Social Media For Sales?

Anyone who has worked in sales knows how often a call can be made, an email sent or a meeting held, without any conversion occurring. And we ALL know how it feels to be constantly bombarded by sales calls and have become pros at turning them away. Bottom line - it's tough to make a sale, but forward-thinking business people are utilizing a modern sales tool in order to to break down these old communication barriers: social media.

Social Media is not only being used to get a company's message out to it's audience these days- it has become a sophisticated way to gather foundational information, analyze reactions, network and more. A recent study shows that salespeople using social media in the office outperformed peers not using it by 73 percent! Clearly, social media is giving people a competitive advantage- let's figure out what they are doing to catapult their sales...

1. Using Social Media to Break the Ice
Using insight from social media platforms can give you a basis of information that is invaluable while reaching out to new clients. For example, analyzing mutual friends may give way to a personal introduction or seeing an executive's pictures of summer vacation my lend itself to the perfect conversation starter. Having some background information on a company or person may give you the edge to get that face-to-face meeting or phone conversation you've been working at.

2. Using Social Media for Referrals 
Back to mutual friends and degrees of connections- social media allows you to discover that you may know someone within that company that you have been trying to land a meeting with for months. As we are all bombarded with sales calls, the average person is much more willing to meet if they know you are being referred or have some kind of connection to them.

3. Using Social Media for New Opportunities
When people are not happy with the service or product they receive, it is not uncommon for them to blog or write a status about it and this can be used to your advantage. By keeping an eye on your competition and their client's social media pages, you will gain insight to their strengths and weaknesses, giving you a helping hand with your company's strategy.

Social media- once a way to keep in touch with family and friends, has turned into a major player in the business world. Learning how to use these tools to give your company insight that can take your business strategy to a whole new level will enable you to reach your clients in another way. How do you use your social media platforms? What have you found to be the most effective?