimately close more business.

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LinkedIn is one of the most powerful business connecting tools available for professionals today! LinkedIn allows us to find our ideal prospects, uncover common connections, ask for strategic introductions and get recommendations. We can join groups and discussions that attract our prospect; follow specific companies and their employees and connect with them when appropriate; create and market events; perform market research and so much more! But knowing how to navigate it is not enough. Leveraging Linkedin to build these business relationships as well as maximize LinkedIn’s capabilities through specific techniques and strategies is the key to our success! This LinkedIn Revenue Workbook and Guide is about using this tool to identify who you know that knows who you want to know™ and how to get in front of them. It isn’t your typical social media how to book, it is practical strategies that are easily implementable that will change the way we do business, forever.