LinkedIn Isn’t for Selling. It’s for Starting Conversations

Here’s something that sounds simple, but that a lot of sales teams fail to recognize in their sales and marketing process:

💡People don’t buy because you impressed them with your pitch or had the best solution. They buy because you made them feel heard, and confident that you could solve their problem, at the right time, with the right message.

And liking someone? That comes from conversations. Real ones. Not cold pitch messages, not comment section hijacks, and not recycled content about “zero trust” and “cloud-first strategies.”

LinkedIn isn’t a sales floor. It’s a coffee shop. ☕ A virtual bar. A networking event with everybody's work specialty and history at your fingertips. For MSPs, it can honestly become a valuable tool IF you know how to treat it right.

Here’s a playbook you may have seen MSPs use:

1. Connect with a business owner.
2. Send a message about their “IT support needs.”
3. Wait.
4. Get ignored.
    

This isn’t marketing. This isn’t selling. This is drive-by digital panhandling. Spray and pray.

And here’s the thing: even if you are the best IT provider in town, who is going to find that out from a cold DM like this? 

This isn’t to say that LI outbound is a bad idea - it’s a great idea! But it needs to be handled with white gloves.

There seems to be a certain cognitive dissonance between the spam messages that annoy us daily and the thought that maybe our own will be warmly received by prospects. 

Glad you asked!

1. Start with Listening, Not Pitching

   First observe. Watch how your target audience talks. What are they focused on right now? What are they celebrating? Proud of? What’s stressing them out?

   Your job isn’t to insert yourself into their inbox. It’s to bring your value into their world. Take note.

2. Tell Stories, Not Features

   "We manage your cloud infrastructure" isn’t a story.

   "We helped a law firm cut support tickets in half so their team could focus on cases - not on waiting around for tech fixes." is better.

   Paint the picture for your audience and leave them with a feeling.

3. Comment Like a Human

   Leave comments that are thoughtful, not thirsty. I know, this sounds obvious.

   But ask yourself if that comment is furthering the conversation, bringing humor, raising a good point, etc.

   "We saw the same thing with a client onboarding five new hires a month. We tweaked how they set up their user profiles, and it cut support tickets by 30% in the first two weeks.”

   Something along these lines demonstrates a helpful tip, and shows you play in the same space.

I get it that there is pressure. Everyone is creating content, and some fancy themselves as influencers. But you don’t need to be the loudest or most disruptive voice on LinkedIn. You don’t have to force out a “hot take” just to stand out.

People can feel when you’re trying too hard. But for an MSP the goal generally is not virality. It’s visibility with the right people. And when you’re genuine, the right people notice.

The real magic? It’s in the middle ground. Speak like a human. Share a hard lesson learned. Talk about a mistake you made, a mindset shift you had, or something that surprised you.

Your messaging doesn't have to be the most controversial. It just has to be uniquely yours.

LinkedIn is the long game. And it pays off for MSPs who treat it like a relationship builder.

Here’s a suggestion;
On next post or message, ask yourself: "Am I starting a conversation, or ending one?"

Because the truth is, there are plenty of MSPs who do what you do.

But no one else does it your way. 

So let people see it. Let them hear it. And if you want help clarifying your unique edge, we’re here for that at Feel-Good MSP. Coaching to sell with clarity, confidence, and authenticity.

Let’s start there.