Technology Working for You?

Social Marketing Specialest for VML, Kyle Hoedl, gave a fabulous presentation to my class at KU yesterday on how to build your personal brand with social media. I was glowing about his presentation to my husband over dinner which led to a conversation about his day. His company now uses a contact management system, Salesforce.com. It's a fabulous tool and one we agreed would have made us millions when we were starting our sales careers. He was reviewing the sales pipeline with one of his sales people. A particular client had been in her pipeline for over a year and nothing has happened. As Rob questioned her about the account, it became obvious she knew nothing about the account other than it was a referral from someone. She didn't even know if the account would have any ROI to be worth her time. She really didn't even know what business they were in. What? I challenged him that in 10 minutes with a Google search, I could give all the details of the account. We agreed so many sales people don't engage in understanding the client until that first sales call when they say "tell me about your business." With just simple research ahead of that first call, you can demonstrate you genuinely care about the client's business, you're not wasting their time by asking stupid questions and you're ready to be a problem-solver for them. With so much information readily available to you, there's simply no excuse to not put technology to use for you. Ten minutes of research will make you money! Are you using social media for your sales efforts? Send me an email and let me know; I'm working on a research project!