It’s difficult to overstate the value of networking in the sales game. While connections take an on inordinately high value in business-to-business sales roles, any sales person can benefit from the power of a social network such as LinkedIn. Properly used, your LinkedIn account can generate new leads, seal the deal with someone on the fence, and keep your brand awareness up with customers who’ve bought from you before. We’ll discuss a few ways the best sales people position themselves on LinkedIn.

Make Connections

The strength of LinkedIn lay in your ability to develop a strong network of business connections-so make those connections! Start by adding every single business and personal associate you can. There’s a built in system for important address books and contact lists from your email accounts, messenger accounts, Facebook, and other sources, so take advantage of it!

Once you have a network seeded this way, you’ll have a much easier time finding other people worth connecting with in your industry. You’ll pop up in feeds and lists of ‘possible interests’ for people using the site. Of course, for this to matter, you need to have a good face on LinkedIn, which is where our next two steps come in…

Perfect Your Profile

You’re a sales person, so sell yourself. A well-written profile will make people more willing to make contact and work with you-put some personality in there and you can start the process of ‘attunement’ before you exchange words!

Make it easy for anyone viewing your profile to find information about you or make contact by filling in contact information, linking to any websites you’re associated with, and directing them to any social media presence you have on sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Take the time to fill out every nook and cranny of your profile with rich, accurate information. Every time you fill a section of your profile out on LinkedIn, you increase the number of people who see you as you pop up on lists of school graduates, ex-employees, hobbyists, etc. A smart sales person knows that any connection, any connection at all, can turn into a successful sale-or at least lead to new connections that will.

Be Active and Helpful

There are a few different forums for discussion on LinkedIn, such as groups and the question pages. Participation will get you noticed-help people out, and not only will you put yourself on the radar as a good person to deal with, you might just get some insight into your next big business move.

At the most basic level, all sales people are in the business of solving problems. By knowing what problems people run into, you can give yourself a major leg up in the game. Especially if you can find problems other businesses aren’t truly aware of yet and offer a solution before anyone else.

Use the Back Door

LinkedIn also allows individuals to slip past all the walls and hurdles and gain direct access to otherwise isolated individuals. Email, phone calls, and other forms of communication tend to get caught in the web of secretaries or ignored as so much noise by high profile executives, but a discussion on a group page or through InMail gets past all of that. Just don’t abuse the power-have something worth saying!

A Parting Reminder

While these skills don’t always carry over one-to-one to other social networks, you can definitely draw from your LinkedIn experience to position yourself on general social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Quora, or on industry-specific social media networks, forums, etc.