Indo-German Software Competence Network (Indescon)

Indo-German Software Competence Network (Indescon)

Posts 1-4 of 4
  • Ashant Chalasani
    Ashant Chalasani    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Of Hunters and Gatherers - Leveraging Social Media for Sales-Activities
    Archeologists and mankind-researchers often speak in terms of Hunters & Gatherers when explaining the early occupations of mankind. Hunters were the kind of early tribes that would follow animal-trails, predict their prey's positions, prepare themselves for a kill, develop the necessary weaponary and hunt for their food. Gatherers on the other hand were settlers. Their approach was to go about the wilderness, search for available sources of food and collect whatever they need for sustainence. Fast forward 50,000 years, the terminology is still as much relevant for those of us in the sales profession.

    I think the argument rests that the social-media is no fad, but rather a real Internet economy dynamic that is posied to disruptively influence the selling as well as buying habits of every man, woman and child on the planet that has access to the Internet.

    For sales professionals, this is a massive gold-mine, in effect a new sales channel, to recruit new customers we never ever had access to in the past. Depending on if your sales-structure is organized for B2B or a B2C, you will be able leverage the Social Media for anything from generating leads to actually ringing in revenue right there in the social networks. My area is B2B sales, hence here are a few things you can use the Social Media for your B2B sales activities. The relevant approach here is that of a hunter's.

    # Look for Groups #

    Social Networks are not only networks of people, but also networks of _groups. The grouping in this case is of individuals that gather around a common cause or interest (what Seth Godin generally describes as "tribes"). Obviously the right place to focus on are groups within social networks that align with your product or service.

    # Hunting for quality leads #

    Once the right groups are identified, the next challenge is to mine the group for the participating individuals in the groups, and get to know about them. People reveal tons of information about themselves in thier social-network profiles. All this is useful KYC (=Know Your Customer) information for you, if you are planning on initiating a business proposition to them.

    # Make Careful Moves #

    Once you have hunted down a few potential customers, in other words leads, you would have to be super-sensitive in approaching them. This is no field for spammers! All social-networks have inbuilt mechanisms to shut out spamming, and if you over-do it, shut you out completely. So make sure not to be a pain-in-the-a**e to others in the network and still find a way you can advance your business goals.

    Here in your hunting instincts will be decisive. How you sniff trails to qualify an individual as a potential customer, find out if at all business potential exists, how you prepare a pitch to capture attention, what offer you make to open a business-discussion, and all the techniques you meticulously develop will determine your success in leveraging social-networks for your sales organization.

    Your comments welcome:

    Twitter >> http://www.twitter.com/euroblaze
    Become my Fan on Facebook >> http://j.mp/gnkrLk
    If you wanna buy our services >> http://j.mp/g72D3T

    Ashant Chalasani
    This post was modified on 12 Jan 2011 at 03:03 pm.
    • 10 Jan 2011, 10:29 am
  • Arup J. Paul
    Arup J. Paul    Premium Member
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re: Of Hunters and Gatherers - Leveraging Social Media for Sales-Activities
    Hi Ashant,
    I totally agree with you. "On the face" very well crafted article.

    I was thinking to write an article about "keyword research for online marketing".
    If I get time I may do that!!

    Cheers,

    Arup
    • 12 Jan 2011, 12:31 pm
  • Lars Nielsen
    Lars Nielsen    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re: Of Hunters and Gatherers - Leveraging Social Media for Sales-Activities
    Hi Ashant,

    in general I totally agree with you and your approach to access potential customers on social networks.
    As you can observe in (German) XING groups exactly this approach is taken by many entrepreneurs, freelancers and sales people.

    Lots of very very useful information on social network sales approaches can be found in the following German groups (among others). So, I will not go into too much detail here.
    - Akquisition / Kundengewinnung https://www.xing.com/net/neukundenakquisition/
    - E-Marketing https://www.xing.com/net/e-marketing/
    - professionell Netzwerken https://www.xing.com/net/sbkm/
    - Vertrieb 2.0 - Vertriebsmethoden der Zukunft https://www.xing.com/net/vertrieb_zweipunktnull/

    But there is large BUT when talking especially about XING and other social networks with business focus:
    - There is a theory that 99% of (active) XING (group) members are sellers not buyers
    - You need to find the buyers groups (above mentioned groups are for exchange of sellers)
    - Approaching potential B2C customers in social networks is quite different from B2B customers (group participation vs. personal messages)

    There are several other social media than only social networks, like Blogs, Twitter, You Tube and other social network elements than only groups, like social apps, social adds, recommendations and referrals, paid content, company profiles, etc.

    This is beyond scope of my little comment, but I would interested in personal experiences and recommendations on this topics in the sales process.

    Best regards,
    Lars Nielsen
    • 12 Jan 2011, 12:56 pm
  • Sudheen Mookola
    Sudheen Mookola    Premium Member   Group moderator
    The company name is only visible to registered members.
    Re^2: Of Hunters and Gatherers - Leveraging Social Media for Sales-Activities
    A comprehensive write-up!!
    • 19 Jan 2011, 05:58 am