StartThis Idea #6: Unbundling sales from LinkedIn
There's an opportunity to build a new platform around one of the big things LinkedIn currently does poorly...
A social-selling platform that provides a simple way for salespeople to pitch their product, while giving buyers more control over the process, and a faster way to find solutions to their problems.
Categories: Social networks, B2B, Communities
Skills Need: Software development or no-code, knowledge of B2B
The Background & The Pitch
LinkedIn was never built as a platform for sales. And it shows.
Have you ever had someone pitch you their product or service on LinkedIn?
I’d guess that most of you have, especially if you are in B2B. A quick poll of some of my colleagues found that we each receive anywhere from 10 to 100 connection requests, DMs or InMails per week from someone pitching something. And all of us are at small startups; I’m sure it’s even worse for enterprise decision makers.
It taints the overall ‘professional networking’ experience when you are constantly bombarded with services you’re not interested in. Personally, I often dread looking at my LinkedIn messages, because most are awkward pitches or small talk.
Automation has made this even worse. One colleague shared that he received the exact same message from two different people at the same company, only one day apart. LinkedIn is just the latest channel to hit the point of spam saturation!
I’ve honed in on LinkedIn, but that’s only because the other channels are even worse. Cold calls and cold emails? Is this the best we can do?
The reality is that there is no channel that has been built as sales-first. Sales has simply latched on to what is available and made it work as best they can.
So, why isn’t there a platform that is designed for sales and pitching?
Something that puts the person being pitched more in control, and gets around the awkward dance that we pass-off as ‘networking’.
Imagine, as a potential buyer, being able to set a profile with specifics about your business and your needs. Toggle on or off what products or services you’re interested in hearing about. Specify what details you’d like someone to provide if they want to pitch you their product. Include any special requirements you might have. Add budgets or information on the other systems you use. At a point, maybe people even have to pay to contact you.
As a seller, how much better would it be to find people who have specifically said they are interested in what you offer? They have a verified need. You can also get enough information from their profile to tailor your pitch or determine if they’re a good fit, without having to scour the internet researching.
No awkward connection requests. No coming up with catchy opening lines. No more “spray and prey” sales strategies.
The first platform that is designed to make selling more efficient and enjoyable for all parties could be a massive opportunity.
Data & Research
Only 17% of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from Premium Subscriptions - a portion of which is its Sales Solutions.
The sales intelligence market is exploding in growth - projected at 12% - and is expected to hit $4.89B by 2026.
Strategy Notes
One does not simply…
…attack LinkedIn head on.
And you don’t have to. You can start simple and complimentary. Run alongside the incumbent until you’re ready to pull ahead. You can meet users where they are, rather than trying to pull them off the platform they know.
Pick a narrow B2B niche you know well where buying and selling happens through salespeople via a lot of cold outreach. Restaurant tech, property tech, construction, education, development services, are a few obvious ones. The smaller the pool of buyers, the better. If you can amass even a small pool of potential buyers, you shouldn’t have a hard time bring the sellers in.
You need a basic community platform to start. Users create a profile, fill out some fields about what they do and are interested in, and contact each other. Bonus if you can pre-build profiles using social logins. Warmintro.ai or Tribe.so might be worth a look to get an MVP going.
Any platform for people to sell on is bound attract spam and low-quality services. You’ll likely want some built-in restrictions out of the gate. Limits on messages/pitches. Maybe a rating system that the people on the buying side can use to rate interactions for relevance and quality. Invite-only is likely necessary for the early versions of this as you figure out the best way to manage this part of the user experience.
Monetization can come much later, but the obvious source is from those selling their products/services. Tiered membership options, with message/pitch limits and extra features would be relatively straightforward.
As you try to grow, look for ways to make it easy for users to pull others into it. Calendly works well because it doesn’t require the person booking a meeting to have an account. You could create something similar in this platform, where potential buyers can share their unique link with sellers who reach out on LinkedIn or by cold email. “If you have something you’d like to sell me, just pitch it here.” Make it easy for buyers to share pitches with their colleagues - after all, most businesses have more than one decision maker for any given service.
In general, the hardest will be finding ways to ensure your early users get enough value and benefit before it reaches any kind of critical mass. Get over that hump, and you have a shot at become a major player.
Name Ideas
This likely doesn’t need a descriptive name - just something memorable and unique.
Fun Ideas: Pitchable.com (looks for open to offers), StitchUp.com (if you have $6k), HoneyPop.com (a spin on the term honey pot - which is a trap that gets set to catch bad actors), CrowdCom.com (I own this domain if you’d like to use it)…. anything fun you can think of!
Thoughts to add? Leave a comment!