The ‘Just Add Water’ Approach to Social Media

(This is the third post in our series on sales organizations’ emerging use of social media as a channel for shaping demand.) [image error]

Although many people agree that social media can be an incredibly helpful tool for sales prospecting and due diligence, the question we hear over and over is “But is it scalable? We know that high performers can do it, but we are worried about the rest.”

The challenge facing many organizations is the best way to roll out social media use and ensure that it doesn’t negatively impact other initiatives, or backfire entirely.

How can you make sure this doesn’t cut into reps’ ability to do their real job? How can you be sure they don’t say things that are off-brand, or that do not reflect well on the company? How can you support them to be successful once they start to get involved?

One company, IBM, has figured out a solution that works for them: sales and marketing work together to increase reps’ use of social media. The collaboration harnesses the strength of both to make sure messages remain consistent, don’t take too much rep time, are personalized and delivered where customers are learning.

Reps work with the company to create a personalized blog on the company site, join Twitter and other social networks and enhance their profile. IBM points reps to Subject Matter Experts and key influencers in their field and encourages them to network. Marketing helps reps stay up-to-date with things they need to know so reps are knowledgable in their tweeting and status updates. The company support helps reduce the time reps would need to figure things out or find interesting and relevant content, and Marketing ensures that the messages are appropriate and support company goals.

Sales reps add the human touch to messages and breakup dense information flows. They establish themselves as thought-leaders and are able to alternate between different kinds of messages. People sell to people and adding a face to the message makes the company more approachable.

Our research shows that establishing or reshaping demand is key to getting in earlier and that social media is a good place to do that. Company-wide initiatives that help sales enter the social media landscape are a good way to embrace the trend, get ahead of the curve but avoid the pitfalls that we all worry about.

SEC Members, see the full IBM case, listen to the replay of our recent webinar on ‘smart’ social media, and download appendix materials detailing tips for social media use, sample social media policies and examples of social media groups across industries.