How To Work Your Social Media Network

How To Work Your Social Media Network:from EyesOnSales.com

Unless you have been sleeping under a log for the last six or seven years you know that social media has changed the sales world.

Last Friday, I outlined why the size of your social network doesn’t matter and today I wanted to look at how you can leverage your network into actual sales.

You can have thousands of people in your social media network but unless you actually work that network you are wasting your time.

Unfortunately, many people don’t know exactly how to convert their network into sales.

Here are two ways to work your social media network and generate real sales as a result.

Introductions

Who in your network might be able to introduce you to a key decision maker?

I recently connected with someone on LinkedIn and after scrolling through their contacts I realized that my new contact was connected to someone else who worked in a company with whom I thought there were some good sales training opportunities.

I reached out to my contact and asked if he would be willing to connect me with my target prospect. Within 48 hours, I had a productive telephone conversation with that individual.

I have to admit that I was somewhat hesitant to make my initial request because I was concerned that I might offend the person in my network. I knew that I had a good relationship with him and that I had delivered great results when I worked his company but I still breathed a sigh of relief when he agreed to introduce me.

Here’s another example…

A friend of mine is looking for work and a few weeks ago he came across an on-line job posting. After reviewing the post, he realized that he knew someone who worked for that company. He reached out and his contact was more than willing to put him directly in touch with the person responsible for recruitment.

He scheduled a day and time to speak with the HR person and by-passed the online submission process.

Insight

Your network can offer insight into a company and its people, too.

If you plan to approach a company to sell your product or service, look at your network and see if anyone knows someone in that company or if they have done business with them.

Your contact might be able to shed light on the company’s goals, challenges and insight into your prospect’s personality, likes, dislikes and preferences.

For example, if you learn that your prospect is a hard driving individual, you will want to avoid a long, drawn-out sales pitch and focus directly on results instead. But, if that person is an Analytical person, you will need to provide lots of detail and data and avoid telling stories.

You may also discover that your prospect prefers email or text versus telephone. Or face-to-face instead of virtual. I have a few prospects and customers who prefer to communicate via direct messaging on Twitter. Another customer communicates strictly via email while another one likes telephone conversations.

The goal here is to use the people in your network.

So, tell me…how do you use your social media network to generate sales leads? I’m sure other readers would love to read your ideas. Please add your comments…

Unless you have been sleeping under a log for the last six or seven years you know that social media has changed the sales world.
Last Friday, I outlined why the size of your social network doesn’t matter and today I wanted to look at how you can leverage your network into actual sales.
You can have thousands of people in your social media network but unless you actually work that network you are wasting your time.
Unfortunately, many people don’t know exactly how to convert their network into sales.
Here are two ways to work your social media network and generate real sales as a result.
Introductions
Who in your network might be able to introduce you to a key decision maker?
I recently connected with someone on LinkedIn and after scrolling through their contacts I realized that my new contact was connected to someone else who worked in a company with whom I thought there were some good sales training opportunities.
I reached out to my contact and asked if he would be willing to connect me with my target prospect. Within 48 hours, I had a productive telephone conversation with that individual.
I have to admit that I was somewhat hesitant to make my initial request because I was concerned that I might offend the person in my network. I knew that I had a good relationship with him and that I had delivered great results when I worked his company but I still breathed a sigh of relief when he agreed to introduce me.
Here’s another example…
A friend of mine is looking for work and a few weeks ago he came across an on-line job posting. After reviewing the post, he realized that he knew someone who worked for that company. He reached out and his contact was more than willing to put him directly in touch with the person responsible for recruitment.
He scheduled a day and time to speak with the HR person and by-passed the online submission process.
Insight
Your network can offer insight into a company and its people, too.
If you plan to approach a company to sell your product or service, look at your network and see if anyone knows someone in that company or if they have done business with them.
Your contact might be able to shed light on the company’s goals, challenges and insight into your prospect’s personality, likes, dislikes and preferences.
For example, if you learn that your prospect is a hard driving individual, you will want to avoid a long, drawn-out sales pitch and focus directly on results instead. But, if that person is an Analytical person, you will need to provide lots of detail and data and avoid telling stories.
You may also discover that your prospect prefers email or text versus telephone. Or face-to-face instead of virtual. I have a few prospects and customers who prefer to communicate via direct messaging on Twitter. Another customer communicates strictly via email while another one likes telephone conversations.
The goal here is to use the people in your network.
So, tell me…how do you use your social media network to generate sales leads? I’m sure other readers would love to read your ideas. Please add your comments…