Lauren Carlson from Software Advice describes five ways B2B sales professionals can leverage social media to find – and win – more business. Her article provides valuable insight into using social media to find opportunities, learn about your buyers, identify your influencers, understand your competition and scale relationships.

Social media can provide tools to win more sales.  It can be a great resource for outbound sales prospecting if used correctly and ethically.

Correct use is the critical idea. As social networks have evolved, professionals must use them correctly to receive their benefits as tools for discovery and relationship building. Why? Because social platforms can so easily be misused. Here are a few additional tips on using social media in outbound sales prospecting, in ways that your prospects value:

LinkedIn- to me LinkedIn enables you to maintain and nurture current business relationships, and form mutually beneficial new ones. If you reach out to a person you do not know well, tell your contact why you’d like to connect. If the person’s response opens the door to developing a relationship, follow up with another response.

Follow their lead – If you are trying to develop a relationship with someone on a social network, take their lead and use their preferred communication method. This is similar to interacting with your customers; use their preferred method of communication, not yours.

Keep your standards high – When using social media, follow the same rules of courtesy you would use to build a business relationship through any medium: in person, on the phone, or through email. Have a purpose.  Present a benefit and reason to connect to your recipient. Respond promptly.

I find these tips helpful in my own business.  I hope they provide value to your outbound sales prospecting efforts.

1. You have a good chance of connecting with a business executive if you call earlier or later than normal business hours
2. Early morning or late evening (within reason) are times to find business executive more accessible and less likely to be in meetings
3. Some believe it is also a time when a business executives environment may be less hectic or less chaotic

While this may sound good in theory, does it work in the real world?

In this case it does. While nothing is 100% sure-fire and there is no guarantee you will make the connection because you called earlier or later, you do stand a good chance of connecting.  This recent story supports the theory you can get positive results by calling earlier or later.

A Real Life Story About an Early Phone Call

It was mid morning on the east coast but early morning on the west coast. There was a bit of pondering around what time was acceptable to call the west coast.  Should it be earlier than 8:30AM, the usual morning start?  The decision was made to begin the west coast calls at 7:30-8 PST and monitor the results.

After a few calls, we connected with the CEO of a major company with $2 billion in assets.   The conversation uncovered a need and want for our client’s services.  The moral of this story is clear:  calling before normal business hours can be highly successful.  Don’t ponder.  Just do it. It can be a highly effective way to communicate with your buyer.

Here are a few guidelines to help you if you decide to call or outside  normal business hours:

• Be prepared, a business executive may answer your call
• Call within reasonable timeframes use an hour to hour an a half as a guide
• Be clear concise and direct if they have come in early or stay later its for a reason don’t waste their time and yours
• Follow up with a written thank you
•  Value their time and put it to good use when business executives converse with you

Try it and see what you make of it! Let us know what’s working for you.

This can be very tricky. You are very excited as you receive a list of inbound inquiries, hoping this is your pot of gold. As you begin to look down the list you begin to notice that — wow — very few incoming contact titles match the type of target you are used to calling on.  They don’t seem to match the contacts who make up your target client in your existing customer base.

Problem: Your New Inbound Leads Don’t Seem to Match Your Current Type of Customer

This could be because the inquires are coming from a source that doesn’t cater to your typical target contact.  Or, you may have discovered a new title that could qualify as one of the target contacts having an interest in your company, product or service.

So the dilemma is:  Do you call the list of people with questionable contact titles, or do you look at the company and try to find a more typical target contact within the company on the list? The answer? You may well have guessed it:  both.

Depending on the Number of Inquiries, You May Need to do a Pilot Outbound Prospecting Campaign

It also matters how many target contacts are provided in your inbound inquiry list. If it’s a larger list, pare it down to a manageable list and conduct a small pilot on the names in your list.

When you call, find out if there is interest in your product or service.   This may represent an untapped or new market. If you find that to be the case, great.

Also ask for the name and number of the target contact title in their company. You may find:

• the person with this title shares interest in your product or service with the title you are calling
• this is a new target contact title specific to this company
• this is not the correct contact title at all

Whatever the results, be sure you located the right contact title that will have interest in your company, product or services. It is also a good idea to provide feedback on your findings to sales and marketing at a minimum.

There is no question that LinkedIn, like other social media channels, can serve as a great resource for outbound prospecting research and connection if used appropriately.

Yes, you can view company and contact profiles and learn about your clients and prospects. Yes, you can search for your ideal company and contacts using the advanced search capability. You can search by location,  industry, groups, relationship, function, company size, seniority level, and Fortune 1,000 companies, to name a few.

