“Advanced Digital Sales: Prospecting for Leads”

Peter Conti, Sales and Marketing Director, Local Media Association

Social Prospecting

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You don’t walk into see a prospect without doing your homework and you may have a rudimentary notion of what the client’s business is all about, but you now have tools at your fingertips that can provide you with greater information about a prospect. You just have to know where to look. What we’ll do first is divide the prospecting checklist into three phases to help make it more manageable and easy to understand.

Monitor Business News

• Look up the local Business Review sites • Look for new hires and promotions • Look up business news by industry • Scan local business blogs

Phase 1: Monitor Prospects

1. Google Alerts – Set up Google alerts (http://google.com/alerts) for entire advertising categories, digital marketing trends or specific companies and businesses.

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If I go to my mailbox I can see one of these alerts in my in box. I could have many articles from various places including blogs, news magazines, etc. This saves me a lot of time research and gets me really great niche information.

Phase 1: Monitor Prospects

2. Look Up Business Blogs – Follow industry blogs (http://mashable.com/2011/04/11/blog-discovery/) to learn about the latest marketing trends affecting a particular advertising category. Search for business blogs or local blogs in your area using tips from the above URL, which lists 10 ways to find blogs.

Phase 1: Monitor Prospects

3. Social Mention – Use Social Mention (http://socialmention.com) to monitor social media conversations about your prospects and clients. Just enter in the business’ name and you will receive relevant information on social mentions and trending.

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We are looking at a search for a Boston burrito chain called Boloco’s. In the upper left hand corner we can see a little quadrant that shows the strength, sentiment, passion and reach. These are just different ways of looking for the quality of the social comments on the Boloco chain., you go down a little further on the side you can see a more detailed breakout of the quadrant. Now there is a negative. But remember this is just a snapshot in time. We are just looking at what is goiong on at the moment in terms of social relevance.

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When you drill into social mention you can see what are the top keywords for Boloco, as you can it is burrito which is no surprise. Deeper in we see the top hashtags. What are people using as the hastags on twitter in relation to Boloco. Who are the top users, is it employees or is it customers, where are they coming from. We also see how many mentions they are getting so you see on the left hand side. You can see how this relates to their competitors, other fast food restaurants.

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And with social mentions you can also have email alerts sent to you and you can download data in case you want to do a compare ands contrast against some other competitors within their business group or category.

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Much of the content is going to be coming from Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, blogs and other postings plus the major websites like Google and Yahoo, etc. So you can also filter this information.

Phase 2: Search for Trends, Prospects and Marketing Goals

4. Before you meet with a prospect, perform a Web search on that individual so you can learn about anything they may have said or written about in terms of their company’s marketing needs.

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When you go in to prospect or visit for the first time.You should be doing the research on the company ahead of time but you should also do a search on the individual in charge of the company ahead of time. Find out what are they talking about, what is important to them. So look for those ideas to use as a conversation starter so that way you are showing that you know something more about then , that you have taken that next step, that you have done your homework.

Phase 2: Search for Trends, Prospects and Marketing Goals

1. Search for trends for a specific advertising category or niche by searching for: [insert name of category or niche] + industry magazine [insert name of category or niche + association

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You always want to research trends and niches. If you want to find an interesting magazine for any group or industry. Type in the category name and industry magazine. By

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So we go to the first magazine on the search results and we have a treasure trove of information. One of the things you want to look for the latest trends and marketing opportunities Here on Furniture today we see a tab for industry news.

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I’d also look for blogs. More informal, more niche oriented.You can gain some good insights as to what people in the industry are saying about what’s important or the trends affecting the business. The other area may be industry research

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A lot of the research may be paid for research but often you will find free research. Even if some of these reports may cost money they may be worth the investment if they can improve your knowledge of the industry and provide you with more marketing ideas and even prospect tips. They certainly will make you more knowledgeable about the industry you are working in. As an example, I used to work at Borrell Associates and we did a lot of research and reports on the Real Estate vertical. Much of our knowledge of the real estate industry came from reports we purchased from the NAR. Not unly did it help us provide better coverage of the industry by pointing out the trends, it helped us gain new leads within the real estate business so that we could expand our business into working for brokers and their companies.

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Another search engine tip is to type in the word association and the name of the category you are interersted in

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One of the first associations I come to is the American Insurance Association. Once again one of the first things I find is the top news, clicking on this will show me some of the top news and issues affecting these busineesses.

