Prospecting has advanced leaps and bounds beyond picking up the phone and placing a cold call to a potential client. The proliferation of social media now blurs the line between one’s professional and personal identity. As a salesperson looking to find new clients, this can be highly advantageous.
There are a few ways that you can use well-known social media platforms to improve prospecting campaigns and generate a greater client base faster.
Research the People You Want to Do Business With
The first step and one of the greatest advantages of social media when it comes to prospecting campaigns is the ability to research your potential clients in advance. Find out as much as you can about your prospective client before you introduce yourself so that you know how to customize your intro or conversation. Understand their professional background by reviewing their LinkedIn profile, or find out what kind of articles they share on Facebook. What other businesses do they follow on Twitter? All of these are indicators as to their preferences, and give you a sense of what type of product or service appeals most them. Even things like hobbies or interest on a LinkedIn profile can be helpful topics for starting a conversation.
Make Connections on LinkedIn
LinkedIn may just be your most useful social selling platform for developing prospecting campaigns. Use it to establish connections with your ideal clients, or ask someone who is a connection already to introduce you.
Think of Your Social Media Pages as Your Bio
Your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are essentially bios that prospective clients may have access to, so it’s important to ensure that all of your pages do a great job of giving the whole picture of who you are, the experience you bring, and how you add value to your industry.
Go One Step Further with Content Marketing
After making sure your social media pages work effectively as a holistic and accurate bio, make them relevant to your target client by creating valuable content that they might find useful. Doing so will not only position you as a thought leader in your industry, it will also serve as a way in which to subtly tie in what your business has to offer.
Retweet and Share Content from Your Prospective Clients
By sharing or retweeting relevant posts of your prospective client to your own network, you can indicate your interest before even making contact.
Introduce Yourself
If after all of these steps you haven’t introduced yourself to your prospective client, now’s the time. Use Facebook and LinkedIn to find out about industry events that your target client may be attending, and go.
Alternatively, thank prospective clients for making a connection with you on LinkedIn by sending them a quick note with a request to meet or speak further. Make sure that you keep it short, but also articulate what value you will bring through the conversation, and what they as the client will gain from it.
There are no set rules when it comes to using social media for prospecting campaigns, but the possibilities and versatility of several different platforms make now an exciting time to seek out potential new clients.