Bill Rice Internet Marketing > Social Media

How to Win Over and Over Again

August 10, 2010 By

Too often we get trapped in the illusion that selling is an art form. This can be a dangerous notion if you let it become the fundamental premise of your sales philosophy.

This has become even more dangerous with the advent of social media and networking. These new and potentially fertile grounds for sales leads can literally become distracting siren songs that can keep you trapped and bouncing around from one attractive, but futile suspected opportunity to the next.

In this presentation, I’m going to try to focus your attention on process, efficiency, and developing sales routines that will lead you into more “natural closes.”

How to Win Over and Over Again – Social Selling from Bill Rice on Vimeo.

Get it on Slideshare: http://bit.ly/winsales

What do you think?

Are you doing anything like this in your sales process? Please share your social selling tips.

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: business, Salesmanship, Social Media, social selling

How to Use Social Media to Boost Your Sales

July 26, 2010 By

Social Media & Sales Fuel

Really social media isn’t so different from the skills you use daily to sell. The anxiety comes with learning to use those skills in a new environment. For many of us in sales, technology beyond our cell phones and email is a bit intimidating. However, if you straight arm social media you are giving up opportunity in your sale pipeline.

Social Media 101 for Sales

The name itself makes social media sound like a marketing thing, but rest assured its more like a telephone–definitely a sales thing. The difference? Marketing is good at blasting and broadcasting. Sales is good at connecting and having conversations.

Social media is about good conversations.

So, lets start with the mind-set that social media is for sales. And we are going to use it like any other sales tool. We’re going to learn it, exploit it, and generate as many good conversations as possible.

Here are the basic social media tools sales people should learn:

Linkedin - More than a resume, this social network is full of information on prospects and competitive intelligence. Plugging in and connecting your existing database of contacts will certainly reveal previously unknown connections and relationship, ready to be leveraged.

Facebook - Don’t underestimate this as simply a venue for neighborhood busy-bodies and teenagers. Facebook is increasingly becoming the primary destination of a large percentage of the Internet community. Although it is not a big player on the business front it will be–get acquainted now.

Twitter - Often described as micro-blogging or instant messaging on steroid, Twitter is a powerful tool for collecting competitive intelligence, sniffing out opportunities, and breaking through corporate firewalls (i.e., voice mail, email, and other gatekeepers).

Blogs - They’ve been around for years now, but they are still great ways to get closer to influencers in your market. Everyone reads them, your customers trust them, you’re smart to meet these important online publishers–they can help you land deals.

How Social Media Works

Think of social media as a blend between a contact database and a CRM system. If used correctly it will feed you a steady stream of news and updates that are important to your prospects.

Most social media tools immediately ask you to load in your contacts (i.e., from Outlook, GMail, or other email address book). This gives you a head start on find who in your sales database or prospect list is already actively participating in social media.

I guarantee you will be surprised.

Once you have your contacts loaded a few minutes a day reviewing Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter will give you more than enough inspiration and opportunity for calling on these folks. Taking it to an advanced level you can use the tool itself to engage and interact with these folks–commenting and promoting their own agendas and credibility in the social media channel.

Very possibly you will see opportunities to help these sales prospects advance their own objectives. Can you introduce them to people they want to meet? Can you help them with advice or expertise before you even discuss a sale? Can you help increase their standing or credibility in their industry or peer group?

Searching Social Media Content

Finding sales opportunities in the sea of disconnected social media tools and networks used to be complex. Not so anymore. A little time spent practicing with Google Advanced Search can bring you all the sales leads you can possibly work. However, you do need to practice and refine your social media search techniques.

Start by thinking like a customer, not a sales person. Stop using your language and use theirs to develop your searches. Think through the characteristics of your ideal sales lead.

