I have been using Twitter since December of 2008 @aliceheiman.  I currently have 897 followers – not 8,000 or 80,000, so I am obviously not the expert.  It took me quite some time to figure out how to use it effectively and I am still learning.  My observation, most people don’t use it well; using it solely to push information which is a one way communication.  Their goal: drive traffic to their blog or website. And if the information they give is valuable, it may do that.  I learn a lot from the people I follow on Twitter through their links and articles, and I in turn share with others.  Sure, it’s a great way to get information out, but I strongly believe we receive more when we engage in conversation and not just gain followers. For me Twitter works best if you can develop relationships with people and in order to do that you have to inspire dialogue.

If you want to get the most out of Twitter use it to communicate with your followers, not just by posting quotes, tips and blog posts – which you certainly should do, but by interacting. Make posts in a way that gets people thinking and encourages them to respond to you not just click your link.

1. Respond to the posts of others, don’t just retweet. Respond back your thoughts on their comment, ask them questions, start a conversation.

2. Get to know some of your followers and figure out who has information that your followers would appreciate and retweet or repost that info. If you click through on one of their blog posts, make a comment on their blog.

3. Find your followers and people you follow on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + and Youtube and see what they are up to there. Connecting with them on multiple platforms lets you know them better.

If you are not sure what to do, watch some of the experts. Twitter is not designed to be a broadcast system, especially if you are trying to develop followers and elevate your status as an expert. It is best used to help you have a two way communication that develops a deeper relationship with followers and adds value to their lives.

Here is an article listing some twitter resources.

P.S. I am by no means a twitter expert, nor do I always implement very well the things I have laid out for you here, but when I do these things my followers grow and people connect with me so that I can be of service to them. And yes, I have gotten leads from Twitter.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter click here.

What you can’t do is spam. Kipp Bodnar wrote a great article on Social Media B2B called 5 Ridiculous B2B Social Media Marketing Myths.

Business owners need to learn to use social media. If they are just starting now they are coming late to the game. Social media is part of sales and marketing now and it is not going away. Here’s the link to the complete article.

From new clients to news coverage, it’s a no-brainer that being involved with your community is a great way to boost small business growth.  But what’s the best way to give back – and make sure everybody wins?

http://www.littlepinkbook.com/little-pink-book/business/cash-from-compassion

(In an earlier post, I discussed whether or not you should be on LinkedIn. If you’re new to LinkedIn, you’ll want to read that article first to learn how to build a strong network.)

There is lots of talk about the new LinkedIn company pages. For some it is just another place on the internet they need to keep current. It can seem daunting at times. I currently have business pages on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google +, and Youtube that I need to update regularly, along with all of my personal profiles. Not to mention this blog that needs new content weekly. It does take a lot of time, but so does any sales and marketing plan. The better you get at it the faster it is and the more results you get. That said, it is a lot to keep up with and it is constantly changing, so I do recommend you train someone at your company to help you or hire and train an intern.

There is plenty of good information out there on how to put up your company page and I have linked to those at the end of this article. What’s missing is what to do once you complete your company profile. It’s like any other social media, if you are posting things and no one is watching you don’t get results. So here are 5 things I am doing to get people to follow my company page. First and foremost, I let them know I have one and share the link in the following ways:

1. Add a LinkedIn button to your website – when clicked it will take them to your company page.

2. Follow your clients. When they see you follow them, they may follow you.

3. Post an update on your personal profile and include the link to your company page. (See example below.)

4. Get the url for your company page (like this http://www.linkedin.com/company/alice-heiman-llc) and put it at the end of your LinkedIn email messages.

5. Add a link to your LinkedIn Company page in the signature of your email (see below) and have it link to your company page. If you need to know how to do this, watch this screenr.

But don’t forget, once you have followers, you have to add value. So make a plan on what you will post and when. Then go back and check frequently to see if people are interacting and be sure to connect with them.

Below are some other resources to help you with LinkedIn Company Pages:

• Social Media Examiner - 5 Tips for Using The New LinkedIn Company Pages
• HubSpot’s ebook - How to Use LinkedIn for Business
• HubSpot - 11 Reasons Your LinkedIn Company Page Sucks 

If you’d like to learn more about how to use LinkedIn to generate leads, join my interactive webinar on December 15th at Noon (Pacific). Learn more…

This is a controversial topic. When you are volunteering, it should be from the heart and because you want to help your community. That said, I have met many wonderful people through my volunteer efforts over the years and some of them have become my clients.

