Lead Generation for Sales using Social Networks

So your organization has tasked you with driving leads to generate sales. I know…same old story, no leads from Marketing, no leads from your VP of Sales and the Sales Training was a bunch of Brochures, a website that lacks anything with Lead Magnets (that’s eBooks, Buyers Guides, Research based PDF’s) and a few conversations with the folks who have been doing this for a long time.

Good luck, go get ‘em is the phrase you keep hearing and the clock starts ticking now-you have 3 months to make something happen before you start getting the evil eye from your Sales Manager.

Here are a few tips to help you, if you find yourself in this situation:

1. Join LinkedIn
If you arent already a member of LinkedIn, you must be, if you are in Sales. Download my LinkedIn Profile Setup Document here first, then go do that. LinkedIn’s search features are very strong, allowing you to listen to conversations going on within Groups, and understand what may be trending within your customers, industry and competition.
Be sure to look at LinkedIn’s Training area and understand more about how you can drive leads and referrals using LinkedIn. (More to come on how to use LinkedIn)

2. Join Twitter
Yes, I know you have heard everyone is one Twitter talking about this and that, but that’s not the point here. The point is that you should use the Search function in Twitter to see if there is anything of value here that you can use, within your Products keywords (you know what you sell), Your Brand’s name and your Competitors mentions as well.

3. Search Social Mention
Social Mention allows you to look at conversations, comments and discussions in and around your keywords, brand and competition, that will give you an idea of what customers are really talking about. This helps you to take your typically “Company-centric” Value Proposition and tweak it to the current environment for effective talking points when you merge what’s being discussed and what you offer.

Start with these, and look to ramp up your interest in your company and you much faster than dialing the phone cold. I have been in Business Development for 19 years and have used these same methods to help me sell over $72 million during my career as a Pitch Guy.

If you want to learn more on how to use LinkedIn, Twitter or Social Strategies to drive leads for your sales organization, feel free to reach out.

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