Here are some ideas to fuel your quest for opportunity, search for:

  • Competitor’s names, products, and sales people
  • Common problems your product solves
  • Frequently asked questions you get on sales calls
  • The names of influencers in your industry or market

Creating these simple searches and then toggling between Google’s News, Blogs, Updates, and Discussions searches will bring you a 360 degree view of your sales opportunities and angles.

Give social media a try in your sales process.

What do you think are the good and bad aspects of using social media as a sales professional?

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social Selling

7 Reasons Social Media is for Sales Too

July 21, 2010 By

Social Media Sales

So, you’ve finally heard enough about social media. You’re to the point you actually think you might be missing something. You might even be hearing whisperings around the sales floor that this might be some of the top producers’ secret weapon to grab a few extra wins every month.

I’m glad you took the initiative to be here. We’re going to do a little equalizing.

You’re going to learn some of the basics of social medias. However, much more importantly we’re going to show you how to get value from it immediately–long before you’re a guru.

Why Try Social Media?

Okay, not quite convinced this is going to be worth your time to figure out? Let take a little walk down memory lane and talk about sales history.

Back in the day it all started with carrying a bag and walking door to door, getting a foot in the door, showcasing the product, and selling belly-to-belly at the kitchen table. (Notice all of our cliches come from old school sales).

Then things changed a bit. We started to send sales letters, picked up the telephone for a little cold calling, and blasted a few emails to stay top of mind. That’s right took a few marketing tricks to help us cover our prospects and sales pipeline a little more thoroughly and efficiently.

Social media is the next trick for personal lead generation. Think of it as the new telephone and the email of the future. Believe it or not surveys show that youngsters under 20 never use email–it’s Facebook or text message if you want to pull their chain.

7 Reasons Sales Should Be Using Social Media

Enough coaxing, you either want to learn this or you don’t. Here are 7 specific ways social media is going to immediately improve your sales process:

1. People hang out on social media - The fact of the matter is that millions of people are now congregating on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and hundreds of other social networking sites to stay connected and share ideas. If you’re in sales, why would you hang out on the Internet alone? (It’s kinda like eating alone).

2. Social media is stitch the fabric of referral networks – In the real (physical) world it is really hard to refer business. When someone hears a friends ask, “Do you know a good…” You have to recall the name of the great person you used, search around for a crumpled business card or a scribbled down number, and then you need to get it back to the person who asked the question. Most often these referrals don’t happen–in social media these friend just search the profiles of their Facebook friends and connect to the expert.

3. Trust is already inherent in social networking - Normally when we find people on the Internet or and advertisement for a service we start skeptical. Will they treat me right? Do they care about my business? Will they screw me over? There’s none of that in social media. If you’re in my social network and my friends vouch for you–that’s good enough to get started.

4. You can spot opportunities without cold calling – Cold calling is hard work. You have to break through the firewall and then start peppering the prospect with questions to see if there is a fit. Incorporating social media into your sales process lets you do most of the pre-qualification of a lead long before any call is made or email sent. Just read their profile and content. Is there a reason to do business, or not?

5. If you’re connected referring you is much easier – Outside of social networks you rarely refer someone you’ve never used. It’s too much of a risk and you probably don’t even know about these people and their services, unless it pops up in a random conversation with friends. However in social media you can search for great people to refer by seeing who your friends are endorsing, referring, and raving about. So, there are many times with social media you may get a referrals and endorsement from people you’re never even met.

6. Social media makes finding the right angle a snap – Starting a conversation is the hardest part of sales. What will trip their trigger? What is their burning objective right now? How can I make them a hero in their own company? These are the questions we love to know the answer to–they makes getting an executive’s ear easier. Interestingly enough managers and executives talk about these things all the time in their social networks, using them like advisory networks. And it’s all there for you to read and plan the perfect angle of attack.

7. You are going to find ins you never thought you had - Here’s my favorite. One of the first step in signing up with a social media or networking website is to automatically load in your address book. You will be floored by how many of your friends, colleagues, and prospects are already in the social media channel–instant ins and referral networks.

