Social Media for Business Development

Have you ever thought about what information the web retains and keeps about you, your favorite subject or the person you just shook hands with at a recent social event? This conversation is not about topics today, but the “topics of every day” that have been recorded.

Imagine for a moment that everything you say and do has been recorded.

Every single conversation.
Every place you have visited.
Every person you know.

In many ways it is scary, yet the information is still there… and the data is growing every single day.
Knowing how this vast resource affects business development is critical to your professional life.

Think about three things:

1. What if you could search that information?
2. Accept that good business development is about making relationships.
3. Realize that business development is not a sales function, it is a matchmaking function.

These three basic points scale against any type of business development effort. While the depth of any single relationship can be quantified against the ultimate value of person as a source of business (keep in mind, that some of the most valuable business contacts don’t have readily apparent value to the untrained mind.)

Now imagine this very real world example from last night:

I bought some daily items from Fred Meyers (a local retail store), after chatting with a new clerk for a few minutes about the steaks I was about to eat, she casually looked down at my receipt and said “Thanks Mr Hurd, enjoy your evening.”

She could do this because the cash register passed my membership card information to the receipt, printing my name on it. The ability to create a relationship is begun by connecting with me as a person (I.E. my name is the 101 of this process.)

Now looking at the same local store a week later:

I regularly shop at Fred Meyers. It happens to be right down the street and makes a daily store visit an easy thing to fit into my schedule. Several of the clerks can probably detail that I buy natural foods during the week and get “just enough” to make it the next day. On weekends they can probably tell you that I pair my dinner selections with a bottle of wine, or that I bring my son in to shop with me (some of the clerks know his name.)

Some of them often reply with simple questions and statements:

• “How was that steak you had last night?”
• “You must know how to cook, you always have different ingredients.”
• “Is your son’s birthday coming up?”
• “You should try the new Merlot with that steak combo.”

These clerks have extended themselves past the standard retail relationship. They know me as an individual instead of a customer. I am far more likely to accept the value of a recommendation from one of these clerks who understand who I am.

Now looking at the scenario in the future:

Keep in mind that this is a hypothetical situation. Some stores are just beginning this type of process enlightenment.

I walk into the store: “Great to see you Mr Hurd. We saw you are going on a camping trip this weekend (as I told my friends on Facebook earlier.) Here are some coupons on camping gear. We also have a couple of food items in the deli that pack light and don’t need cooler space. If you want to shop for gifts, the kiosk has a list of all your friend’s birthday in the upcoming month…” as I leave they may say “thanks for shopping Mr Hurd, enjoy your camping trip this weekend” and perhaps leave a reminder for me on Facebook about some affordable birthday event ideas as a free value add.

CONCLUSION: The number of connection points to MY DATA is becoming increasingly available. Realizing what information is available about your business relationships becomes more critical as dollar value increases…

The Solution of Social Media and Business Development

First off, don’t believe there is some cookie-cutter answer to one of the worlds oldest questions: How do I sell something?

If there was a universal answer to that question we would all get slammed by repetitive sales pitches (even more than we already do.)  As business development professionals, as the value of the item being sold increases, so does the value and ingenuity behind the sales process to pitch it. The largest cost in using social media for business development is knowing WHO YOU WANT TO REACH and WHAT VALUE THEY HAVE.

This breaks business development ROI into a not-so-simple formula:

[ (TIME SPENT x COST OF LABOR + INFORMATION COST) / NUMBER OF CONNECTIONS ]
x VALUE OF CONVERSION = IMPACT MEASUREMENT

(IMPACT MEASUREMENT x OPPORTUNITY COST) – COMPETITIVE SHARE LOSS = MARKET GAIN

With a business development focus, we need to ask A LOT of questions about our overall sales process, then identify how those answers can be maximized using new technology and social trends within our audience. This will allow us to establish market gain and establish a value for each conversion in the target network.

Basic Business Funnel Questions

• What is your sales process?
• Are you selling something, or selling yourself?
• How do I communicate value to individuals who don’t fully understand it?
• How do I present my brand to detail my expertise and differentiation, while peaking interest?
  • What makes you so special?
  • Do I have unique factors as an individual that separate me from competitors?
    • Expertise?
    • Talent networks?
    • Track history?
    • New insight?

The core questions

• Who is my buyer?
  • Are you talking to the right person?
  • Is your buyer really the decision maker?
• Who is connected to my buyer?
• Am I connected to the buyer through those connections?
• What does my buyer find interesting?
  • Do my personal or professional interests overlap with those of the network?
• Why does my buyer need me?
• What immediate problem can I help them with?
  • Can I bring value to my buyer beyond the specific sale I am trying to make?
• What is the buyer really purchasing?
  • Trust.
  • Faith.
  • Perception.
    • = Value.

• How do I manage expectations?
• What are the key questions my prospects have?
  • Have I already answered them for someone else?
• How do I refine my proposal and increase my perceived value?
• How can I identify when my prospect has lost interest?
• How can I identify when my prospect has been won over?

More Technical Questions

• How to I get people exposed to my information?
  • Where can I repurpose my current effort?
    
• How do I identify the right people and turn them into leads?
• How can social media increase my impact?
• How do I engage them before they make a decision to buy?
  • What conversations are they having?
  • What communities have formed?
    
• Can social media impact my other communication channels?
  • E-mail?
  • Local ads?
  • Newspaper / Print?
  • Business Cards / Letterhead?

If you have answered these questions, you can now begin to go through the process of using technology to enable an economy of scale for your business development efforts and leverage trends in social media communication to increase the number of relationships you can foster. We know that a retail clerk finds value in establishing more insight into personal connections…  so enterprise level six-figure+ deals should be able to find EXTREME value in knowing the information points surrounding the professionals they are engaging with in a business development cycle.

Read some of the selected articles below to find out more!