Increase Likelihood of Winning a Sale by 74%

B2B buying is a team sport. Depending on the size and complexity of your offering, you probably have anywhere from 3-10 stakeholders involved in the decision process for any sales opportunity. 

Studies have shown that if you connect on LinkedIn with at least 6 stakeholders in a particular deal, you have a 34% higher likelihood of winning that sale. But in reality, you can improve those odds by a lot more than 34%.

According to a Forrester Research study of executive buyers, 74% of their purchase decisions went to the seller who originally helped establish the customer's buying vision. So if you can get in early and establish the vision for the buying team, you are far more likely to win the deal. 

So let's extend this out a bit. Let's say your average buying committee is comprised of 10 people. So you work to get at least 6 of them into conversations with you. In those conversations, you help establish a vision with each of the 6 about how they see themselves achieving their goals with your offering.

You now have a majority of the committee siding with you. When they sit around the table to discuss their options, or if it comes down to a vote, your offering is much more likely to win!

In Prospecting Mastery, we talk a lot about how to build those relationships using LinkedIn as the first step. 

Give it a try yourself. Reach out to all the stakeholders in an account you're working. If you can get them to engage with you early in the game, while they're still open and willing to talk to you, your chances of winning the deal go up by at least 74%. 

One important note: this strategy is most effective when the buyer is in their very earliest buying stages. So find the right people, send them connection requests, and book meetings to get acquainted. 

You've got this! And if you need help, check out our Prospecting Mastery to get the full scoop on how to use LinkedIn to get access to your most critical decision makers.

About the Author: Candyce Edelen is founder of PropelGrowth, where she teaches B2B entrepreneurs and sales professionals to build authentic, human-to-human relationships on LinkedIn. Her strategies have helped clients shift from spammy automation to genuine outreach, resulting in higher-quality leads and increased sales. Candyce is passionate about helping professionals build trust and create a reliable, predictable sales pipeline. She's also a firm believer that you can't automate a relationship.