Whether you are new in your sales role or have been in sales for a while, it is easy to get wrapped up in the latest new sales tool that could help you, or that one magic bullet to specifically solve prospecting issues.

Do you struggle to get prospects to open your emails? For some people, writing clever, witty, clickable subject lines can be a challenge -- and that's where subject line tester tools can come in.

Check for spam triggers, get suggestions for making your subject lines more emotive, and get an overall grade on how clickable your emails are.

In this post, we'll run through tools to improve you email subject lines for better clickability and deliverability to get more replies from more prospects.

1. Test Subject by Zurb

What it tests: Appearance on mobile

• Price: Free

Want to know how your sender name, subject line, and pre-header text will appear on the most popular mobile devices of the moment? This tool gives you an instant preview of how copy will appear to your audience. You know, for those moments you want to avoid someone’s iPhone 6 turning “Products for foolproof marketing” into “Products for fool …”.

2. Email Subject Line Grader by Net Atlantic

What it tests: Overall effectiveness of copy, word count, word mixture and balance, and type

• Price: Free

Receive an overall numerical score on how compelling your subject line is, along with suggestions on how to improve it. You’ll also learn how close your character and word count are to the ideal length (50-65 characters or six-to-seven words).

And, find out how your word mixture and balance measures up. Need a little more emotion, action, or power? Subject Line Grader gives it to you straight.

3. Spam Check by Postmark

What it tests: Overall spam score

• Price: Free

You spend time crafting your emails, and you don’t want them to get caught in someone’s spam folder, right? Copy and paste your subject line, pre-header text, email message, and sign-off into this tool, and find out exactly what will trigger spam filters and trap your emails in “The Upside Down.”

4. Touchstone

What it tests: Subject line effectiveness, segment testing, full reporting dashboards, access to Touchstone’s database

• Price: Essential, $69; Expert, $99; Enterprise, $297

This is a deluxe tool that’s probably best for whole teams rather than individuals. Depending on your tier, you’ll receive subject line testing functionality, email reporting, segment testing, filter options, and technical support.

You can also compare your results with those of the 21 billion emails stored in Touchstone’s database.

5. SubjectLine.com

What it tests: Overall copy effectiveness

• Price: Free

This tool doesn’t beat around the bush. Get an overall score for your subject line, see where and why you lost points (i.e., “Does not contain a sense of urgency” -15 points), and advice for how to make it better.

6. ISnotSPAM

What it tests: Spam phrases, sender-ID check

• Price: Free

Send your email to the address provided in their homepage and receive a comprehensive spam report in return. This tool flags wording or phrases in your subject line and email body that will trip spam filters. It also checks that your own ID is clean, and suggests fixes for any spam-related issues that arise.

7. Headline Analyzer by CoSchedule

What it tests: Overall copy effectiveness, word balance, length analysis, keywords, type, and sentiment

• Price: Free

This tool was built to analyze blog/article headlines, but it works just as well for subject lines. Headline Analyzer gives you an overall headline score and provides tips on structure, grammar, and word placement.

Widely considered the gold standard in headline testers, this is definitely a tool to keep in your back pocket.

8. Hemingway App

What it tests: Readability of copy

• Price: Free

Not a literature buff? Legendary author Ernest Hemingway was known for his straightforward writing style. There were no warm sunset walks festooned with bright spring blooms in his books. Hemingway would have written, “We took a walk. It was warm. The flowers were in bloom.”

This app is helpful for editing the body of your email. Copy and paste your follow-up email into this tool to get an overall readability grade, find out where you’ve used passive voice, if you have too many adverbs, and which sentences are hard to read.

9. Emotional Marketing Value Headline Analyzer by The Advanced Marketing Institute

What it tests: Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) words

• Price: Free

Did you know 20% of the English language is made up of EMV words? Find out if your headline appeals to the intellectual or empathetic side of your prospect’s brain, and learn which side you want to appeal to given the goals and content of your emails.

10. Email Subject Line Keyword Checker by Adestra

What it tests: Open rate and click rate of subject line keywords

• Price: Free

This tool asks you to select a business sector and type in your keyword -- the main point of your subject line. For example, if my email subject line is, “Checking on contract status” I would type in “Contract” as my keyword.

In this case, the tool would tell me open rates are .35% below average for emails using the word “contract” in the subject line. Given this information, I might choose a different subject line keyword.

