As consumers, we have the natural instinct to desire more of everything. We are programmed to believe more is never a bad thing, especially around the holiday season.
In the sales world, however, it’s quite the opposite. Less is actually more in nearly every angle of a sales organization, especially when dealing with technology. Although this may seem counter-intuitive considering the exponential growth of technology products, the notion does make sense if it’s given some thought.
Consider this scenario: Would you prefer to own a Starbucks store located on a busy street corner, or five Starbucks stores located in much lower-traffic areas? Although you’d own fewer stores, you’d still get more total business if you owned the one busy Starbucks store.
Similarly, you would gain more business value from fewer, more valuable apps than you would from a high volume of less valuable ones. In addition, fewer apps mean users can focus their attention on the more popular ones and not split their time across a larger spread of apps.
However, focusing on the concept of “less” depends upon having more developed strategies. If you are going to choose only a few systems and social media networks to spend time and energy on, you should sketch out well-prepared plans to drive results with the tools you are given.
The following are the social media networks often considered essential for business-to-business sales, along with social media marketing strategies to drive their success.
Salespeople should not attempt to make an impression on every social network existence. For B2B salespeople, there are only two platforms that can be added to current lead generation techniques: LinkedIn and Twitter.
LinkedIn can help sales reps perform a number of activities, including:
Discovering leads
Looking into prospects
Joining and interacting with groups
Becoming an expert
Developing relationships with consumers
Choosing what other activities to use the platform for, then spending the time to use LinkedIn regularly
Keeping your profile updated and your posts in line with your business persona
A lot of salespeople use Twitter like it’s a mass-messaging tool or some sort of megaphone. However, this is an unwise strategy. A better Twitter practice is to organize and segment the accounts you follow to organize them and help you achieve your intended social media marketing goals on Twitter.
For example, if you’re using Twitter to learn more about your industry, create a list of industry leaders and keep up with their feeds on a daily basis. If your goal is to find prospects, there’s a function that alerts you when someone tweets a potential sales opening, giving you the competitive edge to respond quickly. Whatever your social media marketing needs may be, keep your focus on your goals, stay consistent and be patient.
To learn more about our B2B social media marketing services and how they can be used as lead generation techniques, contact us. Our team specializes in social media and integrated marketing solutions for B2B lead generation.