The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon Game was first devised by three college buddies at Albright College based upon the theory that any film actor can be linked to popular actor Kevin Bacon in no more than 6 steps. For example the famous “Dracula” and horror film star Bela Lugosi has a Bacon number of three. Here’s how it works:
1) Bela Lugosi was in the movie “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein” (1948) with Vincent Price
2) Vincent Price was in the movie “The Raven” (1963) with Jack Nicholson
3) Jack Nicholson was in the movie “A Few Good Men” (1992) with Kevin Bacon
With now over 500 million users worldwide LinkedIn is the "New and Improved" business equivalent of the Kevin Bacon Game but in 3 levels versus 6. At over 3 million company pages and over 8 million decision makers LinkedIn has become the "go to" prospecting tool for B2B sales professionals around the world.
LinkedIn has been used as a recruiting tool for years but has really evolved of late as a sales tool due to increased functionality and features such as InMail with an open rate approximately 300% higher than traditional e-mail. Business tools such as Sponsored Updates allow marketers and sellers to deliver their information to a laser aligned group of targeted prospects for minimal investment.
The name of the game in prospecting is creating and maximizing your leverage. You can only make a finite number of cold calls but that same time invested wisely in a tool like LinkedIn will have a logarithmic effect on prospecting results.
The increased leverage comes from the fact that the larger and more synergistic your professional network becomes the more effectively you can take advantage of LinkedIn's vast capability.
Click here to download a free whitepaper on networking successfully with LinkedIn.
Sandler Training in Denver provides sales training, management and leadership training, and professional development for individuals and organizations. Let us know how we can help your team.