As you can see social media is not necessarily about engaging and Twittering all day. It’s about observing, listening, and searching for folks that need your products and services.

Then you can use all the user-generated chatter to guide you in the right approach to doing some of your traditional sales stuff–like cold calling, emailing, or even belly-to-belly selling.

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Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: facebook, linkedin, marketing, Social Media, Social network, twitter

Linkedin for Sales: Resume or Sales Letter?

May 17, 2010 By

When I browse through Linkedin I see tons of missed opportunity. Profile after profile looks like the tired old resume or curriculum vitae. This particularly saddens me when it’s a person that sells for a living.

Here’s the problem with most people’s Linkedin profile and usage: You set it up because you’re on the hunt for a job or because you might be in the future. Then, it sits and ages—dormant to you and your potential market. Even if one of these prospects does find it they get job titles and companies, but not a clue how you can help them right now.

My suggestion? Switch your thinking. Make your Linkedin profile a sales letter.

Here’s a quick couple of hints to get you started.

Get Attention

The headline in the Linkedin profile is one of the most under-utilized sales tools in Linkedin. Most people leave the default option, which is your current job title. Think about it. No one wants to buy a VP of Sales. They want to buy network performance monitoring, security software, a professional speaker, or a dog training guru.

These are elements of a headline. Let me illustrate.

Here’s my profile:

linkedin-profile-sales

Here’s the average sales person’s profile (sorry to pick on someone):

linkedin-profile-sales-bad

Who’s going to get the click/call? Obvious, right!

Here’s another reason this is so important. It’s your mini-sales ad in a Linkedin search (think Google AdWords). Again, who gets the click/call here:

linkedin-search

Pretty boring, and certainly no value proposition in any of these. You’re only ad space in Linkedin search is the headline. Make it count.

Generate Targeted Sales Traffic

Here’s another little under-utilized lead generation trick. Use your update or status box to generate targeted sales traffic. This is a simple way to land on your connections’ Linkedin home page (staying top of mind) and provides a call to action for new visitors to your profile.

This simple little update box, when combined with a website link, can be a powerful lead generation tool. Make your updates a brief call to action and add a link to a compelling landing page. This could be your website, a blog, a squeeze page, Slideshare.net LeadShare, your Facebook fan page, wherever you can capture leads or generate calls.

Here’s the box I’m talking about:

linkedin-status

Here’s an update in action. Would you click?

linkedin-status-2

Do you want more ideas on turning your Linkedin profile into a sales lead generation tool?

Sign-up for the newsletter and get my special report on Using Linkedin for Sales Lead Generation (in tomorrow’s newsletter)—only available to newsletter subscribers.

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: linkedin, Social Media, social selling

Using Twitter Lists to Manage Your Social Selling

May 14, 2010 By

twitter-prospect Are you using Twitter in your sales process?

My guess is that many of you are. It’s hard isn’t it? You want thousands of followers to give you the sales leverage of large numbers, but you want to deliver a very personal experience to prospects and clients.

My suggestion (secret)? Twitter Lists.

I use Twitter Lists in four very productive ways:

  1. Segmenting various target audiences
  2. Researching new markets and audiences
  3. Tracking target accounts/prospects
  4. Tracking current clients

First, it’s important to understand the basics of Twitter Lists to effectively use them with this sales technique. There are two basic options—public and private.

I use public Twitter Lists for purposes 1 and 2.  It allows me to segment and monitor these folks in distinct segments, gives them a little visibility boost (value), and there is no need to keep them hidden.

I use private Twitter lists for purposes 3 and 4. This allows me to segment and monitor these folks without publicly revealing the people I want to work with or clients.

Here are the basics, as simple as it is it’s powerfully sales enabling.

Every time you follow someone get them on a useful list (pick purpose 1-4). Then set these lists up in your favorite Twitter client HootSuite, Seesmic, TweetDeck. I use TweetDeck.

