I recently read an article by Trish Betruzzi, inside sales consultant of The Bridge Group, Inc. The title of her blog is "I Hate the Double Tap in Sales". What she's referring to is the strategy of calling and leaving a voice message with a prospect, and immediately following up with an email. The general result, she feels, is not positive, particularly when the message left is not a compelling one.
However, one of the alternatives Trish provides to the 'double tap' is using social. Since I'm a big advocate for integrating social media into the sales process, I'd like to share 7 social alternatives to tapping your prospects that don't include email or phone.
7 Social Selling Strategies for Getting a Prospect's Attention
1. Retweet, mention or reply to your prospect on Twitter.
2. Comment on an interesting article you find on your prospect's LinkedIn Company Page, and share it with your prospect via LinkedIn and include a personalized response.
3. Use LinkedIn to find a mutual connection to your prospect. Explain to them that you're trying to get through to this mutual connection and ask them to send your most recent blog article with a big recommendation about how great you are.
4. Create and send a self-made video using VSnap (when appropriate) - make it short, funny and personal.
5. Send them a link to a Postwire page you put together showing a collection of relevant multi-media about your product or service.
6. Share highly relevant content or comment intelligently in a LinkedIn Group where your prospect spends time.
7. Send your prospect a highly relevant article or a link to your latest blog via LinkedIn Message or InMail. (Use the LinkedIn Bookmarklet and it couldn't be easier.)
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