Email Spam Checker Tools

Email spam checker tools scan your subject lines and email copy so they won't get automatically marked as spam and downgrade your email deliverability.

11. Is Not Spam

What it tests: If your email triggers common spam filters

• Price: Free

Is Not Spam has you actually send your email draft to them, and they deliver a report within a few minutes, grading everything from your subject line, email body copy, and HTML code for deliverability, with specific suggestions for improving it if it doesn't make the cut.

12. Email Spam Tester

What it tests: If your email triggers common spam filters

• Price: Starts at $39/month

Like Is Not Spam, but with paid features you can share with a team and track over time, Email Spam Tester conducts a thorough grading of all elements of your email drafts and gives you guidance for how to improve them.

Subject lines are the most important part of your email. In fact, 33% of email recipients report opening emails based on the subject line alone. Make the most of inbox attention, and ensure subject lines grab your prospect’s eye every time.

To learn more, read about managing multiple inboxes in Gmail next.

Those who read my content know that it’s a pretty darn rare day when I venture into the land of sales tools. And that’s very intentional. There are so many tool providers and an abundance of qualified sales experts (two of my favorites are Miles Austin and Nancy Nardin) reviewing and recommending tools, that I typically stay far away the topic.

However, just recently I was exposed to DiscoverOrg and came away so impressed that I wanted to share this tool and incredible company with you. And, in the name of full transparency and disclosure, the reason I got a close look at DiscoverOrg is because they are a Platinum Sponsor for the OutBound Conference coming up in just two weeks at in Atlanta. In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few months and haven’t heard about OutBound on social media or in our emails, this is the second OutBound Conference where Jeb Blount, Mark Hunter, Anthony Iannarino and I will be headlining the main day, April 11th, with four keynotes and four workshop-type sessions… all focused on helping you sell more by improving your prospecting, your pipeline, and your productivity. It’s an enormous event over several days (with over 600 tickets already sold), and we still have about 25 tickets remaining for the main day, April 11th. For more info or to secure one of the last few tickets, head over to OutBoundConference.com, and the code Mike100 will save you $100.

I sat down with Steve Bryerton, Vice President of Sales, at DiscoverOrg for a really brief, powerful conversation about prospecting. Check out our dialogue that touches on topics ranging from how to be more strategic in whom you are targeting for new business to the importance of accuracy in the data you are trusting. I was beyond impressed with Steve and DiscoverOrg and I hope you find this conversation helpful to you, even if you’re not looking for this type of help or tool right now. Frankly, I just enjoyed talking about sales, prospecting, and sales leadership with Steve. He offered up a few gems…

Those who read my content know that it’s a pretty darn rare day when I venture into the land of sales tools. And that’s very intentional. There are so many tool providers and an abundance of qualified sales experts (two of my favorites are Miles Austin and Nancy Nardin) reviewing and recommending tools, that I typically stay far away the topic.

However, just recently I was exposed to DiscoverOrg and came away so impressed that I wanted to share this tool and incredible company with you. And, in the name of full transparency and disclosure, the reason I got a close look at DiscoverOrg is because they are a Platinum Sponsor for the OutBound Conference coming up in just two weeks at in Atlanta. In case you’ve been under a rock for the past few months and haven’t heard about OutBound on social media or in our emails, this is the second OutBound Conference where Jeb Blount, Mark Hunter, Anthony Iannarino and I will be headlining the main day, April 11th, with four keynotes and four workshop-type sessions… all focused on helping you sell more by improving your prospecting, your pipeline, and your productivity. It’s an enormous event over several days (with over 600 tickets already sold), and we still have about 25 tickets remaining for the main day, April 11th. For more info or to secure one of the last few tickets, head over to OutBoundConference.com, and the code Mike100 will save you $100.

I sat down with Steve Bryerton, Vice President of Sales, at DiscoverOrg for a really brief, powerful conversation about prospecting. Check out our dialogue that touches on topics ranging from how to be more strategic in whom you are targeting for new business to the importance of accuracy in the data you are trusting. I was beyond impressed with Steve and DiscoverOrg and I hope you find this conversation helpful to you, even if you’re not looking for this type of help or tool right now. Frankly, I just enjoyed talking about sales, prospecting, and sales leadership with Steve. He offered up a few gems…

A few year ago, I published an article about GPCTBA/C&I, the sales qualification framework we use at HubSpot. In the time since, a number of other sales teams have adopted it as their exploratory conversation framework too.

