By Bill Rice, BetterCloser

Are you using Twitter in your sales process?

My guess is that many of you are. It’s hard isn’t it? You want thousands of followers to give you the sales leverage of large numbers, but you want to deliver a very personal experience to prospects and clients.

My suggestion (secret)? Twitter Lists.

I use Twitter Lists in four very productive ways:

1. Segmenting various target audiences
2. Researching new markets and audiences
3. Tracking target accounts/prospects
4. Tracking current clients

First, it’s important to understand the basics of Twitter Lists to effectively use them with this sales technique. There are two basic options—public and private.

I use public Twitter Lists for purposes 1 and 2. It allows me to segment and monitor these folks in distinct segments, gives them a little visibility boost (value), and there is no need to keep them hidden.

I use private Twitter lists for purposes 3 and 4.This allows me to segment and monitor these folks without publicly revealing the people I want to work with or clients.

Here are the basics, as simple as it is it’s powerfully sales enabling.

Every time you follow someone get them on a useful list (pick purpose 1-4). Then set these lists up in your favorite Twitter client HootSuite, Seesmic, TweetDeck. I use TweetDeck.

Immediately you will have better visibility of the markets you’re working and learning, your clients, and most importantly (if you’re in sales) your sales pipeline. You will see more opportunities and help more people everyday—nothing accelerates sales like situational awareness!

Questions: Do you do anything like this? What are your tricks to managing sales prospecting and engagement on Twitter?