Prospecting Has Changed, But Have You?

News flash. Social media is nothing more than the telephone. It’s simply a way to make contact — nothing more, nothing else.

A few years ago, people were touting the benefits of social media and how the more aggressively you used it with regard to posting content, the more successful you’d be. The argument was the telephone was dead and nobody wants to hear from you anyway, so the way to generate sales was by creating a massive on-line presence.

Something happened along the social media road Let’s just say more than a few people crashed and a lot of others died of starvation waiting for business.

Social media is a key part of the prospecting fabric, but not in the way a lot of people expected.

What’s changed is outbound prospecting. A process that everyone wanted to avoid just a year ago is suddenly coming back. The difference this time is outbound prospecting is coming back with social media sites being the carrier in the same way the telephone used to be the carrier.

The change is people are now realizing how there are far more ways to do outbound prospecting than just with the telephone and email. Twenty years ago, prospecting was done via door-to-door, mail and telephone. Over time acquisition costs doomed the door-to-door model and even mail.

What occurred over the last twenty years is no different than today.   Email and the telephone might not be as effective, but that means the door is opening for reaching prospects directly via social media sites.

Each day I receive several prospecting messages via sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.   Yes, the majority are a waste, but some are spot on. I’m sure you’re having a similar experience. What does this mean? It means social media sites are no different than the types of phone calls I used to get.

I’m not advocating to stop calling and start sending out hundreds of LinkedIn messages each day.   No, that would be no different than 20 years ago taking a phone book and calling all the numbers on any given page.   What I am saying is with the proper vetting, you can use social media as your means of communication for one-to-one messages.

In the weeks and months to come, I’ll be digging much deeper into this. Coming this fall, you’ll be able to read it all in my new book, “High-Profit Prospecting.”

Stay tuned for more details!

Copyright 2016, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.

Click on the below book cover for more info on boosting your profits!