There are 10 reasons that most prospecting plans don’t work.
Number 6 on my list is Thinking Social Media is Your Answer.
This one absolutely drives me nuts. For some reason, there is a belief in the sales world that if you spend enough time on social media, you’ll have all the business you want.
I have one response to that. Go ahead and spend all of your time on social media and come back to me in six months and let me know how your sales area doing? I’ll tell you how they’ll be doing — you’ll be starving!
Social media plays a role in the sales process, but it’s no different than the role traditional marketing/advertising plays. It helps, but it’s a long-term play that can take months and years to begin bearing serious fruit.
Example I like to use when talking about social media is Coca-Cola and how they advertise. How many ads have you seen for Coca-Cola in your lifetime? Thousands. If advertising was so awesome, all Coca-Cola would have to do is show you one ad and you would be hooked for life.
But Coca-Cola knows advertising has some limits, and that’s the reason you keep seeing messages. Same thing about social media. The space is so busy that it takes an incredible amount of time to garner a payout.
Rule I tell sales managers is first, let your Marketing Department own the social media strategy and second, only allow your people to deal in social media during off hours. Only exception is when they’re targeting a specific person/business and a social media platform is the only way to reach them.
My biggest concern with social media is it can act like a giant funnel that pulls you in. The one 2-minute contact you wanted to make turns into a 2-hour foray into everything else but the specific contact.
Don’t rely on social media as your answer to prospecting. You will be disappointed.
For all the posts in this series on why most prospecting plans don’t work, check out:
Do You Rely on Email as Your Only Prospecting Tool?
Why You Must Segment Your Prospects
Not Enough Time to Follow Up with Prospects?
Do You Have TOO Many Prospects in Your Pipeline?
Are You Using the Same Prospecting Process for All of Your Prospects?
Do You Think Social Media is Your Answer?
Are You Committing Enough Time?
Your Prospects Really Don’t Care About You
Are Your Messages About the Prospect’s Needs?
The Telephone is Still a Great Prospecting Tool
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