Years ago when I was the president of Nevada Gifted and Talented, a non-profit that focused on the education of gifted children, I sat on the board with a wonderful woman who I got to know very well through all the projects we worked on together.  Through all our time together she learned what my “real job” was and one day she told me that her son-in-law was interested in talking to me about hiring a salesperson and growing his business.  She  already trusted me and she knew that I did a good job with everything we worked on together, so she easily sold my talents to her son-in-law.  I met with him and he was my client for 3 years.  Did I volunteer for Nevada Gifted and Talented in order to get more business? No, but I did a great job, got to know the people I volunteered with and I did find the opportunity to let them know what I did for a living.  I actually learned that part the hard way.

When I first moved to Reno, I joined the Reno Philharmonic Guild and helped them with a big new event called Pops on the River.  I worked with wonderful people and had a lot of fun.  One of the women I met was a decorator.  I asked her to come to my house to help me with a few projects.  We sat down at my dining room table to talk about my project and she looked at me and said, “What do you actually do for a living? Are you a professional fund raiser?”  I started to laugh.  After 3 years of working side by side with her on projects, I had never let her know what I did for a living.  I wonder how many referrals I may have missed?  Did I join the Philharmonic Guild to get referrals?  No, but why not let the people who know, like and trust you know what you do so that they might possibly refer you to someone who needs your services?  Wouldn’t you do the same for them?

I believe that you can meet qualified prospects from your volunteer work and here is how I recommend you do it.

1. Find something your are truly passionate about to volunteer for and commit to it.

2. Work hard for that organization and do a great job.  Maybe even get on the board after you have been on a committee for a while.

3. Get to know the other volunteers by working with them, but also take the opportunity to ask them to coffee and get to know them one to one.

4. When the opportunity arises, don’t hesitate to tell them a bit about what you do for a living.

5. Get to know what they do for work well enough to refer business to them if the opportunity arises.

In my current volunteer work for the Nevada Discovery Museum, I have been lucky enough to do work for one of the other board members and have collaborated on work projects with several others.  Did I volunteer for that board because I thought it would bring me business?  No, it was because I am passionate about kids getting a great education.  I worked hard, put my blood, sweat and tears into it and people notice.

Building a great network is a lifelong process.  Volunteer to do something you love and the rest will follow. Keep working on it and if you need some help getting connected, I am here to help.

Networking is not about selling, is about connecting, learning about people and building relationships because people buy from people they know, like and trust. However many people are not great networkers because they don’t know what to do and they’re uncomfortable.  Listen to my recent Executive Networks teleseminar with Michael Dulworth author of The Connect Effect to learn what you can do to get connected and get results when networking.

How often do you lower the price of your product or service to close a deal?

Many times objections come up during the sales process and we are too quick to appease with a price reduction.  Price can be a smoke screen and if we rush too quickly to solve for that we may not find out the real objection. Price is only one type of objection. Prospects will have objections about timing, features, service, shipping and a myriad of other things.

Objections are a natural part of the sales process.  When you and the customer are taking the steps to move forward in the sales process it is natural that objections will arise.  You have to be prepared to handle them.

Sometimes people are just not interested but don’t know how to say no or they really can’t afford it and don’t want you to know that.   Learning to handle objections is important so that you don’t spend time with prospects who are not going to buy and you insure that those who are going to buy have all the information they need to make a good decision.

What are objections?

When you have a qualified lead they are a signal that the customer is interested but not ready to buy.   Objections usually arise because either you or the prospect don’t have a full understanding of something important.  People want to feel good about their purchases, business or personal.  They want to be sure they made the right decision.  So sometimes an objection is really the prospect saying, “Tell me why your product is so great so I can feel good about my purchase.”

Most objections are legitimate and should be treated that way.  Many salespeople talk about having to overcome objections.  I always use the term “handle” instead.  If I have an objection I don’t want to be “overcome”.  I want to know how you will handle that objection and make sure the purchase is a good fit for me or my company.  As a prospect, this will tell me a lot about how you will respond in the future if I become a customer.

