Connect: The Secret LinkedIn Playbook to Generate Leads, Build Relationships, and Dramatically Increase Your Sales
Shows how to replace cold calling with LinkedIn outreach that builds familiarity first: targeting the right prospects, running your own group, hosting webinars that teach, and making follow-up calls that turn listeners into clients.

Table of Content
1. Introduction
58 sec
Most sales pitches from strangers fail before they begin, because people are wired to distrust anyone outside their own group. In Connect, Josh Turner, founder of the marketing coaching company LinkedSelling, argues that the fix is to show up as someone familiar long before you ask for a sale. His tool for that is LinkedIn, the business network where, by the book’s count, around 400 million members gather and 40 percent check in every day.
Turner’s case is that sales follow familiarity. You build it by finding the right people, gathering them in a group you run, feeding them useful content, teaching them in a webinar and then calling them as someone they already know. He shows the path through one client, Bob Sanders, a construction veteran launching his own consultancy.
By the end, there is a full sequence to follow, from the first search for a job title to the sentence that moves a friendly call toward a deal.
2. Understand why strangers lose sales, and win trust
1 min 44 sec
A caller can have a great product and a perfect script and still get nowhere. The reason has less to do with sales technique than with instincts formed long before telephones existed.
3. Find your exact buyers among millions of members
2 min 04 sec
One search on LinkedIn can return hundreds of thousands of people with the right job title. Most of them are useless to you, and the way you narrow the list decides everything that follows.
4. Run the group your prospects want to join
1 min 39 sec
Books and conference talks can make you known in your field, at a heavy price in time and money. Turner describes a cheaper way to earn the same standing, and it depends on who you keep out.
5. Turn your know-how into a webinar people value
1 min 42 sec
A single online talk can put you in front of prospects in several cities at once. It can also bore them into resenting you, and the difference starts long before the first slide.
6. Fill your webinar before it goes live
1 min 46 sec
Hours of rehearsal mean little if almost nobody registers. Turner’s fixes are small and practical, and the last one has nothing to do with marketing copy at all.
7. Turn webinar attendees into real sales conversations
1 min 33 sec
Most webinars end with a polite offer and a long silence. Turner explains why waiting for the phone to ring wastes the hour you just delivered, and how to sort the audience by temperature.
8. Close the deal with ten minutes of listening
1 min 36 sec
A prospect who only wants to get to know you seems like a dead end for a sale. Turner shows how patient questions and one honest sentence can change the direction of that call.
9. Conclusion
1 min 10 sec
Turner’s playbook rests on one old instinct and one modern platform. People trust their own tribe, and LinkedIn lets a seller join that tribe on purpose, step by step, before ever asking for money. Each piece of the method adds a little familiarity: a well-aimed connection request, a group worth belonging to, a steady supply of useful news, an hour of real teaching, a follow-up call that starts with a question. By the time the sale comes up, the prospect is talking to someone they know.
The book supports a few concrete starts. Write down the job titles of your current clients and search for them in one city where you want work. Send a handful of personal connection requests, each with the person’s name and something useful attached. Before your next webinar or event, send registrants a friendly note so they arrive already feeling they know you. And on your next sales or networking call, hold back the pitch until the other person has told you what is hard for them.
A seller does not need a louder megaphone. He needs a room where the right people already know his voice.
About this book
What is this book about?
Cold calling still fills the days of many salespeople, and it rarely works. Josh Turner argues that the reason is ancient: people distrust strangers and warm to whatever feels familiar. A pitch from an unknown caller triggers suspicion and annoyance before the product is even described. Turner's answer is to become familiar before asking for anything, and his main tool is LinkedIn. Following one client, a construction veteran named Bob Sanders who is launching his own consultancy, he lays out a sequence. Search for prospects by company type and job title, send personal connection requests, create an exclusive group for decision-makers and fill it with useful industry news. Then host webinars that teach something real, choose the right day and hour to fill them, and follow up with calls tailored to how interested each attendee seems. Readers get a step-by-step method for business-to-business selling online, from the first search to the sentence that moves a friendly networking call toward a sale.
