Quick Twitter Sales Tips
- Use Google Realtime Search
- Follow the Most Productive Twitter Users
- Search within the native Twitter interface
- Use Hootsuite (affiliate link) to manage prospects with Twitter Lists
Simple Tricks To Get Sales From Twitter
January 7, 2011 By
Getting Sales on Twitter is About Targeted Audience Development - BetterCloser.com
Twitter is a great place to start relationships that end in sales. We often forget that’s what it’s all about, don’t we?
Getting more sales, or any sales at all from Twitter starts with targeting. I know it’s a nasty little marketing term, but it’s critical.
Before I get into the tricks let’s talk about targeting. If you’re using Twitter for any purpose don’t you want to be talking to interesting relevant people? Of course you do, so start intelligently targeting an interesting audience. None of this works without targeting/attracting a relevant audience.
Research and Target Your Ideal Customer
Dig in and find people that might want what you sell. Twitter search is the obviously place to start.
Brainstorm what folks might put in their profiles or say in their Twitterstream that would identify them as prospects. Even better, take a look at some of your existing customer’s Twitter profiles and streams. Any clues in there on how to find more like them?
Here’s one of my favorite targeting techniques: Harvest your competitors’ followers.
Follow Your Prospects
Don’t be shy. Twitter is a very open networking venue. People don’t mind you following and the BIG BONUS is that most auto-follow you back! That’s the easiest (lowest friction) marketing opt-in on the Web.
This does two things for you:
- Gives you a free stream of targeted market research
- Gives you the biggest, cheapest, fastest marketing list ever
SECRET: We’ll talk about automation again later, but I’m going to reveal a little trick I use. Remember how I said I like to follow who my competitors follow? Well, there is this cool tool called Tweetspinner [affiliate link] that let’s me mimic the following of certain Twitters. It also automates my following of certain keywords (sales triggers). I’ve been using this for a couple of years. It pays for itself in sales, every month!
Make Yourself Attractive
For some of us this is harder than others.
Ever notice how you can spot the Twitter spammers–scantly clad women. We’ll there’s a reason. Attractive sells. Of course, I’m not suggesting this, but you should take some time to make your profile appealing. That means:
- Take a nice picture of yourself (smiling!)
- Fill out your profile. Make it about what you can do for others
- Make a Twitter background or have one made
These simple, fast basics will increase your appeal over 90% of the Twitterverse.
Make Your Twitterstream Interesting
At some point (hopefully) your prospect is going to visit your Twitterstream, make it a good reflection of doing business with you. Here are a few things I suggest:
- Make it personal. Show that you are actually talking to people, not just broadcasting.
- Find and add value: RT and highlighting interesting links (content)
A stream full of auto-tweets from your blog or no tweets at all will definitely kill any potential. Your stream should also display your expertise–help people, answer questions, provide references. It’s sales, but it looks like good old fashion “help a neighbor.”
Send Them Places
This is a big one that folks often mess-up.
“People come back to places that send them away. Memorize that one.” Dave Winer, Scripting.com
This adds value and demonstrates that you have your finger on the pulse of your industry.
(Smartly) Use Automation
Twitter can get really hard to manage.
As you build a sizable audience you will attract more and more noise–follower management then becomes critical. A tool like TweetSpinner [affiliate link], which I use, can help you de-spam your followers, productively find new relevant folks, and do clever things like rotate in fresh bio photos and backgrounds.
Another smart thing to automate is the Tweeting of you most recent blog postings (if you have one).
However, what you shouldn’t automate is gimmicky auto follow scripts, RT’ing in mindless RSS feeds, or Tweeting some canned ad for your services over and over again. Remember your Twitter behavior is a reflection of you to your prospects. Be professional and polite. People like to buy from those sort of folks.
Bring Them to the Sale
Finally, and please don’t forget this, you need to ask for the sale. From the first time a follower encounters you there should be no question what you do to make money, and how it might be right for them.
That doesn’t mean the every Tweet is, “Buy my …” However, you’re profile should have a link to your product or service and every now and then it’s okay to say, “Working with a client on [insert solution]” or “Anyone need help with [skill].” Not only will someone in your audience (assuming it is well targeted) possibly see it, but Twitter really works on search–folks looking for that help will find you.
Questions? Ideas? More thoughts? Let’s talk about it in the comments section.
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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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Sales is Personal, Why Isn’t Your Lead Generation?
July 15, 2010 By
I always think it odd how disconnected most sales people are from marketing. In most cases we sit back and wait for (hope for) marketing to feed us leads. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been comfortable trusting my sale number that completely to anyone.
