With sales cycles getting longer and prospects engaging with salespeople later, it is important to put yourself in front of your prospects as early as possible. Social media is the perfect venue to accomplish this.

Engaging with social media is a fine balance. Come on too strong with a sales pitch and a hard sell and your prospects will go running. Engage too little by only following or visiting their profiles and they’ll feel like you are just doing reconnaissance.

The easiest way to find this balance is to focus on delivering value. Social media is not the appropriate medium to close a sale, but it is certainly the right place to start one. By providing advice and helpful content, you can open a dialogue and establish yourself as a trusted resource.

Finding the Right Content

The odds are usually pretty good that your marketing team is already busy making content. They spend time making sure that your company’s content addresses common business problems and hits the common pain points for your customers. That’s exactly what you need to connect with prospects on social. But where do you find this content?

Up to 70% of content created by B2B marketing teams is never used by sales, according to SiriusDecisions. Most sales and marketing teams just aren’t set up to communicate every piece of content that gets produced. You can stay up to date by making yourself a part of your marketing team’s audience. Subscribe to your company’s blog and follow your company's social accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. You’ll be amazed at the content you will find. When you see something that might be great to share with a prospect, simply save it for later.

Sharing the Right Content

Once you’ve tracked down the right content, sharing it with your leads or potential prospects is the easy part. Just make sure to consider the following elements of your message:

• Watch the tone - Make sure your message is as far from a sales pitch as you can make it. Sounding overly friendly or “salesy” is an easy way to have your message ignored. Remember, you’re just a knowledgeable follower who can lend a hand or offer advice in a confident, knowledgeable, and cordial way. They don’t need to know how much effort you put into positioning yourself to make this sale.
  
  
• Get the message right - Keep your message short and to the point. No sales pitch. Just value. Let them know why you are reaching out and what it is you are sharing with them. If you notice a prospect complaining about a common pain point for your audience, you might consider a simple message such as, “Hey [name], this blog post has some advice that might be helpful [link].”

The highest performing sales reps are adding social media to their arsenals. Take your own selling to the next level with our new ebook The Simple Guide to Successful Social Selling.