Ever felt salesy or spammy when pitching prospects on LinkedIn? There is so much competition on the platform that it can feel impossible to figure out how to stand out and offer value.

But it’s worth it. LinkedIn is one of the best platforms for finding B2B leads in almost any sector, and because it’s a networking site, prospects are expecting pitches.

The magic comes from learning how to craft a sales pitch that makes leads take notice.

In this post, we’ll show you an easy strategy for crafting the perfect LinkedIn sales pitch (with some bonus templates to get you started).

Is your LinkedIn lead gen being hampered by the new LinkedIn limits? Here’s everything you need to know.

Why You Should Spend Some Time Crafting a Sales Pitch

The goal of a sales pitch is to communicate the value you can offer potential customers. The best sales pitches appeal to emotion or rational sensibility while being attention-grabbing and interesting.

The issue on LinkedIn is that no one has the time or attention span to read a long sales pitch that’s paragraphs long.

Instead, you need to communicate your value proposition and grab your prospect’s attention quickly. This is why it’s so important to spend time crafting and tweaking your sales pitch so it’s optimized for LinkedIn.

And if you’re not convinced, here are some stats:

Only around 24% of sales emails are opened – you better have a good pitch for when yours is.
65% of salespeople who use social selling fill their pipeline (using platforms like LinkedIn).
61% of buyers agree that being provided with the right information is the key factor to making a purchase decision.

The Elements of an Effective Sales Pitch

So, what goes into an effective sales pitch? Let’s take a look at the non-negotiable elements of cold outreach.

Prospect research

Prospects can tell when they’re being fed a generic sales pitch by business owners. It’s obvious when you’ve done zero research and don’t know anything about the person you’re pitching.

Before you send a connection request, you need to do some research on your prospect:

What is their full name?
What is their job title?
What size company do they work for?
Have they had any recent articles published, success stories, etc.?
Do you have mutual contacts?

Being armed with this information from LinkedIn data scraping will make your pitch much more personalized and help you grab the prospect’s attention.

Here’s an example of a well-researched pitch compared with a generic one:

Hi [prospect’s name], this is Nick from Zopto. I saw your recent post that mentioned you use [competitor] for your lead generation. I’d love to talk to you about how our tools can easily double your qualified leads every month if you’re interested?

Vs.

Hi, this is Nick from Zopto. Want to know how you can get more leads for your company every month? Get a free demo today!

The first version shows you’ve put effort into your research and you’re confident your prospect is the right fit for your service. The second one is more of a spam LinkedIn message that gets mass sent to everyone.

Define the problem, offer a solution

For any prospect to make a buying decision, they need to have a current problem. And that problem needs to be causing enough friction for the customer to want change.

If they can’t recognize a problem, they won’t want to spend money on a new product or service.

A good sales pitch will highlight the problem a prospect is facing and then frame the product or service as the obvious solution.

Offer data and stats

The most compelling way to convince someone to book a meeting with you is to make the benefits crystal clear. And the easiest way to do that is with stats and figures:

We can help you make an extra $10,000 in revenue this quarter.

We’ll cut your lead generation time in half.

Our scheduling tool will save you 4 hours every single week

Prospects are drawn to numbers, so if you can quantify the gain they stand to achieve, you’ll grab their attention.

This doesn’t have to be results you can get for your lead either. Social proof and previous case studies also have the same effect.

Add urgency

Adding a subtle sense of urgency can help move the prospect along your sales funnel a little more quickly. If you give them too much time to mull over your offer, they are more likely to talk themselves out of it.

An easy way to add urgency without being pushy is to either mention the expiration date of an offer or suggest a meeting date:

Our trial discount is open until [date], so I would love to set you up with a demo before it ends.

Does Tuesday at 2 pm work for you for a quick call?

By creating just a subtle sense of urgency, you’ll encourage your prospect to follow up with you faster, shortening your sales cycle.

Add additional value

When you’ve done a good competitor analysis, it becomes easy to offer additional value to your prospects. Buyers always want to feel like they’re getting a good deal, so framing your pitch to include added value will help your conversion rates.

This doesn’t mean you have to add extra products or services, either. If you have done the research and know your prospect uses a competitor, simply pointing out how your service is superior will work:

I notice you already use [competitor]. They have a solid service, but it doesn’t include [service you offer]. Our premium package includes [service X, Y and Z] to give you more for your money.

Follow up

This is the step that many salespeople miss out on, but it’s probably the most important.

