In our rapidly changing, digital world, the way we sell is rapidly changing. Its important to keep up with trends and embrace new technology to thrive as a Sales Development Representative (SDR), and we believe that all sales development representatives should use LinkedIn.

Therefore, we’ll show you some importance reasons for personal branding on LinkedIn and why you should consider leveraging this channel to passively generate leads and prospects.

What is an SDR?

Sales development representatives (SDRs) are responsible for identifying and generating new business opportunities for their organizations. LinkedIn is an important tool for SDRs, as it allows them to build their professional networks, connect with potential clients, and showcase their expertise and skills.

The Importance of Personal Branding on LinkedIn for SDRs

Effective personal branding on LinkedIn is essential for sales development representatives who want to succeed in their roles.

Here are some tips for creating a strong LinkedIn personal brand as an SDR:

1. Create a compelling LinkedIn profile: Your LinkedIn profile is your online presence on the site, so it’s important to make it as compelling and engaging as possible. Include a professional-looking photo, a well-written summary that highlights your skills and experiences, and a list of your accomplishments and achievements. Compelling profiles help you link back to your product.
   
2. Share valuable content: Share content that is relevant to your industry and interests, and that is likely to be of interest to your target audience. This could include blog posts, articles, videos, or other types of content. The goal is to showcase your expertise and build your credibility as a thought leader in your field.
   
3. Connect with the right people: Connect with other LinkedIn users who are in your industry or who have similar interests. This can help you expand your network and increase your visibility on the site. Focus on building connections with potential clients and other key stakeholders who can help you grow your business.
   
4. Participate in LinkedIn groups: Join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your industry and interests, and participate in discussions and activities within those groups. This can help you connect with other like-minded individuals and grow
   
5. SDRs can also benefit from the use of scheduling tools and analytics through platforms such as Seenly. Scheduling tools help to more efficiently create content over time. Analytics can help sales to identify which content resonates with their audience and to understand the effectiveness of their personal selling campaigns.

Generate Prospects and Leads Through Social Media

For sales development representatives, the prospect of passively generating leads and prospects is very tempting. But we won’t deny that it takes a lot of consistency, purpose and a unique selling point to make it happen.

Here are some tips to build your brand and generate leads.

Consistency

Firstly, recognize that consistency is absolutely critical. If you are super busy, try to post at least once per week. These posts shouldn’t always be sales pitches – content that is interesting will generate traction with the viral algorithms on LinkedIn and ultimately be positioned in front of more eyeballs. Talk about your industry, talk about sales techniques, anything that is parallel to your product and audience. It’s important though not to go too far off track, we’ve observed that many people tend in the direction of selfies and personal stories to get hits, this might work for generating impressions and engagements but isn’t as likely to lead to conversions. Track your whole funnel!

Profile Optimization

Next, your profile has to reflect what you are promoting and your personal style. Make sure you’ve filled out all the relevant profile information and your job/product is prominently placed on your profile page and user name. Lots of people skip this step, but its critical for linking your comments and posts back to your product for conversions.

Comment and Engage

Once you are regularly posting, you’ll find that your content is now shared with a wider audience. At this time its important to also engage with your network – comment often on other people’s posts in your industry. Just make sure that you are adding something to the conversation. We see that people who comment regularly are significantly more likely to gain further followers and engagements, it builds a positive feedback loop.

Cold Messaging and In-Mail

Many people also ask us about using In-mail and cold messaging on LinkedIn. We believe that cold messaging is relevant when mixed with organic posting and content interactions. By doing the latter first, you begin to warm up your prospects. They may already see you as a trustworthy source and your conversion rate from message to conversation will increase. At Seenly, we have seen positive success by mixing the approaches.

Don’t Spam!

Lastly, make sure the people you are contacting are actually relevant and don’t spam! Don’t waste your In-mail messages on the wrong people, make sure they are going to people who might be interested. Also, personalize your messages – don’t use mass automation for this step. Although time consuming, authentic personal interactions lead to better conversion rates overall.

Summary

As we’ve seen in this article, social media can be a fantastic way for sales development representatives to passively generate leads and prospects for their business. Its not always easy, but it can be a very rewarding way to do things as part of your sales mix.

Try out Seenly today and begin to optimize your personal branding, to generate leads and maximize your sales potential.