There’s an easy-to-find source of marketing data about your clients… and many salespeople don’t bother to use it.

Photo by Octavus

It’s your client’s Facebook page.

Before you roll your eyes, take a moment to ask yourself — are you looking at those Facebook pages before every meeting?

In my travels as a broadcast and digital sales trainer, it’s been my experience that less than half of the salespeople I work with look at the client’s Facebook page before a call.

If you’re one who does, congratulations. If you aren’t, you’re missing opportunities.

Here’s what I found during pre-visit prep for one Midwestern market:

1. “Check out our brand-new TV commercial — it starts next week on Channel 4!”  The prospect was about to start a campaign on a competitor, and had posted the ad on social media for everyone to see. 
2. Photos of a brand-new location for a multi-store retailer, with information on an upcoming Grand Opening Sale.
3. “Come meet the wacky Z95 Morning Crew — they’ll be at our Sherwood store this Saturday from 9 to 11!” That’s how we found out the client was advertising on the radio.
4. A Facebook page with no posts since July of 2015. When I asked the client about that, she told me she wanted to do something with social media but really didn’t know what or how. 

All of these things were in plain sight on the customers’ Facebook pages — and all came as a complete surprise when I mentioned them to the AE’s.

Many clients update their social media feeds much more often than their own websites. They do this because Facebook is easier and faster to change, and because they are more comfortable on that platform — they are spending a lot of their personal time there anyway.

For this reason, you should be checking Facebook and the client website before every meeting. 

Things to look for:

• How many “likes” do they have? If you’ve been to the page before, how does this compare to the last time you looked?
• How often do they post?
• Scroll down the page — what are they talking about? Is it mostly sales pitches? Employee profiles? Photos of happy customers? Invitations to events they’re putting on — or radio remotes put on by your competitors?
• How long has it been since the last post? If it’s been more than a month or two, they may need help — and your digital team may be able to help them.
• Click on the “Videos” tab — are there any commercials?

Although Facebook is the most common channel advertisers are using, many companies you call on are also using Twitter. And, of course, the people you meet with are likely tohave profiles on LinkedIn.

Check ’em all.

If you go through this exercise every time, you’ll learn things about your clients and prospects that they might never tell you, even as they’re telling the rest of the world.

From there, you can turn that knowledge into money.