B2B Prospecting on Social Media: 4 Must-Have Tools
Are you looking to start your social selling program?
Are you trying to improve your current program?
Below you’ll find a short list of necessary tools for B2B sales teams – with tips for using those tools for prospecting.
1. LinkedIn Referrals
Okay, you’re right. This isn’t a tool, per se, but it is a must-have feature for connecting with prospects. Why? Because 84% of B2B decision makers begin their buying process with a referral (Edelman Trust Barometer).
Plus, asking for a referral on LinkedIn is rather simple. You can do it in three steps:
- Step 1: You choose a prospect.
- Step 2: You see how you are connected to that person.
- Step 3: You ask a mutual connection for a referral.
So, let’s say that I wanted to target Trapit’s Tommy Ziemer, Trapit’s VP of Operations. First, I need to find him on LinkedIn.
Once I have located him, I look to see how I’m connected to Tommy on LinkedIn.
I have several shared connections. Now, it’s a question of who will be the best referrer. Preferably, I want someone who knows me well and who has some sway. In this case, I’d probably go with Henry Nothhaft, the Co-Founder and Head of Products at Trapit.
Once I have chosen my referrer, I click on the upside down triangle to the right of the “Connect” button and pull down to “Get Introduced.”
Then, I type my message to Henry and ask for a referral. For sample messages, download our templates for breaking the ice on social media.
2. Newsle
Starting using it here
Once you have connected with a prospect, you want to keep track of him or her so that you can look for opportunities to engage with your prospect.
Newsle is an easy way to keep track of those moments when your LinkedIn, Facebook, and Gmail contacts appear in the news.
For the same of example, let’s say that I wanted to do business with Dr. Laura Granka, one of my Facebook friends. Newsle tells me that she will be participating in an upcoming conference on user experience in Boulder, CO.
If I live in Boulder or if I plan to attend that conference, I might ask to have coffee with Laura so that we can talk about potential business opportunities. Alternatively, if I cannot attend the conference, I might send her a message and ask if she can send me her presentation deck, which I can use as a trampoline for starting a discussion with her.
3. LinkedIn Connected
Download the app from the Apple store
Newsle is not the only way to stay on top of what your prospects are doing. LinkedIn has created an iOS app that sends you notifications about your network.
When your prospect celebrates an anniversary, you receive a notification so that you can congratulate her. When your prospect receives a promotion, you receive a notification so that you can congratulate him. This allows you to always stay top-of-mind with potential customers.
Additionally, if you sync your calendar with your LinkedIn account, you will receive a reminder about your upcoming meeting, and you can do pre-meeting intelligence by looking at your prospect’s LinkedIn profile.
4. Trapit
See how it works here
Use Case 1:
With Newsle and LinkedIn Connected, you can search only for individual people. But sometimes you want to know what’s happening with your target companies – not just your contacts.
With Trapit, I can keep tabs on both companies and key employees.
Let’s say that I was actively pursuing Apple as a customer. In the Trapit application, I can discover what’s happening with the company. First, I enter my search terms. For example, I can create a “trap” that looks for content on “Apple Computers” and “AAPL.” Trapit consults its library of 100,000+ sources, and it gives me the latest information on Apple:
If I were an agency in the e-commerce space, I’d look at the article about the App Store, and I’d start brainstorming ways to leverage the “impenetrable jungle” of the App Store to my advantage. How could I offer my services as a way to redesign the App Store?
Use Case 2:
With Trapit, I’m not limited to doing reconnaissance work, I can also look for smart content that my prospects will want to read.
Let’s say that I’m in the marketing automation space, and I’m targeting the president of a startup. As the president of a startup, my prospect is responsible for both sales and marketing, and I’d assume that she is having the usual trouble of creating harmony between the two.
If I wanted to be a helpful resource for Madam President as I’m prospecting, I would create a “trap” (i.e. a topic) in Trapit on sales and marketing alignment:
Then, I would choose an article, and I would share it with my network or just with my prospect. (For sample messages, download our templates.)
When selling on social media, salespeople must be perceived as trusted sources of information – not as pushy peddlers of their wares. Trapit can help salespeople build rapport by enabling sales teams to share the right content at the right time.
What about you?
What are your favorite apps for social selling? Share your insight in the comments section below!
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