Erick Simpson’s MSP Newsletter | Using LinkedIn and AI for MSP Sales Targeting
Using LinkedIn and AI for MSP Sales Targeting
In this monthly series, we’ll deep-dive to understand how MSPs can leverage Generative Al to save time, drive sales, and fuel expansion with real-world tips, prompts and examples to help you improve your lead generation and sales outcomes.
In my last newsletter, we covered step one in this series: How to turbocharge your MSP Sales Prospecting with ChatGPT. I also shared a purpose-built AI Prompt for you to tweak to find a list of your most viable MSP prospects. Click here if you missed it, and make sure to subscribe to my newsletter for more in this series!
Step 2: Elevate Your MSP Prospect Targeting with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Once you’ve completed step one from last month’s tip and determined which of the companies identified by your ChatGPT prompt that match your ideal client profile, use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter company decision-makers who have recently posted on LinkedIn. By narrowing your targeting in this manner, you are more likely to succeed in engaging with them as you execute all of the steps in this strategy.
Note that LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a paid add-on subscription to a standard LinkedIn account and is well worth it when used properly, in my opinion. I’ve generated thousands of connections, hundreds of prospects, and dozens and dozens of sales opportunities with it, and so can you – especially if you follow the process I’m sharing in this particular AI-powered lead generation series. However, you don’t have to pay to upgrade to LinkedIn Sales Navigator right away, as they offer a free 30-day trial, so you can test-drive my process and measure your results with no risk.
Step 2.1: Search for each company in LinkedIn Sales Navigator and filter for decision makers who have recently posted on LinkedIn.
Click here for LinkedIn’s page on how to search in Sales Navigator
This example illustrates using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to search for and research one of the companies identified using last month’s ideal customer prospecting ChatGPT AI prompt.
Step 2.2: Filter for and identify your most opportunistic prospects.
Once you’ve found your prospect’s company in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, select the Decision makers filter and the Posted on LinkedIn toggle button. This will output all company decision-makers who have posted to LinkedIn within the last 30 days. These will typically be your most responsive prospects for your lead generation goals as compared to those who don’t post, engage or leverage LinkedIn very often.
LINKEDIN SALES NAVIGATOR EXAMPLE OUTPUT:
Using the filtering example above, LinkedIn returned all company staff that are designated as decision makers and have posted to LinkedIn in the last 30 days:
A quick review of the output allows you to identify the ideal decision-maker for you to target. In this example, it happens to be the Chief Information Officer, and you can select and review their most recent LinkedIn post by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom:
Step 3: USE CHATGPT TO READ LINKEDIN POSTS AND WRITE YOUR PROSPECT CONNECTION REQUESTS
Once you’ve identified your ideal target prospects who recently posted with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you are ready to jump back over to ChatGPT and leverage it to write a compelling connection request. The first step is to find a compelling excerpt from your prospect’s article. Next, you’ll add the excerpt to a new ChatGPT prompt to output your connection request.
ChatGPT PROMPT:
You are a [your company or role]. You want to engage with a cold prospect for your services that has posted an interesting article online, and you wish to respond with a question. Here is an excerpt from the article:
Excerpt: [insert short article excerpt].
Write a brief, thoughtful thank you message to the prospect for posting the article and write a follow-up question regarding the Excerpt.
PROMPT EXAMPLE:
You are a cybersecurity consultant. You want to engage with a cold prospect for your services that has posted an interesting article online, and you wish to respond with a question. Here is an excerpt from the article:
Excerpt: The Chief Information Security Officer (#CISO) now faces a more complex set of challenges internally and externally, from the growing corporate reliance on IT systems for business operations to the rising threat of cyberattacks from criminal and nation-state actors. Unfortunately, many CISOs often do so with the same limited set of authorities and protections they had before most organizations viewed #cybersecurity as an executive enterprise risk level concern.
Write a brief, thoughtful thank you message to the prospect for posting the article and write a follow-up question regarding the Excerpt.
PROMPT EXAMPLE OUTPUT:
Thank you for sharing such an insightful article. The challenges you’ve highlighted for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in navigating both internal and external cybersecurity landscapes resonate deeply, especially considering the static nature of their authorities amid escalating threats. This brings to light the critical need for evolving cybersecurity governance. In relation to your points, how do you see the role of CISOs transforming to better address these evolving enterprise risk levels? Are there specific changes in authority or protection mechanisms you believe are essential for CISOs to be more effective in their roles?
Now, tweak the message to make it more human, and add a greeting with the contact’s first name and a connection request at the end. Your final output may look something like this:
FINAL TWEAKED MESSAGE EXAMPLE:
Hi Erick,
Thanks for sharing this insightful article. The challenges you’ve highlighted CISOs resonate with me, especially considering escalating threats. Here’s my question – how do you see the role of CISOs transforming to better address these evolving enterprise risk levels? Are there specific changes in authority or protection mechanisms you believe are essential for CISOs to be more effective in their roles?
Looking forward to your insights. Let’s connect!
NEXT MONTH: Using ChatGPT to Find Relevant Thought Leadership Articles for Nurture Campaigns to Your New Connections
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Here’s what you’ll find in each chapter:
- Turbocharge Your Sales Prospecting with ChatGPT
- Elevate Your Sales Targeting with LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Leverage ChatGPT for Magnetic LinkedIn Outreach
- Use ChatGPT to Discover Thought Leadership Gems for Dynamic Nurture Campaigns
- Convert Online Content into Magnetic Social and Email Campaigns with Copy.ai
- Transform Your Sales Emails into Masterpieces with ChatGPT
- Use Copy.ai to Forge Captivating Sales Emails That Convert
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Erick Simpson
MSP Expert | Influencer | Thought Leader
MSPMastered.com | [email protected]
(800) 414-1441
2271 W. Malvern Ave. #169, Fullerton, CA 92833
About Erick Simpson: MSP Expert | Influencer | Thought Leader
A pioneer and leader in the managed services industry, Erick Simpson is internationally recognized as the #1 source MSPs seek for advice on running their businesses in North America. He built and sold one of the first MSPs in the industry and grew and coached thousands of IT Solution Providers through their MSP transformation with his MSP Mastered® Methodology for managed services business performance improvement.
Erick is an MSP business & channel growth expert, influencer, thought leader, speaker, and author of four best-selling books and over 50 white papers. His strategies and programs help MSPs overcome business challenges to realize consistent, profitable, managed services recurring revenue growth. His M&A expertise has helped dozens of MSPs sell their businesses at the highest valuation or expand through acquisition. He delivers strategic market analysis services, builds and improves channel programs for IT vendors and distributors, and helps recruit and enable their channel partners through his thought leadership podcasts, webinars, workshops, and event keynotes and breakouts.
Erick’s industry recognition includes Channel Futures’ 7 Thought Leaders Defining the MSP Market, Jay McBain’s 100 Most Visible Channel Leaders, 2 Time ChannelPro 20/20 Visionaries, 2 Time MSP Mentor 250 and SMB Nation’s SMB 150 award recipient.
