Social Media for B2B Sales

When my partner and I started Lerentech Solutions, our business was focused on web design and development, search engine optimization and application development. Social media existed, though Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn were still fairly new. As technology rapidly advanced over the past few years and–social media with it—we’ve seen an increasing interest from all types of businesses asking how they can best leverage social media to grow their business.

I’m a strong believer in social media as business development tool. Not only because Internet marketing is a large part of our business, but because I’ve witnessed firsthand how a small investment in time weekly has brought us new sales–and more importantly, how we’ve helped other businesses do the same. One of the greatest benefits of the Internet and technology has been its ability to provide continual new opportunities and channels for businesses to communicate with customers. But while there is an abundance of guidance, tips and advice on how to utilize social media for business-to-consumer marketing, there isn’t nearly as much about business-to-business sales. Though according to one recent study, 66% of B2B companies use social networks in their marketing mix.

In addition to our Internet marketing business, my partner and I also started LerenGroup, a business providing outsourced sales management for IT service and support businesses in various places across the country. As a part of our engagement with our clients, we provide a software to manage the sales process more efficiently as well as weekly consultation and continual training for sales people. Our current customer base consists mostly of tech companies providing computer network support for other businesses. And one of our challenges is helping their sales staff get more meetings and proposals out to the other businesses in their territory in a climate that is increasingly more difficult to get face-to-face meetings or even just get a decision maker on the phone.

While we do require our clients’ sales people to make cold calls, I’ve been taking more time to make sure they’re also optimizing their social media and online networking to complement their real-world networking and relationship development. What follows is an outline of some areas we encourage them to work on in their role as a sales professional.

• Set the Foundation. If you don’t already have a LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ account for yourself, make sure to set them all up and complete them with a strong description of what you do, what your strengths are, your interests and your contact information including links to your company website and a blog if you have one.

• Optimize for Efficiency. Look into social media tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck that allow you to monitor your social media network activity and search terms as well as update all of your social media simultaneously. I like to use several tools including Tweetdeck to keep several columns of streams open at the same time, including a search for “Syracuse” so I can keep an eye on what’s happening in our area. And you can also simply link your Twitter to your LinkedIn so your tweets go to your LinkedIn status updates. We also often integrate the latest company tweets into our clients’ websites.

• Establish yourself as a Resource and Specialist in your Field. While a blog isn’t necessary if you don’t have the time, writing regularly about news in your field, providing resources, links to interesting articles, and information of this nature can promote your personal brand. Even if you don’t blog, it’s important to share interesting content and resources related to your field on a regular basis via social media. People are likely to follow, re-tweet and share your information if you provide good content. A popular saying in Internet marketing is ‘content is king.’ Your updates shouldn’t be about your business and pushing product, they should be more about providing helpful and interesting information. Statistics and infographics are great examples.

• Reciprocity. To grow your followers and Twitter, it’s important to follow others and re-tweet other things you like. Twitter makes it easy by providing suggestions, but also setup Tweetdeck or another tool and do searches for keywords as well hashtags related to your field. A hashtag (#) is a way for people to share and quickly follow topics of conversation. If you’re in the advertising business, search for things like #advertising and #marketing. On LinkedIn, it helps to provide recommendations for others and they may return the favor.

• Participation. In addition to participating in conversations on Twitter, LinkedIn groups are a great place to find people in your field and area interested in a specific topic. Syracuse has many examples such as CNY Business and Linked Syracuse. You can even start your own discussions in these groups; but again, don’t attempt to promote yourself or your products. If people feel you are a self-promoter, they’re less likely to want to associate with you and interact.

Using social media for B2B sales and development is really not all that different from the traditional networking and relationship development. In fact, you should approach it like this and use it to not replace, but complement your sales efforts. Continue to attend Chamber events, join networking groups, socialize, and enhance those relationships you create through connecting online and sharing with those people.

With the proliferation of smart phones and apps, connecting online with people in the real world can be almost instantaneous. Many people now use QR codes on their business cards that when scanned, can provide you with their contact info. To make connecting even easier, we’ve developed a free tool allowing people to generate virtual business cards and get a QR code they can use right on their business cards (shameless plug: Get yours at www.qwiqr.com!). When someone scans it, they’re taken to your profile where they can save your virtual business card right to their phone book. From there you can also go to their social media and follow them, creating an instant new connection before you get back to your desk.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all that you can do with social media and new technology, but if you can start here and regularly grow your network by finding new connections and sharing useful resources, you’ll grow your online network. If you’re willing to commit just a small amount of time weekly, you may find that a connection you create today can suddenly become a brand new client months later. And that’s a great feeling in sales..