I received a note on LinkedIn about six weeks ago from a sales professional in the security industry asking to have a few minutes on the phone with me. He had a couple of questions about his sales strategy and wanted to make sure he was doing the right thing. I’m a sales consultant and trainer, so he was asking me to give away my product for free… and I did, happily. Why?
At least a couple times per week this gentleman shares a post of mine on Twitter or LinkedIn. He reads my blog every day and will promote one if he finds it stimulating – which happens multiple times every month. I estimate that he is responsible for a couple dozen of my LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers, not to mention blog subscribers. So, when he asked for my product for free, I was happy to give it to him.
Idea Tuesday: If you want to build personal relationships with your customers, read and promote their social media activity. Although this is a relatively new practice, there is still an art to pulling this off properly. Below are four guidelines:
- Actually read the material. If you just share and post virtually everything, your endorsements begin to look fake and immaterial. It’ll become obvious that you’re just kissing up to your customer.
- If you don’t agree, ignore it. This is opposite to most of my advice – I typically suggest engaging in real conversation with your customers and fostering open discussions about disagreements. However, you want to reserve this level of dialogue for private face-to-face time. People are sensitive to social media disagreements because they feel as though they’re on stage in front of the world. In a way, they are.
- If you’re not comfortable commenting, simply share it, retweet it, or click the like button. You’ll be promoting them and they’ll see it.
- Before sharing, send a private note asking for permission. I can’t imagine anyone having an issue with you sharing their post to a larger audience, but ask first. It’s polite, and it gives you an opportunity to have another interaction with your customer.
I blog every weekday, post something online multiple times every day, and deliver personal presentations and webinars in front of hundreds of people every month. However, I get nervous every time I post something. It’s scary. I’m putting my ideas or opinions out there for the world to judge. I feel vulnerable every single time … and I do this for a living. Imagine how your customer might feel when they create a discussion, post an article, or make a comment to another post. Your customers are likely security professionals, operations managers, or IT leadership – not exactly prone to public presentations.
If you agree at all with your customers’ social activity, support or promote their post – they’ll love you for it.