Objections usually fall into one of 4 categories, price, timing, product or something the prospect will not disclose to you.  An example of the 4^th is something like, “my brother sells the same product and I need three quotes but I am going to buy from him” or, “I don’t like you, but I am not going to tell you that so I will throw out some other objections.”

You are familiar with all of the common objections for your sale so I suggest doing the following exercise with them.

1. Make a list of the objections you commonly hear.
2. Write several solutions that are appropriate for those objections.  These must be things that the company approves.
3. Craft questions to ask the prospect that will help you understand the objections.

Example:

Objection: The price is too high.

Possible solutions: discuss the value – perhaps they don’t understand what they are getting for the price, provide financing, develop at payment plan, explain the return on investment, help them work it into the next budget.

Possible questions:  What have you discovered in comparing our product to the competition?  How much were you planning on spending?  What is your budget for this purchase?  Would financing make the purchase possible?  What features and benefits would make the price work for you?

Once you understand the objection better by hearing the answers to the questions it will be easier to handle.

Handling objections is something you need to review frequently.  New objections come up, but typically you hear the same objections and can work on good solutions to handle those.  It is good to do the above workshop several times a year and review the process for handling objections below.

Process for Handling Objections

0  Listen – listen carefully to the objection.  Listen with your eyes and ears.  What words are they using?  What is the tone of voice?  What body language do you see?

0  Ask – ask questions to confirm your understanding of the objection.  Ask questions to clarify the objection.

0  Solve – answer with the appropriate solution.  What is it that your company can offer to handle this objection or is it a situation where you don’t have a solution and should point the prospect elsewhere.

0  Confirm –confirm that your solution covers their objection.  Once you have provided a solution be sure that it is acceptable to the prospect by asking.

0  Move on – to the next steps.  Don’t over sell the solution, if you have handled the objection take the next step to move the sale forward.

Handling objections is something that should be easy to do.  Objections are a natural part of the sales process. In fact, if I don’t get any objections when I am selling I get a bit worried.  I would rather handle objections before I close a sale than after because I want my buyers to be satisfied and become a long term customer with repeat business and referrals.

Businesses need to develop a social media strategy as part of their overall sales and marketing plan.  In my previous post, I mentioned 3 keys to developing a successful Facebook strategy that will help you increase sales:

1.   Connection
2.   Content
3.   Consistency

In that post, I discussed how to make connections on Facebook. This post will focus on content and consistency.

 2. Content

Once you have connected with people and asked them to “like” your business page, you’ll want to keep your audience engaged.  And the way to keep your audience engaged is by providing valuable content.  You can post on your blog and then automatically have it send to Facebook.  Your fans can click the link which takes them directly to your blog and get information that is useful to them.  Another way to engage them is to ask questions that are pertinent to their business and respond when they answer.  It’s also great to post links to other businesses they might be interested in and you can even promote their businesses on your page.  You need to think about the frequency of your posts and how they relate to the rest of your sales and marketing.  So if you are promoting an event you can post it on Facebook using the event feature and invite people or if you are running a special you can post that.  However, if you only post events and specials and never offer valuable content you risk losing the attention of your audience.  The idea is to have people checking your Facebook page because they don’t want to miss anything.  You can also run contests and give away free products.

None of this will work however,  if you are not genuine and do not truly care about your audience.  Insincerity comes across loud and clear on the internet.  If you are just promoting your products and services your audience will tire quickly.  Think about what you have to offer and give it freely.

3. Consistency

Just like with any other part of your sales and marketing you need to be consistent.  People show up once at a networking event and then tell me they didn’t get any results.  You have to attend several months in a row and get to know people before you will build relationships that can lead to sales.  It’s the same online.  You have to show up and be present. You need to interact personally and on a regular basis.  In order to do this I recommend having a sales and marketing calendar planned for several months in advance if not the whole year and make the social media part of that.  I have an editorial calendar that prescribes what we will post,  where and when we will post it, and we coordinate this with our other marketing efforts. In between I interact personally on Facebook by clicking “like”, commenting on posts and sharing info about myself.

Many people want to know how often to post on their business page and the answer is, it depends.  You have to get to know your audience and what they respond to, so you may have to try some things to see what works.  For Facebook once a week would be a minimum but you could post several times a day if you have something valuable to share and you will want to repeat some posts if they are important because not everyone is watching your page at all times.  But again remember that interacting with people is something that should be done on a regular basis.