But the true power of LinkedIn lies in reaching out to people you have or want to develop a relationship with.

A Real Life Lead Generation Example Showing the Power of Connection

Here is a real world example. A friend was looking to connect with certain potential prospects. This friend viewed each personal contact for more connections, to see if someone this person already knew could help connect with the potential prospects that this individual wanted to reach out to.  Once this person identified if any contacts were connected to potential prospects, it was a matter of asking each existing contact for an introduction to the potential prospect or client.

Although it should be obvious. I will mention that the person asking certain existing contacts for an introduction to a potential prospect knew these personal contacts very well. This person had earned the right to ask for the introduction.  This is because the individual had either started with or developed a relationship with respect and depth, (not just a LinkedIn connection) with each contact.

LinkedIn can provide a powerful tool for outbound prospecting when used correctly. The true quality and value of the relationships you have with your contacts will provide a valuable resource during your outbound prospecting work.

Related Posts:

How to Keep Your LinkedIn Group Actively Relevant to Members

Social Networking: Evolution or Revolution?

We all know about social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For what possible reason, then, would you want to use what many people consider an outdated method of connecting with clients and prospects?

I believe the answer is two fold:

1. There is a tremendous amount of noise and chatter out there and it gets louder everyday. So how do you stand out? You try what everyone else is NOT doing and hope to get noticed and heard. One reason to use direct mail is to open an increasingly overlooked communication channel.
2. It takes seven times before a potential prospect recognizes you.

Multitouch strategies to connect with prospects and clients work.  In planning these campaigns, many Sales and Marketing managers look to online channels to reach customers.  Email messages, social media, blogs, newsletters, webinars, and videos are often the first options that come to mind.  Search engine marketing is another growing online avenue. Direct mail can be an effective part of a multiple touch strategy.  So why not use direct mail as one of those touch points?

Using postal mail is not a new concept on my part.  Others have addressed this topic many times before.  (A March 2011 MarketingSherpa Report found that about 79% of B2B organizations found direct mail to be either highly effective or somewhat effective marketing tactic.) But now that it’s hit home, as part of my personal experience, I am interested in sharing my reaction and hearing yours.

How effective has direct mail been as part of your outbound prospecting efforts?

Where to Turn For Information When Planing Your Call to Your Prospect

There are so many places that company and contact information live, and so many end tools and services that aggregate data about companies and contacts.  If you have not been engaging in pre call planning due to lack of sources, you do not have this excuse today.

Granted, with so many sources, the most helpful data you need is not always available in one place. It may all reside in one tool, or it may not. The information you need may be located on a social network site, a website or in the news to name a few possible sources.

Regardless of where the data is, it takes time, effort and smarts to plan your call ahead of time, and make a meaningful connection or correspondence.

How to Plan Your Pre Call Research Time

So how much time do you spend? At one extreme, you cannot spend a day finding all there is.  You’ll be muddled with too much information before picking up the phone.  At the other extreme, you cannot blindly call without any information about your prospect: That is the recipe for a wasted effort.

So how do you know you’ve invested the right amount of planning time? I think you need a balance. You need to use the shortest path possible to find the right information that uncovers a problem the prospect is having, that you can solve.

For some prospects or clients, this may take a short amount of time.  For others it may take you a bit longer. As always strive for a balance.  Remember that the quality of your insight does matter, and can help you stand out in the eyes of your prospect and future client.

While there are pros and cons to leaving a voicemail message while making outbound prospecting calls, I am a proponent of leaving a message when trying to connect with a client or prospect. Okay that’s fine. So what can I possibly tell you that you haven’t heard already?  Here is a story from my own personal experience showing why it works.

I was recently asked to help a client set up high level appointments for an upcoming event they were attending.  I did this, putting my belief in the value in leaving a message into action, for the following reasons:

1. If a contact is unaware of your product or service, the voicemail message serves as an introduction to your company and offering.
2. If a contact is aware of your product or service, the voicemail serves as a touchpoint to reinforce their knowledge of your product or service.  It also helps them learn something new about your product or services.
3. If your message is compelling and there is interest in the substance of your message, you may receive a call back.  This has been my experience in the past.
4. If you are calling prospects or clients, your message is a form of nurturing your relationship with them during outbound prospecting.
5. Finally, with Caller ID, they know you are calling anyway.

