Smart Selling and Social Prospecting 2.0 Trends
In this newsletter
Breaking news: This is the end of prospecting as we know it. Cold calling is dead, voice mail is dying a slow death, and the phone is an unwelcome interruption.
Prospecting has grown up; it no longer involves a Rolodex, a phone, and a list of people to call. Today's socially smart buyers are fed up with the old and tired sales tactics; they are socially smart and financially toned yet extremely independent and very skittish when it comes to the “c” word.
It's time to press for more, but don't bother prospecting if your sales habits have become obsolete. Today's prospects are ready to spend money—after all, they've frugally stashed their hard-earned savings this year, but they are not ready to spend it on just anyone. They're savvy, playing in their adult sandbox means no games, no cheesy sales tactics, and no lies or betrayals. Social Prospecting 2.0 is about socially selling to these prospects and meeting them on their terms. Are you ready?
- Do you possess any Super Powers? Today's sales hunters move at lightning speed, they have a raw curiosity, they are astute listeners, they are resourceful, and they have a healthy tenacity to not give up and know how to defend against intruders.
- Have you revved up your Tool Fuel? A smart salesperson knows that their success depends on how well they understand and use many specific sales tools throughout the sales process. In order to survive and navigate the Sales 2.0 landscape, they need to build their tool IQ when it comes to sales productivity, sales intelligence, and social sales tools.
- Did you know your new Job Security is your Social Graph? Salespeople have become their company's chief customer officers; their social footprint has expanded and will continue to position them as experts in their fields versus just salespeople.
- Are you Trigger Happy? We know they are motivated to buy based on triggering events, but the month-end incentive is your trigger event and not theirs. By tuning in and swimming in their social rivers, you can listen for upcoming events through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Listening throughout the month prevents an end-of-month scramble.
- Do you set appointments and meetings, or are you Social Surfing? Smart salespeople secure their appointments by surfing the social wave and getting a thumbs-up review from someone within their social web. Appointment setting isn't just sending an invite; it includes engaging friends, fans, and followers.
- What did you learn in your English class? Writing good content will be key to your survival. Comments on blog posts, engaging questions on LinkedIn discussion groups, inviting tweet streams, and killer subject lines grab your targets' attention.
- Do you have a soft side? Customer 2.0 likes to self-educate and be engaged. You can nurture their curiosity and engage them with contagious content that you strategically plant throughout the sales cycle to control how informed you want them to be. Diversify your outreach efforts by aligning the right mix of content with delivery. Content that initially nurtures can include webinars and general introductions. Then you can send white papers, case studies, and as nurture train nears the station, more direct content such as an ROI calculator.
- How do you look from the waist up? Your prospects are not downloading as many white papers as their predecessors; they watch, listen, and engage. It's about time we include more visual cues in our sales prospecting efforts, and video is the gateway for that.
- Are you traveling, or are you mobile? The old days of the traveling salesman aren't exactly gone; they've evolved. Today's mobile and portable salespeople make things happen from their iPads or smartphones regardless of their location.
- Wait, don't go! Pull out the old before bringing in the new because today's Customer 2.0 is still tied in to yesterday's connection. Think about digging up old qualified leads from 3-6+ months ago and contacting them; you'd be surprised at the results.
IMPORTANT WEBINARS AND VIDEOS
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