Nimble CRM for B2B Salespeople

Social selling leverages social tools, tactics, and strategies to complement, not replace, traditional selling methodologies. Nimble CRM is likely the most social CRM that there is! First let’s talk about where social selling excels …

Increasing your reach – Your connections on LinkedIn and their connections are literally the stepping stones to millions more. They will also amplify your messages by sharing those with their networks.
Attraction – Your social profile is your brand, your resume, and your website. Together with your activity (this is key!), these will demonstrate your expertise. It is your inbound selling tool and qualified buyers will come to you. Not your company … YOU. If you are a commissioned salesperson, you’ve got to love that!
Prospecting – Based on your Ideal Client Profile, become a master of search on both the social networks as well as within Nimble.
Connecting – A connection is not a relationship. You will need to build those via some form of real-life engagements. Nowadays … think Zoom if in-person meetings are not practical. Be a discriminating connector. Focus on those people who will potentially return the highest investment based on your time and efforts.
Engaging – There are multiple social channels and multiple ways to do this, but first focus on where your prospects and customers are. If they are not on Facebook, why are you there?

Now that we know what it will do … What do we want to do?

Discovery/Research – Look for commonalities. You went to the same school. You are both avid outdoorsmen. You share common connections. In the old days, we did much of this with our eyes as we walked into a business. These are your ice breakers. LinkedIn will likely be best to get to know them professionally whereas the other social networks will yield personal insights. Add this info to their records.
You need to know what makes them tick. Your best and quickest source of this information, next to real life, will be on social media. You want to get to know them and their interests! As mentioned above, add this info to their records.
Don’t skulk around on LinkedIn. I want them to know that I looked at their profile. It’s only creepy when you try to hide it. When you reference your search, and what you found, it now becomes due diligence and it will be appreciated!

Obviously, you are also looking for opportunities and, pragmatically, you won’t always have the time for a proper courtship. The opportunity is real and hot and you need to act now so … call them on the phone or do a drop by if that is practical. Most salespeople these days won’t do either so … you will be perceived as being a novelty. If it’s in your newsfeed, leave a comment.

Where does Nimble CRM fit in with social selling?

Nimble Prospector is a browser extension (free with your account) that will allow you to create new records or to edit existing ones from anywhere on the web including social networks and your email inbox (Google and Outlook or Outlook 365).

While you are there, take notes, add tags, and schedule follow-ups. A little copy and paste goes a long way. A form of Prospector is baked directly into Nimble CRM and it is very similar to their mobile apps.

LinkedIn and Facebook have closed member data to almost all third-party applications like Nimble CRM . However, LinkedIn and Facebook are not the only games in town and Nimble is also gathering data from other sources (social and other) in addition to LinkedIn and Facebook data that is still publicly available and discoverable via search. Additionally …

Nimble will auto populate social networks, where it can, during contact record creation.
Where that is not possible, it suggests social networks or you can add them manually to their records. You can link from Nimble to these social profiles.
The Bing web page, found under “Integrations”, will conduct a search of that contact and it will discover most social networks in addition to other info.
The “Smart Summary” can yield other social intelligence and Social profiles and Signals under the “Social” tab can yield even more. Signals, under this tab, will show Twitter interactions with this contact.
Speaking of Twitter, Nimble has “Signals”. I would suggest that you use lists on Twitter to monitor, and engage with those, via Nimble. If appropriate, move these folks to Nimble contact records.

Best Practices – Used correctly, your CRM becomes your social selling hub. Information gathered from the social networks, by you and by Nimble, can be leveraged by your CRM, but only if you will allow it to by adding your research to their records.

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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!