How To Convert Leads To Sales on LinkedIn

Last week I wrote about how to generate leads on LinkedIn. Everyone wants more leads, and that post covers how to get them.

But generating leads is only half the job. Knowing how to convert them is just as important, and it's where most people fall down.

So here's what actually works.

Research the person properly before you do anything else

The more you know about someone and their company, the easier the conversation becomes. Most people skip this step entirely, which means doing even basic research puts you ahead of the majority before you've said a word.

Look at their LinkedIn profile. Read their recent posts. Check their website. Understand what they're trying to achieve and what problems they're sitting with. When you show up to a conversation having done that work, it shows. People notice when you've made the effort and they notice when you haven't.

Follow up without waiting to be chased

Don't wait for people to get back to you. They're busy, and your email or message will slide down their priority list fast - not because they're not interested, but because they have a hundred other things competing for their attention.

Follow up with something specific. Reference something from their website, or a post they put out on LinkedIn, or something they mentioned in your last conversation. It shows you've been paying attention and it sounds professional rather than desperate. There's a real difference between the two, and people can feel it.

If you want to understand how to follow up in a way that wins business rather than annoying people, I've written about how to follow up effectively in more detail.

Treat LinkedIn like a marathon, not a sprint

Everyone is sprinting right now. Jumping from post to post, chasing likes, expecting immediate results. This is my 30th year in sales and I've never seen so many people scared and stressed at the same time - and the two things tend to feed each other.

The deals that stall almost always stall for the same reason: someone tried to rush the process without fully understanding what the other person actually needed. Take the time to find out what makes your client tick. What keeps them up at night. What a good outcome looks like for them specifically. That patience is what separates the salespeople who hit their targets from the ones who don't.

Set your ego aside and make the call

This one connects directly to follow-up. I've worked with people who won't follow up because somewhere along the way they decided that chasing business is beneath them.

It isn't. Sales is how every business survives. The people who treat it that way are the ones with healthy pipelines and consistent revenue. Good luck making a profit without it.

Ask better questions

Avoid questions you could answer yourself with thirty seconds on Google. "What do you do?" and "who do you compete with?" waste everyone's time and signal that you haven't done your homework.

Go deeper. Ask about their real challenges. Ask what they've already tried. Ask what success looks like for them twelve months from now. The quality of your questions tells someone a lot about the quality of your thinking, and that matters when they're deciding whether to trust you with their business.

Don't let your best work become invisible

This one is a lesson I learned the hard way. For the first time in six years, I received no monthly royalties from my books. Not because people stopped buying them - because I stopped talking about them. I'd been busy with the business, with family, with charity work, and I let them slip.

I gave years of my life to writing those books and I shouldn't have let that happen. The lesson is simple: if you're not talking about what you offer, nobody else will do it for you. It's fine to sell when you've given genuine value upfront. Actually, it's necessary.

If you want to take a look at the books, they're all available on Amazon.

There's also a detailed version of this on my YouTube channel if you prefer to learn by video.

If you want help converting more of your LinkedIn conversations into actual business, the Success Generator coaching programme is where we work through this kind of thing properly, one to one. Or if you'd rather just have a conversation first, get in touch.