Putting the “Social” in Social Media

Social media is all around us today and is a “must-have” when conducting business.  Recent studies have shown that people spend about 3 times as much time on social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) as they do checking their email.

However, when it comes to selling, we cannot forget that there is an undeniable human element to the whole thing.  That’s the focus on this article from Joanne Black at Salesopedia.  Social media can only take things so far – mainly, making the initial connection.  Here’s an excerpt:

There’s a saying in sales: Clients buy with emotion and justify with fact. If our clients don’t like us or don’t feel comfortable with us, they won’t buy from us. You can wow your clients with technology know-how now and try to win them over later, once they find out you’re honest and reliable. But the reality is you need people to start liking you within the first few seconds of your relationship. You need to start off on the right foot. Fancy gizmos won’t make that happen. But a trusted referral and a personal connection will.

Again, click HERE to read the full article.  So how is social media being used in your sales process?  Leave some comments below to let us know!

Shazam!

Like them or not, superheroes are bigger now than ever.  Two of the biggest movies this summer were superhero flicks.  The top halloween costumes?  Superheroes.  Whether its regular joes using creative gadgets, mutants with cool powers, or aliens in tights - people love superheroes.

So I laughed when I found Super Hero Cards.  These are business cards, but with a custom-made superhero on one side and your business information on the other.

If your customers get a lot of business cards from other sales reps (and they probably do), this might be a cool way to help you stand out!

And to quote Dwight Schrute from The Office: Do you know who the real heroes are? The guys who wake up every morning and go into their normal jobs, and get a distress call from the commissioner, and take off their glasses and change into capes, and fly around fighting crime. Those are the real heroes.

Improving Your Outlook

A lot of us use Outlook for our email.  And I’ve noticed that many people who use Outlook don’t keep it all that organized.  I’ve talked with some people who keep upwards of one thousand emails in their inbox alone. This makes it a litle daunting when trying to track down a key reply from one of your customers.

Enter the new tool, Xobni (zob-knee, or “inbox” backwards).  Xobni is a powerful email analytic tool that installs as a skinny vertical pane on the right side of Outlook.  Click on one of your emails and it instantly displays that person’s phone number, lists previous email threads, and the various attachments that you’ve exchanged. 

Darn cool stuff when talking with a customer on the phone and needing to reference a previous email exchange.  And it also analyzes when people tend to email you – information that you can use to strategically send emails in order to get a quick reply.

It also syncs up with LinkedIn to show their profile picture and a link to their info there.

And another one of my favorite features is a link in the window to “Schedule time” with the contact.  When you click on that link, Xobni will quickly analyze your calendar and then pull up an email to that contact with your available times over the next few days.

Like I said, cool stuff.  And cooler is that it’s free.  Check it out here and let me know what you think!

Turn Your Voicemail to Email

SalesTeamTools.com had a post last week about a service called PhoneTag that transcribes your voice mail messages into email format.

This sounds pretty darn cool.  Initially I was ho-hum about it, but the feature that got my attention was that since it comes in as an email, now your voicemail messages are searchable!  Can’t remember a message from that customer?  Depending on how you organize your email, you can find a specific message almost instantly.  Neat stuff.

Have any of you used this service, or one like it?  Or if you haven’t, would you look into getting something like this?

Using Your Cell to Sell

As those with Blackberries know, you can use your cell phone for a whole lot more than talking on the phone.  And in addition to email, you can utilize the tool you always have with you for more in the sales process.

For example, you can use the camera on your phone to scan, copy and fax using tools like Scanr.  You can also use this to capture whiteboards or flipcharts and turn them into pdf’s!

Services like Dial Directions can turn your cell phone into a free GPS device.

Have a question about, well, anything?  You can text a question to ChaCha and you will have an answer in minutes.  Any question.  Find directions, addresses, phone number, restaurant recommendations, etc.

Take advantage of what you have, and it can save you a lot of time and make you look like a hero!