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Why Salespeople Should Use Social Media to Generate Leads and Prospects

Why Salespeople Should Use Social Media to Generate Leads and Prospects

Undoubtedly, sales can be one of the most challenging career paths. It begins with looking for potential customers and developing them, known as prospecting. Prospecting is significant in sales because it enables sales professionals to develop the potential customers’ pipeline.

When done right, prospecting establishes a healthy pipeline of prospects, aids you in focusing on the right accounts, and positions you as a trusted advisor. When practicing prospecting, you shouldn’t have to only depend on the number of emails you send or calls you make. There are only so many emails salespeople can send and calls they can make in 24 hours. 

However, times have changed, and things are done differently now. The use of social media to prospect has become more widespread than the use of emails and cold calling techniques, and it has drastically helped make the B2B salespersons’ jobs simpler and more efficient.

Importance of Prospecting on Social Media

The majority of B2B salespeople started their career way before the digital age. Hence, the sales prospecting processes and tools were quite distinct from what they are today. Back then, concepts such as social media for sales professionals were non-existent.

As corporate social media usage becomes prevalent, individuals within organizations wish to know how it can impact them directly. There are multiple ways salespeople can use social media to provide value to prospects.

Some of them include responding to comments, answering open-ended questions, and sharing content throughout the purchase process – from awareness to consideration to finally when prospects are ready to purchase.

The process where salespeople can use social media channels to reach out to prospects and establish connections with them is known as “Social Selling.” 

What is Social Selling?

Social selling is a novel approach to selling that permits salespeople to build rapport through their existing connections and laser-target their prospecting. These social selling solutions allow businesses to direct all their attention to business prospects on various social media platforms.

This practice entails using a brand’s social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., to connect with potential customers, establish a connection with them, and engage with potential leads.

By actively connecting with prospects on social media platforms, you can be the first brand to come to prospects’ minds when they are ready to buy.

How Social Selling Helps Salespeople to Prospect

When done right, social selling can quickly and effectively replace the daunting practice of cold emailing and cold calling. Having said that, here are some reasons why salespeople need to implement the use of social selling strategies for prospecting on social media: 

1. Expedites the relationship-building process

Most people prefer doing business with people they know. Before salespeople had to spend long, hard, and tiring hours sending emails, making phone calls, attending events, and scheduling in-person meetings to reach out to prospects.

Luckily, social media platforms serve as a meaningful avenue for communication and enable salespeople to quickly and frequently engage with their existing customers and prospects. 

2. Establishes trust with existing and prospective customers 

By regularly sharing relevant, meaningful, and exciting content with their prospects and current customers, salespeople can become a highly effective and “go-to” source for information within their industry.

Including information regarding their services and products in the mix and sharing other meaningful content that can repeatedly draw in people back to their social media profiles can significantly help.

3. Aids salespeople in generating leads and prospecting

Social media is an excellent place to look for potential leads. The comments and likes on LinkedIn posts, people who have re-tweeted or liked Tweets on Twitter, and Facebook and Instagram page followers are some of the best and most prominent places to start with.

However, these social media platforms are not the only sources for generating real sales leads. Comments, blogs, and live chats on websites are equally effective. They serve as excellent places to engage with prospects already in touch with the company or brand. 

Recently, there has also been a significant buzz around social selling tools, which have swiftly and significantly risen and evolved as a category. In fact, most people call it the new sales model or Sales 2.0. 

SocialEpoch Social Selling Solutions 

If you still haven’t incorporated social selling techniques for lead generation and prospecting but want to, SocialEpoch should be one of the first names to come to your mind! Our social selling solutions at SocialEpoch are ideal for companies with long-lasting customer journeys and a vast array of the sales team.

