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How do you use Twitter for outbound sales prospecting?
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8 Answers
Below are five specific tips to start finding more sales via Twitter. You don’t need thousands of followers. And if you’re just getting started today, every one of these tips still apply.
1. Follow your prospects
Create private lists of your prospects in Twitter, and follow them via segmented columns in HootSuite. You can actually add prospects to a Twitter list without actually following them, if you want to stay more “stealth” until you're ready to reach out and engage. But knowing what your prospects are thinking and saying will help you get to know them better, learn quickly what their priorities are, and give you plenty of opportunities to engage at the beginning of their buying cycle.
2. Follow your partners
I’ve found that fellow service providers and complimentary businesses working with the same target audience often share needs, questions, look for help with existing projects and more directly via Twitter. And even if they aren’t, they’re working with your prospective customers every day. The more these partners see and interact with you on Twitter, the more likely they’ll remember you when those customers and prospects have a need you can fill.
3. Curate customer-centric content
One of the quickest way to attract prospects to you via Twitter is to read everything they wish they had time to read, and filter the best content into your Twitter feed. You don’t have to originate content to attract a following on the social web – it’s good enough (and sometimes better) to curate the best content from a variety of sources so that your prospects begin to trust that you’re, effectively, doing their reading for them.
4. Listen for buying signals
What are some of the things your prospective customers experience before they need what you’re selling? These buying signals are from people who aren’t yet ready to buy, but are about ready to start looking for solutions to a problem or pain. If you know your customer targets well enough, you can specifically search for those keywords and phrases from prospects on Twitter and other social channels. HootSuite, Twithawk and a variety of online (and usually free) tools can help you with that.
5. Watch & use hashtags
Hashtags, especially those tied to associations or events, are a great way to follow conversations and find prospects who already self-associate with a group, a cause, an interest or a need. It’s a great way to engage in those real-time conversations and help your message reach new prospects directly. It’s particularly important when using hashtags to add value, and don’t directly sell. But if you engage in the conversation naturally, new prospects will be drawn in to learn more.
Real world example. Doing outbound prospecting yesterday (yes it still works) and was using InsideView within SFDC for some pre-call planning. Identified the contact and her twitter account. Noticed she had just tweeted about a pretty interesting video. Watched the video and when I called her we immediately started talking about the video... not my services! Developed a conversation and scheduled a follow-on call. Social media doesn't sell... people do.. BUT it can give you a leg up in prospecting!!
Thank you, Trish!!! Outbound prospecting does work! I was talking to an executive at a software firm earlier this week. His amazing statement: I get half my business from Twitter. His process for gaining followers is aggressive, but simple: follow those who have followers that you want following you. Then do your research on what people are talking about and then blog and tweet about that. Basic but powerful advice.
One more thing..I have a client who used this line and I love it! Use social to listen, email to educate and phone to sell. That about sums it up!
I look to see if anyone has any questions related to my business and answer them. Sometimes but not always, I get a private message asking for more information which in turn will hopefully turn into a sale.
I also try to tweet relevant things to my industry.
Kelley
Great example Trish- you are a confirming that Prospecting 2.0 is about listening for trigger events and meeting prospects through their lens and not ours. Twitter is a great research tool which leads to intelligent prospecting because you can incorporate something you know about them. Catch them on Twitter and they'll respond.
Its also great to build private lists with Twitter and populate them with other sales people in your territory or industry. Monitoring and listening to who they are talking to can yield warm leads for you. As Trish mentioned, its also great to use to get to know your prospect to help build rapport, as well as, to have an additional touch point (aside from LinkedIn, email, phone, etc) with your prospect to build familiarity and credibility.
I have more than 9,200 followers on Twitter, and although I love seeing that number climb, what is far more important is that each day I am generating high-quality interactions that yield targeted, qualified, socially-aware prospects. My two meanings of "prospects": companies to interview for our research, and companies to buy it. Current example: through Twitter interactions, I identified two of the most important emerging players in the online analytics market. Both are now in our current report--and are odds-on prospects to license the report, then hire us for strategic consulting.
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