Almost everyone is on social media, and every brand is on social media. It is no wonder then that social selling is encouraged in almost all sales organizations. Social selling stats for 2019 confirm the importance of social media in sales today:
- More than 50% of revenue across 14 major industries is generated by social sales.
- 75% of B2B buyers and 84% of C-level executives are influenced by social media when making purchasing decisions.
- Nearly two-thirds of social sales professionals and 90% of the top performers use social networks.
- Leaders in social sales attract 45% more sales than their peers and are 51% more likely to reach their quotas.
- Nearly 70% of sales professionals use social selling tools for lead development.
Social media has been especially useful for prospecting and generating new leads, but if you don’t do it correctly, you can ruin your chances of engaging your target prospect. So if you’re going to begin scouring social media platforms for new leads, best to keep these tips in mind.
7 Tips for Prospecting on Social Media
1. Establish your buyer persona(s)
The first one is essentially a tip for when prospecting in general—on social media or elsewhere. Before prospecting, you have to identify your Ideal Customer Profile and/or buyer persona(s). You want to generate quality leads and having these criteria can help you short-list your targets. If you haven’t already, we suggest you begin building your buyer persona.
2. Choose your priority platform
How do you know which social media platform(s) to prioritize? Ask yourself: “Where are my target customers?” This is why you have to develop your buyer personas and understand their demographic, interests, and hobbies. B2B companies usually find their target prospects on LinkedIn and Twitter; B2C brands will find theirs on Instagram and Facebook, where shopping is possible.
While it wouldn’t hurt to try more than one or two social media platforms for generating leads, it would be smart to focus on those that are more critical to your prospecting success. You also don’t want to expend all of your energy on just social selling, so be very wise about how and where you spend your time and resources.
3. Create your list and connect
Create a list with the names of brands and individuals you want to connect with. This is your dream list, so to speak. Then do your research on them. Do some digging and gather as much intelligence as you can. One company for example will have many employees on LinkedIn. Who do you target specifically?
Once you have the list, start following their pages or accounts. On LinkedIn, you can send an invitation to connect. Try to personalize that message and don’t just send a generic invitation. And do not pitch immediately after connecting. Just don’t.
It would also serve you well to connect with groups and organizations. This will help grow your network, which is important when hoping to find more possible leads. LinkedIn has a lot of groups, and you’re sure to find some that will help you meet your objectives (networking, prospecting, and selling).
4. Engage in conversations to get on prospect's radar
Having a social media platform for selling involves engagement. By engaging, you create possibilities for companies and individuals to notice you and your brand. This is also another way to sharpen your professional image—and your company’s too. Share your insights on business posts with intelligent comments. Participate in industry discussions. You can search for topics that are of relevance to your product and industry. Just type in keywords for these topics.
Engaging also means listening. Listen to what existing and potential customers are saying about your brand and join the conversation if you feel it’s warranted.
5. Create value and let them come to you
There’s a lot of content out there but not everything is of great value. So here’s a smart strategy to supplement your active social media prospecting: create valuable content and have your prospects come to you. A smart blog post, a great video, a cleverly designed and constructed infographic… these are just some samples of compelling content that will get you noticed by the people you want to target. We suggest you create content based on whatever is most relevant at the time, whatever is trending in your industry.
You can also create content based on what people are looking up or searching for. Buyers go online to do some research before making a purchase. Capitalize on those moments and have content that can fulfill what they’re looking for. You can also get content ideas from comments and questions being posted about your product, service, or industry.
And remember: resist the urge to share promotional content. Promoting certain events (e.g. a limited-time discount offer) is fine, but don’t do it often.
6. Be personable and authentic
It’s really simple: people want to connect with people who seem personable and authentic. So maintain these two traits when writing posts, commenting, and especially in writing private messages.
Cultivate conversations—this is what social media is all about. Be genuine in your interest and correspondence. And trust us, once those conversations are established, pitching will come naturally.
7. Make the personalized pitch a natural progression
Once you’ve established a rapport with the prospect, the pitch will feel like a natural progression. And when you feel the time is ripe, make a pitch that’s personalized to the prospect and what he/his company wants/needs. How would you know? If you are sincere in connecting (as you should be), you would be following and reading posts made by the prospect or his company. You would then know the latest developments or urgent concerns. For example: If you read that they have expanded and established a new location in another city, if you have a relevant service or product for that, then mention that in your pitch.
You also don’t need to sell in the social media platform at all. You can go off the platform when sales discussions are in full swing and make a call, send an email, or even meet in person.
Finding prospects in social media is possible, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Remember that social selling is more about expanding your network by making connections; creating a stronger image for you and your brand through valuable content; and building relationships with your target audience. And these take time, patience, and consistency. But in time, you will successfully establish your social media presence and create many possibilities for finding quality leads.
Photos from Pexels. Photo by Tracy Le Blanc
