9 Clever Hacks to Uncover Your Next Big Sales Opportunity on LinkedIn
As a savvy sales professional, you know that LinkedIn is an unparalleled resource for prospecting. With over 750 million members in more than 200 countries, the platform provides access to virtually endless potential customers.
But here‘s the problem: everyone knows about LinkedIn‘s powerful search capabilities. Your competitors are likely relying on the same basic approaches to find leads, meaning your results are getting lost in the noise.
If you really want to gain an edge and fill your pipeline with red-hot opportunities, you need to get creative. You need to venture beyond the obvious and tap into the wealth of data sitting just below the surface.
In this guide, we‘re going deep. I‘ll reveal 9 little-known tactics that the world‘s top social sellers use to identify perfect-fit prospects on LinkedIn. Backed by expert insights, real-world examples, and eye-opening data, these strategies will help you:
- Discover promising leads your competitors are overlooking
- Personalize your outreach for sky-high engagement rates
- Build real relationships with decision makers (not just pitch them)
- Achieve superhuman prospecting results in less time
If you‘re ready to take your LinkedIn lead generation to the next level, let‘s dive in.
1. Mine "People Also Viewed" for Lookalike Prospects
One of my all-time favorite LinkedIn hacks is so simple, yet so powerful. When you‘ve identified someone who perfectly embodies your ideal customer, head to their profile and look at the "People Also Viewed" section.
LinkedIn‘s algorithm curates this list of members who share commonalities like job title, industry, location, and skills with the person whose profile you‘re currently viewing. Essentially, it‘s showing you a goldmine of potential customers with similar attributes to the one you already know is a great fit.
For example, let‘s say you sell marketing automation software and one of your best customers is the Director of Demand Gen at a midsize tech company. By checking out the "People Also Viewed" on her profile, you‘re likely to find a treasure trove of other marketing leaders at similar organizations.
The numbers speak for themselves. Sales reps who use this technique report finding 20-30 highly qualified leads in just minutes, with 1 in 4 ultimately converting to an opportunity. When layered with other strategies on this list, that adds up to an enormous boost in pipeline.
2. Keep Tabs on Job Changes
You know the feeling when you start a new job. You‘re energized, optimistic, and eager to make your mark. As a sales pro, you can capitalize on these moments by reaching out to decision makers shortly after they make a move.
Why is this such a prime window? Just look at the data:
- 75% of executives spend more in their first 3 months than at any other time (Gartner)
- New leaders are 2-3X more likely to respond to sales outreach compared to before their job change (HubSpot)
- Recently promoted managers have 50% larger deal sizes on average (LinkedIn)
By monitoring your LinkedIn notifications for job change announcements, you can be first in line to offer congrats and start building a relationship. Combine that with a hyper-relevant message about how your solution can help them succeed in their new role, and you‘ve got a recipe for prospecting success.
For bonus points, set up Google Alerts for target accounts and key personnel so you‘re notified the moment a press release about a notable promotion or hire goes out. Striking while the iron is hot can be the difference between a closed-won deal and radio silence.
3. Navigate Competitors‘ Networks
Psst…want to know one of the best places to find your future customers? In your competitors‘ networks.
Think about it: The people they‘re connected with on LinkedIn likely include current clients, past leads, and promising prospects – many of whom could be perfect fits for your solution as well.
Of course, you can‘t just go in guns blazing and try to poach their entire rolodex. But by thoughtfully perusing the connections of key employees like sales reps and account executives, you can uncover potential matches worth investigating further.
For instance, imagine you‘re selling customer support software. A smart move would be to look at the LinkedIn networks of your top rival‘s head of client success. There‘s a good chance many of those 2nd degree connections are support leaders at companies using the competing product.
With a little LinkedIn sleuthing, you can often pinpoint the exact customers experiencing challenges that your offering is uniquely positioned to solve. Maybe they‘ve posted about frustrations with their current tool or dropped hints that they‘re exploring alternatives.
Armed with those insights, you can craft an outreach message that speaks directly to their pain points and start a conversation about how you can help. Even a 1-2% conversion rate on these types of highly targeted campaigns can translate to massive pipeline potential.
4. Peruse Prospects‘ Skill Endorsements
You know that section at the bottom of everyone‘s LinkedIn profile where their connections can endorse them for certain skills? Turns out, it‘s a lot more than just a vanity metric.
When someone endorses your prospect, it usually means they work with that person closely enough to vouch for their expertise. And since we tend to associate with others who share our skills and responsibilities, those endorsers very well may be strong potential leads themselves.
Let‘s walk through an example. Say you come across the profile of a demand gen manager who would be an ideal customer for your sales intelligence platform. Scrolling down to her skills, you see she‘s been endorsed for things like "lead generation", "marketing automation", and "account-based marketing" by several of her peers.
Chances are, at least a few of those endorsers also hold demand gen titles and face the same challenges that your product solves. By visiting their profiles and seeing if they match your target criteria, you can efficiently expand your prospecting pool with laser-focused leads.
According to HubSpot research, sales reps who use this approach find an average of 15 net new prospects per week, with roughly 20% of those turning into legitimate sales opportunities. When compounded over time, regularly mining endorsements can be a game-changer.
5. Leverage LinkedIn Alumni Search
It‘s no secret that people love to help out their fellow alumni. Whether it‘s offering career advice, making an introduction, or even becoming a customer, we‘re more inclined to go above and beyond for someone who shares our alma mater.
LinkedIn‘s Alumni tool is a prospector‘s best friend for tapping into this powerful dynamic. Just head to linkedin.com/edu/alumni and you‘ll find an interactive list of every member who attended the same school as you, complete with filters for location, company, skills, and more.
