The dumbest thing about “chamber of commerce” type meetings is the big ruse. Everyone is selling something, and nobody wants to admit it. Everyone is there to do more business. They play the role of buyer, but they’re usually (and in this economy especially) salespeople.
Everyone pretends that they’re there to hang out, but it’s about sales. At most networking meetings, two people mutually feign interest in buying each other’s products in order to somehow sneak a sale in. That whole glad handling process is insincere and inefficient. It forms bad habits and it leaves us exhausted and cynical.
The same thing is now happening online. In groups and forums, everyone is trying hard to monetize… while pretending some how that they aren’t. Let’s be honest: it’s fine to sell. It’s OK to admit that’s what you’re here to do. It’s OK to reach out to people with the intention of selling them something.
What’s totally not OK is to pretend you’re not selling, when you are. The deceit accrues on your soul and you wind up in an indefensible position. You are on social media to sell, that’s fine, but let’s execute with some skill. I’m on Twitter to sell. That’s the reason I go there, not for the RTs and the Kudos. I don’t hide that fact, and I don’t pretend I’m there for any other reason. It works.
With that said, here are 25 Simple (but not easy) Ways To Sell More Sincerely On Social Media
- Admit You’re Here To Sell- It will lessen the tension for other people when they know why you’re here.
- Give First: You have to help others, so give them some knowledge in your industry.
- Be Knowledgeable: You have To HAVE knowledge to be able to give it away, so study your industry and learn about as fast as you can.
- Be Excellent: You have to set a good example in your industry. “If all mortgage brokers were like me, would my industry be better or worse?” Most people underestimate the commitment it takes.
- Have Their Back: Become a fiduciary to your customers and serve their best interests first.
- Breadcrumbs: Leave them everywhere, leading back to your site/sites. This helps people identify how you can help.
- Relieve Tension: if people know what you do, that’s going to help them, so identify yourself with how you want to be of service.
- Broadcast Success Stories: Talk about people that used your product for gain, even if you didn’t sell it. “Amy and Joe Secured their future with some Life Insurance, Congrats!”
- Have Testimonials: Needs a post, but carry a flip cam with you to get testimonials.
- Remember, “As Promised” When you deliver content, lead in with “as promised” as the way to do it.
- Develop Some Collateral to Give Away: See <a href=”http://authorityrules.com”> Authority Rules </a> for this.
- Develop a Quiz or Two: Create a sincere quiz that helps people know if they need your product. Magazine quizzes work and they get passed around.
- Share Links With Non-Competitors: If you see someone doing a good job and upholding a high standard for their company, share the link.
- Share Links With Competitors: Look, if you show leadership and how unthreatened you are, it elevates you, you become an industry leader, not just a practitioner.
- Follow Copyblogger, Chris Brogan and Chris Garret. These three blogs are well done, they can help small businesses, and you should be following their content in order to help your own customers.
- Focus on How Your Product Benefits Your Customer: This should be a big deal. You need to share how it benefits them. Nobody wants to spend money, but everyone wants to have benefits.
- Focus on Building the Best Service System for Your Customers: Lead the field. Do the extra work for your customers and improve the experience they have with you and your company.
- Take Away the Pain that is Associated with Your Industry: If you require a lot of paperwork, reduce it. If an upfront cost is needed, find a way to mitigate it. Whatever it takes to take the pain away, use it.
- Learn to Articulate Your Offers: One of my favorites online is Rhonda Porter. Her Twitter stream is transparently full of good mortgage offers she gives her clients.
- Honor Confidentiality Online: Only Talk With Permission. Rhonda doesn’t identify who she’s quoting, just that she’s making a quote. This builds trust as well.
- Learn to Be Transparent with Your Customers: Flat rate client Mark Shandrow does this well. He puts REO and bank owned properties up in Real Time on his blog.
- Learn to Connect as a Habit Automatically: When you see someone, have a plan in place to reach out–without being the annoying wedding guest. Don’t think that every lead is so valuable you have to sit them down and pitch them.
- Prepare Some Auto-responders and Courses on Your Service in Advance: This demonstrates what kind of service that the clients are gonna get when they get this.
- Remember: Your List Is Your Life: You need to maintain and guard an email list and a contact list. You need to find ways to help them on a regular basis, and give them honest INFORMATION, not monetization. Give first, the rest will come.
- Thank Others For Helping You: Gratitude is Attractive: Online, you gotta say thanks regularly. You’ve got to be the change you see in others.
There’s a mindset shift that you have to acquire in order to sell more on social media. This “new way” will help you do it. Selling is a profession, and it requires effort and commitment, not just entitlement. When you take the extra few steps to do an excellent job, the sky is the limit.
If you show up and half ass everything, there’s no floor to how little you can make and how much you will frustrate everyone around you.
