Not Your Grandfathers Cold Call

As part of my roll as an MPS sales consultant, I do at least 10 cold calls (by phone and by foot) every week. I stop in to companies of all sizes and garner the names of either the CFO or IT manager of each potential customer.

A few weeks back I decided that I would do all my cold calls through twitter...

While this was an experiment and will only be something I generally do in conjunction with the more "old school" style of cold calling as time goes on, I can honestly say I had the fastest "call back" from a prospect ever.

A new prospect answered my tweet within a few hours of hitting "send" and compared to the response from cold calling on the phone or by foot, this was something of a new record in speed as far as a response to the call is concerned.

I now have a meeting scheduled with this potential client...

Now this will not be my first sale made through twitter, however this example further suggests the writing is on the wall.

I write this as sign of the times or a warning if you will...

If your not using social media to augment your current marketing and sales endeavors, you are missing out on hot leads. Leads which come from people manning twitter accounts from potential customers who are excited to connect with the human beings on the other side of your twitter account.

Relational Sales Via Twitter

On Thursday of last week I had the pleasure of consulting a long time twitter follower about laser printer repair directly through twitter. The consultation which was in and of itself a rewarding experience ended in a sale. Yep, that's right...

A sale directly through twitter!

Long time twitter follower and independent B2B Marketing Queen Dianna Huff, tweeted her frustrations about her HP 2015. In dealing with the issues of these machines as of recent, I quickly responded to her asking about the problems she was having in regards to said machine.

Bellow I have posted both Dianna's tweets as well as my own.





After going back and forth for a while I suggested two service providers in Nashua, NH where Dianna could look into service and sales however, she asked me to call her because she would prefer to purchase a machine from me.

Struck by the opportunity for a sale through twitter I suggested shipping the machine to her as to how I am located on the Massachusetts/Connecticut border and she on the Massachusetts/New Hampshire border.

However in the true spirit of the tweetup we decided to meet half way as to how it worked for Dianna's schedrule to be in Massachusetts. We were able to meet in person, discuss our careers within the world of B2B social media marketing and the challenges and joys associated with said work, while also completing one of the first ever direct through twitter sales (at least that I know of).

In retrospect, the cash ROI was trivial at best in comparison to the truly rewarding experience of connecting with another wonderful and talented human being who shared a passion for the same industry that I do.

Is this a glimpse of a possible paradigm shift in the world of marketing and sales?

I suppose time will tell.