Finding Your Ideal Prospects on LinkedIn (Without Paying for Sales Navigator)

Why Your Ideal Clients Seem Invisible

You know who your ideal clients are, but you're not sure how to find them on LinkedIn without upgrading to a pricey premium account. The basic search feels limiting, and you end up with a list of random people who don't quite fit.

If you can't find the right people, you're wasting your time engaging in the wrong places. You end up talking to peers instead of prospects, which is nice for camaraderie but doesn't grow your business. This frustration can make you feel like LinkedIn just doesn't work for you.

How to Find Your People Without Paying a Dime

The free version of LinkedIn has powerful tools if you know where to look. Instead of just searching for job titles, let's get creative:

• Search by Content: Find a popular post on a topic relevant to your clients. The people who left insightful comments are your people. They are engaged and already thinking about the problem you solve.
• Follow the Hashtags: Identify 3-5 hashtags your ideal clients follow. Check these daily for conversations you can join.
• "People Also Viewed": Go to the profile of a known ideal client. Look at the "People Also Viewed" sidebar on the right. LinkedIn is literally giving you a list of their peers.
• Use the Advanced Filters: LinkedIn's advanced search filters can help you narrow down your audience by location, industry, and more. Spend some time experimenting with these options to find your ideal clients. Use for example the "All Filters" option to include specific keywords, companies, or even schools. Especially, if you know an influencer your prospects would follow, the "Connections of" and "Followers of" filters can be incredibly useful.

With these methods, you move from searching for static profiles to finding active conversations. You'll build lists of highly relevant, engaged people who are far more likely to be receptive to a connection. Your networking becomes targeted and efficient.

Your Task Today

Now that you have a list of people, what's next? The key is to engage thoughtfully before you connect. This is where the "silent nod" of using likes and follows strategically comes into play as a gentle first step.

Ready to try this? Go to the search bar. Instead of "People," filter by "Posts" and type in a phrase your ideal client would use. Find a popular post and look through the comments. Follow 3 people who left great comments. This is your starting point for building a system, which we outline in The 16-Day Plan: A Simple Framework for Warming Up Any Prospect.