Social Media vs Teleprospecting: Integrate it, Don't Replace it
Posted by
Chris Lang on Thu, Apr 12, 2024 @ 03:39 PM
Over the years I have seen a lot of different marketing tools come out that will lessen the
need for cold calling. They are usually brought to market as being more effective than dialing for dollars. The truth is, we want to think that these tools are more effective than calling because running a good inside process can be a pain in the ----.
Email marketing - “Wait a minute…I won’t have to cold call anymore because this new electronic mail thing will send a personalized letter to all my prospects and they’ll call me!”
Automated Marketing – “no, no, no, you don’t have to call, this new technology has a 42 step process to guide prospects from web hit to a lead that sales will definitely not forget to follow up on…..AND it’s real easy to implement!”
Social Media – “We’re going to spacebook, myface, linkIt, Tumble, Fumble, Stumble and Tweet it! Everyone will know about it and want to hear more. All we need is content. Lot’s and lot’s of content….that should be easy right?”
Obviously the latest and greatest trend is the social media push. Chances are that if you are reading this, it is via one of the many excellent information outlets that have popped up over the past 4 years or so. I can say without a doubt that AG Salesworks’ head first dive into social media has greatly aided our growth over the past couple of years. That said, I don’t think social or any other marketing tool/method should be used as a replacement to cold calling, but rather as a compliment to it.
Yes, if executed correctly, a good social media strategy will absolutely gain you more web hits, and assuming your site has good content/transitional flow, it will lead to more inbound leads. If you layer this with an effective calling strategy you have the potential to get, not only those highly qualified inbound MQLs, but you’ll also uncover a high amount of sales ready opportunities. In our case here at AG, we have seen our connect rates going up steadily since implementing our social campaigns. Our target audience has become much more aware of who we are and what we do. When your targets have a grasp of who you are, and when they are already interested in the knowledge that you share, your chances of having a quality conversation increase. This has translated into a 6% increase in our conversation rate. While that may not seem huge, the results are actually outstanding.
The reps that were once making 100 dials to have 10 business conversations are now having 16. Over the course of a month it works out to approximately 100 additional conversations. If we convert 5% of those into sales opportunities, it gives my sales team five more chances to close a deal. From there, we generally close two of those. Over the course of the year, it will net us 24 new clients.
So keep on working the social media. Just don’t use it as a method to cut corners and avoid the time tested and proven theory of dialing for dollars. Put them together and you’ll see big results.