This is a true story. The events took place in Minnesota in 2014. At the request of counsel, the names have been changed. Out of respect for LinkedIn, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.

LittleBiz Bank (LB) is headquartered in a suburb of Minneapolis with several branch locations close by. LB’s customer base is small businesses. To find new clients, the bank had been sending unsolicited letters to local businesses. Not surprisingly, the results were not what they had hoped for.

The bank had limited resources in terms of budget and sales team so I suggested narrowing the prospect list to just a small number of local professional firms such as CPA firms, law firms and financial advisors – and use them as referral sources.

Each one of these professional firms has dozens of small businesses as clients and has probably earned their trust, particularly with financial advice (such as a recommending a bank for a credit line or loan). By successfully connecting with just one professional firm, LB could potentially gain dozens of new small business customers.

But how to connect the bank with the professional firms?

I suggested LinkedIn. To prove my point, I picked a medium-sized CPA firm in the same city as the bank. I sorted through the CPA firm partners’ LinkedIn profiles until I found one with a common link I could use to “break the ice”.

I first screened for alums of my alma mater, the University of Minnesota. I quickly found a fellow alum who also belonged to the same business fraternity I did. I sent him a “Connect” request on LinkedIn. When he accepted, I thanked him and asked if he had time to talk about how they work with banks. I didn’t try to sell him anything and he agreed to meet.

Our half-hour meeting went over an hour. I told him how LB offers small businesses a quick and simple resource for lines of credit and loans. The partner agreed to meet over lunch with some key executives from the bank. A relationship was started.

Yes, it can be that easy.

For B2B marketing, narrow your focus to the best prospects and use LinkedIn to make the initial connection. Find a commonality with someone at the targeted firm. It might be a college, a cause or even an unusual hobby. Just keep digging until you find a common link. If you can’t find anything, ask someone else at your firm to search the target company. It may take some digging, but keep at it. Most people are generally open to talk to someone with whom they share something.

Give it a try. Could it work for your company? You betcha!