chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Marc Binkley — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:47:17 -0000

Hey Chris,

Interesting post here. I agree with your thoughts about the benefits of SM for awareness and prospecting. In 2011, I quit cold calling to test a system of digital prospecting. I put a lot of effort into it and by the end of the year I was able to calculate a 480% ROI on my social media efforts.

I realized that SM is just another communication tool. In some ways, it's not different that a telephone - these platforms are ways to connect with potential consumers and strengthen existing relationships. In other ways, these tools are so much more powerful than the telephone - they allow me to publish and distribute ideas that had never been possible before. As you suggest in Trust Agents, the internet is a gate jumper for distribution.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

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Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Yevgeny Senkevich — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 17:26:35 -0000

There is a way to tie social media ROI into your sales cycle, you need to be able to track "these gentle touches" through out your funnel using LINKS TRACKING, see here http://webatonic.com

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

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Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Mark — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:58:37 -0000

I believe the next level is to consolidate all those social profiles we created. The think how to manage them, possible in one place, at least having a good overview on the internet footprint.

Many products are already on the market. Brizzly is a good one, but only for Facebook and Twitter and only for managing.

I use http://Name.ly./

With urls like htp://sincere.ly/ or http://thatis.me/ they certain.ly do stand out of the crowd.

They are based on Wordpress, so needless to say, things are easy and flexible there.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

links of london — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:29:29 -0000

but I also believe there is a role for it to play with customers who come to your business w/o prior engagement with a sales person. Social media, and communities in general,

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Hamilton Wallace — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:32:46 -0000

One of the best attempts--maybe the only!--to look at how social media overlays the sales cycle. Thanks. I've seen how social media fits in the awareness and prospect phases, but am intrigued by your take on how it fits in the later stages.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Tony Cimorelli — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:16:31 -0000

Chris,

I was forwarded your post from a collegue. I think you opinions are exceelent and valid. I was trying to determine where social media platforms best fit into the process and your article helps validate my conculsion.

In a B2B environment, this quote from your blog captured my attention............ T"hese tools we have like blogging and podcasting and video and the use of social platforms are interesting, but to be useful to a sales marketing process, we have to look at where they make the most possible leverage and value."

And from my perspective they help expand the "awareness" and "evangelist" phases.

Thanks for the article... I'll be following go forward.

marketing team can do a much better job of benefiting

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

frank barry — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:54:41 -0000

I'm not in sales per se, but the fact of the matter is anyone in a company that touches a customer is a sales person in some way.

I'm in services ... so when I look at that list I gravitate to Awareness, Customers and Evangelists.

Social Media, in some cases, helps me connect with my customers on another level. It doesn't replace in-person/phone/email, but it adds a layer and it demonstrates to customers that I'm (and my company) are up on the latest tech. tools, trends, etc ... When customers see that I'm active, using the tools, sharing, helping and giving to them (and others) they feel good about doing business with us.

http://twitter.com/franswaa

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Keenan — Wed, 13 May 2009 20:44:45 -0000

Chris,

I posted part II of my response to this post today, outlining how to use social media in the opportunity pursuit stage and the close stage. http://asalesguy.com/2009/0...

Sales and marketing are complex processes with multiple facets. Managing them takes talent, and skill. Posts like this are helpful in assisting people through the process!

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Keenan — Wed, 13 May 2009 01:24:52 -0000

Chris,

Well said, well laid out, for a Marketing Cycle. I think your suggestions are spot on.

However, In the above you've defined a marketing cycle not a sales cycles. Your sales process is more marketing than it is sales as it omits the opportunity pursuit and the close.

Marketing is the stick in the selling process. Marketing creates prospects, increases awareness, and generates leads. Sales is the sharp end of the stick. Sales takes those leads and turns them into customers. The sale is the interactive, personal engagement between the sales person (team) and the buyer (company). The sales process is the steps and effort required to convert the lead to a deal or customer.

1-Prospects -Marketing
2-Awareness - Marketing
3-Leads - Marketing
4-Customers -Sales/Marketing
5-Evangelist - Marketing/Product

A true sales process is in between 3 and 4 with opportunity pursuit, and the close.

Check out my post in response to yours. I've added my thoughts as "A sales guy". http://asalesguy.com/2009/0...

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Zach Heller — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:49:22 -0000

Chris, love the topic of this post. I think this is an ongoing conversation and I am excited to see what companies continue to do with social media. So far I think the most prevalent of the areas that you mention has to be in awareness building. A lot of small businesses have started to see the value in Twitter and YouTube, as well as some other social channels, to get the word out about their brand or new products. But this could change as the media grows and becomes more and more popular.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Nicholas Martini @martini280 — Tue, 12 May 2009 12:30:27 -0000

Chris- Great Post. I agree with a lot of this. Listening is The Key with Social Media and building that into your sales process. Also it's important to be real when using social media tools, we have increased our traffic significally with many of these tools by not just pushing our stuff out there by spamming everyone with content but mixing it into what we are hearing.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Determined2.com — Tue, 12 May 2009 09:57:44 -0000

Very good post on Social Media sales cycle. I truly believe if you establish a good relationship with customers, they will be more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Building bridges in social network, builds social media contacts. At http://determined2.com Interactivity that promotes successful pursuit of life goals. Achieving your goals through sharing experiences and different techniques used to help in the aide of meeting successful goals. Building trusting relationships.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

billhanifin — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:21:10 -0000

I'm guilty of creating, distributing and hyping the life-cycle marketing graphics and value chains you talk about in the post. It's still a necessary evil and we probably can't delete that slide from our capabilities deck (yet), but I treat it now like the boilerplate that it is and move to more interesting stuff, i.e. creating the links you talk about in the post.

