If there’s one thing that marks B2B sales, it is professionalism. Some salespeople are able to be friendly and intimate with their clients, but this is usually limited to individual customers. When engaging with other commercial organizations agents need to be composed and businesslike. Unfortunately, this adherence to strict levels of behavior can limit the possibilities some organizations have to find and interact with clients.
A recent Webmarketing 123 survey revealed that only 9.5 percent of B2B companies are actively using social media as a means to engage with customers and associates. While the study goes on to suggest that 60 percent expect to expand social networking capabilities in the next year, there is still a great deal of work to be done. Here are some reasons why B2B-oriented businesses shouldn’t eschew what may seem like a tool for friends to catch up with one another.
The model fits
One of the things that makes social media a perfect fit for commercial interactions is that it allows entire groups and organizations to engage in a meaningful manner. Outside of the internet, whether on the phone, in person or through traditional correspondence, it is hard to strike a balance between large organizations and the component employees. This leads to stilted conversations where people are either acting as representatives for their parent companies or only speak for themselves.
Conversely, social media platforms are composed of web presences that represent organizations but are composed of unique people. This means that while one person might message another, they’re doing so under the auspices of a company account. This level of responsibility makes meetings much more easy to understand and leaves no room for complicated mistakes.
Constant contact
Companies that are doing business with clients may wonder where they stand on certain transactions or projects. With an individual, it isn’t difficult to know whether or not someone is interested. However, a business may have an enthusiastic manager but a supervisor who hasn’t yet been convinced. This uncertainty leads to frustration and inefficient business practices.
Conversely, social media allows groups to stay in constant contact with one another. Rather than calling a representative every day to frequently gauge their enthusiasm, companies can instead rest easy knowing that quick comments or even the appearance of a company on a news feed will remind clients about a certain business or project.
Share connections
Anyone who uses social media is familiar with the phenomenon of noticing people that one knows on the list of friends of a mutual acquaintance. This allows people to stay in contact with even more folks and expands their base of friends.
The same is true for commercial enterprises. When a group that a particular company wants to do business with seems out of reach, there’s a chance that they’re actually somehow connected to an intermediate organization. This is a literal interpretation of “social networking,” though it may be more appropriate to refer to it as commercial networking.
Marketing benefits
Just because a company maintains a commercial presence on a social media website doesn’t mean that they can only be followed by other companies. In fact, the bulk of the followers of an organization are likely to be to individual people. Whether in their capacities as representatives of a business or simply because they’re interested in a group. This helps to expand the scope of a company’s online presence because most people are associated in one way or another with multiple networks. Colleges, workplaces, cities, states and other circles influence who a person is in contact with. The moment someone becomes a fan or follower of a particular organization, all the people from various social or commercial circles will instantly be informed.