Book Information
Who it's for
B2B consultants and founders
Consultants and founders selling to other businesses who are tired of cold calls that go nowhere.
Salespeople wanting LinkedIn leads
Salespeople who want a steady flow of warm leads from LinkedIn instead of random outreach.
Experts wanting webinar clients
Experts who could teach their field online and want to turn webinar audiences into clients.
About the Author
Josh Turner
Josh Turner is the founder and CEO of LinkedSelling, a company that offers coaching, consulting and training in marketing, and he has written a Wall Street Journal bestseller. His work focuses on using LinkedIn and Facebook to bring in leads, appointments and clients. He also created the training and coaching programs Linked University and The Appointment Generator, which have served more than 12,000 entrepreneurs.
Ratings & Reviews
Ratings at a glance
What people think
Listeners find this LinkedIn guide beneficial and simple to digest, featuring a structured walkthrough that offers specific information and tools. Furthermore, the book provides impactful guidance and instructions, with one listener noting its superb approach to generating sales leads through the site. Listeners also value how it facilitates developing significant relationships quickly and serves as an effective introductory resource for the network.
Top reviews
Picked this up because I desperately needed a roadmap for organic growth that didn't involve spending thousands on ads every month. Personally, I found the advice on building sales leads via LinkedIn to be some of the most practical I’ve encountered in years. Josh doesn’t just tell you what to do; he provides the resources and the rationale behind every message you send. It’s an immensely practical book that pulls no punches about the amount of hard work required to see actual results. By following his guidance on how to contact professionals, I’ve already started to see a shift in the quality of my professional network.
Show moreWow, I never realized how effectively webinars could be integrated into a LinkedIn strategy until I sat down with this manual. Some people might say that webinars are old hat, but Turner argues they are the new age advertisements for building trust quickly. The book provides a superb step-by-step guide on how to record and leverage these presentations to seal the deal with target customers. It’s a quick read, but the impact on my marketing strategy has been immediate and very positive. I’ve already recommended this to several of my clients who are struggling to find a consistent way to generate high-quality leads.
Show moreEver wonder why your LinkedIn inbox is a ghost town despite having hundreds of connections? Truth is, most of us are using the platform entirely wrong by treating it like a digital resume rather than a dynamic sales engine. Josh Turner breaks down a very specific, step-by-step procedure for identifying target customers and actually getting them into your sales funnel. I especially appreciated the concrete details on how to bridge the gap between a cold connection and a warm webinar invite. It isn't a magic bullet and requires significant daily diligence to see results. Still, the framework for building meaningful connections efficiently is definitely solid for any B2B professional.
Show moreThe chapter on spreadsheets and tracking your progress was worth the price of admission alone for a data nerd like me. Look, most business books are full of fluff, but Turner provides a logical system for monitoring your outreach efforts so nothing falls through the cracks. The methods aren't necessarily groundbreaking, yet the way he organizes the workflow makes it feel much more achievable for a busy entrepreneur. I liked the inclusion of case studies from various industries to prove the concept works across different niches. It takes time to implement these strategies correctly, but the directional clarity this book provides is excellent for anyone struggling with lead gen.
Show moreAs someone who has ignored LinkedIn for way too long, this book served as a necessary kick in the pants to start taking digital networking seriously. Gotta say, Josh Turner really knows his stuff when it comes to the mechanics of the platform. He takes a very direct approach to connecting with prospects that feels much more authentic than the spammy tactics I usually see. The book is full of real-world tips that highlight exactly what works and why it works in the current business environment. While it does promote his own businesses, the value provided in the case studies makes it a very acceptable trade-off for the price.
