Last month LinkedIn turned legal drinking age in the UK: 18 years. It will have to wait another three years to be drinking age in the US or India.

So this is a dedication blog to the oldest of the major social media platforms in existence today. But I won’t bore you with the usual stats but rather focus it on prospecting and sales only.

LinkedIn saw a whopping 55% increase in conversations in 2020.

In 2021, LinkedIn has become more incredible than ever for sales and prospecting. Let me tell you why: pandemic.

Stat 1: Conversations

LinkedIn saw a whopping 55% increase in conversations in 2020. What does that tell you? People locked in their homes with no chance to meeting in person are relying into messaging their connections on LinkedIn.

As a sales rep, your chances of eliciting a response from your prospects on LinkedIn are higher than ever. While LinkedIn’s DAU/MAU (Daily Active Users/Monthly Active Users) are unclear but we can agree that the number has spiked since the onset of pandemic across the globe.

Stat 2: Content Creation

Naturally with more time locked in, people writing posts has jumped up. And that shows in the stats for 2020 on LinkedIn. Content creation is up 60%.

You know how important that is for your SDR/BDR/Sales reps prepping up about your conversations when you have the content handy from your prospect – for icebreakers, for understanding their pain-points, anything at all that helps converse.

Stat 3: Decision-Makers

Nearly 60% of LinkedIn users are in the 25-34 age group. But why is that important? 41% of this age group have decision-making responsibilities. No wonder knowing your decision-maker well is important if you are in sales.

Stat 4: Executive Sponsors

The best part about LinkedIn prospecting is the “Decision-Makers”. Unlike other designations in your prospecting tree, a CXO is most-likely to be active on LinkedIn. A large section of business and recruiting folks are active on LinkedIn and for a reason. But I don’t expect the same of developers coz their tribe doesn’t see the same value on LinkedIn than sales reps do. It may surprise you but thanks to Stack Overflow’s survey, we now know that the most popular social network for developers is Reddit! There are over 2.3 million members in the Programming subreddit and 1.2 million members in the Learn Programming subreddit.

While 17% of developers say they use Reddit as their social media site, a mere 5% say they use LinkedIn. But here’s the catch: a developer may not choose to be on LinkedIn, but a CTO most probably would be – and that’s where prospecting focus lies: knowing the Executive Sponsors well. So you are still in luck!

Stat 5: Emails vs Inmail Response Rate

B2B Emails have an open rate of 15%. InMails on the other hand have a 50% chance of being opened.

Imagine this: everyone has access to a free mailbox. Not everyone has access to an Inmail. That’s it. That sets the difference.

I am prone to receive more sales mails than I will receive an InMail. In fact in the entire last week I received just one InMail myself as against dozens of prospecting mails. And naturally I did check the InMail while I practically marked most prospecting mails basis their subject “mark read” in bulk. This not accounting for dozens that never made out of my spam box and had my attention.

Plus I did something more on the InMail: I checked the LinkedIn profile of the sender – meaning – I took the InMail seriously and set professional context to it unlike what I did to mails.

So no wonder InMails have 3 times more response rates than an avg. email does. That’s just on the reply rate which is about 10%-25% for InMails. It is far worse for Emails. The open rates for InMails are at 50% – meaning you have half the chance of your InMail being read. Consider that against the 15% B2B email open rate!

Conclusion:

With the possibility of a long-form content from your prospects on LinkedIn than anywhere else, with the statistical probability of your prospect’s Decision-Makers and Executive Sponsors being there on LinkedIn and with the chance of being read and responded to high on LinkedIn, with a world in lockdown and no in-person meeting boosting activity on LinkedIn, your chances of initiating a conversation on LinkedIn are higher than ever.

A missed opportunity if you haven’t sat down and devised your LinkedIn reach-out strategy. Go for it now!

Happy Prospecting! Happy Selling!