We've released a full, free sales training course that features the framework prominently, as well as how to identify, connect, and advise contacts into customers. Thousands of people have enrolled in this course already.

But this qualification framework is not easy to learn. Not because it’s long, but some sales reps' weaknesses prevent them from even trying to qualify, let alone pulling it off successfully. For most salespeople it usually takes months, if not years, of coaching and practicing before they can overcome their weaknesses and master this in-depth exploratory process.

I’ve always found Dave Kurlan’s crucial strengths and major weaknesses helpful in determining whether a salesperson will be able to learn how to qualify effectively using our framework. Skills can be taught, but the four crucial strengths -- desire for success, positive outlook, commitment to do whatever it takes, and taking responsibility for outcomes -- are innate traits. These strengths are non-negotiable for me when deciding whether to bring a rep on board.

However, the weaknesses can take a toll on the strengths and impede a salesperson’s ability to learn skills. But because they’re so common, they’re not deal breakers in hiring. Instead, I try to diagnose them early so I can coach the rep to reverse the bad habit.

Here are Kurlan’s seven qualification-crippling weaknesses, with ways I’ve learned to recognize them and remedy them as quickly as possible.

9 Sales Weaknesses That Prevent Salespeople From Fully Qualifying

1. Money weakness

When you were a child, you probably asked how much money someone made or something cost, and your mother or another adult reprimanded you. Because this happened at such a young age, the lesson became ingrained in your psyche: talking about money is impolite.

That might be true in many situations, but it’s not in sales. In fact, if a rep is uncomfortable talking about money, they’re not going to make any.

Strength: Budget directness

Salespeople have to discuss money with their prospects in many different qualification scenarios: how much their product will make or save a company, how much the prospect is currently wasting or losing out on, how much the prospect is spending on other projects, the size of the budget for this purchase, and the prospect’s willingness to spend on the product. There’s no avoiding money questions -- they need to be asked early and often to close deals.

When I started in sales, I struggled with a money weakness. I got over it by writing down all the goals I wanted to achieve in my life: sending my kid to college, buying a farm, retiring by a certain age, and so on. Then I calculated the amount of money I’d need to make these things a reality, and broke the sum down into yearly, monthly, and weekly targets.

With those numbers in mind, I tied my goals very concretely to my job, and success at my job to my ability to ask money questions. If I couldn’t talk dollars with my prospects, I wasn’t going to be able to build a strong college fund for my son. Suddenly getting over my fear felt a lot more urgent.

2. Non-supportive buy cycle

To surface this weakness, I ask reps two questions. What was the last expensive item you bought, and how did you go about buying it?

The first answer reveals the person’s concept of what’s expensive. Usually a person will tell me they recently bought a car, an expensive item of clothing or jewelry, or a vacation. But sometimes the answers are more modest -- I once had a candidate say “a tank of gas.”

I don’t pose this question to judge how financially secure the candidate is, nor do I mentally score their response against some “right” answer.

Instead, their answer informs me of how the candidate might handle pricing objections with their prospects. If someone thinks $300 is a lot of money and they’re selling a product for $3000, they might not be comfortable pushing back on a prospect who balks at the price.

Asking the second question -- how the person went about buying this expensive item -- tells me how accepting they’ll be of prospects who want to shop around. When they bought their new TV, did they do some preliminary research and then pull the trigger? Or did they endlessly compare models and prices for months until they found the absolute best deal?

If their process more closely resembled the latter scenario, they might let their prospects buy from them in that way, and that isn’t good. In a consultative sales process, it’s perfectly acceptable to assume your prospects are shopping around. But it’s not okay to encourage this behavior.

Strength: The ability to differentiate products

To overcome this problem, I tell reps to ensure that the prospect values their product’s differentiation over the competition’s. Make sure buyers understand why and how your product is superior without bashing or even mentioning rival tools.

3. Self-limiting beliefs

“Selling is hard.” “Prospects always tell the truth.” “Prospects who think it over will eventually buy from me.”

These statements are just three of the many misconceptions that salespeople hold to be truths. It’s important for a rep to recognize these self-limiting beliefs, understand the behavior they cause, and learn skills to avoid letting them impact their sales success.

