1. With our experience we have
a clearer view than most
Leighton Taylor have extensive experience of recruiting marketing, business
development, research, & knowledge management roles. Clients include
legal, accountancy, property and management consultancy firms,
professional institutes and membership organisations.
What makes us different?
Experience. Our consultants have a knowledge and understanding of
professional services that is second to none. We recognise exactly what
your requirements are because, quite simply, we know your sector.
Professionalism, honesty and integrity are at the core of who we are and how
we recruit. We consistently deliver an outstanding service providing suitable,
relevant jobs for our candidates and suitable, relevant candidates for our clients.
Quality is the key. We won’t waste your time because we don’t have to.
Adam Gordon, whose guide to using LinkedIn
has been sent to 4,000 LinkedIn users,
explains how you can win work online.
ADAM GORDON
Winning Work
adamgordon@winningwork.com
November/December 2010 psmg 15
HOWTOGUIDEFORTHEMARKETINGPROFESSIONAL
Winning work
using LinkedIn
P
eople keep asking me “What are the
rules for this on LinkedIn?” and
“What are the rules for that on
LinkedIn?” and the answer is that there are
no ‘rules’. There’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
Everyone’s style and approach is different
so what you’re about to read is simply my
opinion based on work my company has
undertaken with UK based and international
professional services firms.
First, a couple of pre-suppositions:
1) You all know and use LinkedIn already.
If not, it’s the most powerful BDM
channel of now so get to know it well
before reading on.
2) The higher a percentage of the decision-
makers and influencers you know in
your market, the more likely you are
to be instructed to their account.
3) The best use for LinkedIn is in
enhancing your personal network.
4) You can effortlessly demonstrate your
expertise and build new relationships
with people using LinkedIn and take
these off-line with confidence.
5) You can use LinkedIn to win new clients.
Who should be interested in this?
Everyone really, but more specifically:
Business development: because
LinkedIn enables fee-earners to meet
new people, take these relationships
offline and win new clients.
Communications: because LinkedIn is
a wonderful channel for spreading your
insights and thought leadership.
Marketing: because LinkedIn helps
define your markets, broadcast podcasts,
webcasts and events, test opinion
and more...
There are many ways of using LinkedIn.
Everyone’s strategy, if they have one, will
vary according to their objectives and
personal style. In thinking about your
objectives and personal style, here are
a few important concepts I recommend:
Just do it. People often waste a lot
of time pursuing perfection while their
competitors are stealing a march on
the opportunity.
Acknowledgement with more people
in your markets leads to more business
development opportunities.
One degree of separation (not six).
You can contact me and I can contact you
and we don’t need anyone’s permission
or intervention to do so. You must be
both courteous, intelligent and really
have something relevant and useful to
say to use this approach.
>For further information on how we will help you find the right job
or recruit the right person, please contact: Colette Norfolk or
Giles Taylor on 0844 335 6452, email info@leightontaylor.co.uk
or visit us at www.leightontaylor.co.uk.
C O N S U L T I N G

2. HOWTOGUIDEFORTHEMARKETINGPROFESSIONAL
HOWTOGUIDEFORTHEMARKETINGPROFESSIONAL
16 IpsmgINovember/December 2010
Love CRM
With competing priorities and tough billing targets it can
be a challenge to ignite a passion for CRM with a busy
bunch of fee earners. But the business development
team at Weightmans embraced the challenge because,
well, they thought their clients were worth it.
SARAH-JANE HOWITT
Weightmans LLP
sarah-jane.howitt@weightmans.com
Free is a currency. In June 2010 I
posted a discussion to broadcast my free
LinkedIn miniguide on five LinkedIn
Groups and requested people get in touch
if they want a copy. By mid October I
had despatched over 4,000 copies.
Be curious. The people I know who
have the most personal successes on
LinkedIn ask questions, research people
and companies and invite discussion.
Lead the conversation. Find the
most appropriate LinkedIn Groups for
you and start discussions relevant to
your sphere of expertise.
Man mark your targets. LinkedIn’s
not just for the most senior executives
and it’s not just for early career
professionals. Have your partners
shadow the CEOs, FDs and other board
members. Have your managers and
associates pair up with your targets’
mid-level budget holders.
Meeting new People
Assuming we’re all agreed that this is of
great value to LinkedIn members, here is
my very effective methodology for doing so.
Our research suggests that a LinkedIn
connection with another person simply
means they are giving you permission
to speak to them and nothing more.
It doesn’t mean they want to meet
you (yet) and it certainly doesn’t mean
they want to buy from you (yet).
There are 80m+ people on LinkedIn at
the time of typing (October 2010).
You need to use the advanced people
search facility (top right on your home
page) to find all those people who are
relevant to you.
Once you have created your list, you will
now need to select those people who you
really do want to connect with.
When you invite someone to connect with
you on LinkedIn, the site asks you to
identify how you know the other person.
