u/Secure-Proof-4872

I am a founder of a new platform but I was in my industry as a marketer for a long time before I built this thing. While building the thing, we’ve asked warm contacts (the right role area and decision making) for feedback to make sure we were focused on the right things. Now we need to actually be selling. Yes I will go back to some of those feedback folks to try to get into a pilot or sell to. But also have a lot of LinkedIn contacts that I’ve worked with, have been building connections, etc. My question is: how do I sell to these warm connection folks? I believe in my product, we will be targeting certain ICPs and personas, but I have to say I’m shy about engaging with people who actually know me, “selling” — what does a pitch look like? Yes questions but I also want to show them my thing. You are probably rolling your eyes right now—with good reason! Yes, I need to learn about sales techniques, etc which I’m trying to do, I just wonder if you have any advice at the get go. Thanks.

Ok, so maybe it's too early to brag, but I posted something yesterday that has gone viral and I'm stoked. Sharing my story in case it can be useful.

Let's start with the fact that I'm in a niche vertical. People go from job to job in the same vertical, so it's great for building a network because your experience is a calling card to connect. I've worked at several companies and so have a respectably-sized network (not crazy but 4k+). When I reach out to connect, I get a high "yes" rate because people look at my profile, see I'm in the industry, and [probably] think, "Hmmm. Could be useful at some point..."

I'm a startup founder and consultant, and my target B2B customers are, yes, in this niche vertical. Last night I posted a piece of content (a spreadsheet that tracks changing legislation for a hot area that affects our industry). Highly valuable for sales and marketing teams, but to tell you the truth, large companies should already be tracking this themselves.

"Hey [vertical] friends! Tired of chasing down [hot issue] across states? Our clients were too, so [my cofounder] and I put together a simple spreadsheet. It covers [what it covers]. Four tabs, fully sourced, with vendor implications for each. Use it with your favorite AI agent to automatically update [monthly]. Happy to send it over if it's useful. Just drop a com-ment and I'll DM you. No strings (not planning on spamming you) but in order for me to D-M you you'll need to be a 1st connection so please connect, otherwise my InMail credits will run out."

It's content marketing plain and simple; providing something of value to my audience. The spreadsheet has an "About" tab with a letter-style opener from us, mentions our business, and how we hope this is helpful, yadda yadda. But using LinkedIn I think feels more personal than sending email (which connects to landing page, maybe a gate, etc. and might just end up in the promotions or SPAM box). All day I've been responding to com-ments and D-Ms. 13k impressions, over 250 new 1st connections, have booked several meetings (though our launch is not for more than a month so I'm actually not soliciting meetings except in certain cases). Anyway... I know this does not mean that I'll be able to convert the love into booked meetings and sales, but I'm glad with the start. Thanks for letting me share and I hope it can give you ideas.

(p.s. Reddit didn't like me writing the words "com-ment" or "D-M" so I had to hyphenate or else I couldn't post.

I’ve worked at a few different companies in a niche vertical so have had a good network on LI. Now I have a tech startup and consultancy. I have been posting content regularly on LinkedIn and growing my network simply by sending connection requests. My acceptance rate is very high, probably because the invitee takes a look at my profile and thinks — ok that person might be useful to me. (Like, they often thank me for connecting!) I’ve also gotten leads for my business without doing real prospecting DMs. And occasionally I send a DM with content — like, Hey I thought you’d be interested in this podcast we made on [xyz relevant subject]. Here’s my question: I’m going to be launching my tech platform in a month or so and am going to have to turn this network into an actual funnel. They’re not quite a “cold” audience… they’re a little bit “warmish” (because the same people stay in this niche vertical and move to different companies so the vertical itself is a “warm”!signal)? I can’t use cold outreach tactics. Anyway… how do I take the turn into selling? (Btw, also do some email to much of the same audience but try to keep it focused on content marketing and awareness.)

I’ve been using Snov.io for about 9 months for email outbound. I had been using HubSpot, but open/click rates were terrible. I switched to Snov lures by their “magic pixel” and the ability to run emails + build my network on LinkedIn and saw immediate results (25%+ clicks etc) and very high acceptance rate for my connection requests (I verified the clicks on my web site.) I know that opens and clicks are not favored for cold emails, that replies are what is happening. But in my niche industry, clicks are still working (I don’t track opens anymore). I use Apollo for list building as Snov doesn’t seem to have very up to date lists. Anyway… My email campaigns have suddenly started not working well. I’m wondering why (I don’t send enormous volume.) Also I’ve heard LinkedIn is cracking down on companies that run automations on LI. Any email platforms I should switch to? What about the dreaded LinkedIn bans— have you heard about these? Thanks for advice.