I tried another take on making sense of social media strategy here Major League Approach to Social Media Strategy

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

John Bottom — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:13:38 -0000

Good stuff, Chris. The problem, as always, is quantifying the effect of all this social media activity, and the most difficult guys to convince are in sales – and it's understandable, since they are driven by short-term successes. Dell claimed they made $1m from Twitter last year, basing it on sales leads gained from Twitter, but surely social media is having a greater net effect in a different way. If you told Dell they could have $10m cash in exchange for a negative social media reputation, they would never take it. One day, it will be quantified, but until then...

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Kaplan Mobray, Author — Tue, 12 May 2009 00:21:59 -0000

Chris,
Great points on the impact of social media in the sales cycle. I would add that in addition to enhancing the sales process you can measure ROI from social media in how it extends the shelf life of a product. Companies forecast sales of a product based on a natural product lifecycle (PLC) and then reach a decision point on whether to pump additional resources to reenergize, reintroduce, relaunch or revive a product in its natural cycle of decline. Social media, when used strategically is a cost effective way to create viral buzz that extends trial, increases awareness, brand positioning, and word of mouth testimonials all of which can lead to greater product sales at the point of a products historical decline. The power and ROI of Social Media comes in its ability to deliver unforecasted sales and profits.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

buzzoodle — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:48:19 -0000

I have to say that I am thrilled to see a reasonable discussion going on here about using social media in a sales mode. There are a lot of purists that would simply say that sales should not be in social media, but that is like saying advertising should not be on TV.

I hope to see a lot more of these kinds of discussions. Thanks Chris

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

john ratcliffe-lee — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:31:04 -0000

Listening on a basic level, yes, but as Louis points out - proactive community facilitation is almost paramount. Don Bartholomew below talks about Consideration and Relevance which, I think, are where the social web can provide the most value.

A good visualization could be a funnel. A person pushes all the noise through this "funnel" and pays close attention to community conversations which impact consideration and TRUST. Lots of brands aren't closely watching this b/c it's very hard to quantify but there are a lot more mitigating, non-linear facts that go into the process. With more information readily available pre-purchase and being spread across the web - it's almost changed this process entirely. Think of David Armano's brand visualizations not too long ago. Facilitation, Community, Consideration, Trust, Value, Relevance...in my opinion, are today's major issuess.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Areg Bagdasarian — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:36:16 -0000

chris I agree that the hardest part of social media for business is trying to figure out the ROI on it all. I simply see it as an extension of building relationships that can be taken to the next level. Good analysis though...

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

brandonchesnutt — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:14:02 -0000

Awesome post, Chris. SM definitely provides companies with the right tools to engage at multiple stages before, during and after the buying process. I also have to agree that generating awareness is probably the greatest benefit of using social tools, but there are plenty of examples (beyond what you listed) that showcase how integrated SM can complement a company's sales cycle.

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

AJ Gerritson — Mon, 11 May 2009 18:37:52 -0000

Hey Chris,

Nice job. I tackled some of these items last week on Dan Roble's Blog here: http://www.relationship-eco...

I have always said that it's easier to figure out ROI for social media in terms of B2B lead generation. However, executing these types of campaigns can be difficult for some (e.g. it's not just finding a suspect with need through radian6 and engaging that person.. but more specifically what do you engage them with? Who develops that content? What's the protocol of engagement? Where are they in the buying process? How big is their pain? Are you engaging them through social channels in a strategic fashion - meaning awareness isn't enough, your actions and/or offers of content must be orchestrated in a specific way to produce a desired action or outcome)

Interesting related point to also mention is the inability of tools like radian6 to monitor areas of LinkedIn that would be most beneficial for B2B lead generation - GROUP discussions.

@ajgerritson

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Michael Browning — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:09:27 -0000

Great post Chris. I work for a B2B firm that serves mid to large employers. We use a hierarchy of effects model to understand where our prospective customers are in their purchase decisions. The model has a few stages that are listed below. We can use social media in different ways for each of the stages. The idea is to say the right things that speak to where that prospective customer is in the buying process:

Unaware of Product - We use LinkedIn discussion boards and other tools such as articles to make them aware of the product.

Aware of Product - Once they are aware we try to educate them with our company blog and other educational tools. Search is a big factor in this stage as well.

Knowledge of Product - At this point we are trying to get them to like our offering, so we try to understand as much about the purchaser as possible from doing research on their profiles in various social networks. Search is a big factor in this stage as well.

Liking the Product - Once they like our product we use our blog(connected with social media networks) to point out differences between us and the competition.

Preferring the Product - Once they prefer our product we stay visible to them through LinkedIn, blogs, and other online venues.

Conviction to Purchase - At this stage we are continuing to feed the customer valuable information to push the purchase decision forward.

Purchase - Staying connected and relevant is very important during the final two stages. Social networking tools allow us to do this much more efficiently.

Repurchase - See Above

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

tom martin — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:30:15 -0000

Chris,

Good post. Interesting that in a sales cycle post you didn't talk much about using LinkedIn. Seems like a natural (maybe just in B2B) place to create awareness (answering Questions), prospect (the search is quite powerful) and converse with prospects/clients. And with the ability to link in Slideshare presentations and your blog, can be a decent platform.

Didn't know if it was an intentional omission or just wasn't top of mind as you wrote.
@TomMartin

Re: Best Fits for Social Media in the Sales Cycle

Don Bartholomew — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:43:52 -0000

Probably a semantics thing. I would call the ones fitting my desired profile but not aware of us a target audience/customer rather than prospect. I can see your point too however.