This is to prevent spam. You must not
check the box that says ‘colleague’ or
‘friend’ if this is not the case. You will
look disingenuous to the recipient as
they will know what you have selected.
You must check the ‘other’ box and then
enter their email address.
Before you send your invitation to
connect, make sure your message is
tailored for the recipient. Make sure
it’s polite. Make sure it gives the other
person reason to feel there’s value in
accepting your invitation to connect.
Once your new connections have
accepted your LinkedIn invitation,
you will receive an email to inform you.
Do nothing for two days so you don’t look
desperate. After two days (no longer or
the momentum will have fizzled out),
make sure you send your new connection
a follow-up message to thank them for
accepting your invitation and suggest it
might be good to get together to share
some ideas on a subject of mutual interest.
Don’t be too specific. Don’t suggest a
venue or particular dates and times.
At this stage, your new contact is around
33% likely to respond positively without
feeling under pressure.
To an extent, this process is a controlled
numbers game. The more people you
attempt to connect with using this
methodology, the more likely you will
meet new people and win new clients.
Taking your new
connections offline
Because a LinkedIn connection or
acceptance to membership of your Group
simply means a person is giving you
permission to speak to them, you need
to do more to really benefit and win new
customers. You need to look for reasons
why other LinkedIn members would want
to meet you. There are many clues in
participants’ LinkedIn profiles to help you
determine an approach. Make sure you
tailor each approach to the individual.
There’s nothing worse than receiving a
message from someone and feeling you’ve
been ‘mailshotted’. You must use language
that is open, not ‘salesy’ and makes the
prospect of meeting you seem almost
irresistible. An example may say:
“Dear X, I read with interest the
comments you made about the latest tax
legislation in the property sector. I’ve been
working with clients who appear to have a
similar profile to yours and may face some
of the same opportunities and challenges
you do. You might wish to hear about our
approach and how we’ve saved our clients
(squillions) in tax at some stage? If that’s
suitable, I’m due to be in Norwich in the
next couple of weeks and would be happy
to meet you if you’d like to let me know
when you’re available?”
This approach clearly outlines the
benefit to meeting with you. It also gives
the recipient the opportunity to tell you
when suits them best and you’ve used soft
language such as ‘might’, ‘if that’s suitable’
and ‘if you’d like’ which creates an
unthreatening tone and will optimise
likelihood of success.
For a copy of Adam’s LinkedIn
miniguide please contact him by email:
adamgordon@winningwork.com
Founded in July 2009, Gordon BDM’s
team works with professional
services firms across the UK and
internationally to help them enhance
their profile and win new customers,
using LinkedIn.
>
>
November/December 2010 psmg 17
W
eightmans is a national law firm
with over 100 partners and 450
fee earners. CRM had been on
the agenda for a number of years and there
were pockets of people within the business
who had embraced the concept, but it was
not widespread. The firm was growing fast,
the market was hardening and the challenge
for the business development team was
to harness the passion we had for CRM –
use it to demonstrate the benefits of a
structured programme and win the hearts
and minds of the partnership.
What kept us awake at night?
We had identified an urgent need to
mitigate the risk that our client base
presented us. A number of accounts were
either static or in decline in terms of
revenue and four major clients were to
retender within 12 months. Losing one
would almost certainly mean job losses.
The perception amongst fee earners was
that we would retain clients simply by
doing a good job and therefore the value of
the client relationship partner (CRP) role
and CRM in general was underestimated.
A hardening market and reduced budgets
at a time where the firm was otherwise
growing spelled a need for an immediate and
inventive response; making positive choices
about which client relationships to invest
in. We decided early on that understanding
our business and the personalities of our
CRPs was going to be key to the success of
any CRM programme. A focus on personal
relationships, interaction with clients and
consistently delivering a high level of service
was going to be far more important than
developing a piece of software to cover all
the bases. Whether bravely or naively the BD
team decided to go it alone with no formal
CRM system or support from external
consultants – relying on enthusiasm and
commitment to deliver much needed success.
First things first
The first step had to be to create a campaign
that would capture the attention of the
business and inspire both CRM novices
and experts to participate. And, oh yes,
we had to do it on a very limited budget!
The team designed a back to basics
campaign, creating a fresh and imaginative
approach to CRM under a concept we named
Generator: generating dialogue, generating
relationships, generating passion, generating
revenue, generating success. The emphasis
was firmly on talking to and about clients,
not form filling. That was how we would
secure a return on investment; increasing
revenue through building and maintaining
strong relationships.
50% of people will accept your LinkedIn
invitation if they feel they may benefit
from making your acquaintance.
These are the people you want to reach.
They are discerning about their contacts
but the door is open for you if your
approach is just right.
25% of LinkedIn
users will never
connect with you if
they don’t know you.
25% will connect
with anyone from
Mars to the Tora
Bora mountains.
There’s nothing worse than receiving a
message from someone and feeling
you’ve been ‘mailshotted’.