Plenty of your prospects aren’t active on social media. The percentage of customers, prospects and partners in your industry may vary depending on comfortability with technology and a variety of other factors.
But that doesn’t mean social selling won’t still work. You just won’t be able to go as direct. Here are six ways to drive measurable sales and revenue from social selling, even if your direct prospects aren’t themselves on social.
Listen for buying signals from elsewhere in organization
Of course you’d love to hear the CIO say “I want a new enterprise wifi network” on Twitter. But that’s probably not going to happen. However, it’s far more likely that someone inside the organization will share a comment such as “our wifi sucks” on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or elsewhere. And isn’t that still a buying signal?
Think through how others in the organization would describe the problem or pain, and listen for that. Respond through more traditional channels with your primary prospect or decision maker, but don’t ignore the buying signals elsewhere in the organization.
Follow and listen to their peers
Who else on their team is active on social? Peers who run other departments? This relates to listening for buying signals elsewhere in the organization too, but decision-making peers may have more power to accelerate prioritization or velocity of your deal.
Follow and listen to their direct reports
Your primary prospect is likely to delegate research and recommendations to their reports anyway. Just because the CMO will ultimately approve the PO, doesn’t mean he or she is your fastest path to getting the deal.
Follow their company
Someone inside your prospect’s organization is sharing information through social, content and PR channels. What can those trigger events and news items tell you about your prospect’s needs or priorities? If the company sets a public goal for going carbon neutral in five years, for example, how would that translate into goals and priorities for your CIO target? Or your head of facilities target? What could you offer them that helps them participate in the corporate goal and look good to their boss?
Follow their competitors
If you’re watching competitor news and updates actively, you very well may be the first person to bring those insights up to your targets. Use RivalIQ, for example, to get an alert every time your prospect’s competitors change their descriptions, SEO title and meta tags, get something particularly viral on social, etc.
Use Google Alerts, Ofunnel and LinkedIn to watch their activity online anywhere
Just because your prospects weren’t active on social yesterday, doesn’t mean they won’t start today. Use tools such as Google Alerts and LinkedIn to get notified when prospects do get more socially active.
