LinkedIn CRM

Why do you need a LinkedIn CRM?

Most of us have hundreds - or thousands - of LinkedIn connections. They can be hard to keep track of.

We can spend hundreds of dollars - and a lot of our time - finding lists of perfect clients. Even though our perfect clients are often already inside our network. And being connected to a perfect future client is a pretty strong signal that they already know you, and a great place to begin building up a relationship. It can take a lot less time than building relationships with people who have no idea who you are.

The way the LinkedIn algorithm works means you often build relationships with people in your network, only to stop seeing their content 6-12 months later. They’ll often suddenly stop seeing yours as well. A LinkedIn CRM means you can keep your friends, and won’t lose them to the algorithm, as you’ll be given reminders to comment on their content or follow up with them.

How is a LinkedIn CRM different from your normal CRM?

You can use your normal CRM instead of a LinkedIn-specific CRM, of course. But as we’ve already mentioned, most of us have hundreds - or even thousands - of connections on LinkedIn. If you add them all to your CRM, you risk cluttering it up, and missing the important people.

A LinkedIn CRM will usually have different functionality to a sales CRM as well. Some LinkedIn CRMs, like The Lime One, allow you to check your connections’ content according to a schedule you’ve set, follow up with people on specific dates, and see interesting content from people you don’t know.

The best LinkedIn CRMs will also allow you to add connections to your sales CRM once they become warm enough. You can then add them to your normal sales cycle and use your LinkedIn CRM to turn people from LinkedIn connections to warm leads that can be nurtured in your CRM.

What features can I expect in a LinkedIn CRM?

Relationship strength tracking

One of the most important things a LinkedIn CRM can do that’s tricky to do by yourself is to track how strong your relationships are. Every time you have an interaction with one of your contacts, it strengthens your relationship. And when you leave that relationship for a while, it starts to degrade. A relationship strength tracker will measure all of this.

This is a useful way to know when it’s time to take your relationships to the next level. For example, I comment on people’s LinkedIn posts for a few months before I ask them something through DMs. I know when it’s time to send a DM because my ‘citizen score’ (The Lime One’s relationship tracker) is about 75-100% full (depending on how often they post).

Automated reminders

Just like with a sales CRM, a LinkedIn CRM should remind you when to take actions with your contacts. This should include following up with people on a specific day, as well as regularly checking if they’ve added any content you can comment on.

Help you find new content

It can be tricky to find content outside of your bubble. A good LinkedIn CRM will help you find cool new content and people who are posting about topics relevant to your industry and niche.

Tagging

You know that gal you met 5 years ago who could help you with your SEO/website/fundraising/finding a present for your dog’s best friend? She’s in your LinkedIn network somewhere, but she’s impossible to find. Tagging helps you make sure you can actually find her when you need to.

How to use a LinkedIn CRM to maintain authentic relationships

We often shy away from using a CRM to aid with networking because it can feel a little bit… forced. But think of it like remembering your friend’s birthday using a calendar. If you want to build a relationship with someone, you need to remember to comment on their posts and send them a DM every now and then. You can’t rely on the algorithm to help you follow up.

Using a CRM gives you the nudge you need to support people’s content, send them the DM you know you should, remember the history of your conversations (this can be especially tricky without a CRM if most of your conversations happen in comments), and remember their birthday and any other special events.

How to use a LinkedIn CRM with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Although you absolutely don’t need LinkedIn Sales Navigator to use a LinkedIn CRM, it is a brilliant tool to gather information on your target audience, find out who should be in your list to target, and keep track of those lists. It’s also great if you want to work with a particular company and need to stay up to date with changes in the company.

From there, you can add these target leads into your LinkedIn CRM, and start to interact with them in comments and DMs.

How it helps with relationship-based selling best practices

There have been several changes in the B2B sales landscape that make relationship-based selling the most effective way to reach your target customers - and build a relationship with them.

Many of the major email platforms - like Gmail - are now using AI to (brilliantly) spot cold emails, making it very hard to get through. People are no longer in the office as much, making it harder to get through that way.

In short, there aren’t many ways to reach your target audience.

But even if they aren’t actively posting on LinkedIn, they are probably scrolling (we lovingly call these people lurkers). You can check if they’re on LinkedIn by going to their profile, scrolling down to the Activity section, and going to ‘Comments’. If they’re leaving comments, they’re active (probably a lot more often than when they’re commenting). You can also go to ‘Reactions’ and see if they’re just reacting to posts. If they aren’t doing any of these things, your best bet is to send them a (very personalised) DM. It could take them months to respond, but you’re likely to be able to reach them on LinkedIn, and start a conversation. From here you can build a relationship by sending them relevant posts or opening up the conversation again every few months.

For people who are more active, you can comment on their LinkedIn posts, or comment on their comments on other people’s LinkedIn posts. Then when your relationship is strong enough, you can start sending DMs and open up a conversation about their challenges.

How a LinkedIn CRM calculates return on networking time

A lot of us spend time on LinkedIn hoping we’ll get something out of it. And it can be difficult to measure. A lot of people who have never reacted to or commented on my LinkedIn posts talk to me about them in real life. So it can feel impossible to measure the impact.

A LinkedIn CRM allows you to get out of your ‘bubble’ of speaking to the same people all the time. You’ll be able to keep the old (relevant) connections you always speak to in your network, but you’ll also be able to branch out. You can find conversations that are relevant to your industry and topics, find people from your target audience, and start to build relationships with those people. From there you can see how your relationships are growing, how many comments you wrote vs how well your content performed, how many DMs you sent vs how many leads you have, and be organised with understanding the impact your time on LinkedIn has on what we’re all looking for - leads and sales.