I worked in sales and sales management in the UK & Ireland for 25 years.
Social media, in my opinion, provides an unprecedented opportunity for people involved in sales to understand what is going on in prospect and client organisations. A new era of corporate openness and the widespread use of social media for customer service and stakeholder communications means that sales people, account managers of all types from national to global, have access to previously hidden data.
I have created a slideshow here: http://www.slideshare.net/SocialMediaisDynamite/social-media-is-dynamite4-sales
This describes in 7 slides the ways a major account manager/sales person can use social media to research prospects, identify problems within those accounts, listen to what is going on and to create material to propose solutions.
This ILC model (Identify - Listen - Create) can be used by all account mangers to help them sell more. It is also a model for a service to research prospects, clients and even competitors. Get in touch if you want more details.
It’s good to know that someone who has extensive experience in sales is open to incorporating social media in business. Although the use of social media hasn't been very successful for everyone, the possibility of a positive result is still very high. If people would follow your advice: Identify - Listen - Create, then it would certainly work.
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