Wearing down sales staff with cold calling? This method has become obsolete thanks to efficient alternatives. In addition, it is not the job with social selling of the sales team to generate leads – but to develop already interested contacts into buyers. Lead generation is the job of the marketing department. Gerald Uhr from SalesDesk is an expert in digital marketing and sales strategies and shows in this guest article which special social selling tools and methods can be used to successfully generate leads in B2B .
Why lead generation with social media is also a good idea for B2B
- How to relieve the burden on sales
- How to succeed in written communication
- How social selling makes a valuable contribution to marketing
- Why xyz
Telephone acquisition is nerve-racking, sometimes namibia number data demotivating and not particularly effective. Employees have to deal with numerous rejections before they win over a prospective customer. In the worst case, contact persons feel harassed. The core task of B2B sales is something else: looking after new and existing customers. This with social selling means convincing prospective customers and providing advice to existing customers. It is particularly important in B2B to build a good relationship with the potential customer, otherwise the deal will be a long way off. Especially since the purchasing process in B2B industries can sometimes take months or years.
Lead generation is the task of marketing
In order to maintain the motivation of the sales staff, others should ensure a constant supply of leads – ideally the marketing department through suitable B2B online marketing measures.
In the age of inbound marketing, prospective customers are prepared with lead nurturing campaigns in a multi-stage lead qualification process. For example, potential customers look around the website a few times, download a white paper and leave their contact details in return. This is the right time to hand the leads over to the sales start-up challenges after founding a business or during the company development process department. The disadvantage in B2B: up to this point, the personal contact that builds trust is usually completely missing.
This is where a method comes into play that has great potential, especially in B2B: social selling. Social selling serves as a supplement or alternative when resources or know-how are lacking for complex nurturing campaigns or when the focus is to be on personal contact right from the start. Instead of burdening sales staff with telephone acquisition, marketing staff work on lead generation using social selling tools.
Direct communication via social media
Social selling is an effective way to generate leads. Unlike cold calls, the interested party determines the moment of contact. This makes them more open and more willing to look into the offer. And this is how “social selling” works: potential interested parties are researched on the business platforms XING and LinkedIn. They are made aware of them in a sequence of direct messages – and in the best case scenario, converted into leads.
tools on XING and LinkedIn
With XING ProBusiness and LinkedIn Sales Navigator, the two platforms offer special, paid social selling tools. An advanced search function makes it possible to find the right B2B decision-makers in companies of a certain industry, size and region. The employee sends contact requests to these people in order to network with them. The B2B with social selling decision-maker now has the opportunity to take a first look at the company. If b to c database the person belongs to the target group, there is a good chance that they will accept the contact request. Then comes the more demanding part: pointed messages should arouse interest in buying.
Every communication situation has its rules
Writing messages that trigger a feeling of need without seeming clumsy is an art. Unlike in a personal conversation, there is a spatial, temporal and psychological distance between the sender and the recipient. There is no norm that requires you to respond to a stranger’s messenger message. This makes it much more difficult to motivate the latter to respond. In order to successfully conduct social selling, the rules of the written medium must be observed. Putting yourself in the shoes of the potential interested party is the basis for any success.
Pursue clear goals
Every message has a clear purpose. The author must be clear about what he wants to achieve. The following four goals prepare the acquisition:
- Acceptance of contact by recipient.
- Arouse interest by asking open questions (e.g. “how” or “why”) related to the person’s activity. The recipient will at least briefly consider the topic.
- Arouse needs through the advantages of your own solution for the potential B2B customer: a few, clear sentences about the product and company and how the other person can benefit in their everyday work.
- Suggest a non-binding telephone call.
completion of the social selling process
If the person responds to the request for a conversation, the social selling process was successful – and the employee can pass the lead on to the with social selling sales colleagues. If the person does not respond, they receive one last message for the time being. In this message, the employee politely expresses his regret that the person cannot deal with the topic at the moment and wishes them all the best. This has the following psychological effect: the recipient gets the feeling that the offer that interests them is being withdrawn. To prevent this, the person often responds anyway.