Discover 5 innovative ways startups can use LinkedIn to compete effectively with larger and more established businesses. Hear how to build awareness, get conversations started, position your sales execs as SMEs, validate your market entry strategy, and build a talent pool you can tap into as you grow.

1. LinkedIn
for
Startups
5 Ways to
Accelerate Growth

2. Marketing
20 years of experience in marketing,
public relations, social media.
Founded in 2007, ProResource
has a unique method of doing
customer development
designed specifically for
small technology businesses.
Our clients are software companies,
MSPs, VARs and IT services vendors.
www.proresource.com
Judy Schramm, CEO
ProResource, Inc.

3. Why LinkedIn?
• 400+ million members, the
largest professional network
on the Internet
• Founded in 2003 as a place to
upload and share resumes,
has become a powerful
resource for social selling
“LinkedIn may be the
best source of sales
intelligence on the
planet for finding and
reaching out to a
prospective customer.”
Ken Krogue
“89. 9% of top sellers view LinkedIn as essential,
compared with 12.8% of others.”
Jill Konrath
Ardath Albee

4. How Startups Can Use LinkedIn
• Build awareness
• Get conversations started
• Position your sales execs as SMEs
• Validate your market entry strategy
• Build a talent pool

5. BUILD AWARENESS

6. Build Awareness
Post status
updates about
the problem
Blog to
educate about
the problem
and your
solution
Boost your
blog posts
Do outreach
to ideal
prospects and
partners

7. GET CONVERSATIONS STARTED

8. Get Conversations Started
Blog
• Call to
action
• Invite
comments
Outreach
• Connect
• Invite to a
10-min call
Groups
• Add to
discussions
• Ask
questions

9. POSITION SALES EXECS AS
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS

10. Position Sales Execs as SMEs
Social
selling
profile
Blog
Status
updates

11. VALIDATE YOUR MARKET ENTRY
STRATEGY

12. Create a Test Matrix
Message
#1
Message
#2
Message
#3
Message
#4
Persona
#1
Persona
#2
Persona
#3
Try different
benefits
Use different
words
Try different industries, job titles, keywords
 You need 50-100 per cell
 Tag them so you know who was in each group
(and you don’t contact anyone twice)
 Track results!
1000 introductions
= 50 interested

13. BUILD A TALENT POOL

14. Define search
criteria
Search for people
who fit the
criteria on
LinkedIn
Introduce
yourself, mention
the job
Send follow-up
message with link
to job posting
Reach out again to
the people you
want most
How to Recruit Top Talent

15. Special Offer
• To thank you for attending the webinar, I’d like
to offer you a free LinkedIn Strategy Session
– We can talk about how to use LinkedIn for your
specific situation
– 30 minutes, phone or Skype
– Regularly $99 – FREE for you!
– To schedule, email
judy@proresource.com

16. Questions?
Judy Schramm
ProResource, Inc.
703-824-8482
jschramm@proresource.com
www.linkedin.com/in/judyschramm
@proresource
http://blog.proresource.com/