If I had $0, here's how I'd get my 1st leads on LinkedIn

Read time: 3 minutes

Welcome To The Clever Letter!

Every Saturday, we’ll share an actionable lead generation guide that’ll help get your first (or next) 100 customers so you can take your business to the next level. This newsletter will remain Free forever. We hope you enjoy!

At Cleverly, we’ve helped 7,500+ customers book 153,000+ sales calls with cold outreach. If you are struggling to grow your business, click here to learn more about how we can help.

Stop wasting money on paid ads.

Stop cold calling hundreds of prospects.

And stop banging your head trying to generate B2B leads.

What if I told you there’s a free way to get all the sales meetings you could ever want?

An untapped lead source with 400M+ prospects worldwide?

I’m talking about LinkedIn - the goldmine for lead generation that’s hiding in plain sight.

Listen, I know you’ve heard this all before.

But stick with me for a sec because I’m going to reveal how I go from $0 to closed deals by leveraging the power of personalized outreach.

No copy/paste messages.

No spamming.

Just real, human-to-human communication.

The best part?

Results come fast when you tap into people’s innate desire to help others and share advice.

I’ll show you two simple frameworks for converting connections into sales conversations at scale.

Both work like gangbusters, backed by psychological research.

So if you want more meetings with serious prospects - without spending big bucks or being salesy - then this quick guide is for you.

Let’s unlock LinkedIn’s lead gen potential together...

1. Identify Your Ideal Prospects

First, I would go to the LinkedIn search bar and think carefully about who my ideal customers are.

If I'm trying to sell a B2B service, I'd look for founders or executives at midsized companies in industries that commonly need what I offer.

For example,

Since I want to help businesses generate more leads, I could target CEOs of 30-50 person marketing agencies, SaaS/tech startups, or ecommerce companies in my city.

These tend to care a lot about lead gen.

I'd search things like:

• founder CEO

• ecommerce company

• New York

…and tweak the keywords until I get a list of about 10 people that fit my ideal client profile.

2. Research Their Profiles

Next, I'd click through to each prospect's profile to understand what they and their company are all about.

I'd look at their:

• Experience

• Interests

• How long they've been in business

• What they sell, etc.

This helps me tailor my personalized connection note to show I get what they do.

For example, if someone sells gym equipment, I may say

"I'd love to connect with fellow entrepreneurs like yourself that are innovating in the fitness space."

Showing I took 5 minutes to understand them goes a long way.

3. Send Personalized Connection Requests

Now I'd send each prospect a connection request with a customized note like:

"Hi [Name], really impressive how you built [Company] into an industry leader in [XYZ] without any outside funding! As a founder myself, I love seeing bootstrapped success stories. I'd enjoy connecting if you're open to it. Either way, wishing you continued growth!"

The key is making it personal by highlighting details about them instead of a generic message.

People love talking about themselves so calling out something specific like a recent award, milestone, or achievement can pique their interest.

4. Offer Value to Convert to Leads

Finally, once we're connected, if I want to convert them into a sales lead, I have two good options:

First, I could offer free value around a known pain point.

For example, if I see they just redesigned their website 6 months ago but traffic is down, I could say:

"Hey [Name], wanted to bring something quick to your attention. Just took a look and couldn't help but notice your site traffic is a bit lower lately. I specialize in helping companies diagnose site issues and have some ideas that could probably help you drive more visitors. Want me to take a quick look and share a short 5 min analysis over phone?"

Most will happily take free help or advice around a real problem.

Secondly, I could ask their opinion on something relevant like:

"Hey [Name], quick question as someone successfully growing [Company] - what's your biggest challenge right now in getting new leads and sales? I have a new [software] tool that helps companies drive leads on LinkedIn/email outreach. As an expert here, do you have 15 minutes this week for me to get your take on it and see if it would be valuable?"

Fact is, most people enjoy sharing wisdom and helping - it strokes the ego a bit.

So asking thoughtful questions around their expertise pays dividends.

Final Thoughts

Getting leads without cash isn’t easy.

But it is possible.

With some hustle, the right outreach, and value to offer, you can generate interest.

Tap into the power of personalized connection requests.

And deliver real help, not sales pitches.

Do this consistently and revenue will come.

Talk soon,

Nick

Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways we can help you:

1. Cold Email Lead Generation - Get booked sales calls with your ideal clients on a pay-per-lead basis. You pay a fixed fee whenever you get a response from your ideal customer. Click here to learn more.
   

2. LinkedIn Content Service - Want to build an audience of 10,000 engaged prospects? Get attention-grabbing LinkedIn content done-for-you that scales your personal brand and drives interested prospects to message you. Click here to learn more.
   

3. LinkedIn Paid Advertising - Want to get in front of prospects you never thought possible? Our irresistible LinkedIn Ad funnels will help you grow your business rapidly. Click here to learn more.