No matter what you’re selling, you have to do three things.
- Identify aspects of your offering that are unique or do something better than the competition.
- Identify the industries or functional areas that need what you do differently or better.
- Look for the specific companies that would need what you have.
Then prospect with a vengeance.
Now that was the traditional view. As a salesperson, you went out and found prospects and created opportunities. And hopefully, Marketing created some brand awareness in the minds of your prospects.
But the world has changed.
To be successful in sales you must now do your own targeted marketing as well.
What do I mean?
Prospects are busy and simply won’t respond to generic marketing. To get through, you have to target specific prospects with a solution to their specific issues.
In other words, you must send them sales material that will immediately make them sit up and take notice – and ask for more information.
So how do you do this?
The first thing you need to do is know that they have a specific issue you can solve. The days when you could have a meeting and go on a fishing expedition are long gone. Prospects expect you to do your homework BEORE you meet with them.
And that’s where online Social Networks come into their own.
But first, let’s look at traditional (and by no means out-dated) ways of finding information.
You’d scour trade publications and other media, look at the company’s annual report, network with other people who know people in the organisation and work your way through the organisation trying to find the right people to talk to.
And while you should still do that, online social media like www.Linkedin.com make it far easier to make the right connections in the organisation.
For those of you who aren’t aware of Linkedin.com – it’s the number one social network primarily aimed at professionals and business people who want to do more business. As of January 2011, it had 90 million+ members – with a new member joining every second.
45% of linkedin.com members are considered to be the majority decision makers for their organisations – so your chances of targeting the right person are dramatically higher.
Read more about linkedin.com membership stats at http://press.linkedin.com/about/
So how do you use Linkedin.com?
Couple of ways.
You can search by company, people or keywords. Which gives you enormous flexibility.
And when you find someone, you can see who they’re connected to in the network and if you have a common connection (think degrees of separation), you can ask for a referral. Or you can ask to connect directly with the person.
Once you’ve connected, it makes it easier to start a dialogue, which may eventually lead to more business.
But there’s another crucial side to this equation.
Just as you can search for people, people can search for you, your company or your product or service.
Which has major implications if you’re a service provider.
Why?
Two reasons…
Like a website, your social media presence is a statement about you, and people will judge you by it. And if someone is searching by keyword (e.g. financial planner Sydney), like a normal Google search, you’d want to come up at the top of listings.
Therefore you must have a listing that conveys what it is you can do for your audience.
What’s your next step?
Write a compelling listing that will raise your profile. Figure out what keywords people use to find you and incorporate these into your listing.
Don’t know how to do that or hate writing?
We can do it for you!
For only $660, our Social Media Listing service will create (or fix up) your profile on Linkedin.com. Which means you position yourself in the best possible light, so not only will prospects be able to find you, but when they do, they’ll want to connect and do business.
So what do you get?
Linkedin.com
We help you create a 100% complete profile (in Linkedin’s terms). This means that you give people looking at your profile as much information about you as you can – so they can make more informed decisions about working with you.
Elements include: Your Current & Past Experience, Summary Profile, Extended Profile (complete with keyword terms relevant to your business), Specialities, Experience and Education.
In addition, we show you how to get recommendations (testimonials) from current and past clients, as well as peers, former employers etc. You can see my profile at http://au.linkedin.com/in/rashidkotwal
Included in the price, we’ll a 2-4 page marketing & sales letter targeted to a specific promotion. We’ll work with you to define the feature and benefits of your product, “the hook” – why your prospects would be interested, and a couple of follow ups.
The letter is yours to re-use (one of our clients runs the same promotion every 6 months to bring in new business).
Read more about this service here.
Call us on (02) 9499-7958 and we can get the ball rolling and have more prospects coming in the door for you.
Rashid.
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