Immediately you will have better visibility of the markets you’re working and learning, your clients, and most importantly (if you’re in sales) your sales pipeline. You will see more opportunities and help more people everyday—nothing accelerates sales like situational awareness!

Questions: Do you do anything like this? What are your tricks to managing sales prospecting and engagement on Twitter?

Filed Under: Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: Social Media, social selling, twitter

Google for Online Sales Prospecting

May 10, 2010 By

Bettercloser.com - Sales Prospecting with Google

Bettercloser.com - Sales Prospecting with Google

Web 2.0 has delivered an incredibly valuable resource to every sales person on the planet–a massive customer database. Think about it.

Daily people (prospective customers) are creating profiles, indicating their preferences, discussing their pain, and describing their vision. Really, what’s left in the sales process? Connecting with them and building a trusted relationship. Actually, social networking assists in that too. These tools show you pathways to connection and trust.

The trick is learning to efficiently mine this amazing database.

Most people use Google by typing in a couple of keywords into the Google.com search box. Typically, this returns thousands of results filled with companies or websites competing for these top spots. Of course, there isn’t a single prospect to be had in these results.

Frustrated, we end our pursuit. Let me show you the secret to finding prospects with Google.

Finding Prospects with Google

It’s all about looking for your ideal sales scenario. Here is the worksheet that I use to organize those thoughts. As you fill in this tool with keywords keep two things in mind:

  1. We are searching conversations and discussions. Use simple words.
  2. Use keywords appropriate to the power levels you are searching.

I’ll illustrate my point.

If I am looking to find network engineers solving problems (pain) then I’m likely to find things like, “those damn developers love SOAP, but all I get is transactional errors all day.” If I want to find customers revealing pain I might find, “Match.com’s website is down again. This is not helping my dating.” Finally, if we are looking for C-Level folks I might find, “Virtualization is going to be the buzz topic at our presentation to the Morgan Stanley investor conference.”

Your keyword worksheet should reduce your ideal sales scenario down to conversational and level appropriate keywords.

Understanding Different Content Types

The next step is to consider content types and sites you might be targeting. Here is my simple strategy guide to dissecting content types Google indexes (thanks to Google’s new sidebar this is very easy to slice and dice):

News: This is where you can find the latest on market trends, companies, and people as they are covered in press releases and news outlets. I have found these types of searches best for giving me prospecting campaign themes, not necessarily prospects themselves.

Blogs: Searching through blog content is important on two accounts. One, they are typically authoritative or thought leading content. They draw in a community of prospects researching solutions (i.e., potential customers), which means you should be hanging around here too. And two, these blogs are likely to shape your prospects’ perceptions of the “right” solution or best practices. It’s best you are prepared for these perceptions.

Updates: This is a relatively new content type for Google to index, it is the real-time Web results (i.e., Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and more to come). These results are rich with real-time pain–customers complaining and companies responding. You are likely to find targets of opportunity in this content.

Discussion: The secret hide-out of all experts. Niche discussion groups and forums are where all the experts hang-out and help friends and trusted colleagues. Google does a pretty nice job of indexing most of these treasure troves. Discussion searches are filled with new initiative and complex problems being hashed out. Plugging in your expertise can yield a steady flow of new prospects.

Understanding and segmenting the various content types Google indexes can dramatically improve the efficiency of your online prospecting campaigns.

Creating Prospecting Campaigns

The final step in prospecting online is taking all of this brainstorming and turning it into a productive search query. Each of these queries should be narrowed and focused into a targeted campaign of potential opportunities.

Here’s a quick example of finding market opportunities and themes for your campaigns:

Here’s an example of how to use Linkedin and Google together to target people:

Do you have any favorite online sales prospecting techniques?

Filed Under: Featured, Social Media, Social Selling Tagged With: campaign, Google, linkedin, prospects, social selling
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