Grow Your Company With LinkedIn Groups

Sales reps and the distributor’s leadership team members should reach out to and connect with all of their business contacts who are on LinkedIn. The number of LinkedIn professionals is growing by the minute. According to a 2013 blog by Deep Nishar, senior vice president, product and user experience at LinkedIn, there are 200 million site members with 172,800 new registrations each day.

Employees should join LinkedIn Groups for their professional and community associations. Some examples include American Marketing Association; ISSA Young Executive Society; IEHA; BOMA; U.S. Green Building Council; B2B for Distributor Executives; IFMA; and Sanitary Maintenance. Distributor reps can also join LinkedIn Groups within their community (BGSU Alumni, Northwest Ohio IT Executives, etc.) For example, an employee located in Toledo, Ohio, can conduct a quick search of groups to show more than 85 LinkedIn groups with the words “Northwest Ohio” in them. There is at least one LinkedIn Group that’s right for everyone.

When participating in online conversation, the social media coordinators and employees should keep in mind proper grammar, politeness, and engaging in a way that adds valuable feedback and information, not just slightly veiled product advertisements.

LinkedIn is a beneficial tool for learning about the background of prospects. For example, a sales rep who expects to see a prospect at an upcoming networking event, such as a local USGBC chapter meeting or an ISSA Regional Meeting, can use this information to strike up a conversation or glean the prospect’s needs. It is also a convenient follow-up tool for prospects and contacts that the distributor sales representative met at similar events, but for whom he/she was not able to obtain a business card.