Bill Rice Internet Marketing > Social network service

The Secret to Finding Customers While Reducing Costs

June 1, 2009 By

In today’s economy, it has never been more vital to reduce operating costs, but this doesn’t mean that you can stop finding customers. It is a catch-22 situation that has brought many companies to their knees, but there are ways to circumvent this problem.

In order to stay alive in this harsh environment, companies need to learn to move quickly, to scale as needed and find a profitable niche that they can easily exploit. Sales prospecting is a key component to staying afloat, and it doesn’t need to be expensive or difficult to achieve.

Innovate or Die?

The old saying “innovate or die” has never been more apt. Tried and true methods of sales prospecting may no longer work in this economy, but that doesn’t mean you have to go down, clutching a sinking ship.
There are many new ways of targeting prospects and they are cheaper than you may think. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on leads that may never pan out, there are ways to make these leads come to you, hungry for what you have to offer.

Social networking, when utilized properly, has had a tremendous impact on businesses. We now have the ability to reach right out to our customer base, build a relationship and watch it flourish in record time.
If your company is not taking advantage of this new form of sales prospecting, you could be missing out on thousands of dollars of potential revenue.

Finding Customers the Easy Way

Thanks to the internet, we now have the capability of reaching out to consumers in many different ways. We’ve already talked about social networking, but it doesn’t stop there. Building an effective and compelling website is one of the first steps to utilizing all that the internet has to offer.

Corporate blogging has skyrocketed in popularity, and even the most respected and staid companies are finally getting on board. This is the century of personal relationships with your clients, and this is yet another means to accomplish this.

Search engine optimization and pay per click advertising offer another low cost way of targeting prospects. Gone are the days of spending thousands of dollars on banner ads, hoping to get a click through.
Now, we can sit back and enjoy targeted customers, eager for what we have to offer, and at a fraction of the cost. By properly utilizing SEO practices to optimize your website, and by taking advantage of pay per click marketing, you can easily improve your bottom line.

Putting the Theory Into Action

Your products are not going to sell themselves, and “build it and they will come” has been disproven roundly. You may need to do a little extra legwork today, but you can increase your customer base. The key is putting these proven theories into action.

The best strategy a small business can use is finding the easiest way to take advantage of all of the available opportunities. Even if your budget is small, the practices we have discussed are either low or no cost to implement.
Success is possible, even in hard times, but you have to work for it, you have to want it, and you have to make it happen.

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Filed Under: Lead Generation Tagged With: Advertising, Internet marketing, marketing, Pay per click, Search engine optimization, Small business, Social network service

Social Selling, Classic Belly to Belly Sales 2.0

April 27, 2009 By
Belly to belly
Image by Howard N2GOT via Flickr

It is funny how things change, but stay the same. Nothing demonstrates that like sales. I am going to jump on the Sales 2.0 bandwagon here, but I am going to present it retro-style.

Belly-to-Belly Sales Works

No sales techniques is as effective as sitting belly-to-belly, chatting, and liking who you are hanging out with. Think for a second… Have you ever created a long-term, highly profitable client via email? No. And, you never will.

The Internet is a great marketplace, a fabulous marketplace for connecting intent and offers. However, it rarely sells and it never creates a customer relationship.

What About Amazon.com?

But, what about Amazon.com? Perfect case study. Amazon.com probably thinks we have a fabulous relationship–thousands of dollars later. I got an incentive offer to buy online at Barnes and Nobles, another to purchase at a Borders bookstore. The result? Hundreds of dollars in lost sales revenue to Amazon.com. And, I would do it again.

I am not suggesting that Amazon.com get belly-to-belly with me. I am suggesting that if you are selling mortgages, real estate, or enterprise software that little “competitive opportunity” in your client relationship management will cost you thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions.

I am also not suggesting that you suddenly visit every prospect in your sales pipeline. Here is what I am suggesting:

Get Social Online

I am a big believer in Internet marketing, but typically it is poorly executed. Many companies and individual hide behind the anonymity of the Web. This is the best way to reduce sales opportunities. People don’t want to buy from “anonymous.” They want to buy from people–people like themselves.

Social media has made this process easy. The variety of social networking sites have given you simple platforms to design your social selling strategy. No need for advanced knowledge of the Internet, web programming, SEO, or other technical barrier. Simply sign-up and give us a little introduction to who you are, what you do, and how you can help people.

Make Connecting Easy

Now you have a social presence–LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter (it doesn’t matter). And, I like what I see. How do I contact you?

This is the biggest mistake I see continually repeated. Remember, no one buys from “anonymous” or @HotRealEstateDeals or whizzy345@hotmail.com. Don’t obscure or anonymize your contact information. Make contacting you easy.

Even more important, if they contact you–answer the email or phone call. Talk to everyone. Talk to anyone. It will make you more profitable.

Play, Have Fun

Don’t make everything so stiff. Learn to play a little. Let prospective clients see you play a little bit. Post pictures, videos, places you are visiting, books you are reading, movies you liked, ideas you are thinking about, dreams you are dreaming.

No one likes to talk business all of the time–especially your customers.

Here is another secret: Those personal insights and playful posts attract people like you, people that will like you. And, people buy from people they like.

Take it Offline

You’re goal in your Sales 2.0 strategy is to attract online and sell offline. Build trust and depth with your clients by getting belly-to-belly, just like the Old’n Days.

lead management

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Filed Under: Social Selling Tagged With: crm, Customer relationship management, facebook, linkedin, real estate, Social network, Social network service

Social CRM and Social Selling-You’d Better Learn It!

March 25, 2009 By
My social Network on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter...
Image by luc legay via Flickr

Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Research analyst and author of Web-Strategist.com, wonders about the future of Twitter–as a Social CRM , of all things.

This concept is a long way from the discussion of what a big waste of time Twitter, Facebook, and other like social networks are…the third time in less than a weak I have come across discussions of social selling.

Sales is inherently about relationships, building trust, and referrals. Sound familiar to following, friending, and retweeting? It was only a matter of time before social media became a sales tool.

Social networking will become a natural part of CRM software, and faster than most think. Not because people like Salesforce.com are sticking it into their software. No, simply because that is the why consumers are shifting how they communicate online and because consumers want to be contacted in this way.

If you are in sales, it is time to get your social CRM and start social selling.

Here are some starter moves:

  • Get on Twitter and Facebook–build an audience
  • Be natural. This attracts people that will want to buy from you
  • Monitor and be responsive to requests you can help with
  • Get all your existing clients into your social network

What else should the new class of social sales people be doing?

lead management

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Filed Under: Lead Management, Sales Management, Social Media Tagged With: crm, Customer relationship management, facebook, Forrester Research, Jeremiah Owyang, Social CRM, Social Media, Social network service, twitter

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