How to Actually Get in Front of Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn
Photo by Hatice Baran on Unsplash
A pretty big counterintuitive LinkedIn truth?
It’s rare that you’re ever going to interact with your “lead” directly on the platform.
As in, you reach out to Sally who has the problem you solve.
You tell Sally how you can help her.
Sally is immediately interested, and then Sally hires you.
I mean… how great would that be if it was that easy?!
Then all we’d need to do is buy a list of Sallys, pitch to Sally, and we’d all be millionaires.
But unfortunately… that’s not how it works.
Buying decisions are rarely that linear.
And they’re almost never purely logical either.
We make decisions based on emotion.
We hire people because we feel a certain way about them.
We invest because of unseen forces like trust, familiarity, and social proof, forces that are happening behind the scenes, often without us even realizing.
Case in point: I once had a client choose to work with me over another LinkedIn provider she was considering.
When she told me she was going with me, I asked...out of pure curiosity... what made her choose me?
Her answer?
“I just liked you better.”
Nothing about pricing.
Nothing about features.
Nothing about deliverables.
Just…she liked and trusted me.
Now, does that mean I’m inherently more likeable than the other person?
No.
What it does mean is that I had probably built more Surround Sound.
Surround Sound Marketing is the idea that there are multiple touchpoints involved in how someone ultimately hires and chooses to do business with you.
It’s not just the DM you send - although that kicks things off.
It’s not just the content you publish.
It’s not just the referral from a friend.
It’s all of those things working together, consistently, over time, to create the feeling of being “surrounded by you”.
So when someone finally is ready to hire?
Your name is the first that comes to mind.
I genuinely geek out on this stuff, and I LOVE helping clients think through how to create their own surround sound system on LinkedIn to bring in more sales.
So if you want to start applying this way of thinking to your own business, here’s how to start brainstorming where & how you could strategically position yourself to start organically “running into” your ideal clients more often:
1. Finding Your Tangential Service Providers
Who would your ideal client hire before or after you?
An example of this is let's say you're an SEO agency. A lot of times founders or orgs like to start being strategic about SEO after they've rebuilt their website. Another business who does website rebuilds or branding agencies would be super wise to build relationships with as their clients would naturally come to you when they're done working with them.
When I worked in tech - we created a super-speed-loan-processing-algorithm for small businesses to get lines of credit. One of our best partnerships was a heavy machinery online auction. Tons of small businesses trying to get expensive equipment that they needed financing for. I led that partnership and learned tons about how to build these strategic relationships that are win-win for everyone.
If you can identify the other service providers or vendors in your client’s journey and build relationships with them, you can often create a steady stream of warm, aligned referrals.
2. Influencers in Their Decision Process
A lot of people think they’re selling to the CEO or the founder.
But often the people with the most influence in the buying process are:
Friends who are more plugged in than they are
Their millennial/Gen Z kids
Different department heads (is the CEO your decision maker… or is it actually the CMO, L&D team, or even an intern??)
Niche community leaders they trust and respect
So spend some time thinking this through decision-maker-tree ….it’s probably not as linear as you want to think it is.
It’s often the people around your ideal client who will advocate for you long before they ever even engage with you directly.
3. Where They Hang Out
This one is fairly simple & straightforward but surprising effective as well.
What communities are they part of?
What podcasts are they listening to?
What newsletters are they subscribed to?
Who are they following and engaging with already on LinkedIn?
They’ve put their trust in those ^^ and so when you pop up in those spaces, by default you’re given an extension of that trust.
One of those most strategic things I started doing at the end of last year was very directly asking my clients as we were wrapping up:
“Where do you hang out online? What communities are you apart of, what groups do you love?”
If I enjoyed working with that client - I wanted to know where could I potentially find more founders like them to help support.
Seems simple but I had never been so direct in my curiosity.
The result was a whole list of places I could now start strategically pitching myself to, which is exactly what I did using my signature outreach framework and how I built out my Q1 teaching tour.
If you can identify the hot spots where your audience gathers and show up there consistently with value or as a guest expert they can learn from, you exponentially increase your chances of being seen by more of the right people and adding them to your future pipeline.
