Driving to Sales

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I met with some really clever new friends yesterday for a business meeting, and in so doing, we talked about the impact of social media tools in the sales cycle. The conversation was just as exhilarating as if I’d just discovered this all for myself at the same time, because we both could see the potential in what we were talking about. We were discussing how social media tools can improve the sales cycle.

In one example, we created pathways for end consumers to take on some of the in-store process via online tools, because part of the process involved walking into a brick and mortar store, flipping through catalogs, talking with designers, and laying out potential solutions before they even had a sense of the price. We talked about how YouTube would impact this by showing some serving suggestions, and how we could create a lot of blog and/or Facebook content to walk someone through the process so that they saved time before entering the store.

In another example, we talked about how mobile isn’t used enough in social media, and how several of the company’s target audience are very heavy mobile users, but aren’t really desktop/laptop users (in like a 90/10 time ratio of which they prefer using in a given day). To that end, we talked about snackable content and the mobile web and how SMS-enabled technologies would be the right way to drive information exchange.

We talked about putting some faces to the brand, so that people were doing business with Maria and not just “bigcompany.”

None of this conversation was about “you’ve got to get on Twitter,” or “Facebook groups are dead, but fan pages rock.” We talked instead about how people bought from the company, and which tools in my experience would help.

I’m telling you all this so that you can consider how you’re looking at the tools. I look at the tools as a way to build influence, improve reputation, and earn trust. We understand the other ways that the revolution will be blogged/podcasted/videoblogged/tweeted, but the way I earn my living is by showing companies how to be human at a distance, and how they can improve their business objectives.

Driving to sales is definitely one way, and with that comes a whole different way to consider how you’re using the tools.

What’s your take? How are you using the tools to drive sales? What matters most to you with regards to social software?

Photo credit dbking