I’ve also thought sales leads generated by marketing are often some of the hardest to convert. Most of my big sales have come from referrals or people asking for me by name.
Good Sales is Personal, Conversational
So, after looking at all this (highly scientific) data I come to an interesting revelation–selling is personal. Your customers value the personal touch and familiarity as much as you do. No one wants to be tossed into the sales blender. They would much prefer the insider treatment.
Think about it…Isn’t this why you ask your friends and neighbors for their mortgage broker, plumber, tax expert, or (insert other) person. We’re always trying to find someone who knows someone in the business.
We, in sales, like this too. There’s nothing better than getting a call for Bobby or Susie and hearing, “I gotta a friend who’s looking for someone in the (blank) business.” You know you have at the very least an easy sales call ahead. No need to rehearse your cold call intro or how to hook their interest–they’re expecting you.
What’s more, conversations that start on a first name basis dramatically increase the probaility f closing the deal.
The Best Lead Generation is Personal Too
Why are you relying on marketing to pump you full of impersonal sales leads?
It time to get off the sidelines and make lead generation personal. There are lots of ways to get you and your value proposition out there. Pick one or two channels and perfect your attraction strategy.
Start with what you sell and think about what makes your customer the most comfortable opening up a conversation. Usually this requires some level of education and trust.
This is why social media, social networking, or a blog can be a perfect personal lead generation platform. And the good news–none of these options take a lot of technical know-how any more.
Personal Lead Generation Tools
We’ll talk more about strategy and tactics in upcoming personal lead generation articles. For now (if you haven’t already) I want you to dig into these specific tools.
- Blogging
You’re first reaction might be to think there isn’t much to dig into, after all you probably already have accounts or maybe even a blog. Here’s the twist I want you to noodle on until my next post:
- Who are the people you’re most familiar with in each of these venues?
- Why are you so aware of them? What did they do to get your attention?
- What do they do? What is their expertise?
- How do they spend their time in these channels? What’s their angle/objective?
- What seems to work and what doesn’t in attracting fans?
- Who seems to be able to rally the community or start trends?
Save these notes. I’d love to see some of them in the comments below. We’ll use them soon.
Bettercloser.com - Personal Lead Generation
Using Twitter Lists to Manage Your Social Selling
May 14, 2010 By
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:
- Segmenting various target audiences
- Researching new markets and audiences
- Tracking target accounts/prospects
- 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?
Increasing Conversations with Social Media
April 5, 2010 By
A new B2B survey just popped into my email this week. The punch line was: sales pipelines are healthier, but 60% reported their sales cycles were getting longer.
Being kind of a "solutions" guy, my first reaction was to think about ways to shorten a sales cycle. Fortunately, I didn’t just sit down and start writing the typical 10 Ways to Shorten Your Sales Cycle article. I think that would have yielded some bad advice.
Instead I stepped back and thought about the real goal of sales–revenue. Think about it. Does your sales manager really care about how long sales cycles are if you’re consistently hitting revenue targets? No.
So, let’s talk about things that help you hit revenue more often.
Shorter Sales Cycles Don’t Get You More Sales
Sales cycles have little or nothing to do with sales revenues. Many traditional measurements sales managers track have little to do with revenue. Things like sales cycles, fall-out rates, call volumes, and all the other little measurements are used to diagnose problems. They help managers identify people that need their help.
For you, as a sales person, these measurements are of little value. They may even be counterproductive–causing you stress, sapping your confidence, and certainly focusing you on the wrong sales activities.
Good Conversation Get You More Sales
Think about this: When was the last time a sale dropped into your lap? I mean truly fell out of the sky–you never called them, emailed them, met them, engaged them with social media, or were referred by a client or friend.
In the real world, pennies from heaven rarely fall.
That means at some point you had to have had a good conversation, with someone. This is why I argue that increasing your sales has everything to do with increasing your good conversations.
Using Social Media to Increase Targeted Conversations
Notice I keep using the phrase: good conversation. I think there is an important distinction to be emphasized here.
I can sit in the coffee shop all day and have conversations. However, I doubt that’s going to help my sales (unless I run a coffee shop).
This is where social media can be a real force multiplier for your sales. I can get pretty precise in targeting my conversations at prospects.
Here are some places and ways I like to generate good conversation with social media:
- Search Twitter for keywords and trigger phrases
- Join relevant Linkedin Groups
- Participate in Linkedin Answers
- Comment on relevant (industry) blogs
Each of these venues gives you quick and relevant ways to start good conversations.
How and where do you start good sales conversations?