For most businesses Facebook can’t be your entire sales and marketing program but it can be an important part and can give you great results.  You need a plan to get results and you need someone who can execute the plan and be consistent.  Facebook works best when it is integrated with other social media like Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, a blog, and with your traditional marketing and networking as well.

If you would like to learn more about how to use a Facebook business page to generate leads join us on Tuesday, 6/14 for my  webinar, I’m on Facebook, Now What?

It’s hard to believe the number of people who still ask me if they should be using social media for their business.  Although there are certain businesses or industries who may benefit less from social media the vast majority of businesses can benefit greatly.  Aside from developing brand awareness, many businesses can actually generate leads and/or drive traffic to their website.   However, social media is not something you do in your spare time or if you have a minute here and there.  A strategy needs to be set and it needs to be part of your larger sales and marketing strategy.  A great place to start is with Facebook and LinkedIn. I am going to focus on Facebook in this article.

Two weeks ago I was at the U.S. Chamber Small Business Summit and heard a presentation by Rita Fabi, Facebook’s manager of Market Solutions, Global Customer Marketing & Communications.  She’s responsible for educating small and midsize businesses about Facebook products. She shared a link  to the Facebook Pages Manual which walks you through setting up your fan page so it’s fast and easy.  Once you’ve set up your page she recommends you build your audience and engage them.

So how do you build a Facebook audience and engage them as part of your sales and marketing plan? There are 3 keys to developing a successful Facebook strategy that will help you increase sales.

1. Connection
2. Content
3. Consistency

Connection

Connecting is the first step. The best way to connect with people is to know them as a person first.  This means you need to friend them with your personal profile.  People these days want to know the owner of the business. They want to know the people who work there.  Many people tell me they only use their Facebook page for personal stuff. That is a choice but if you want to have a social media strategy that works for your business, part of that is letting people know you.  There are many settings that will allow you to share things privately with your friends and family so you don’t have to share them with everyone.  Or another option is to have an alternate personal profile for business where you share things you don’t mind everyone knowing.  The idea is to share a bit of yourself with others and to comment on what they share.

Start by friending your family, friends and current customers. A way to help insure people will accept your friend request is by using the “add a personal message” feature and writing a personal note rather than just sending a friend request.  This reminds them of how they know you so they’ll feel more connected. Next, spend time getting to know the people you friend by reading their page, clicking “like” when you see something interesting, and commenting periodically.  This makes it more likely they’ll “like” your business page when you suggest it.  I don’t like when people ask me to “like” a page when I don’t know the owner and they haven’t bothered to get to know me first. I really don’t like when people I don’t know send me a friend request for a profile that has been set up for a business. Aside from being an improper use of the platform it doesn’t give me a chance to know the people behind the business and it doesn’t give the business the best results.   I like to support businesses but I want a chance to know something about the owner or some of the people who work there. This leads to another important point, which is that you need to put as much information into the appropriate fields as possible.

Does doing all of this take time?  You bet it does, just like it takes time to meet people for coffee or attend a networking event.  But you can network with a lot more people in a much shorter period of time online.  However let me state clearly that online networking does not take the place of networking in person, which can give you better results if you follow up by connecting online as well.

Connecting is more than just friending. It’s engaging in conversation, posting questions & responding to their answers, as well as answering questions others ask. Interact on a personal level so people get to know you and you get to know them.

In Friday’s post, I’ll delve into content & consistency.

If you would like to learn more about how to use a Facebook business page to generate leads, join me on June 14th at 11:30am (pacific) for my webinar, I’m on Facebook, Now What?

People are always asking me how they can drive traffic to their website using social media.  I am not a social media guru but I do know  a few.  Here’s what I do:

1. Make sure that each blog post I write has a call to action that drives the reader to my website.

2. Promote my events via social media with a link to the calendar on my website.

3. Post lots of free articles on my website and instead of sending the articles via email I send a link which takes them to the article on the website.

Here are two books I recommend to help you with social media:

Patrick Schwerdtfeger has some great ideas in his book Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed available on Amazon.

Jeffrey Gitomer’s books are all great and his newest one is no exception, Social BOOM! available on his website and on Amazon.

If you would like more sales ideas please visit my website.