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Friday 22 June 2012

4 Tips for using Google Plus with B2B Sales

By Dustin DeTorres at Social Media Today:
B2B Sales and Google Plus haven’t been talked about together much over the past 10 months.  When people chat about B2B sales strategies and social media, usually LinkedIn, Twitter and Content Marketing dominate the conversations. It’s funny…..We ALL USE Google....including your prospects.  Let’s not rely solely on the relationships youve built through LinkedIn to hope that when they need a product or service that you sell that they’ll reach out to you directly.  Odds are, they will do research through Google first.

In this post, I’m going to share with you 4 ways to use Google Plus so you can start making more connections and closing more deals.

Fill out a COMPLETE PROFILE:  Think about SEO while youre doing it, add pictures, video and make it easy for people to contact you.

Add influential people and prospects:  Add influential people and prospects to your circles in and around the industry youre selling into. Always +1 and share their content as well as +1 and share related industry content. Ask them to follow you back.  Think about the content THEY would be looking at.   Why? Google Plus affects search results.   Imagine this scenario.  Bob the Buyer (your prospect) has been in your circles and following you for several weeks now because you found out that his company was researching your company and several competitor’s  sprockets.  You've had a couple conversations but since most of our prospects are digital natives like us, the buying cycle is almost done by the time they reach out to sales people for a product demo.  As Bob Googles different pain points he may have and researches all of his options, the content that you have shared and +1′d over time will show up on the FIRST PAGE of Google. Bob may also be connected to the same influential people in the industry and your face shows up again and again.    Imagine how much more “weight” your sprocket gains as they do their research.  Imagine how much Social Proof will now surround yourself and your sprocket.

Ripples:  If a post is public on Google Plus, than you can see the Ripples.  Click on the options menu at the top right of the post and go to “view ripples”.  Here you will see a visualization of who started and shared the post.  It’s a great opportunity to find new influential people to follow and interact with.  (very similar to MentionMapp.com for Twitter)

Hangouts:  Google Plus Hangouts for B2B Sales can be an entirely new post as there is a lot to talk about.  One of the best Google Plus Hangout books I’ve read is “What the Plus!” by Guy Kawasaki. Google Plus Hangouts offers a new and creative way to interact using video with your current customers or prospects.  Not only do hardly any sales people do this, but you can think of creative ways to create weekly chats.  These chats can be recorded then optimized on Youtube for SEO purposes, lead gen and more social proof.

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