We cater to all kinds of B2B Businesses with sales teams. With the help of SocialEpoch Social Selling Tools Solutions, you can significantly benefit from many things: 

  • From proactive social engagement to Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
  • From customer services to cross-team collaboration
  • From lead nurturing and lead generation to closing deals

We have a 5-stage process that allows us to help you achieve all these. This 5-step SocialEpoch Social Selling Process works like this:

Phase 1: Sales Intelligence

  • AI social prospecting
  • Data scraping & List building
  • Get deeper insights into potential customers

Phase 2: Pro-Active Social Engagement

  • Proactively get in touch with customers with multiple Facebook accounts
  • Promptly engage with customers in bulk on Facebook
  • Improve lead coverage and boost team productivity

Phase 3: Technology-led Marketing

  • Blast outbound messaging
  • Marketing automation & robotic process automation
  • Maximize marketing performance and results

Phase 4: All-in-One Sales Platform

  • Leads research & segment
  • Deal closing & digital asset preservation
  • Drive and manage customers all on WhatsApp SCRM

Phase 5: Community-led Growth

  • Personalize customer experience with customized service
  • Build customer loyalty & maintain customer relationship
  • Increase customer retention and repurchase rate

Social Selling on Facebook            

Facebook is a prevalent social media platform with a vast audience that is even more significant after acquiring WhatsApp and Instagram over the years. 

B2B sales professionals can utilize the power of Facebook groups and bulk accounts for networking and establishing themselves as leaders in their industry. This consists of reaching out to prospects and existing customers directly through messages, commenting on posts, creating original posts, and sharing them in related groups. 

The key is creating shareable and valuable content your customers want to interact with. Do not forget to respond when someone engages with your content or comments on your posts. Answer their queries or assist them with whatever they require.

You can also offer to reach out to them directly via Facebook Messenger or ask them to message you if you want a detailed conversation. If people share your content, this can be great for your business because it boosts your brand awareness and acts as a co-sign for your brand. 

Effective Ways to Find Prospects on Facebook

Facebook is one of the most effective social media channels for tapping into your prospects. Think about all the people you follow and those in your niche who have a big enough network with excellent engagement.

These are the networks you want to tap into, and it is relatively simple because all the work has already been done by them. Here is how it works:

  • Look for friends in your niche with a significantly high engagement, and then look for a post with abundant likes. 
  • Click to view the likes on their post, and follow all those people with many mutual friends, but do not send them a friend request. 
  • They will receive a notification, get curious, and naturally want to know who followed them. This way, they can check you out. Simply following them is good enough to grab their attention.
  • If your FB page resonates with theirs, and they see mutual things, they might send you a friend request.

Having said that, here are other effective ways to find and attract prospects via/on Facebook.

1. Facebook Fan Pages

All it takes is a quick search and find targeted niche-specific fan pages on Facebook, skim through the comments and likes on their posts, and follow people with many mutual friends. Look for well-known people in your niche, like their fan page, and engage with them.

2. Facebook Suggestions 

Facebook will always nudge you with pop-up messages, suggesting friends for you who their algorithm deems will be a good fit for your business.

3. Facebook Groups

A cool trick to attract your best prospects is to join Facebook groups that resonate with your niche. Facebook groups are an excellent source for tapping into prospects when used correctly. By searching for keywords, you can join different groups on Facebook where you think your potential targets might be.

You can share posts from your own page on these groups and mass comment on posts to generate leads and drive traffic toward your own page, website, and business. You can find a group for practically any niche you can think of on Facebook.

Your goal here is to become one of the most valuable persons inside the group to grab your best prospects’ attention within these groups.

Here are 3 simple and effective tips that you can use to attract your prospects’ attention inside a Facebook Group.

● Create Valuable Posts

An easy way to stand out from the other group members is by providing something of value to them. Chances are your competition within the group will be spamming and doing things the wrong way. 

By giving value, such as creating valuable posts and sharing them with the group, you can become the one to stand out and draw prospects straight toward you. 

● Answer Questions 

Several people join a particular Facebook group, not for the mere purpose of posting but to get answers to many of their pressing concerns. If you start addressing their concerns and provide constructive answers to their questions, you will stand out in their eyes, and they will view you as extraordinary, knowledgeable, and valuable. 

