Building strategic relationships on social media are only an introduction away
Have you ever thought that people, in most cases, get a whole new world of leads and strategic relationships opened up to them when they connect with someone on social media? Ah! the smell of lead generation in the morning.
If we pause our hectic world for a minute, I think it’s in order to celebrate business tools. They are working so much better for us than they did 40 years ago. Mainly because they’ve gotten the whole online part developed as well.
And I love the combination of online and offline. I love building strategic relationships on social media (driving a b2b business and all). You can actually get an introduction to people who don’t know you yet in there. From people who really dig what you do.
It’s a business unusual sales approach for most companies.
One cool thing I have done is that I have identified 100 people in my network. They also happened to be on LinkedIn. People who would be likely to introduce me to other people from their network because they love what I do. I have put them on a list in my CRM system and I look at that list over once a week to see who I can hook up with whom.
If you don’t have 100 people who can introduce you to other people, start with 5 people. See if you can get one introduction from each of them. Get those strategic relationships/coffee meetings going and build on your network.
If you’re thinking, “Oh but that’s shady Henriette”, I beg to differ. It’s not shady, it’s business. Like in a 50s movie where two chainsmoking bourbon drinking executives meet in a bar. One of them says, “Let’s do business. I have a proposal for you”.
A Different Kind Of Business Approach
I would never meet with people to pitch them. But I do meet with them to interview them for my websites or newsletters. I do it with the purpose to get to know them better.
What I really like about this approach is that it has helped my own insecurities as an entrepreneur that also has to do sales sometimes. Instead of being terribly confused around sales, I identified what actually worked for me. And strategic introductions and coffee meetings do.
After getting this thing in order, I hired Denmark’s coolest manager, NiNi Biilmann, to help me structure my sales process. I also got really inspired by the work of salesdivas.com and Kim Duke who has a down-to-earth practical approach to sales.
I can’t tell you what a relief it was for me to actually put all my sales confusion on hold because I just took a hard look in the mirror and said “this is what I am good at” and “this is what I don’t want to do”. So instead of using time cracking your own sales codes, get out there and talk to people.
P.S. Also, I made my strategic relationship-building into a win-win situation by telling people that I will, of course, give them an introduction the other way around. I have a whole map drawn up around who I want to introduce to whom in my network.
Pps. There’s nothing BETTER to me than an email from a dear friend saying “you guys need to hook up” with an introduction. It’s something that can make my day, any day. So get those emails going and start sharing some strategic relationship love.
