Sales Blog for National Agents Alliance

While we’ve been going over important topics like referrals, body language, social media, and all kinds of stuff, it would seem that the end of December is creeping in.  In addition to the coming of the new year and all that brings, there are also a couple of other important items you should have on your radar.

Remember that the National Agents Alliance 2012 National Convention is coming up from January 26^th-29^th at the Raleigh Convention Center.  Keep in mind that after December 31^st, the ticket price will be going up!  If you haven’t gotten your ticket already don’t put it off any longer, grab it before the price increase.

Another important booking date is also fast approaching.  Both the Sheraton and Marriott were running special rates for National Agents Alliance.  The Marriott rate expired on December 26^th, but the Sheraton’s special is still available until January 2^nd.  Be sure to book before they sell out so you can stay where the rest of the team is!  For further details and information, check out the hotel info on the 2012 NatCon site, near the bottom.

Also, if your December production month qualifies at Team Builder or above, you are invited to the Foresters pre-party before the convention starts.  With the month in its final days time is of the essence!  Make that final push right now!  Questions on qualification?  Check out this news release with all the information and a video breakdown.  A lot of this kind of information is included in our NAAtv videos that are done for you, so remember to check in on those frequently (especially the Rewind and Did You Know? segments).

Be sure to make use of all of our social media outlets on a regular basis too.  We’re on all of them, and put up all kinds of information on events, company happenings, and even just some questions so we can hear from you good folks.  Please feel free to comment on our posts, blogs, and videos – We like the attention and like you involved!  Click away below!

National Agents Alliance – Facebook
National Agents Alliance – Google+
National Agents Alliance – LinkedIn
National Agents Alliance – MySpace
National Agents Alliance – Twitter
National Agents Alliance – YouTube

In an earlier post, we touched on the power of social media and some ways to leverage it.  These sites aren’t just a tool to use, though.  They are an actual movement that has caused a change in mindset for how businesses should interact with their customers.

Not so long ago, customer relationship management was a static set of protocols and processes.  Everything was well-defined, only certain departments would interact with clientele and transactions were kept simple.  The advent of social media has dramatically changed this landscape.  Presences on various social sites are available 24/7, allowing more customers to engage a business, and affording all employees the same type of access.  Rather than being straightforward and process-centric, CRM has had to evolve to handle the more dynamic and complex relationships that have resulted from the social media phenomena.

In many aspects, being a National Agents Alliance agent has you well prepared and ahead of the game for this.  Meeting with clients has always been a dynamic and complex process and your experience there will translate directly into how you treat CRM in the social media world.  If you are working on developing a presence, keep in mind your knowledge of working directly with a client and apply how you handle yourself there to your online presence.  Remember that all of your friends or followers will be seeing your posts and responses, so be sure to alter your interactions to take that into consideration.

Here are just a few areas to consider in harnessing the power of the new, social CRM:

Accessibility and responsiveness are paramount.  As a sales professional, you already know the value of striking while the iron is hot, and in the ever available online world, the expectation of your users is for prompt replies to both the good and bad.  Keep in mind that the overall goal is create positive experiences, so don’t get offended if a negative should appear, simply approach it with the end goal of a positive resolution in mind.

Demonstrate your interest in the client.  Keep them informed about your business and its status, but also engage them in conversation and interact with their posts.  In many ways, the marketing facet of social CRM is handled through the communal aspects of your social media platform rather than through typical campaigning and advertising activities.

Often, to get followers, you will need to follow them also.  Something to consider is subscribing to the blogs or other social media endeavors of your friends and to comment on, ‘like’, or share those items appropriately.  This not only exhibits your interest, but actually increases your visibility to others, making this an excellent method in your approach to social CRM.

As a professional with National Agents Alliance, the social aspects of your work have you well prepared to tackle the endeavor of this changed face of customer relationship management.  Social media on its own will give you the power of presence.  Combining that with this new and popular approach to CRM can dramatically increase your reach and reputation, which can only increase your opportunities.  Leverage this technology to your advantage!

The power of social media is incredible.  It is a free resource that allows you an interactive marketing platform for both yourself and your products that can reach a substantial number of individuals.  If you aren’t already making use of this resource, you should be!

Tremendous numbers of people are on the varying social media platforms.  Serious consideration should be given to having a presence on at least Facebook, Google+, and even LinkedIn for professionals.  All of these sites provide a platform for you to show your professional presence and also to post varying types of media and interact with others on the sites.  Twitter allows a little less in terms of what it is capable of doing, but is extraordinarily popular too.

The key to making effective use of any of these facilities is engaging your friends, circles, followers, etc.  Every attempt should be made to put up content, be it images, videos, or posts that are not only clear and informative (and of course professional!), but also prompt those who see it to interact in some manner.  That could be as simple as a retweet or like on Facebook, or even more involved, such as commenting and sparking up conversation.  The more interaction that there is, the more people that get involved, and the more people that will see it.  By keeping active on your social media sites with accurate information, posts, and responding to others, awareness of you and your services will go up, and those engaged with you will recognize your expertise, enhancing your reputation.

Those benefits aside, the individuals that you have at first may already be clients or friends, but one of the greatest aspects of social media is the potential for virality.  What is that?  Most actions on social media sites are not only seen by just yourself and your direct followers.  Instead, the reach extends to their followers, and sometimes even further to their followers!  So every individual that follows you brings with them a number of potential followers, potential clients!  All that needs to be done is to reel them in, and by providing engagement to your existing followers, you can do just that!

Not sure where to start with this?  National Agents Alliance maintains several different social media profiles for our different sections on several different sites.  Check us out at the links below and feel free to ask us any questions!

National Agents Alliance – Facebook
National Agents Alliance – Google+
National Agents Alliance – LinkedIn
National Agents Alliance – MySpace
National Agents Alliance – Twitter
National Agents Alliance – YouTube