● Help Support Live Broadcasters

If somebody is doing a Facebook Live inside the group, you can help viewers by pitching in quotes of essential points they make or dropping useful links (where required) during their live broadcast.

This enables other viewers to notice you get the most out of that live session, and they will be thankful to you for it.

The bottom line is to become the most helpful, valuable and trusted guide that people can always turn to when they are unsure of something or simply lost and require help. 

4. Bulk Accounts

You can use bulk accounts to enhance your Facebook page’s engagement and automate generating leads and prospects with effective sales tools to optimize your marketing efforts. Luckily, SocialEpoch has the perfect tool for this.

SocialEpoch Facebook Marketing Automation Tool

The SocialEpoch Facebook Marketing Automation Tool is the perfect tool from which all B2B companies with sales teams can profoundly benefit. It offers a vast array of features that enables you to generate leads and prospects on Facebook. We also include bulk accounts in our offer. Its core features include:

1. Auto Proactive Social Engagement

  • You can proactively get a hold of customers with multiple Facebook accounts
  • You can swiftly engage with multiple customers on Facebook
  • You can achieve significant marketing results efficiently and productively

2. Data Scraper

  • Acquire data of different groups, users, and pages on Facebook with a single click.

3. Content Spread

  • Auto Mass PostingSharingCommentingJoining GroupsListing on Marketplace
  • Maximize Your Marketing Efforts

7 Reasons Why Salespeople Should Communicate and Engage With Customers on Whatsapp

It’s no longer a mystery that WhatsApp has opened its doors wholeheartedly to businesses, making it just as easy for people to reach out to a business as they do their friends and family.

From a business POV, this provides an excellent new platform to drive revenue and establish closer and long-lasting customer relationships. The IDC surveyed more than 355 businesses worldwide, of which 61% said that WhatsApp was fundamental for conversational customer engagement.

So, if you are doing business with people who use WhatsApp, then you are in the right place. Here are some reasons why salespeople should engage and communicate with customers and prospects on WhatsApp. 

1. 2 Billion Users

WhatsApp has an enormous audience worldwide, and there is no denying it. WhatsApp is a no-brainer if you are an international business seeking to reach out to prospects. The majority of the users on WhatsApp are aged under 45.

Still, there is a large user base in older age groups, making it a superb channel to reach a broad audience. 

2. Customer Engagement

People prefer easier and more accessible ways to communicate with companies. 71% wish to speak to businesses in real-time, and 75% of adults prefer communicating with brands just like family and friends.

This is evident from the fact that more than 175 million messages are sent over WhatsApp businesses daily.

The app ticks all the desired boxes for consumers: a personal touch, live chat, easy access, etc. So, whether you use it for marketing your products or offering customer support, your customers will get an exceptional customer experience. 

3. Expedites the Sales Cycle 

Many businesses have turned to WhatsApp to sell their product offerings and services. With shopping carts and product messages and the ability to get in touch with sales teams directly, users can browse throughout a digital WhatsApp shop, receive marketing promotions, and have pre-sales questions answered without leaving the app.

You can even use WhatsApp for sales consultations, and customers can benefit from a highly personalized service that can result in a 90% in-store conversion rate.

4. Improves Customer Satisfaction 

According to a survey by Kayako, 52% of consumers were more likely to engage in repeat purchases if a respective business offered live chat. The last thing customers want is to wait on hold and get support or ask a quick question.

Customers want convenience, and there is nothing more convenient than using an instant messaging app you’ve already installed to send a message to the brand. In addition, it is a breeze to include chatbots or automated messages to handle simple FAQs.

5. Makes Communication Asynchronous 

Instead of calling them at busy times, you can use WhatsApp to communicate with your customers and prospects. This way, users do not feel rushed and can take their time to respond.

So when you drop outstanding details of your product or service on potential customers using WhatsApp, they can see and understand the unique value proposition of your company when they’re less occupied and respond as per your expectations.