Show moreGreat strategies for using LinkedIn as a selling tool for those who are willing to put in the actual manual labor required. This isn't a 'get rich quick' scheme; it’s a detailed primer on how to use a specific platform to foster professional relationships. The instructions on how to enlist the power of webinars to close sales were particularly enlightening for my current project. I appreciated the emphasis on organic growth and the lack of aggressive marketing vibes throughout the text. It serves as a great resource for anyone needing a clear direction on how to transform their profile into a lead-generating machine.
Show moreAfter hearing Josh Turner on a podcast, I decided to grab a copy to see if I was missing out on the secret sauce for B2B networking. To be fair, the book is incredibly well-written and easy to digest in just a few sittings, which I appreciated. However, much of what is shared boils down to common sense tactics that I was already mostly implementing in my own business. The heavy emphasis on webinars was a bit of a surprise, as I was hoping for more diverse organic strategies for profile engagement. It leaves a few stones unturned regarding premium accounts and company pages, but it serves as a decent primer for the platform.
Show moreFinally got around to finishing this, but I found myself checking the publication date several times because some strategies feel a bit behind the curve. In my experience, the LinkedIn algorithm has shifted quite a bit since this was released, making some of the automated-feeling outreach tips a little risky. Still, the core philosophy of providing value through content and groups is timeless and worth remembering. I liked the tiny details about webinar structure, though I wish he had touched more on how to leverage profile visitors. It’s a worthwhile read for the tracking templates, but you’ll definitely need to supplement this with more current social media updates.
Show moreThis book feels more like a long-form sales pitch than a revolutionary business guide. Not gonna lie, I was expecting deep psychological insights into networking, but instead, I found a lot of basic advice that feels slightly dated in today’s hyper-fast social media landscape. It clearly functions as a marketing tool for Turner's own agency, which gets a bit tiresome after the third or fourth mention. While there are a few nuggets of wisdom regarding lead generation, they are often buried under layers of self-promotion. If you are brand new to the platform, you might find some value here. However, seasoned marketing professionals will likely find the strategies too simplistic for their needs.
Show moreNot what I expected given the hype surrounding Josh Turner’s agency and his perceived expertise in the social selling space. Frankly, the content here is remarkably simplistic and feels like it was written for a version of the internet that existed five years ago. It’s hard to stay engaged when every other page feels like an ad for his specific services or software recommendations. I was looking for advanced tactics, but instead, I got a surface-level overview of things most people already know. Save your money and just watch a few YouTube tutorials on LinkedIn basics instead of buying this glorified brochure.
Show moreQuestions about this book
What is the main idea of Connect by Josh Turner?
Turner argues that people distrust strangers and trust what feels familiar, which is why cold calling fails. Instead, sellers should use LinkedIn to become familiar first: target the right prospects by company and job title, run an exclusive group full of useful industry content, host webinars that teach something real and then make follow-up calls that begin with listening. By the time a sale is discussed, the prospect already knows the seller.
Why does Josh Turner say cold calling doesn't work?
He gives two reasons. First, citing behavioral scientist Dr. Samuel Bowles’s work on tribal warfare, he argues people instinctively cooperate with their own group and distrust outsiders, and a cold caller is an outsider. Second, cold calling is interruption marketing: it breaks into what you are doing to demand attention, which annoys people. Familiar messages, seen repeatedly, are more trusted than a single pitch from a stranger.
How do you use LinkedIn groups to get clients?
Turner recommends joining relevant groups first, then creating your own. Keep it exclusive, inviting decision-makers and senior executives, and list your own senior leaders as founders so guests feel they are among equals. Invite up to a couple of thousand people, starting with prospects you have already messaged. Then share useful material such as industry trends, regulations and related news, which a feed aggregator like Feedly can collect for you.
How do you turn webinar attendees into customers?
Turner advises against ending on a passive contact slide. Instead, call attendees for feedback, then ask whether they have applied any of the ideas, which often opens a sales conversation. Sort them by interest: hot prospects eager to talk get calls first, while mildly interested people and those who might buy later get emails, such as a recap of the webinar.
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