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Looking at this news release there is something very local. If I was a a local media rep working in the state of NY that I’d want to know about. The ins. Industry is very concerned about legislation being considered by the state with regards to hurricane coverage. This could turn into a local marketing opportunity.

Phase 2: Search for Trends, Prospects and Marketing Goals

2. Before you contact a prospect, visit their website to discover their current marketing goals. It seems simple enough, but may sales reps don’t check out a prospect’s website ahead of time. Look for what is emphasized when you first land on the page. This will give you a clue as to what is important to the business.

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Some of the things I am looking at that stand out is that they have a request an appointment which could be one of their more important website goals and I also see that they have a care guides tab.

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The care guides could be a major marketing goal given its prominent feature on the site. It also presents a marketing opportunity for videos, directories and oither areas where the content can be reused. But looking at some of these care guides such as canine obesity could be the foundation for a marketing campaign that you can put together for this business. You als want to look at their services.

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The whole list of services here. What is the most important one

Phase 2: Search for Trends, Prospects and Marketing Goals

3. Ultimate List of 50 Local Business Directories– Search for leads by using these online business directories (http://tinyurl.com/LMA-50). Target your search by ZIP code or by category.

Phase 2: Search for Trends, Prospects and Marketing Goals

4. Search for reviews about your prospects by using the search term: reviews for + [name of profession or business niche]

Phase 3: Connect with Prospects and Clients

1. Twitter - “Follow” all your existing clients on

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Always be monitoring Facebook and Twitter. Here is a great way to find prospects that may be marketing on Twitter. First I would be typing in “#deals” and the name of your market. So that way you know that they have things they want to promote. Monitor businesses in your area promoting special offers using the following search term on Twitter: #deals + name of your market

Phase 3: Connect with Prospects and Clients

2. Facebook – “Like” the Facebook business pages of all your existing clients so you can monitor their interactions with their customers.

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You should like and follow every single one of your clients. So you can constantly monitor their needs and so that way even though you may have sold them in to a long-term marketing package you can always be finding new needs and ways to help them market these new things thus extending your importance as a consultative sales professional with the client.

Phase 3: Connect with Prospects and Clients

3. LinkedIn – ABC (Always Be Connecting) is the new mantra. Get in the habit of always asking a prospect to connect on LinkedIn before you meet the first time. Search your LinkedIn network to see if you already have any personal or mutual connections with someone working at that business.

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Before a meeting with a new prospect send them an invitaionso that way you can learn even more about them so that you get even more smart talk about their business.

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Another thing is to look up their company page if they have one4. Check for the insights section where they aggregate the employee information. You may know one of these employees and that way you can gain even more insights by connecting with them. They can help you with the decision makers.

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I want to talk about Yelp as a sales tool. It is an unbeliveable wealth of information.,

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SO let’s drill down into a restaurant and look at red rock canyon grill. There is so much we can learn about the business just in the basic such as Price Range…. What makes this restautrant unique

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We also whnt to look at the ratings distribution. It has mostly 40ur or 5 starts. Check trends in here also.

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Looking at a review is where I really can find new marketing ideas get this information straight from the customers. As you read through these reviews you should look for a common theme.

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I also want to mention that Yelp is a great leads list. For example as a strategy you could call on the top five businesses in leading categories.

1. Any truth to bad reviews? 2. Can be removed 3. Turn negative into a marketing opportunity

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Another fantastic resource for finding leads and monitoring online reviews is using Angie’s list. You can look through by ratings and see who is offering coupons., The businesses that may have bought the upsells. These are clues that a business is investing in marketing, particularly online marketing.

Phase 3: Connect with Prospects and Clients

4. Manta – Search for potential prospects using Manta (http://manta.com), the social network for small businesses. Use it to search for more information about a pr ospect’s company.

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Another great business resource is Manta. This is a fast growing social network for small businesses. You can actual check the profile of any business you are calling on you can look at top featured companies in your market

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They have advanced filters, u can actually look up companies by revenue, locations, multiple locations etc. Obviopusly the more employees

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When you drill down into it it will also give you the company’s highest level contacts . Check to see is you might be connected to them on LinkedIn. If not go on and connect with them.

Social Prospecting Checklist

1. Set Up Google Alerts & Social Mention 2. Follow Clients on Facebook or Twitter 3. Find Personal Connections on LinkedIn 4. Always Visit Prospect’s Website

More information about LMA’s Advanced Business Development Course

can be found under “Resources/Sales Certification” on the LMA website.

peter.conti@localmedia.org