Richardson and McCord Training Release Social Media in Selling Research Report
The social media phenomenon has eclipsed all forecasts about how far and fast it would become a part of everyday life. Richardson conducted a survey that shows both an increasing integration of social media into the overall selling process and the clear opportunity to deepen its use to achieve better results.
Philadelphia, PA — April 15, 2011 — Richardson, a leading global sales training and sales performance improvement firm, and McCord Training today released a new research report covering the increasing integration of social media tools into the overall selling process and the clear opportunity to deepen its use to achieve better sales results.
For this survey, Richardson and McCord Training partnered to develop research that would determine the extent and effectiveness of social media within sales and marketing processes. Surveys were sent to subscribers of both the Richardson and McCord e-Newsletters and sales tips. More than 550 people responded to the survey, mostly representing B2B companies.
Key Findings of the Report Include:
• 64.8% of respondents report using social media in their selling efforts, which indicates the growing adoption of this digital platform as another tool for reaching customers and prospects.
• Respondents reported the top areas of success with social media to be 78.8% in learning more about existing customers, 70.1% in current prospects, and 57.7% in identifying new prospects. Lowest on the list, 29.6% were the more concrete areas of identifying additional sales opportunities with existing customers.
• For those who do not use social media, the highest hurdle was in not understanding how to leverage the tools (also a frequent complaint from those who actively use social media). Additionally, nearly one-third of the non-users said their company had regulations against using social media, with many, if not most, of these respondents coming from the financial services industry.
• Frequency of social media use remains relatively low, with 92.1% of respondents reporting that they spend less than 5 hours per weeks using social media for prospecting, and 88.3% using it less than 5 hours per week for activities associated with strengthening existing relationships.
The social media phenomenon has eclipsed all forecasts about how far and how fast it would grow — and how much a part of everyday sales life it would become. This study provides critical insights on where social media tends to be most effective and reviews some of the tools that are successfully being used by sales professionals. To download a full copy of this complementary report, please click here or visit the following: http://bit.ly/g9lZkx.
About McCord Training
McCord Training (http://www.mccordtraining.com) is a sales training and consulting company with an emphasis on helping companies and their sales teams increase production and maintain margins by more effectively finding and connecting with high quality prospects using strategies they will respect, accept, and respond to and helping companies develop effective, efficient, and comprehensive on-boarding programs to get their salespeople up and producing as quickly as possible. Contact info: info@mccordandassociates.com
Media Contact:
CONTACT: Richardson, Jim Brodo, SVP Marketing, 215-940-9255 jim.brodo@richardson.com