Find Customers on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. Learn how to spot buyer intent on LinkedIn, reply naturally, and turn posts into customers without cold pitching.

In this section, we'll cover:

LinkedIn is where professionals share pain points, compare tools, and ask for recommendations. By the end, you'll know exactly how to join those conversations and turn them into customers.

Why LinkedIn works

Key stats showing LinkedIn's lead-gen power

Spotting buyer intent

The signals that matter on LinkedIn

Finding posts efficiently

Manual and automated search strategies

How to reply naturally

Scripts for non-salesy engagement

Turning comments into customers

Follow-up flows that convert

Example flow

A real-world post → comment → call

Why most businesses fail

The common mistakes on LinkedIn

Quick-start checklist

Your daily workflow on LinkedIn

1. Why LinkedIn Works for Finding Customers

LinkedIn isn't just about job hunting — it's the world's largest professional conversation hub. Every day, decision-makers post about their struggles, ask for recommendations, and compare solutions.

🌍 Reach LinkedIn has 1.2B+ members, with 134M+ logging in daily.
🧑‍💼 Decision-makers 4 out of 5 members influence business decisions.
⏳ Shelf life Posts stay visible for up to 2 weeks, unlike Twitter/X where posts fade in hours.
💬 Buyer conversations It's where professionals openly share pain points and ask: “What CRM should we switch to?”

Put simply: LinkedIn is where buyers talk business before they buy.

2. Spotting Buyer Intent on LinkedIn

Intent signals on LinkedIn are clear and professional. Look for posts where people are:

❓ Asking for recommendations

Looking for a CRM for our small team…

⚖️ Comparing tools

HubSpot vs. Pipedrive — which do you prefer?

👩‍💻 Recruiting services

Looking for a developer for a 3-month project...

😫 Sharing pain points

Our invoicing system is driving me mad...

💡 Pro Tip: Pro tip: Combine niche terms with phrases like recommend, vs, alternative, or need help with for maximum intent.

3. Finding These Posts Without Endless Scrolling

🛠️ Manual Option

Use LinkedIn's search bar → filter by Posts → enter your keywords + intent phrase. Then sort by Recent.

Example: Searching "recommend project management tool" shows dozens of active buyer-intent threads.

🤖 Automated Option

Add your keywords into Alertly and select LinkedIn as a source.

You'll get a single daily email with every relevant post. No endless feed-scrolling, no missed leads.

4. How to Reply Without Sounding Salesy

LinkedIn users can smell a hard pitch instantly. The key is to help first, sell later.

💡 Lead with value: Share a quick insight, tip, or relevant experience.
📊 Add credibility: Mention results you've achieved briefly.
🙋 Soft suggestion: "If it's useful, here's how we solved this..."
🤝 Keep it human: Write like you would in a coffee chat, not a pitch deck.

Bad reply

Check out our platform, book a demo today!

Good reply

We had the same issue scaling past spreadsheets — two changes worked for us: X and Y. Ended up building [tool] to solve it. Happy to share a template if helpful!

5. Turning Comments Into Customers

The magic happens when you move from public comment → connection → DM.

💬 Comment first

Comment first to add visible value for everyone in the thread.

👋 Follow up

Follow up with a connection request referencing your reply.

📩 Send a DM

Send a contextual DM: "Saw your post about [problem], here's a resource that helped us."

📆 Track

Track who engages and schedule follow-ups.

💡 Pro Tip: Think of comments as your first handshake. DMs are your follow-up conversation.

6. Example Flow

Alert

LinkedIn post: "recommend project management tool"

Reply

Reply: "We switched from Asana to X — here's what changed our workflow."

Follow-up

Connect with poster, send them a free checklist.

Track

They book a call a week later.

7. Why Most Businesses Fail on LinkedIn

🥶 Treating it like cold email

Copy-paste sales pitches get ignored or flagged. LinkedIn is about conversations, not spam blasts.

💥 Targeting too broad

Searching "marketing" floods you with noise. Use intent phrases like "recommend SEO agency" instead.

⏰ Responding too slow

Engagement windows shrink quickly. If you wait days, the opportunity is gone.

8. Quick-Start Checklist

Pick 5–10 keywords + intent phrases
Add them to LinkedIn search or Alertly
Comment on 2–3 posts daily
Follow up with top leads via DM

Stop scrolling endless LinkedIn posts

Alertly finds the posts where people are asking for solutions like yours — and delivers them straight to your inbox.

⚡ Find Customers on LinkedIn with Alertly