One way to use social networking in sales

I like to provide simple and effective methods to leveraging social media in my everyday work habits. I feel by showcasing one example it gives my readers a focused task to apply in their lives and see if it works for them. this is simple, effective social marketing.

So here's one way I gain fast account penetration while prospecting using a couple of my favorite tools.

I've spent over twelve years as a national and global accounts sales manager I and my team work to penetrate large commercial accounts in a short time frame. To that end churn happens, people change, projects and budgets come and go. So in this ever changing landscape a sales professional must have current actionable intelligence and contacts to derive interest for his/her product or service and close meaningful business.

When prospecting new accounts such as Fortune 500 accounts let's say. First I visit my LinkedIn rolodex to see who I know working in and around this account. My first goal is to find consultants and other enterprise sales professionals working around this account. You would be surprised what lunch or a cup of coffee will buy in the way of business intelligence (human engineering is as important as online networking). Also give first then ask for for advice on working the account. Always allow your contact to teach you what they would like to. A few guiding questions during this process will allow them to share their knowledge and flex their influence muscles a bit while you glean as much constructive information as you can. Be sure to listen and remember their guidance. If the consultant is close to the account they may be your only way through the front door, so get to know this professional as well as they will let you.

Next if enterprise reps and consultants cannot be found I go straight to the IT and C Level chain of command. You would be very surprised how relevant a snap shot you can glean from a few minutes spent searching your pervasive LinkedIn network.

NOTE: realizing of course the fewer level 1 contacts you have in LinkedIn the less powerful this strategy is as names will not be shown for contacts more than three levels away from you...so grow your network now! I also like to take a look at Hoovers.com for account 411 as well, note their competitors and contacts listed to compare with LinkedIn findings.

Sift through the contacts and titles until you have a strong understanding of C Level down structure. Create a list of these contacts in your contact management software and then pick up the phone and make a call. Focus on getting a meeting. Use the names on your list to circumvent the gatekeeper with ease and be ready to sell your meeting not your product. Don't waste their time and prepare well in advance to hit salient points to gain a meeting time and date with your important contact. And stand up while your on the phone with you contact, attitude is everything in sales and strong posture will evoke a stronger voice.

In addition once I know the names of my prospects I can then try to figure out email accounts to simultaneously catch their attention for a meeting. One sure fire way to get noticed is using a simple title on your email such as: "Meeting Request". Also keep your email to the point and very brief.

Here is an example of a message I have used quite effectively to land meetings with my prospects:

Dear Josephine:

I'd like to share some exciting news regarding *** Inc. They recently signed a $3,000,000 contract with my firm. This relationship saves *** Inc. $35,000 per month over their existing solution provider and offers redundancy and diversity in their WAN that never existed before.

Can we pencil a few minutes in the next week to review why *** Inc. selected my firm to manage their mission critical networking needs?

I look forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

KK

This little email gets better than a 60% response rate. Typical direct email campaigns only net less than 1%. Pretty good when you think about it.

So use LinkedIn to find professionals you wish to speak with. Know them, their company and their competitors. Then hit them with a meaningful dollarized message that has "VALUE" written all over it.

Go try it out and let me know what you think. There are over 100 ways to use LinkedIn. If you want to know more just check out this link. Thanks to Christian Gray in my LinkedIn network for sharing it with me. It's great stuff.

http://www.linkedintelligence.com/smart-ways-to-use-linkedin/

Happy Hunting.

Kenneth Knapp
"The socialFIEND"
949-294-0403