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What are 1-2 DIY social selling tactics that a sales person can do right now?
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Best Practices in Social Selling
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8 Answers
Disclaimer: Yes, I asked the question but primarily because I am a "student of the game" and want to hear what everyone has to say. I am also the moderator for the upcoming event and look forward to hearing the panelists discuss this particular topic.
The big thing I get when I talk to sales reps or sales managers is a reluctance to change (of course) and a fear of time and complexity. I have been gradually trying to create a list of "tactics" that a sales person can go do that won't be overly painful and that get's them leveraging social to sell more.
I wrote a blog post this week on this - http://www.funnelholic.com/2011/07/25/14-easy-social-selling-%E2%80%9Cto-dos%...
Listed below are the easy "to-dos" I believe a sales person can do right now to begin the journey of becoming a social sales person:
1. Create a LinkedIn profile.
2. Fill it out completely, including a picture.
3. Upgrade your account. Watch every day from your upgraded LinkedIn account to see who clicked on your profile.
4. Connect with as many of your business and personal contacts as you can.
5. Move beyond business cards - get in the habit of connecting with people immediately after you meet them.
6. Spend some time seeing if your prospects are connected to any of your contacts and ask for a referral.
7. Join LinkedIn groups relevant to your industry. Not just so you can see the conversations happening in your space, but so you can join the same “clubs” that your prospects are in.
8. Figure out where your prospects are on the Internet (with only a few cases, everyone is). Is it Twitter, LinkedIn, Focus.com, etc.? It could even be a message board somewhere.
9. Watch them. Remember the title of this post is “easy.” Don’t worry about doing much; you can just watch. You will gain insight into your prospects that you’ve never had before.
10. Recognize their good works. If they write an insightful blog post or answer a question really well, send them a note.
11. Find the top influencers in your space (they will be on Twitter or Google if they are influencers) and follow them.
12. Create a social relationship with the influencers. This is akin to being friends with the cool kids at school.
13. Before a sales call, look up your prospect’s or customer’s recent social “works” - posts, tweets, Q&A. Mention it to them; they will love it.
Looking forward to hearing yours.
social conversations need to be part of your daily routine otherwise you will lose out.
Offer value to the people in your networks. (Meaning content that is helpful and useful and aligned with what they need.)
I am not saying what you have in the list is wrong - it is not - it is just too much at once...
I know this stuff and I make lists all the time, and I will tell you, when I logon here and see lengthy comments about blah-blah-blah, CRM this and We advocate that, I typically don't read them, I scroll the the shorter ones... (I am not saying that this is what you did - just that 13 steps is intimidating!)
Maybe that is just me.
I am all ears.
Here's an interesting post from a few weeks back...
People who fear social media for sales will be struggling in the next few years. Though phones and email will never go away, leveraging social media is becoming a much more engaging and responsive medium with prospects and customers.
Sure, you could create a post with 1-3 thinks a person should do today but I think there is a lot of value when you can outline a bunch of 'things' a sales person could do to get more socially active.
Though only a few of these items are going to get followed up on by any sales person this list does reflect a number of actions someone in sales can immediately say... "Oh.. I can do that one action right now"
Craig- IMHO, I think you should give all the info you want to because those that do do and those that don't don't. This early in the game you are looking for the bleeding edge guys and the ones that are risk ready to change. Also here on Focus you have the bleeding edge not the regular guy. I have had engagements that are successful because the 1-2 guys that get it move with it and the follow up meeting is more powerful when there own team mates tell what successes they have had...
I remember about 5 years ago coming across a blog post about the power of a social graph and then it went into 100 things to do.. Yea I am crazy but I knock out the 100 and it rolled me into the future...
Craig - I don't want to be contrarian, but when people see a list with 13 things in it, that is exactly why there is a "fear of time and complexity" of what it takes...
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