Using Social to Route Bottom-Up

Using Social to Route Bottom-Up

Before You Begin

Using Social to Route Bottom-Up uses Tier 1 and 2 profiles who hold varied job titles to earn a referral and introduction to other stakeholders inside the account. This mirrors the Account Dogpile Play at a more strategic level.

This play works best with the following types of accounts:

  • Accounts with at least one Tier 2 profile in your Earthquake Map who’s actively commenting

This play has two results:

  • Learning more about what’s going on inside the account
  • Earning a referral or introduction

The Play

Step 1. Identify the Tier 1 and Tier 2 Leads

Map the account. Who’s Tier 1 and Tier 2? Remember:

  • Tier 1 leads are original content creators. It’s unlikely the account will have a Tier 1, but maybe you’ll get lucky!
  • Tier 2 leads are engagers. They reshare content, like, and comments. Your account should have a few Tier 2s.

Here’s the twist: ignore job titles. Do not filter only by your economic buyers, champions, or ICP leads. Look at the entire account and see who fits into Tier 1 and Tier 2.

Create your shortlist of Tier 1 and Tier 2 leads. Save them as a Sales Navigator lead list or simply write it down somewhere.

Step 2. Warm Up the Relationship

Set a goal for the next 30 days: build credibility and trust with the person.

For Tier 1 leads, use the comment strategies laid out previously. Engage with them in the comments consistently on their posts and work up to the Rule of 3 to send the connection request and transition to DMs.

For Tier 2 leads, review their activity feed. What kinds of posts are they engaging on? Are they a commenter or just a liker? Write out what kinds of content they’re interested in.

  • Do they follow a specific influencer?
  • Do they consistently like a particular kind of post or post topic?
  • Do they consistently engage with a particular person?
  • Are they only engaging with other people inside their company?
  • What seems to be of interest to this person?

Use these insights to craft an engagement strategy based on shared interests. We call this The Race to Commonality. The goal is to strike up a conversation based on something you share in common.

Depending upon their engagement activity, it might look like:

  • Replying to their comment on an influencer’s post
  • Sending a DM as a follow-up to them liking a post from an influencer you also follow with a really great question
  • Following up from a post from a shared alma mater (it happens) or a conference you both attended

It’s hard to list out every. single. possibility. but the best shot here is to follow Sam McKenna’s rule: Show Me You Know Me!

Step 3. Transition to DMs for Research & Validation

After warming up the profile, you’ll transition into the DMs.

  • Use it for research. Ask insightful questions, depending upon the job title.
  • Use unsure or “I imagine” statements. Let them prove you wrong and share more.
  • If they’re not much of a conversationalist, don’t worry. You don’t need to have the conversation all at once. Loop back to them within the next 30 days with something else that’s interesting.
  • Use it to validate your triggers and research. This works particularly well if you’ve targeted a job title in the same department as your buyer’s. Use the conversation with the SDR to validate it’s the right time to go to the Sales Director. Use the conversation with the Finance Manager to validate it’s the right time to go to the CFO.
  • You’re listening for problem and pain identification – not necessarily solution knowledge. Make it all about the prospect and keep on asking insightful questions!

Step 4. Make the Ask or Layer

Making the Ask

Once you’ve warmed up the relationship and got a good flow of conversation going, make the ask!

  • This sounds like… “You know, this makes me think that there might be a way to keep this from happening again. Do you think Nick would be open to chat about it?”
  • Or… “Yeah, we hear this a lot from SDRs. Problem is, can’t usually be solved without Nick’s buy-in. You think he’d be open to chat about it?
  • Or… “Lol just heard this from another Dir of Finance yesterday. Seems like it’s a big problem right now in the industry, but in our experience it can’t get solved without the CFO being involved. Do you think she’d be open to chat about it?”

The goal is to earn the introduction or referral to the key executive. When working across divisions and targeting a Tier 1 or Tier 2 in a different division, you might earn a referral first to someone in the division instead of the key executive. That’s fine too!

Pro tip: if the other profile is also active on LinkedIn, have the person send a group DM with the intro instead of an email. That way you can keep it in-platform.

Layering

Instead of making the direct ask, you can also use your bottom-up approach to layer your outbound. Check out this lesson to learn more:

Measuring Success

This play is successful when:

  • You learn more about the account through your engagement and conversations
  • You earn a referral to another key stakeholder inside the account