One morning he contacted a CEO – someone who was no pushover, having had bad experiences with the type of product the rep sells. By late that afternoon he had a signed agreement.
How did the rep pull off this feat? By using social media.
Here’s the way it worked. The rep is a Twitter user. Drawing on the TweetDeck feature, he had specified keywords so that he would be alerted when they appeared in a tweet, whether from someone he “followed” or not. On the day in question, a message containing the term “web conferencing” caught his eye. The point of the tweet was how poorly web conferencing works.
“I clicked on the Twitter handle,” the rep told us, “and noticed that it was a company account.”
He called the main number on the company’s website and asked to speak to the person who handled Twitter. Moments later he was talking to the CEO, who, after marveling at the power of Twitter, described his frustration with the various web platforms he had used.
“I told him all about GlobalMeet,” the rep said, referring to a PGi conferencing service. “He checked out the website and said he wanted to try it, so I sent over the agreement and received it back within a few hours.”
It’s a great story, but perhaps not a surprising one. Twitter is, after all, a social network, and no aspect of business is more social than selling. What is surprising is that most sales managers are proving slow to recognise social media’s potential.
It’s where the customers are
Understanding why and how to engage with today’s social business environment starts with recognising the changes in buyers’ behaviour. We know that customers are online and that they use the web to investigate purchases they’re considering, but it’s not just that buyers start the sales process without you:
Research has shown that today they typically complete most of the purchase journey before having any contact with sales.
Much of this online activity involves social media. Studies by Experian Marketing Services indicate that social networking now accounts for 15% of Internet visits in the United States.
When the 1950s-era criminal Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he allegedly replied, “That’s where the money is.” For any sales person wondering why she should use social media, the answer is similarly obvious: That’s where the buyers are. In fact, 55% of buyers turn to social media when they’re searching for information, according to Business.com.
Where social makes sense
It quickly becomes clear that social media’s greatest potential is at the front end of the sales cycle – during the prospecting, opportunity qualification and pre-sales-call research that lead up to a face-to-face meeting.
But social platforms also offer a means of maintaining customer relationships and building brand loyalty throughout. Let’s take a close look at the key parts of the cycle in this regard:
1. Prospecting
Sales professionals know that in order to make their numbers month after month, they need to regularly look for new leads. In B2B settings, much of their prospecting has traditionally been done through cold calling, but the return on cold calling is dropping with every passing year. Sales people frequently tell us that potential customers are surprisingly responsive to short messages sent via social media, however.
Even better, in a social network environment reps don’t always have to start the conversation. They can often find potential customers expressing hints of interest in the solutions they sell. Identifying these slightly warm prospects can save a rep from making many unwelcome calls.
As the sales blogger Jim Keenan puts it, “A lead today can be a complaint on Twitter, a question on LinkedIn or a discussion on a Facebook page.”
This was the insight that guided the PGi rep. Having noted the executive’s tweeted complaint about the poor quality of web conferencing, he treated it as a conversation already started and plunged in.
2. Qualifying Leads
Not every sales opportunity is worth pursuing, of course. IBM’s famous guide to qualifying leads is the acronym BANT: Reps must determine that the customer has the necessary Budget, that their contact has the Authority to buy, that there’s a genuine Need for the product or service, and that their Timeline for delivery aligns with the customer’s expectations.
There are many long-standing methods for answering these questions. But the information that can be found on social media is often surprisingly revelatory – and it’s much easier to obtain.
Using data intelligence tools like InsideView, sales people can gain relevant, real-time insights about the companies and buyers they’ve targeted. They can set up trigger alerts for topics such as leadership change, acquisitions, new products, funding developments and corporate challenges.
They can ‘follow’ companies to receive news of business developments. Beyond picking up free-ranging clues like these, they can use a social network’s direct messaging function to ask a prospect a few qualifying questions.
3. Managing Relationships
Developing in-depth knowledge of the client is the fastest way to position for a long-term collaboration. Sales remains a relationship-driven activity, but ‘who you know’ is now trumped by ‘what you know about who you know.’
It might seem unlikely that a business buyer would ‘follow’ or ‘friend’ a rep. In fact, it’s quite common. Norms of reciprocity in social networks are well-established by now; following someone and engaging with their content – by retweeting a message, for example – often generates a follow in return.
Where’s the risk in social selling?
Many sales leaders monitor their reps’ social media use for purposes of damage control.
They’re concerned about inappropriate posts that could cause a PR crisis; false representations, unguarded disclosures and copyright violations that could bring legal exposure; leaks of confidential company information; and the possibility that competitors will learn too much about client relationships and early-stage opportunities.
Deborah Gonzalez, an attorney specialising in social media, has seen dangers arise, particularly in industries such as health care and finance which have strict requirements regarding communications. But she’s observed privacy and confidentiality issues in less regulated environments as well.
These risks can be managed with well-crafted guidelines. Policies at IBM, Nordstrom and the US Air Force, for example, highlight the importance of exercising good judgement, showing respect, refraining from disclosing confidential information, avoiding conflicts of interest, and representing opinions as purely one’s own. Each lists steps to take to repair a mistake, beginning with an apology.
Need a starting point for drafting a policy? The consultant Chris Boudreaux maintains a database of more than 200 organisations’ policies at SocialMediaGovernance.com.
The harder-to-manage risks concern basic execution. Even if not illegal or offensive, posts can be tonally unappealing, off-brand or ungrammatical. Inexperienced reps may use social networks as a megaphone for blasting generic pitches far and wide.
The only way to reduce such risks is through training. Beyond walking reps through the basics of setting up profiles, you need to teach them how to use social tools to network, build referral relationships, prospect, generate leads, and conduct pre-sales-call research. Be sure to cover the etiquette, with its do’s (personalise your message, participate often, listen, give value) and don’ts (send sales spam, show impatience, pretend to be something you’re not).
It’s especially hard to teach the nuances of online communication. First impressions count, and without a face-to-face or phone interaction, it can be hard to gauge what impression is being made. Much of social selling happens in short, staccato messages that are easily misconstrued.
A risk that’s often overblown is the fear that social media will distract from real work. This kind of worry is not new; reps have always engaged in activities that may seem purely social. It’s typically been addressed by a relentless focus on outcomes.
In other words, sales people have always had to think about the return on social activity; they’re unlikely to stop doing so now. And to the extent that the risk is real, it’s easily mitigated: Connect with your reps on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter yourself.