Around 60% of prospects say no four times before finally making a purchase. And almost 75% of buyers want to be followed up with four times.

In fact, 12% of companies want vendors to send a follow-up message as many times as it takes to get a yes – that’s some solid commitment to the deal.

Salespeople can often feel pushy following up with leads, but it’s an important part of the pitch process if you want to see better conversion rates.

What to Do Before Approaching a Prospect

Before you send a connection request to a prospect on LinkedIn, there is some extra effort you need to put in first.

Remember, LinkedIn is a networking platform, so the more familiar you can get with your prospect before reaching out, the better your chances of a positive reply.

Make sure your summary is updated

If you send cold messages to a prospect and get them even slightly interested, chances are they’re going to click over to your profile and take a look.

Your summary, in particular, needs to communicate what you do, who you work with, and the results you get.

Share Content

Your LinkedIn profile should be active and constantly updated with fresh, engaging content. Post links, articles, videos, and pictures to highlight your brand and show potential leads you know what you’re talking about.

If you haven’t posted anything new on your LinkedIn in months, prospects are going to assume you have a spam account.

Stir a Conversation in a Group

If you’re in the same group as your prospect, stir up a conversation and be active in your shared community. This helps them recognize your name and further establishes you as a leader in your industry.

Engage with their content

It goes without saying you should follow your prospect (in fact, you should have a LinkedIn follow strategy).

But after following them, spend some time engaging with their content. Like their articles, post comments on their posts, and show a genuine interest in what they publish.

This will help your name appear more often on their page so when you do reach out, you won’t be totally unknown.

Best Ways to Approach a Prospect on LinkedIn

There’s no one right way to approach a prospect on LinkedIn. Your approach will depend on your industry, offer, and the demographic you’re targeting.

The best way to reach out is by InMail. This is a premium feature that allows you to message LinkedIn users you’re not connected to. Without the premium option, you need to have a connection to message other users.

We’ve talked about the elements of a good pitch and what to do before you reach out, but here are some quick tips to give your sales message a higher chance of being read:

Try to get introduced by a mutual connection.
Mention something you have in common (e.g. a LinkedIn group, a conference you attended, a mutual colleague, etc.).
Send a genuine note of appreciation for a recent article or project they’ve done.
Highlight the benefits of your offer and the value to your prospect.

Best Sales Pitch Templates to Use on LinkedIn

Although each sales pitch needs to be well-researched and personalized to the prospect, having a template you can work from will save you time with each lead.

How you word it and the language you use will be unique to your brand, but here are a few LinkedIn message templates to give you inspiration.

A basic template

Hi [prospect’s name], I’m [your name] from [your company].

We’ve just launched [your product or service], and I think it’s the perfect fit for [their company name]. It can [give your USP with stats]. Is this something that you’d be interested in?

Look forward to hearing from you,

Nick

Getting a phone call

Although getting a reply on LinkedIn is a good goal, your sales rep might want to set up a phone call or meeting with the prospect so they can dive into their cold call script.

Here’s a template for that:

Hi [prospect’s name], thanks for connecting!

I noticed you’re using [competitor] and I had to reach out to see if you’re having a problem we see all the time with [highlight issue].

I’m the [your job title] at [your company]. We offer [your service] to [target audience]. I’d love to show you how we can [benefit or USP with stats].

I’d love to set up a quick call with you this week. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the difference in our service.

Let me know which day works best for you.

Scheduling a meeting

In-person meetings can be a little harder to secure, but they do lead to higher conversions overall, so here’s another option:

Hi [prospect’s name].

This is [your name], I’m the [your title] at [your business]. Are you currently using [competitor product or service]?

We’ve just launched [your product or service] and it actually [stats or USP]. I’d love to grab a coffee and walk you through a quick demo if you’re interested?

I’m based in [location] and can bring along the best cappuccino from a place on [local spot].

Let me know when you’re free this week,

Nick

Automate Your Lead Gen for More Pitch Opportunities

Pitching prospects is truly an art form. There is so much spam and noise on LinkedIn these days that cutting through and showing you’re a valuable business investment is tough.

You’ll spend time testing and tweaking sales pitch templates but once you get it right, the lead generation process becomes easy.

Of course, there’s no point crafting sales pitches with no leads to send them to.

With Zopto, we’ll automate your lead gen process so you get qualified leads from LinkedIn every single month.

With hundreds of hot leads every month, it’s easy to craft a high-converting sales pitch. Get a free demo today and let’s get started.

How to Pitch Prospects on LinkedIn