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October 2009 Newsletter
How to Generate Business
Through Social Media
by Tom Hopkins
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The other night, a member of my staff was having dinner with some friends from her neighborhood. The group consists mostly of mothers of kids who went through school together. Car pool days are long gone, but the bonds between these women remains as strong as their kids’ friendships. As will happen when a group of mothers get together, there are always updates on what the kids are doing. One is graduating this semester. Another is thinking about changing her major. Another is having a baby and so on.
Besides catching up on news what happens is support. One mom knows someone in the field the graduating student is seeking an internship (lead generation). Another has advice on that change of major (a similar situation story). Yet another owns a condo near a college and is thinking of selling it right around the time another child will need a nice, safe place to live near campus (real estate investment opportunity). Even though these women have known each other for nearly 20 years, they don’t know everyone the others know and would never find out if they didn’t have these conversations.
We all live our lives in circles. I know my family, my circle of friends and my staff. They know me, my immediate family and some of my friends, but they also have their own worlds that include family members, neighbors, friends from church or social groups, parents of their kids’ sports teammates. And those people have their own groups. It’s an ever-expanding connection.
I believe the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter, involves a desire to keep that natural flow of connections strong. On a larger scale, it’s simply connecting with humanity in our isolation-prone society.
If you’re involved with a social network, you’re in a vast whirlpool of potential connections beyond those you currently have on a personal or business level. It makes sense that there are incredible opportunities for connecting with ideal potential clients for your business. The question is: How do you find out who can connect you with the right people?
I teach a strategy I call the Lead Swap others call it a Lead Exchange program or group. In a nutshell, you find a few people in non-competing industries who sell to the same demographic group as you. You agree to meet once a month or so and exchange leads. (NOTE: For some industries this type of program would not be proper so please be aware of your own business constraints before doing something like this.) There are groups like this all over the United States and some are amazingly successful. I like to refer to them as sales partnerships.
With that in mind, wouldn’t it be great if you could do all of this online? It’s great to see folks in person, but it would be much more powerfully effective and time efficient if you could do it in a few minutes a day with just a few keystrokes.
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter don’t have features where you can work specifically with sales professionals to generate leads. And, if you’re like most, you have some different connections on each of these social networks. Ideally, you would want to have them all in a single database rather than logging in to several networks.
We have been working to develop just that—an ideal, online lead swap network just for sales professionals. It’s called the Tom Hopkins Sales Partnership Network. It allows you to upload your contacts into a private, secure online database. It also allows you to request leads from other partnership members (Tom Hopkins-trained salespeople). You don’t see the names of their contacts nor do they see yours. That’s the “private” and “secure” aspect.
You request connections by asking, for example, for a lead to the Purchasing Manager at a specific company. An email request notice is sent to anyone having that information. Those who know that purchasing manager or someone else in the company who could help you with making that connection will offer to share their lead with you. They may ask you for a contact in exchange or just do what good salespeople do—help others.
When you receive the new contact information, you can chat with the person giving it in order to prepare for your initial contact with that potential client (no “cold” calls here). You can learn what you need to know to quickly establish rapport, like the fact that they’re Phoenix Suns fans. And, you can learn how they handle purchases. Imagine the power you have meeting a new contact with that information!
On top of the great information you receive with the lead, you have also doubled your resources because you now have a new lead exchange partner in the person who provided it.
The best news is that since it’s always been my goal to provide high quality sales training and tools at investments affordable to those who need it most the Tom Hopkins Sales Partnership Network is available to you for FREE. All you need to do to get started is to open an account and upload just a few of your contacts.
Once you experience how it works, you’ll want to upload all of your contacts from those other social networks and manage them here. After all, the partnership network is designed to help you grow that list quickly and easily.
Join the Tom Hopkins' Sales Partnership Network and start getting new business leads today!
Learn exactly what to do and say to close more sales this month!
TIMELY TIP
Ask!
Some salespeople are uncomfortable doing much more than presenting their offering. In fact, that's their favorite part of the sales process. If you're great at presenting, that's wonderful, but it won't in and of itself generate sales. You must ask for the business, directly and plainly so there's no misunderstanding on the part of the client that it's decision time.
We conducted a little survey and asked people who did not make purchases why they didn't. The overwhelming majority said even though they liked the product and the salesperson, it just never came down to having to make a decision. In other words, they were never asked!
In some cases, the clients were convinced of the value of the product and probably would have gone ahead but nothing happened. Since they weren't asked for their money, they kept it in their pockets and decided to think about it later.
If nothing else, learn this single sentence and add it to the end of your excellent presentations: "Not to be assumptive, but if everything we've discussed here makes sense, how soon would you want to begin benefiting from (name your product)?" If you've done your job well to this point in time, you should hear, "Well, I guess we might as well do it now" more often than not.
Learn more simple selling solutions in "Selling for Dummies."
CLOSE OF THE MONTH
The Buyers' Remorse Close
People are more likely to face remorse over buying decisions in challenging economic times and with larger ticket items. Although, buyer’s remorse has been the cause of many returning something as simple as an article of clothing to a store. By addressing the clients' potential for remorse in advance, you feel them out as to whether they might experience it and have the opportunity to firm up the sale with the right words.
Phraseology: “John and Mary, I feel good about the decision you have made tonight to own ______. I can tell you’re both excited and somewhat relieved to have made your decision.
From time to time, I have had people just like you who were so positive about the decision they had made until they shared it with a friend or relative. The well-meaning friends or relatives, not understanding all the facts and benefits of going ahead, try to change their minds about their decision for one reason or another. John and Mary, please don’t let this happen to you. In fact, if you think you might change your mind, please, tell me now.”
When they agree with you now that they're certain about the decision, it's much harder for them to change their minds even when talking with others about it.
To increase your closing ratio, own Sales Closing for Dummies the most comprehensive compilation of Tom's closing strategies.
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