Sales Prospecting Techniques - Should You Use Twitter for B2B Sales People?

Sales Prospecting with Twitter.com, is called a 'micro blog'. It is a blogging platform that allows posts to be a maximum of 140 characters. It has taken the online world by storm and is set to stay as a dominant online networking platform for years to come. But the main question is if you are a professional sales person, should you be using Twitter for your sales prospecting. If you have never looked at Twitter then you should do. It's a great place to do business. There is a misconception that many people have that Twitter is just about people selling to consumers. Yes, there is a lot of that going on. Dell have become famous for attributing $6.5 million in sales due to Twitter. There are also some great connections being made and some great business being done across all types and sizes of business. I have some experience in this field because I use Twitter quite a lot. At the time of writing I have over 29,000 followers on Twitter. As with all things in sales, business and life, it is a good idea start off by determining your reasons for being on Twitter before you start. This 'beginning with the end in mind' will allow you stay focused on the results you want to achieve. What will you be known for? Twitter allows a very short bio section so there is not much space for waffle. Cut to the chase and spell out exactly what you are about. My profile makes it clear that I am all about business to business sales training, writing and content. What will you tweet about? I know this sounds strange but you should keep your tweets in line with your area of specialism. Yes. Include some personal tweets and 1 to 1 contacts but people will follow you because you are a specialist in a particular area. I tweet a lot about cold calling because I know it is one of the most contentious and popular topics in the world of sales. My tweets contain links to articles that give both sides of the argument as to whether cold calling is a good thing. I do tweet about other closely related topics but rarely go completely off topic. This will lose you credibility and followers instantly. What size following do you want? It is a good idea to think about the size of your following before you get caught up in the ego trip that can happen as your follower number starts to increase. For me the best relationships and contacts I have made on Twitter were when I was below the 2,000 follower mark. This was when I could manage to have good 1 to 1 dialogue with people. After 2,000 followers it became harder to manage those closer connections. I made the decision to go for a large number of followers because I am launching a number of free reports and then some online sales training courses. The wider audience will help me launch these quicker. Where will you send people? One of the biggest secrets to Twitter that very few people will ever tell you is that the quicker you can engage in a relationship with people outside of Twitter the better. There are many long time users who will engage with you on Twitter but the majority of people will try it out and leave within a few months. It is key then to get the relationship started with them and get that relationship moved outside of Twitter. Where would direct them to? Hopefully you have just said "Pete, I could send them to my professional looking blog, and my newsletter, of course!". If you had you would be correct. If you haven't set up a blog then invite people to your LinkedIn profile.