Let’s focus on the third sentiment: “Prospects who think it over will eventually buy from me.”

I’ve met quite a few salespeople who believe this. But, week after week, month after month, the same sales opportunities sit in their pipeline, unmoved. These salespeople say they're giving their prospects time to "think it over," but really they're afraid to ask their prospects why they aren’t going to buy.

These salespeople are afraid to suggest that a purchase doesn’t really seem like a priority, or to even ask if the prospect's needs are urgent.

Strength: Confidence

Somewhere a long, long time ago in a land far, far away, a prospect has bought after thinking it over. So, they believe that the deal will eventually come in, and the last thing they want to do is risk losing it by pushing the prospect to share their real timeline or concerns. These reps are hopeful even though hope isn’t a strategy, especially in sales.

Reps with this self-limiting belief need to role play what the “sh** or get off the pot” conversation sounds like. They need to practice asking the right questions, and hearing, thinking through, and handling the typical prospect responses.

They need to realize there’s little risk of losing a deal that’s not certain. They need to embrace the conversation by realizing they’ll probably help prospects make better-informed decisions, instead of pretending the deal will come in eventually.

4. Need for approval

Need for approval becomes a weakness when a salesperson cares more about being liked than they care about closing business. Taking criticism or bad attitudes personally is never a good thing, but it’s especially dangerous in sales, where reps regularly deal with rejection.

Not to mention that in order for a salesperson to truly help a prospect, they’ll need to ask some hard questions that risk the prospect’s camaraderie. But that’s okay -- in my opinion, salespeople should strive to be respected, not liked.

However, a rep with a high need for approval will shy away from difficult questions in qualifying, and they’ll accept put-offs in closing.

Strength: Ability to have tough conversations

There are a few strategies I use to help reps get over their fears of being disliked. First, I suggest a mindset shift. I see sales as a virtuous profession that helps people solve problems, and the hard questions are a part of figuring out whether a rep can actually help. When reps adopt this attitude, they’re more willing to sacrifice their feelings in the short-term for their client’s greater good in the long-term.

Second, I arm them with strong positioning statements to handle prospect push back. That way, when someone impatiently says they “just want to know why you’re calling” the rep knows they have a concise, interest-generating phrase in their back pocket.

The last tactic is one that I actually used to get over my own need for approval, and that’s to get it outside of work. Does your spouse love you? Your mom? Your dog? Then enlist that person to give you reassurances and affirmations so you don’t seek them from prospects.

5. Controlling emotions

Sales reps are people, and people sometimes let their emotions get the best of them. If a salesperson gets an unsavory response from a prospect -- “this isn’t a good fit for us,” or “we’re not interested in this,” for example -- they might let their feelings of disappointment tune out the rest of the conversation.

And this is a mistake because, as I mentioned above, prospects aren’t always honest. Maybe they in fact could benefit from your product, but they’re saying they’re not interested because they’re busy working on a time-sensitive project. Not interested right now is different from not interested ever.

If you let your emotions take over, you might not pick up on the openings they set up for you. In fact, you might be so distracted by your emotions that you don’t even listen to what they say next.

Strength: Curiosity

To counteract your negative emotions, ask questions -- no matter how you feel. If you got the lead from an ebook download, ask what they were trying to learn from it. If they claim to not have the problem your product solves, ask how they’re doing it so you can learn. Regardless of the specific question you use, just keep asking. Be curious.

Under no circumstances should you just leave your contact information and ask them to call you back. And you shouldn’t just start explaining things to them, because they’ll quickly tune you out.

6. Too trusting

During interviews, I ask candidates if they are trusting people. Just to clarify their answer, I usually then ask if people have to earn their trust, or if they always give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

In this case there is an answer I’m looking for -- skeptical is better. And the reason is because prospects actually aren’t always honest. In fact, they lie quite a bit.

Before you get up in arms, let me clarify that these lies aren’t insidious. Think about how many times you’ve told a salesperson you were busy when you weren’t. Or a scenario when you claimed to need time to “think it over” when you knew you had no intention of buying any time soon. Most of these lies are told by prospects in order to spare our feelings or avoid confrontation. So they’re more like white lies, but untruths nonetheless.

Of course, these little lies can prevent a sale from happening. Sales reps that aren’t too trusting know how to make the sale even when a prospect isn’t being completely forthright and honest.