So back to my story. I was calling a select and finite group of prospects and clients to set up appointments. As you would guess I always left a message every time I called.

See if these results speak for themselves:

1. I received a call back from a senior executive’s administrative assistant to arrange a breakfast appointment.
2. I received a call from a technology executive interested in setting up a conference call.
3. I received a call back from a senior vice president interested in meeting at the event.
4. I received a call back from a business executive to set up a meeting time for herself and a few staff members to discuss our solution.
5. I received a call back from a sales executive interested in a meeting.

Was the offering hot?  Yes. Was the message compelling?   Yes. Was anything offered in exchange for the meeting? No.

I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on leaving a message.

Let’s finish looking at what estimating your lead quantity depends on. There are several simple questions you can ask yourself and your team internally as you plan.  Your answers to these questions give you a better understanding of your lead flow during an outbound prospecting initiative.

Here is the additional set of questions to ask yourself.

1. How does the current lead number compare to past performance?
2. What has changed the expectation as to the number of leads you expect?
3. How do you sell?  Direct sales force, distributors/partners or inside sales?
4. Do you use a spreadsheet or SFA to record and report on activity and results?
5. What is the skill level of the person conducting the outbound prospecting initiative?
6. What is the reputation of your company and your products and services in the marketplace?
7. Has the prospect or customer been contacted by you before ?
8. Do the contacts you intend to connect with come from inbound inquiries or outreach efforts?
9. Is the offering a new or existing product or service?
10. How strong is your brand in the marketplace?
11. How long have you been in business?
12. How well trained is the outbound prospecting implementer?
13. Do you have a strong customer base for the product or service you are offering?

The previous post and this have provided close to 30 questions that are important to answer in determining the number of leads you can expect from an outbound prospecting effort.

How do you determine the number of leads you can generate from your lead generation outreach initiatives?

“How many leads can I expect to produce from my outbound prospecting initiative?”

The best and truest answer is also the most unpopular. The answer is: it depends.

What does your expected number of leads depend on?  If sales and marketing live and dies on your metrics, how can it be so difficult to predict the exact number of leads? How is it that after so much previous experience, even those people closest to the numbers are not able to pinpoint the number of leads to be generated from an outbound prospecting campaign?

Here is why it depends. Ask yourself these questions before asking how many leads your next initiative should generate:

1. How long will the outbound prospecting initiative run?
2. Are you calling customers, prospects or both?
3. If you are calling customers, are they active or dormant?
4. If they are prospects, do they represent your target audience?
5. What is the price of the product or service?
6. How accurate is the contact information: the name, title, phone, and email?
7. How will your representatives connect with the contact:  by phone, email, social network?
8. Are you attempting to deliver appointments or highly qualified leads?
9. Are you selling a commodity or complex solution?
10. How do you define a high quality lead?
11. Do you have lead definitions outlined?
12. What are your lead definitions?
13. What has been your past performance reaching your lead expectations?
14. If they weren’t reached why not?

This list represents a small sample of the types of questions you should consider to help better determine a realistic estimate of leads. Please stay tuned for part 2 in which we will share at least 10 more additional questions to help you create a productive initiative.

Hiring tips for managers and selecting the best list sources were the most popular topics at the Exceed Sales blog for 2011, according to your visits. I look forward to your feedback and thoughts about how we can help improve your lead generation and outbound prospecting results for 2012.

SLMA Recognition Honor

A major highlight of 2011 was to receive the 2011 Sales Lead Management Association’s recognition among the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management. I was delighted to receive your nomination and to join 98 colleagues recommended for this award in November.

I’m especially honored because, thanks to your votes, this is my second year on the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management list.  I’m very pleased to join the other respected colleagues on this year’s list.

My sincerest thanks and appreciation go to all of you for your support, votes and recognition.

Topics to Watch in 2012

In keeping with providing tips, insights and best practices in lead generation and outbound prospecting, here are a few topics I will cover in my blog during 2012.

• Social Media: What Does It Buy You
• How Many Leads Can I Expect
• How Long Should Precall Planning Take
• Should You Leave A Voicemail Message
• What’s Up With Direct Mail

If there is a topic near and dear to your heart that you would like to hear more about please let us know. I do read your comments — and your comments on the Exceed Sales blog are indexed by Google, so don’t be shy! Stay tuned for new insights on other highly sought-after lead generation and outbound prospecting topics.

2011 was a good year and I expect 2012 will be even better. I appreciate your support and your interest, and wish you the happiest of holidays and peace and prosperity in the coming year. All the best!