If you have read any marketing and business books, you will have read that you need to ask for a sale in order to get one. For example:

– When you are meeting with a potential client to discuss how you can help her, you need to ask for a sale at the end of the meeting.

– When you are publishing a newsletter, you need to ask for a sale at the end of your article/post/announcement

– When someone calls you for a free introductory coaching session you need to ask them to become a paying client at the end of the session

All of these are excellent examples of asking for a sale if you want to get one. In all these examples your potential clients have some prior knowledge of who you are and what you do. Because they are already familiar with the business owner offering services, they will be much more receptive when the business owner asks for a sale.

However, in social networking, when you just meet someone, they don’t know who you are and what you do. So asking for a sale is not appropriate. This is why you should not send an MLM pitch/sales message to someone you just connected with on Facebook.

Instead, you want to start building a relationship and get your new connections to know you. How do you do that? By promoting your newsletter!

If you want to keep in touch with people you meet through social networking for a long time, make sure you promote your newsletter! Promote it in your profile, link to it from your signature, post a link to it from your “About” page, etc. The more visible you make your newsletter, the more people will get on your list, and the more people you will be able to keep in touch with even if you stop using some social networking groups.

When you have just met someone through social networking web sites, it is not time for a hard sales pitch. Start building a relationship and invite them to join your list. Once they have been on your list for someone, they may contact you about your services and your products. This is when you will be able to ask for a sale.

Want to learn more about using social networking to get clients? Join me for the How To Get Clients And Build Your List With Social Networking Teleseminar Series at https://www.avocadoconsulting.com/rlinks/znetwork

Biana Babinsky

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Internet Marketing Coaching, Market Your Expertise, Social Media, Social Networking, Social Networking Sites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.