For example, let’s say a prospect tells you, “Our business is doing great,” but at the same time asks questions like, “So, how would you help us save money on X?”. Are things really going great or are they struggling with profitability? A curious, skeptical salesperson will challenge their prospect by asking that question.

Strength: Healthy skepticism

The salesperson who accepts that prospects aren’t always totally honest will be more likely to gently probe until they uncover the truth. Approaching conversations with healthy skepticism and a willingness to ask incisive questions is necessary to break down prospects’ walls, and uncover the truth.

Next time you’re on a sales call, don’t take everything the prospect says at face value. You can’t help someone if you can’t uncover the truth.

7. Fear of rejection

The only thing a salesperson truly controls is who they spend their time with. But, if they can’t control their own fear of rejection, it will control them.

Salespeople who are afraid of being rejected won’t pick up the phone, won’t ask tough questions, and might even be afraid to ask a customer for their business for fear of getting a “no.”

To overcome this fear, salespeople need to practice getting “no’s”. They need to embrace the value of getting them. For a prospect that does need what you have, a “no” might just be an objection or a “No, not now” or a “No, I’m having a horrible morning and I don’t want to talk about this, but I’ll talk to you after lunch if you can call me then.”

Strength: Persistence

Salespeople need to hang in there when they get a no, clarify why it’s a no and adapt.

Salespeople who fear rejection might suffer from a related weakness: Recovering from rejection. But when salespeople get better at clarifying why prospects say “no”, they’ll learn to recover more quickly when the answer truly is “no”.

Many times, of course, no means no. And if a salesperson knows their sales process conversion ratios, they won’t sweat it at all. A “no” simply means a salesperson can redirect their time to someone who might say “yes”. Salespeople who embrace this are in control of not just where they spend their time, but their destiny.

8. Easily overwhelmed

Everyone in sales has those days or weeks where they feel overwhelmed. Hell, that's most of us by the end of the month. What matters is how you manage those feelings and move forward.

If you notice reps who are never quite on top of their work, consistently falling short of goal, or just as consistently scraping by, it might be time to have a chat.

Strength: Perspective

Help them prioritize high-yield tasks early in the month, so they're less overwhelmed by the end. Coach them on how to let the small stuff go (i.e., Did you lose a small deal? Focus the time and energy you've gained on that big deal pending.), and explain that, at the end of the day, it's just sales.

What matters is that they're coming in every day doing their best work. You might be surprised how much your high-strung reps relax with a few encouraging words on keeping things in perspective.

9. Poor time management

Is your rep sending lots of emails on the weekends? Are they saving their prospecting for evenings? Are they staying late every night? You might have a rep with poor time management skills on your hands.

Explain that too many emails on the weekends appears desperate to some prospects, and that, while a late-night here or there is inevitable, you need evenings and weekends to recharge.

Strength: Efficiency

Sales is a high-velocity job that requires laser focus and a lot of energy. Encourage your reps to create to-do lists before they leave for the night, so they can get right to work on high-priority tasks when they arrive to work in the morning. If you have quarterly goals, instill strong work ethic throughout the quarter, so no one's waiting until the last 15 days to close business.

Good time management is the key to great sales. Look for this in the reps you hire, and encourage it in reps already on your team.

If you’re a sales leader who'd like to test your sales force for these weaknesses, I recommend using Objective Management Group’s salesperson assessment. Once you know what you’re up against, it’s a lot easier to coach your team to success.

Want to learn more? Check out how to qualify using the GPCTBA/C&I model here. 

Part of what I do in my business coaching practice is review marketing emails for clients. As of late, I find the same small mistakes coming up repeatedly among clients. These mistakes – though small – are costing them money.

Why You Need Marketing Emails

Marketing emails still go a long way in making money. Research shows that although social media channels are growing, email still far surpasses it. Almost everyone with access to the internet has an email account, whereas not everyone uses social.

Additionally, if people opt-in to your email list it’s because they want to hear more from you. This means they already somewhat trust you which makes them warm leads.

So the first step in making marketing emails work is to ensure you’re building a list. The last thing you want is for social media to change the rules on you because then you lose visibility.

Once that is established and you have people joining your list, then it’s a matter of actually emailing them. Here are some mistakes to avoid when doing so.

