If you're a business owner or marketing executive who wants insightful, jargon-free tips on making social media work for your business—FAST—you're in the right place. Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell. He's an international speaker, publisher, adjunct digital marketing faculty at Loyola University and an entrepreneur who co-founded the Google Affiliate Network. His book, "Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You," is first to show how fans, readers and followers can be converted to leads, subscribers and sales. Make Social Sell is your practical resource on making social media produce leads and sales.
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Business process outsourcing (BPO) provider ADP is leading the way in creating leads and sales with social media prospecting. ADP's sales force is using social media to discover and then solve prospects' problems in ways that break down barriers and bypass those doggone gate-keepers. Once they've broken though the noise sales people are quickly moving the discussion off of social media DIS-engaging. Here's how they're doing it and how you can do the same.
ADP's sales staff is getting more first-time meetings, more often, by giving prospects distinct reasons to invite them in for a presentation. They're proving themselves as being worthy of consideration by giving prospects a high degree of confidence in their ability to offer value.
Breaking Through Barriers with LinkedIn and Twitter
Doug Plourd is a major accounts sales executive at ADP who is successfully using LinkedIn for business leads. Yes, his approach uses a relatively new social platform (LinkedIn) to research key decision makers but how Plourd is netting leads and accounts isn't new at all.
He also is using Twitter—another relatively new social platform. Yet, again, the reason Twitter is so effective at generating new business leads for him is not technical nor new.
Plourd is using relatively new, "social" tools in combination with a very old, effective idea.
Solving problems for customers.
In the above 2 minute video you'll hear how Mr. Plourd is gaining access to key decision influencers and decision makers by:
1. Listening for his prospect to express a pain he could remedy (or a scratch he can itch)
2. Acting—actually proving that he can provide relief to the prospect; thus, transferring confidence to him/her
3. Asking for the appointment (the opportunity to demonstrate his ability to eliminate other, related business pains)
None of the above ideas are new and that's precisely the point. Don't let all the hype-and-spin of social media marketing get you off-track. Yes, the digital tools are changing rapidly but what works is not revolutionizing sales and marketing despite all the bluster!
Give Customers & Prospects Confidence with Social
The best way to get more business appointments with social media is to avoid what most "experts" claim works. Trying to grab attention on Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and Twitter won't work. Instead, the best way to earn appointments is to exploit social media's greatest strength: Its ability to create emotional response.
Do you want to start using LinkedIn for business leads? Start giving your prospects the confidence they need as buyers. The trick is to do it in ways that increase their ability to feel emotionally grounded and intellectually stronger—fully equipped to do what they want to do. Talk more with you about buying!
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