Unlocking LinkedIn: Crafting Sales Funnels with Tools
In this post, I detail my experience of constructing a sales funnel and compiling a leads list using LinkedIn along with two key business tools: LeadIQ and Hunter.io.
To demonstrate this process, I’ve selected PandaDoc, a digital solution that simplifies electronic signature acquisition for businesses.
This exploration specifically targets three industries: real estate, healthcare, and financial services, all of which often struggle with managing extensive physical paperwork.
The LinkedIn Search
In my first search, I focused on finding “sales managers” in the real estate industry. After adjusting the filters, I managed to narrow down the results to 7,500.
As I went through the process of searching for the first few leads, I repeatedly encountered an issue. My limited LinkedIn network meant that I only had access to a handful of potential leads. The screenshot below displays the profiles that I was able to locate and access.
While searching for leads, I found it helpful to click on the profiles I had access to and explore the “people also viewed” section for additional leads. Although this approach did bring in some results, it proved to be a bit of a time-consuming process.
To verify the existence of each profile and obtain their email addresses, I visited their respective company websites and located them on the team page. The attached screenshot serves as evidence that “Brenna Patten” is a real person, and I was able to retrieve her contact information through this process as well.
When I had difficulty finding their contact information, particularly their email address, I turned to Hunter.io to assist me in finding the email addresses of each profile.
After manually entering about five leads, I noticed the task became very time-consuming. To streamline the lead production process and save time, I decided to download and utilize LeadIQ.
Using LeadIQ, I was able to effortlessly locate accessible profiles and acquire their job title, contact information, and company details. The process was made much easier and less time-consuming.
After finding the necessary information from LeadIQ, I would simply copy and paste the data directly into my spreadsheet. Feel free to view my complete list of leads below 👇.
Final Thoughts
This process proved to be more time-consuming and challenging than I initially anticipated. With limited access to profiles on LinkedIn, the task became more difficult, and encountering outdated information from LeadIQ added further complications. Corrections had to be made to several leads to ensure accuracy, and running out of “credits” on LeadIQ required creating multiple accounts to complete the task.
Despite the obstacles and an estimated six-hour time investment, this experience served as a valuable learning opportunity, providing the chance to master new business tools and overcome various challenges along the way.
