Sales professionals are becoming aware of the value of Twitter as a sales tool. The tendency is to look at Twitter’s limitations in terms of the brevity of the messages you can send, but its power lies in other areas.
Here are 5 ways that you can use Twitter to increase your sales productivity.
1. Find Real Time Information
Twitter is a source of virtually real time information which can easily be searched and organized. It provides a constant stream of information that you can dip into when necessary. Twitter’s Advanced Search capabilities enable you to look for keywords, locations, people, hashtags and even sentiment.
2. Follow Individuals
Related to the above, Twitter gives you an easy way to keep tabs on what persons of interest are doing. You can follow individuals and observe what they are saying without their having to connect with you. Following industry leaders, prospects, customers and competitors can provide you with business intelligence to help you sell more effectively.
3. Get Sales Opportunity Alerts
Twitter can provide early notification of significant events such as job changes, product news and customer feedback. The earlier you are aware of trigger events and potential sales opportunities, the more of an edge you will have over your competitors.
In addition, you can save search parameters that you set-up so you can easily repeat useful searches. Going one step further, tools like Twithawk enable you to receive notifications of search results on a regular basis which makes your life even easier.
4. Monitor buzz around specific locations or events
Twitter’s Advanced Search includes the ability to search within the radius of a location or zip code. This can be particularly powerful for local businesses who can monitor Twitter for search terms related to what they offer.
5. Raise your visibility
When you are trying to establish a connection with someone follow them on Twitter. Retweeting and commenting on their tweets will help bring you to their attention and can serve as the beginning of a relationship. If they follow you back, you can eventually move your communication to email and phone calls.
If you have found ways to use Twitter to sell more effectively, please share your ideas with us.
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