How do you think Inside Sales can benefit from social media?

Inside sales teams have the edge on using social media to market their business by harnessing the power of Twitter and Linkedin. THey can use linkedin to prospect and connect with possible future clients and referral partners. They can use Twitter to share information and interact with people.

The key is to understand what they hope to accomplish. Then they need to develop a strategy for using social media to obtain those results.

The reason I think inside salespeople are uniquely positioned to use social media is that they are desk-bound. They do not have the problem of juggling their time between being in AND out of the office. They can more easily create a strategy that they can fit into their day more readily.

Sales people can benefit from social media in many of the same ways marketing people can and more. As a sales person, understanding that you can be an extension of your company brand can make a huge impact on lead generation and conversion.

Sales people that leverage social media for the monitoring of relevant events with their prospects have a much higher conversion rate than sales people that use nothing.

Sales teams that use social media tools like Twitter and LinkedIn to connect with prospects and existing customers create more opportunities and have a more successful renewal rate than teams that do not.

I agree with Diane that the ability for sales people to use social media effectively is increased since they are at a desk most of the day. The problem is that sales leadership needs to adapt to the new trends in using social media for sales and empower their sales people to use these tools more often.

This is a post that explains the myths around sales teams using social media: http://bit.ly/have-no-fear-sales

This is a great question and I'm looking forward to more answers and discussion on this topic.

Social Media is really useful in sales for prospecting. Starting out the focus should be on listening and finding prospects.

Here are some suggestions:
http://www.ryanwalex.com/2010/02/how-to-listen-within-social-media/

http://www.ryanwalex.com/2010/09/how-to-find-your-best-prospects/

Sales people in general (inside or outside) are always on the look out for new Clients. Social Media creates the initial opportunity to meet/greet and begin the process of qualifying prospects. Second it creates a "reason" to pick-up the phone a call. It's not a cold-call anymore...

Inside Sales can benefit from Social Media by adopting a similar "Customer Service" Mindset. As a result of Social Media, companies are virtually forced to stand "in front of" their products instead of the proverbial "behind the product".

Its no longer the norm to ignore, or pacify customers who complain, or who are otherwise unsatisfied. Its important for Inside Sales to adopt this "all-important" step towards a stellar Customer Service mindset.

Embracing change in Customer Service mindsets is extremely important to Inside as well as Outside Sales.

There's no doubt that insides sales can benefit from using social media, the challenge is finding out what is the right balance of time. Too many times inside sales people and others will spend far too much time working the social media sites all for the sake of developing leads which can come but rarely in a fast or timely manner. Using social media to develop sales takes time and thus the best way to use social media as a sales lead development tool is by using other resources such as part-time staff or others to drive the social media plan.

Follow the lead of AnchorBank -- a bank that's finding ways to make social media increase share-of-wallet (customer product portfolio). Here's a short story illustrating how they're using content marketing to do it.

** In short, AnchorBank is discovering latent demand, nurturing and capturing it. **

AnchorBank's approach:

1. Focus on creating behavior ((not engagement that amounts to attention))
2. Constantly translate customers' evolving needs ((listen to customers but then act))
3. Publish useful, relevant tools ((ie. content that solves customers' problems))

Summary:
AnchorBank uses a social media process that opens doors for customers to “signal” what they need... and then prompts customers to ask questions that AnchorBank has answers to.

When we need financial guidance, nearly everyone these days expects it to come at little (if any) cost. Whether it's making a decision on college savings plans, retirement savings tools to divorce and re-marriage. AnchorBank was like most banks; like most service businesses. Their customers need help making complex decisions. And they have expertise, and products, to guide. But customers don't normally turn to banks for advice.

Uniquely, AnchorBank is publishing and distributing easy-to-read guide booklets -- giving impulsive, emotionally-driven banking customers useful information in “tips” (easily digestible) form. Rather than advertising "we have what you need, we're a different kind of bank", they're making products benefits real, tangible – when and where customers display a need for them. Even if it's in latent stage. On and off (in branch) the Web.

But here's where it's unique: Customers trade insight on their need for the answers they seek. AnchorBank's content marketing strategy is supported by a behavior-driven framework – a system of prompts that lead customers toward purchase of products they (sometimes unknowingly) need. A lead management process.

AnchorBank's social marketing function *translates* customer need. It's invested in a process that leads customers toward purchase of products by nurturing questions that it has answers to. Customers are trading information on what they need in return for advice. The way they express need may be explicit or implicit. Urgent or latent.

For instance, access to documents inside AnchorBank's Financial Answer Center (www.financialinformationcenter.anchorbank.com) is given in exchange for the customer's email address and profile information on need. The bank tailors publications to be hyper-focused on particular topics. Customer need is derived from the request itself.

What sets AnchorBank apart from other businesses using social media isn't use of the tools themselves. It's how, when and where useful knowledge get distributed. It's the process design that “makes their social marketing functional.” AnchorBank is prompting customers to express need, nurturing it and ultimately capturing sales.