Prospect Intelligence
Once you’re connected to someone on LinkedIn, for example, what do you look for? How do you use their social media profiles to find out about them? Where do you look?
Obviously, you can read over their profile and see what they are doing now, how long they have been there, where they have worked in the past, where they went to school, and what groups they belong to.
You can get their email address.
You can see who they are connected to, and you can see what connections you have in common.
Most people have links to their blog and website.
You can see how active they are on the site, whether they are connecting regularly with new people and posting updates.
If they have the apps enabled, you might be able to see what they are reading, what trips they have planned, what events they are attending, and what presentations they have uploaded to Slideshare.
That’s already a ridiculous amount of information.
If you want more, do quick searches in Updates and Answers.
Then go into a couple of their groups, find them in the Members section and look at their recent activity and discussions.
You will have a much richer picture of what interests and appeals to them, what they are trying to find out, what they are proud of, what is worrying them. That’s information you can use to help them and connect with them at a deeper level.
What are your best tips for information gathering on LinkedIn?
6 Ways to Get LinkedIn URLs
If you have decided to add social media information to your CRM so you have permanent contact information for your prospects, clients and partners – congratulations! That’s a decision that will benefit you for years to come.
The simplest way to start is to add the fields to your CRM, and input the information manually for each prospect. It usually only takes a couple minutes for each prospect.
But if you have hundreds or thousands of people in your contact database, those minutes add up. And you may not want your sales people taking the time to do this research. If that’s the case, hiring a virtual assistant or giving the project to an intern might be a good solution.
It’s important to note that getting links to social media profiles can be a little more complicated than you would expect. Some people are very easy to find. But none of the social media platforms have perfect search, and it can be surprisingly hard to get to the right person.
We’ve been doing this for clients, and here are some tips:
- Start with LinkedIn’s search. A simple search will turn up the right person most of the time. If the person has a common name, use the advanced search to narrow your options by geography or company.
- Go to the person’s website or blog. Many people have links to their social media profiles there.
- If you have an email from the person, check their sig file. There may be a link to their profiles there.
- Google them. You may turn up a website that has links to their social media profiles.
- Use software to do the matching. IKO System (www.iko-system.com) and Fliptop (www.fliptop.com) will match your contacts to their social media profiles. Neither comes close to delivering a 100% match rate, but they can save you a lot of time.
- Start using Bump (www.bu.mp) to import the social profiles directly into your phone – no keying needed!
Do you have tips for finding social media profiles? Please share them in the comments.
3 Ways To Get Qualified Sales Leads Using LinkedIn
Image via WikipediaMost people use LinkedIn as a contact management tool to connect with friends or former co-workers. Besides everyday social networking, LinkedIn can be used as a very effective sales prospecting tool. In this post I’ll show you 3 solid strategies to help you get qualified sales leads into your pipeline.
1. Nurture Your First-Degree Network
Other than sending or accepting a connection invitation, when was the last time you truly connected with the people in your first-degree network on LinkedIn? Many of these people may have hundreds of connections to your potential customers.
It’s a good idea to periodically reach out to these folks and offer them something of real value, such as an online resource or even a referral. And don’t discount the potential of a connection who isn’t in your same
industry. They might know someone who can help you. Take a look at their list of connections (if that capability is enabled) and see who’s on their contact list.
2. Use Advanced People Search
LinkedIn has an Advanced People Search function you can use to identify prospects who you can get introduced to through members of your extended network. This tool makes it relatively easy to build a preliminary prospect list using a combination of keywords, industry descriptions and job titles to find key decision makers at target companies.
Once you have assembled your list, you can sort your results by relationship. This makes it easy to identify people in your extended network who might be able introduce you to the person on your prospect list. But be careful when asking for favors from your contacts. This is why it’s so important to nurture them first in step 1. You don’t want to risk damaging your reputation by coming across as an opportunist.
3. Participate In Group Discussions
Another way to use the list you built using the Advanced People Search function is to identify the groups your prospects participate in, join those same groups and start participating in discussions. It is likely that you can offer significant value to group discussions by answering relevant questions and becoming a trusted resource within the group. This strategy takes some time to implement, but can often lead to excellent results. The key is to offer real value.
Continue to grow your network as you implement these three strategies by connecting with every new prospect and customer you meet. This will give you both a direct connection to your new acquaintance and access to their extended network of co-workers and friends. This will in turn give you even more potential prospects.
I Blogged About You
Here’s an idea courtesy of Joan Stewart, who writes the Publicity Hound, a great email newsletter about generating PR for your business.
She is writing about how to get the attention of journalists, but this is also a great way to get to know anyone who blogs – including influential people in your industry whom it would be hard to meet otherwise.
I disagree on one point though… You don’t have to necessarily send them an email to let people know you blogged about them – in fact, I probably wouldn’t. Read more
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