Something very interesting is occurring in web-based online research. This phenomenon directly affects sales because we all know it is important to research prospective customers – and decision makers – prior to contacting them. The web is one of our primary tools for gathering that information.

Some Preliminary Data
Facebook’s user base is over 250,000,000 and the 35+ age group (i.e. potential buyers, decision makers and purchasing managers) is one of its fastest growing demographics. That’s huge. Twitter doesn’t publish its user base numbers, but it is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions (probably more users than Facebook at this time). LinkedIn claims over 40 million users. The growth rates of all three are staggering. With each new user, we’re beginning to see a shift.

An Unexpected Change
Historically, most sales professionals have turned to Google to begin the process of ferreting out information about prospects and decision makers. But, there is something missing in Google’s search results that is critical when gathering sales information. Relationship data. There’s nothing personal about the results returned from a search engine like Google.

As a result, Google is beginning to lose ground to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter when it comes to individuals researching companies and people. As Mr. Spock used to say, “fascinating.” Why is this? Social media tools have the ability to add personal data to the results; Google provides nothing more than facts and figures. This added dimension is something everyone can appreciate, but it’s especially important to sales professionals.

Sales Tips For Searching Beyond Google
The next time you’re preparing to contact a prospect for the first time, take advantage of social media and add a new, and extremely important, dimension to your information gathering: personal data. The additional information you’ll glean from these sites is likely to be the most important you’ll add to your knowledge basket before making that first contact.

©2010 Scott R. Sheaffer

Related posts:

1. A 5 Step Process To Quickly Incorporate Social Media Into Your Selling
2. How To Use LinkedIn If You’re A Sales Professional
3. Tips for Sales: The Business Social Networking Landscape is Changing Radically

Tags: Prospecting, prospects, technology

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