Twitter for Salespeople

Peter Caputa IV @pc4mediahttp://www.hubspotcom/partners Director, Channel Sales & Marketing

Social Media for Salespeople. Why?

Establish Expertise

Improving Connect Rate with Leads

Networking with Ex-isting Customers for Referrals

Pete’s Blogging Advice from 2006

Reading - It's like listening.

Commenting - It's like 'active listening', sharing stories, guiding prospects in a conversation and challenging prospect's assumptions… all in one.

Writing - It's like talking. :-)

Pete’s Twitter Advice for 2012

You don’t need to blog. 140 characters at a time is easier, especially for salespeople.

Reading your customers and prospects stuffTweeting, retweet-ing and comment-ing on their stuff. Writing your own thoughts.

How to Connect with More Prospects

Read Efficiently with Twitter Lists

Retweeting: The Easy Way to Curate & Get Their Attention All-in-One

Retweets show up in their “@Connect” stream, so they’ll see when you retweet their stuff. It’s like giving someone a compliment: They’ll notice you.

Subscribe to Their Blogs

I use mygmailname+blogs@gmail.com to subscribe and then I route them to a folder OR you can use an RSS reader like Google Reader to subscribe too. I read them in batches and schedule tweets.

Tweet their Stuff

Don’t tweet stuff you don’t read. Don’t tweet stuff that you don’t think is good.

Make sure they Notice

Add from “their twitter name” to the end of your tweet after the link. Again, they’ll see that in their “@Connect” stream. They’ll thank you.

Comment on their Blog & Make Sure they Notice

This is how you start a conversation that they’ll be interested in having.

Share Something They’ll Find Interesting

Make sure they notice by adding “cc:@theirname”. Do not abuse this!

How You’ll Get Referrals

Retweets and Favorites Get your Followers’ Followers to Notice You

Just publish thoughtful stuff and interact with people (like I explained in the previous slides). People will favorite and retweet your stuff. This will lead to other people following you.

Why I Don’t Thank People on Twitter for Retweets & Favorites (Or how to start a conversation.)

Just like in sales. It’s not about me. Plus: thanking them is a dead end. Ask them a question like “What part of that article did you find interesting?”. That’s start a conversation that could lead to a real conversation…

Moving the Conversation into The Real World (where sales actually happens)

Grow Sales with Social Mediaby Rick Roberge

1. Know your ideal customer. 2. Know where they hang out. 3. Be remarkable, relevant and findable.4. Understand that what you think doesn't matter. 5. What words will your customer use to find what they want to talk about? 6. Focus on conversation. 7. Optimize your profile. 8. Watch for the opportunity to engage! And when you do, do it gently. 9. Follow a sales process that mirrors their buying process.10. Don't give a reason to be eliminated.

Read the article: http://www.wbjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121126/PRINTEDITION/311219998/0/PRINTEDITIONDATES

When to Do Social Media

1. Don’t spend “talk time” on social media. Prioritize being on the phone.

2. Don’t start your connect sequence with social media. Start by trying to connect with inbound leads via the phone. Ability to connect still decays with age of lead.

3. The sequence should still be: vmail, email, vmail, email.

4. Try following people while you’re dialing or after you leave a vmail. Put following and retweeting in your workflow as you dial or leave a vmail.

This won’t work for everyone…

Make sure your transition to a phone conversation is natural. Some people prioritize interacting in social over returning voicemails/talking on the phone. Just because they interacted in social, doesn’t mean they want to talk to you yet.

http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/92302/Sorry-No-Calls.aspx

Engage them in conversation…

Leave thoughtful comment on their blog posts… …. And on Twitter

Goal of any connect is to find an interest and move it to phone (or email)..

Questions & Thoughts?