Increasing Sales Using Social Media

The days of Joe “The Cold Calling” Salesperson are over! Avoid spending valuable selling resources on cold calling prospects that are not eager to return your call. Instead, engage those very same prospects in other ways using Social Media Networks, Groups, and Tracking Tools. While there is the never ending debate on whether Web 2.0 Tools and Strategies can truly increase your sales, you can bet that Social Media is here to stay and it will not be going away. In this blog I will review 3 techniques your sales team can employ to attract new prospects, retain existing customers, and effectively sell to new leads using Web 2.0 Tools.

Using Linked In Groups

If your a sales person who is not yet on LinkedIn, then shame on you! Sign up now. Never the less, whether your in the HR Industry, the Tech Industry, or in Finance – there is a group out there for you. LinkedIn provides a great way for professionals to interact, share advice, network, and communicate with those you have a common professional interest. Groups such as Salesforce.Com’s Professional LinkedIn Network, and Zoho CRM’s LinkedIn Group have been an invaluable resource to my business and networking goals.

So what does this have to do with Sales? For example, in one of the groups I joined – there was a thread I noticed where there was discussion about looking for a new email marketing solution that integrates well with a specific CRM system. It just so happened that I worked with a solution in another company, so I got in on the thread and mentioned the solution to the individual. They privately replied and asked if I knew of anyone at the company of the Emarketing Solution company that I recommended. I referred them to the sales person at the company who also was on LinkedIn so I did a formal introduction through LinkedIn because the eMarketing Sales rep was already part of my network. While this was not my sale, it was a referral and the Lead Source of the Sale was a LinkedIn Group Discussion Conversation. Not a Cold Call, Not A Webinar, or A Conference.

Using Twitter Tracking Tools

So you think your too mature for Twitter as a Senior Sales Rep? Think again! Twitter has changed the control of a company brand from the company right back to the consumer. With just a couple of tweets, the product or brand your selling could be the biggest hit or the biggest flop in the eyes of millions of Tweeters around the world. Tracking conversations on Twitter around a specific topic, product, company, brand, or service you are selling could be your next big deal!  There are dozens of Twitter Tracking Tools, and there are three in which I recommend to utilize. Another worthy mention is TweetDeck which allows you to monitor real time conversations in the Twitterverse while also sending you alerts. Using a combination of these tools combined with your CRM system, you can help you to track key questions, conversations, or comments based on a relevant term. So if your selling a CRM Solution, you may want to track daily conversations of Twitter Chatter around the term “#CRM Solutions” using the “#” hash tag prior to the term. This way, when someone in the Twitterverse says “Does anyone recommend a good CRM Solution for small businesses?” – you can engage into that conversation immediately.   Some other examples are using your actual product or service as a keyword to either generate a lead, or close an existing sale!

Google Alerts & RSS Feeds

For everything else happening outside the standard social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn I would recommend using Google Alerts to track, monitor, and stay up to date with keyword terms, products, or whatever it is your trying to sell. Google Alerts tracks pretty much everything that is published on the web. However, getting the results in an email from Google Alerts can be inundating. So I recommend you utilize Google Alerts and set it up to be utilized as an RSS feed to track your keyword terms. Then you can easily configure your RSS Reader to track those relevant sites publishing content related to your keyword terms. You can learn how to do that in this tutorial.

Conclusion

There are several more strategies to employ, but these are the most sales oriented strategies that I have seen work most effectively. Be sure not to exclude your existing customer base from these strategies as well. Applying the above along with following your existing customers on their Social Networking profiles can only strengthen your relationships and potentially increase your sales. In my next series I will talk about how CRM tools should be integrated into the Sales 2.0 framework such that the above strategies can be seamlessly integrated into anyone of your CRM systems. Feel free to email me or let me know what strategies you have utilized to increase sales.