The key is to give your prospects and leads ample time to absorb your pitch and establish a perception.

6. Increases Potential Customers’ Response Rates

Engaging your prospects on WhatsApp helps to considerably boosts response rates, which ultimately shortens the sales cycle. According to its internal data, 70% of people who use Whatsapp check their messages daily.

This is because people tend to be more active on IM applications such as WhatsApp than other mediums. So, when you approach someone via WhatsApp, there’s a significantly high chance they will read and respond to your message, ultimately boosting your prospects’ response rates. 

7. Establishes Stronger Connections

WhatsApp does a wonderful job of bridging the gap between the user’s and company’s communication, making it seem like everyday communication. This allows consumers to connect better with the brand. Stronger connections make prospects more receptive to sales messaging, boosting your conversion rate. 

How Much More Conversion Rate and Retention Rate Could Be Improved With Whatsapp

WhatsApp is a new yet highly effective way of boosting your conversion rate, and you can use it as a valuable marketing tool for your business.

By offering customized services to all your customers and establishing healthy WhatsApp communities, you can significantly boost your conversion and customer retention rates. WhatsApp surpasses all other communication mediums as it boasts a 98% open rate of messages vs. 15% for emails.

However, it’s worth noting that there needs to be significant value in every WhatsApp message that is sent out to customers and prospects. This way, you can establish stronger and longer-lasting relationships with them.

Here are some ways in which WhatsApp marketing can benefit your business.  

  • Improves relations & connectivity
  • Personalized conversations with customers
  • Increased Conversion Rates up to 7x for businesses by reaching out to customers with customized messages and latest offers
  • Decreases marketing cost
  • Offers excellent Customer Support

Unlike SMS and emails, which have a 2-5% conversion rate, WhatsApp has a great conversion rate of 45-60%.

In addition, acquiring new customers will cost your business more than retaining existing ones. The likelihood of selling your products or services to old customers is 70%, whereas that of new customers is 5-20%.

With a whopping 98% open rate, WhatsApp surpasses all other platforms to retain customers, despite the industry. Your customer retention starts from the moment the customer purchases something.

From acknowledgment to feedback, WhatsApp helps to create an engaging post-purchase flow. Moreover, WhatsApp’s upsell/cross-sell messages allow you to continue the sales process after their first order and start customer retention.

To boost your conversion and retention rates, you can tag each of your customers on WhatsApp, develop comprehensive customer personas, and segment customers to tailor the overall experience.

Activate your groups with accounts that appear to be real customers to develop a pleasant atmosphere and generate some good word-of-mouth regarding your product. Many different tools can help you with this, and SocialEpoch has just the right software.

SocialEpoch WhatsApp SCRM

SocialEpoch WhatsApp SCRM is an all-encompassing sales and marketing technology from which all B2B companies with sales teams can significantly benefit. Its core features include:

1. Manage all customers on WhatsApp SCRM 

  • Unlimited Contacts and Messages
  • Multi-sign in up to 10 Accounts

2. Auto Bulk Sender

  • Send personalized messages in bulk with a single click.

3. Smart Group Activation Tool

  • Set the message content beforehand
  • Send messages at set times with different real accounts
  • Activate your communities and groups on WhatsApp with real accounts

4. Smart Buyer Personas

  • Segment customers and customize the experience
  • Tag and take detailed notes of contacts
  • Close 5x greater deals with tailored service
  • Manage 10000x greater customers on WhatsApp without compromising on service quality

Wrapping Up

Suffice to say, when used correctly, social media can serve as a vital tool for the modern-day salesperson.

Sharing industry knowledge that might interest your potential and existing clients in an engaging, non-salesy, or pushy manner can allow swifter, more meaningful, and longer-lasting relationships to grow organically.

Moreover, social selling solutions such as SocialEpoch WhatsApp SCRM and Facebook Marketing Automation Tool can significantly and positively impact the bottom line of B2B companies with sales teams.