In an industry that depends on word of mouth recommendations, networking and communicating with clients, LinkedIn stands as an invaluable tool for promoting your services, and establishing your worth as a trusted advisor. A direct line of access to decision makers, influencers and senior business leaders, what better place for your consultancy business to forge important relationships and win new custom? And to schedule that all important next dinner soiree for ‘networking purposes.’

When leveraged correctly, LinkedIn can help consulting firms to strengthen existing business, recruit staff and freelancers, identify new client prospects, and close deals far earlier in the decision making cycle. Far more than just a social media platform, this professional network really can help you to make friends and influence people.

If you could be doing more to harness the opportunities presented by LinkedIn, this blog will help you to maximise the potential of your account, every time you log in.

And it’s not the same thing as checking your Facebook account at work! Honest.

Position your profile correctly

Whilst LinkedIn is best known for displaying resumes and previous projects, consultants should be optimising their profiles for potential clients, rather than recruiters. Lead by example and look at your own page right now using the following tips, and then encourage the staff within your organisation to do the same.

Review your bio with future clients in mind, discussing your troubleshooting skillsets and the value you can bring to those who are thinking of hiring your firm right now, rather than offering a stale overview of your entire life story. Now, go through each section and angle all of the content on your profile towards the sector your consultancy is targeting and highlight solutions to their problems, focusing on customer-centric information.

Once done, the profiles of everyone within the company should be concentrating more on selling their attributes as a consultant to clients than on selling themselves to HR managers.

Encourage all members of the company to action these steps in order to have a cohesive team strategy, and ensure everyone knows how you’d like the brand to be best represented. Why not produce standardised text about the company for display on everyone’s page, issue social media guidelines, run a LinkedIn workshop, or allocate time for the best writers on your staff to help everyone produce great copy for their profiles.

Maximise referrals as a well-connected consultant

Referrals from current consultancy clients are a primary lead source, so ensure you and your team are regularly using LinkedIn to connect and network with those you’re working for, those who have referred you for past projects, and former colleagues.

This gives you access to a much wider pool of mutual contacts who may also benefit from your services, and to who you may be introduced via a trusted source. To get started today, log in and check who has been viewing your profile recently, and reach out to make some introductions.

Boost reputation and client perception

We all prefer to do business with people who come highly recommended, and LinkedIn is a great place for consultants to showcase their glowing reputations. Why not open your email inbox and ask clients to leave positive testimonials on your profile, or to endorse you for a particular skill?

You’ll be demonstrating to others that you have an impressive list of previous success stories to your name, and with consultancy contracts relying on the strength of client relationships, prospective leads will be reassured by the positive words of those who have already benefited from your business wisdom.

Build an influential online persona

LinkedIn offers various opportunities for thought leadership, the process of establishing your expertise via the publishing of content such as articles, case studies or informed comment. Start now by posting a relevant article you have produced directly to your profile, or link to published work via the ‘Publications’ section, and engage with some posts and group discussions to begin positioning yourself and your consultancy business as a familiar and respected voice within your field.

In these ways, LinkedIn can expose your work to a new group of readers and peers who may wish to connect with you or engage your services, and demonstrate the knowledge and value you can bring to a consultative role.

Understand your consultancy’s demographic

Connecting with clients via LinkedIn does more than just form a friendly online bond; having access to the profiles of individuals or businesses you work for, or wish to align yourself with in the future, provides insight into your core target market.

Analyse their activity, the groups they participate in and the content they post to inform your strategy for pursuing new customers. While we’re not condoning stalking, following your leads online and understanding their potential problems will help you to visualise their mind-set when it comes to closing a deal.

Widening your circle of connections will also allow you to see further into a network of people that you may wish to consider for hiring purposes.

Advanced search capabilities

Much of the activity undertaken on LinkedIn involves the search function; potential clients might be searching for a firm like yours right now. Will they see your company among the results? To make sure the answer is yes, it’s important to undertake some micro search engine optimisation, and check that the profiles of all staff use relevant keywords, job titles and industry phrases to maximise the likelihood of being found.

Consultants can also benefit from LinkedIn’s advanced searching capacity in an out-bound manner, in order to specifically search for leads by sector, job role and company size, or to find new staff and freelancers or potential partners. This ability to narrow down your objectives offers specific results that are likely to yield the best outcomes, and saves time and resources in chasing redundant leads.

Allocate time for activity

Dedicating time to being active and engaging on LinkedIn is an investment in generating future business for your consultancy, and encouraging the team to make use of the platform will keep your levels of industry knowledge current throughout your practice.

One strategy for making this happen is to actually book a LinkedIn session in your diary, like you would a meeting - encourage others in your firm to do this too. In this time you can monitor the activity of contacts and peers, respond to communications, source new connections, participate in professional groups, comment on relevant industry topics, and post informative updates and compelling articles.

Generate and drive even more lead opportunities with Metis

Utilising LinkedIn is just one way that consultants can make the most of their lead generation strategy. As the leads come in, Metis is the ideal way to manage them through to the successful delivery of profitable projects.

Metis was built by a small team of entrepreneurs who have founded, grown and sold companies like yours. We know what it’s like to manage all stages - from when there are just two of you, to when you’re dealing with hundreds of people in multiple teams. Metis is the distillation of the lessons we have learned along the way. Our mission is to make businesses like yours more successful. If you’d like to hear more about how we can help, get in touch.