Mistake #1: Not having a call to action

I have a client who I’m currently with who wasn’t inserting any calls to action in her emails. She would simply say “Hey, check out this blog post I wrote” which is okay, but not enough. Instead, she needed to make sure she ended emails with a call to action that gets people on the phone with her for a consult.

While traffic to a blog post is great, most of us need to sell our services. The best way to do that is to offer phone consultations.

Mistake #2: It’s only promotional.

Unless you’re in retail, overly promotional emails may not work for you. And even if you’re in retail, you still need to have a story to go with it. For example, SoulCycle sends promotional emails all the time for retail, but they also have a killer brand story.

If you’re a service provider, you need to communicate with your market on another level. The best way to do this is through stories, not promotions. Stories can look like your own stories as they relate to your brand. They can also look like client stories.

Just note that you still need some sort of call to action at the end so that you can actually make some money.

Mistake #3: Your formatting is awful.

Formatting is important when it comes to marketing emails. In my experience, I find that three things work best for small business owners:

• Forget the fancy stuff. Keep it simple and like a regular email.
• Short paragraphs are best. You want to make sure people can easily skim your emails.
• Keep the subject lines short too.

Again, this is assuming you are not in retail where constant promotional offers are expected. Retailers can get away with the design, but it’s unnecessary for service providers.

Final Thoughts

Marketing emails are a great way to make sales in your business if you avoid making these common mistakes. With these small tweaks, you’ll be well on your way to improving how your marketing emails perform.

Okay, you bought in. You’ve read the post on the benefits of taking a contacts only approach to CRM, the one on challenges you’ll need to work through if you don’t use leads, and my last post on mechanizing a contacts-only CRM strategy. This post is about how to assess your current lead management process and how to make the case for only using contacts in your CRM. You’re think that this approach may make the most sense for your company. If you’re like 99.88% of the companies I’ve worked with, you’re likely right. So, what’s the next step?

Assess what needs to change in order to only use contacts in your CRM

The next thing to do is review all your lead management processes, and marketing and sales reporting (specifically) attribution. Don’t do this in a vacuum; lead management goes beyond just one department. Be sure to conduct interviews and understand the lead management processes and how leads, contacts, accounts, opportunities, and the like are used by other functions including:

• Marketing – Programs/demand generation
• Marketing – Marketing Operations
• Marketing – Leadership
• Sales – Sales Operations
• Sales – Tele prospecting/Inside Sales
• Sales – Direct Sales
• Sales – Global Accounts/Strategic
• Sales – Leadership
• Services and support

In performing this readiness assessment, realize that in our experience, larger organizations (especially companies with $1B+ in revenue; multiple subsidiaries; multiple region organizations with net new, established, and legacy product lines) tend to have more than one singular end-to-end lead management process. This isn’t bad, because frequently, a one-size-fits-all lead management process is not recommended for companies of this size and complexity. For example, in one part of the business tele prospecting may create opportunities when a meeting is scheduled, and in a different part of the business tele prospecting may pass leads to quota bearing sales reps where they may only create opportunities when a pipeline deal is identified.

What should you do if you’re a large, complex organization? Assess the lead management method that is most commonly utilized at your company to establish a base point. Then, after you do the analysis and obtain initial buy in, review and evaluate the other lead management processes in your company.

On the other extreme, if you’re a smaller company, you don’t need to do nine (or more) structured interviews. Just make sure you speak to each group or function that uses the CRM and make sure you have a clear understanding of how and why they use leads, and what would need to change if they didn’t. If you’re a really small company this could just be the equivalent of talking to one or two other people.

Two areas to specifically call out in this review are data duplication reports and dashboards.

Data duplication. Evaluate the duplication rate of and between leads, contacts, and accounts and the level that data between them is consistent or non-aligned. As an example, if there are two Bob Smith records for Acme Corp with the same email address (aka a tight match) does Bob Smith have the same title in both records and is he assigned to the same account owner? Progressively quantify (from most strict to fuzzy matching) the number of records that fall into each match criteria and the merging logic to be used (i.e. duplicate records that are owned by two different individuals, how to determine who the owner will be).

Reports and dashboards. Evaluate the reports and dashboards that are currently utilized by your company and the degree to which they are dependent on the leads object and/or lead-to-contact conversion. While doing this evaluation it is also recommended to identify which reports/dashboards may be archived or otherwise purged from the system as the time to do so will be minimal.

