The other day I received an odd sales call, the person at the end of the phone explained honestly: “I’ve just been LinkedIn stalking you…”
The idea someone had stalked me on LinkedIn, scanned my profile, found out where I worked, Googled ‘B2B Marketing’, discovered our website and then dialled a number to pitch something to me seemed a lot of effort and kind of weird. However, connecting with me on LinkedIn would have been completely normal.
This lead to the realisation: social stalking has become the norm. It’s a quick and easy way to find out about a person before talking to them directly, especially in sales. But, although it happens, confessing to online stalking is still seen as awkward and odd.
Basically, ringing up a stranger and admitting that you know a fair bit about them by stalking them is worse than cold calling. To ensure this never happens again marketers need to build relationships with prospects via social media, before sales pick up the phone. Social is a great tool don’t waste it.
