Connecting with a Purpose and a Plan for Social Sales

As salespeople, every day we are looking to make new connections and we are actively fielding connection requests from others. This is all a part of social sales. While some of us may have a plan for maximizing the effectiveness of these activities, I am guessing that most do not. We just … do.

In terms of building your social networks, there are probably three different schools of thought …

Connect with anybody and everybody
Don’t connect or only connect with people who you know
Connect only with those who would appear to be the right people

Let’s look at the pros and cons for all three but, in the end, only you can decide for you as to which works best for your needs..

Connect with anybody – Connecting with anybody and everybody is great if you want to expand your reach. The more people, the larger your reach. The more people, the more avenues that you have available to connect with others due to your shared connections. However, is that your business model? As an internet marketer, it might be whereas, if your model is to handle a few key accounts, it might not.[Tweet “In social sales, connecting with a plan will increase your effectiveness!”]

However, you might decide that quality trumps quantity and that it will be more effective for you to build relationships with a smaller circle of people. Also keep in mind that you are allowing your direct connections access to your network and, if some of these folks turn out to be dirt bags, by the time this determination has been made, the damage may have already been done.

Connect with nobody – Not many pluses here. If you connect with nobody, your goal of expanding your network just isn’t going to happen. If you only connect to people you already know, well, at least that is a start and you can expand your network from there based on their connections.

Connect with the right people – I like to call this “moderately discriminating.” While you don’t connect to just anybody, you are willing to step outside of your box and take a few chances because … the potential rewards exceed the perceived risks. The challenge comes when we are asked to make that determination and when we are not doing so with a clearly defined criteria and goals. Read on at Maximize Social Business …

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!