Slack Tips Tuesday: Slack for B2B Sales & Market Research

A great source for both B2B sales and market research is Slack communities centered around your target customer.

You can find two of the better lists of Slack communities here: Chitchats and An Incomplete List of Communities on Slack.

Once you find a group that is likely to have your target customer (and be prepared to potentially spend up to $20 or more to get in), join the community’s #general channel and introduce yourself.

I’d also recommend responding to a few questions that get posted with whatever insights you might have. Once you’ve settled in for a day or so, come back the next day for the hunt.

Now use the search tool and start searching for keywords.

If you sell a customer service product, search “customer service”.

If you’re a competitor to Intercom (live chat/announcements), search for “Intercom”:

Perhaps you’ll want to talk to @kchanthasiri or @twzayan about your product, or learn from them about what your product might be missing that’s critical for them.

You might also consider searching for:

• Keywords you use for your Google Adwords
• Names of competitors
• “anyone tried” or just “tried” are great ways to find products that are also of interest to your target customer (might influence your advertising tactics)
• Job titles you’re looking to pitch to (people often introduce themselves, search “CEO” and get a list of CEOs readily available to chat with)
• etc.

Do this every day in multiple different Slack communities and it’s guaranteed you’ll come across a great sales or market research opportunity within 30 days.

**Bonus: **If you’re in HR/recruiting, you can apply this same formula to recruiting and join communities that people you want to hire would hang out in, use search for skill keywords, and reach out to them personally in real-time.