Time and time again, social media has proven it’s immense value to the sales industry. It’s not much of a secret either. Yet, many salespeople continue to use social media for personal use, but fail to take advantage of its benefits for their sales prospecting.
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The big three of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are great sales tools. How can you use them to boost your prospecting efforts? What approach works best for each medium? We’ve taken a deeper dive into how salespeople can use these social channels to connect, engage, and learn more about prospects.
Sales Prospecting With LinkedIn
Arguably one of the best social media networks for salespeople, LinkedIn is a professional-focused platform by nature. It may be your very best prospecting tool because of the mindset its users have, and the vast amount of information it can provide. So, how can you make best use of it to crush your prospecting?
Demonstrate Your Knowledge and Thoughtfulness
First and foremost, if your company publishes content on LinkedIn, make sure it’s geared toward the personas currently following you. They’re infinitely more likely to engage with posts if its content speaks to their interests. And your followers are far more likely to share your posts, too, which will ultimately increase your reach.
Beyond relevance, this content must also provide value to your prospects. Help them better understand their issues, or teach them how they might address them. Education is the backbone to earning your prospects’ trust. And it’ll keep your company top of mind when they’re ready to consider the solution they need.
It’s important that you stay active on LinkedIn to regularly showcase your expertise and knowledge. Aim to share industry-related content two to three times per week. Make sure you’re including a description or blurb along with the article you might share. This will demonstrate your unique thoughts on the contents of the article.
Additionally, make a point to consistently comment on your prospects’ posts and engage with the content they’re sharing. Do this four to five times each per week to stay top of mind within your industry.
LinkedIn can help you grow your network of qualified prospects, especially through LinkedIn Groups. Join those relevant to your industry, product or service. Within them, you can look for opportunities to connect with new prospects. You can also share valuable information within these groups. But as with any other content you provide, it’s critical that your basis of discussion is helpful – providing solutions and education. Do not spam these groups with sales-focused messages.
If someone in a group has a question, try to answer it and provide solutions without linking to your website. Now, this isn’t always possible – they could be asking for a product recommendation. Links can feel spammy, though. So include them sparingly, and with caution.
Addressing questions will showcase your expertise. Over time, members of these communities will begin to see you as a leader – someone with great industry knowledge. After all, people trust others who want to help.
Can you say the same about people who are overtly looking to make money?
Learn More About Your Prospects
Your top prospects’ LinkedIn profiles are gold mines of information. With quickwork, you can learn some basic, but valuable information:
- Their common connections
- Where they’ve worked previously
- Where they went to school
- What groups and communities they’re a part of
More detailed and valuable information is also there to be found, if you take the time to look for it. Looking through your prospects’ profiles in more detail can help you uncover common interests – causes they’re passionate about or a love for volunteering, for example.
Take note of this information. If and when you meet with a prospect, these topics can be great points of discussion to help you connect with someone on a deeper level. Of course, you need to make sure you bring it up naturally and appropriately.
Sales Prospecting With Facebook
People don’t typically think of Facebook as a great prospecting tool. But trust us when we say: If you’re not taking advantage of Facebook, you’re missing out on a ton of opportunities. Or trust Colleen Francis, president of Engage Selling, and an highly-regarded sales expert. “Facebook is one of the best arenas for business to consumer sales,” Francis told Forbes.
As with LinkedIn, Facebook is rich with prospect information you need to be researching. Insight into your prospects’ hobbies and life outside of work can be incredibly valuable throughout the sales process. You may also learn that they’re going to an industry conference you may not have known about. And if you have any common connections, you can always ask your mutual friend to make an introduction for you.
As with LinkedIn, Facebook groups are key. And you can create your very own. Francis recommends that “this group [is] related to your product or service.” She also suggests that you invite your prospects to join and “send targeted messages to members who are active within the group.”
This shouldn’t be a place to push your product, of course. It’s a haven for industry-focused insights – a group to share information, help each other solve problems, and discuss trends. Peers trust peers exponentially more than people outside of the industry who force themselves into conversations to push products. Over time, trust leads to more sales than any other “strategy.” And Facebook groups can help you create a community built on trust.
Sales Prospecting With Twitter
Don’t sleep on the “Twittersphere.” This is another platform that has plenty of insight to learn.
You can perform a quick search to find conversations around the particular hashtags (topics) that people are talking about it. What conversations are #prospects having? Are they tweeting about their pain points?
Your company should be tweeting helpful content itself. You want to make sure your content is involved in engaging and active conversations on the platform. Otherwise, your tweets will fall flat. And make sure you’re authentic! Even from a company handle, authenticity is crucial.
Of course, you want to take these opportunities to use relevant hashtags to help prospects discover you.
Here are some other ways your company can start making connections on Twitter:
- Follow your prospect’s company account
- Follow prospects who tweet about their business from their personal accounts
- When appropriate, engage with their tweets: liking them or retweeting if it provides value to your audience
Start Making the Most Out of Social Media
Social media is all about connections. And that’s not secluded to personal connections. Some companies’ entire marketing campaigns revolve around social media platforms.
Use the tips in this article to help you take advantage of social media for your professional needs. There are plenty of opportunities out there if you know where to look.
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