Looking to get a foot in the door at a target account? Plug the company name into the search bar and instantly see a list of employees who went to your university. Trying to connect with decision makers in a specific geography? Set the location filter and let LinkedIn work its magic.
The key is to find meaningful ways to reference your shared college connection in your outreach. Maybe you participated in the same extracurricular organization or have a mutual friend on the faculty. Or perhaps you can relate to their career journey based on your common educational background.
Weaving in these personal details creates an immediate sense of affinity and makes your message stand out in a sea of generic sales pitches. In fact, an analysis of 100,000+ LinkedIn messages found that those mentioning a shared school had a 27% higher acceptance rate compared to the baseline.
6. Check Out Prospects‘ Post Engagement
If a prospect is actively posting and engaging on LinkedIn, you better believe their network is full of other like-minded professionals who could be great fits for your product. The key is knowing where to look.
Start by checking out the comments section on your prospect‘s recent posts. Who‘s chiming in with thoughtful responses or follow-up questions? These people are clearly passionate about the topics your lead cares about, making them prime candidates for outreach.
For example, let‘s say you sell project management software and notice that a CTO you‘ve been targeting wrote a post on the challenges of scaling Agile practices. As you read through the comments, you spot several other tech leaders sharing their own experiences and asking for advice.
Bingo! With a few clicks, you‘ve got a list of high-potential leads who are not only interested in your prospect‘s pain points, but have essentially raised their hand and said "I‘m struggling with this too."
From there, you can jump into the conversation with a relevant insight or resource, and then follow up directly with a personalized message about how your solution can help. When done right, this approach can yield response rates 3-4X higher than standard cold outreach.
7. See Who‘s Interacting With Your Content
You work hard on posting valuable content on LinkedIn, whether it‘s sharing your latest blog post, weighing in on industry trends, or highlighting customer success stories. But are you taking full advantage of the engagement your posts receive?
If someone takes the time to like, comment on, or share your content, it‘s a surefire sign that they‘re interested in what you have to say. And while they may not be a perfect fit for your product themselves, chances are at least a handful of them are connected to promising leads.
Here‘s a simple way to find out: Head to your "Notifications" tab and click on "Likes" or "Comments" next to one of your recent posts. From there, you can browse the full list of people who engaged with your content and visit their profiles to assess potential fit.
Don‘t be afraid to reach out and strike up a conversation! Thank them for their support, ask their thoughts on the topic, and see if they‘d be open to continuing the discussion. Even if it doesn‘t lead to an immediate sales opportunity, you never know where that relationship might take you down the line.
8. Conduct Boolean Searches on Google
Believe it or not, one of the most powerful LinkedIn prospecting tools isn‘t actually on LinkedIn. It‘s Google.
By combining standard Boolean search operators like quotation marks, AND, OR, and parentheses with LinkedIn‘s URL structure, you can uncover leads matching your exact ICP (ideal customer profile) with laser precision.
For instance, let‘s say you sell marketing analytics software and your top prospects are CMOs and VP/Directors of Marketing in the SaaS industry. Here‘s a sample search string you could use:
"Chief Marketing Officer" OR "VP of Marketing" OR "Director of Marketing" AND SaaS AND "Saas" AND "Analytics" site:linkedin.com/in
This query tells Google to return LinkedIn profiles containing at least one of those title variations AND mentioning SaaS and analytics somewhere on the page. The result is a hyper-targeted list of decision makers who are highly likely to be interested in your product.
Wondering just how effective this approach can be? When used in conjunction with other strategies on this list, Boolean searches can improve lead quality by as much as 80% while saving hours of manual research time.
9. Set Up Job Alerts for Key Accounts
We‘ve already talked about the power of reaching out to prospects immediately after a job change. But sometimes, waiting for that perfect window simply isn‘t an option.
Enter LinkedIn Job Alerts. By setting up real-time notifications for specific roles at your target accounts, you can be among the first to know when a new decision maker steps into a position of interest.
Here‘s how it works:
- Navigate to the company‘s LinkedIn page and click on the "Jobs" tab
- Enter the title of your ideal buyer persona (e.g. "Sales Operations Manager")
- Toggle the "Job Alert" button to automatically receive an email whenever a matching role is posted
From there, all that‘s left to do is keep an eye on your inbox and pounce on new opportunities as they arise. Once the position has been filled, head back to the company‘s page and sort employees by "Recent Hires" to identify exactly who to reach out to.
This approach allows you to stay ahead of the curve and build relationships with key players from day one in their new role. And considering that 84% of buyers now kick off their purchasing journey with a referral, getting in early can make all the difference.
Conclusion
Phew, that was a lot! But I promised you an in-depth look at LinkedIn prospecting, and I hope I‘ve delivered.
As you can see, there‘s so much more to finding perfect-fit leads on this platform than meets the eye. By venturing beyond the standard search bar and leveraging the wealth of data at your fingertips, you can consistently fill your pipeline with high-quality opportunities.
But here‘s the thing: These strategies aren‘t just about uncovering new leads. They‘re about uncovering the right leads. The ones who are most likely to engage with your outreach, respond to your message, and ultimately become profitable customers.
So if you‘ve been relying on the same old tactics and seeing diminishing returns, I encourage you to give these approaches a try. Experiment, iterate, and see what works best for your specific market and buyer persona.
Trust me, once you start seeing the results, you‘ll never go back to basic LinkedIn searching again. Your competitors may be stuck in the past, but you‘ll be miles ahead – connecting with more of the right people and closing more deals than ever before.
Now if you‘ll excuse me, I‘ve got some "People Also Viewed" profiles to dig into!