I didn’t call out auditing a “leads” journey explicitly, conversion points, assignment rules, handoffs, service level agreements, activity and task utilization. All of this is CRITICAL, again CRITICAL, it’s just that data duplication and the impact of leads on reports and dashboards are two areas I frequently see neglected.

The output you want to generate from this assessment is a synopsis along with a write-up that outlines:

• The existing lead management processes that need to be updated
• How the processes need to be updated along with why the change needs to occur
• The new lead management processes that need to be put into place
• Why the processes need to be put into place and why it wasn’t necessary before

Getting buy in for only using contacts in your CRM

Marketing can’t make the case to take a contacts only approach to CRM alone. I’ve seen that done before, several times in fact, and each time it went incredibly poorly. It also goes badly when one doesn’t recognize that marketing and sales hold two distinct groups, end users and operations teams, and what they are interested in and how you need to communicate to each group is different.

To help secure their buy in (and to structure your thinking, too) make a pitch deck that summarizes the value to your company and the changes this shift entails. Give respect to the fact that it’s a journey and not a quick pivot over a few days. The deck should be somewhere between 8 to 15 slides and the key slides to include are:

• Proposal. Description and outline of moving from “leads” to “contacts and accounts.”
• End benefits. Overall value proposition of only using contacts in your CRM.
• Phased benefits. Specification of when your company will obtain each benefit and/or the degree of each benefit relative to a timeline and/or step in the project plan.
• Areas impacted. Definition of the existing lead management processes impacted by this project and the degree of each required change.
  • Up to four appendix slides to provide more description on the recommended changes.
• Teams impacted and required players. Specification of the teams which will be impacted by the project and the players required to successfully move the project forward. Use a continuum of 1-5 to display the critical level of team impact and player involvement.
• Project plan. Outline of the major phases and milestones of the project plan.
• Dependencies and assumptions. Definition of the primary assumptions and dependencies on which the project and project plan are based.
• Next steps. If approved, outline the initiative’s next steps.

Best of luck making the pitch and if you would like a second set of eyes to look at your deck, we’re happy to spend an hour with a fellow convert.

Original research presents unique benefits for your content marketing strategy. But not just anyone or any AI tool can do it well. Before you get started, read through — and answer — these eight questions.

Well-managed leads are one of the best starting points for a business’s growth but beware, mishandling them can easily make the difference between gaining or losing valuable customers. Companies that haven’t streamlined lead distribution for indirect sales channel partners are missing out on valuable business opportunities.

How do channel partners identify and document leads? Typically a form is used to document the lead opportunity, which includes: contact information, prospect profile information (size of company, industry, needs assessment) and revenue potential.
Lead Management addresses two scenarios of sales opportunity development and distribution.

A lead needs to be checked to ensure that it meets the eligibility criteria for it to be distributed to the sales channels. This validation process generally includes reviewing the revenue potential, industry, and products or services requested.

Lead Distribution

One of the main requirements of a lead distribution/management system is for it to have the capability of distributing leads to the right sales representative, in the right channel, and on a timely basis.1
Effective lead distribution within a Partner Relationship Management (PRM) starts with synchronizing lead data between the CRM and PRM so there is one unified source of data. Automated workflows can be used to sort and assign the leads with triggered notifications to the appropriate partners. Partners logging into the PRM portal, can review the leads assigned to them and can get started right away on follow up action. Tasks, activities, and notes can be added to each lead record, which provides complete visibility into their status for the Channel Manager.

Lead Management

Once a lead has been assigned to a partner, the internal channel team needs to stay informed on the progression through the sales cycle – the touch points each partner has with a lead needs to be monitored for opportunities for sales support. Effective PRM solutions will provide a snapshot of activities on individual deals as well as overall trends in sales connections.

Tracking – the ability to track the status of leads is necessary to ensure that the leads have been distributed properly and that they are being actively worked. In addition, leads that are converted to sales need to be tracked for commission and reporting purposes.

Reporting – reports need to be generated (internal for management and external for channel partners) that detail and summarize the leads submitted, worked and sold. These are generally monthly reports and it is useful if both the internal and external reports are generated and distributed at the same time.2

Conclusion

With a modern lead management system, channel strategy becomes proactive rather than reactive. A PRM solution gives the channel team real insight into partner activity where they can monitor, engage and support partners in real time instead of waiting for updates, which they have to manually incorporate into a messy master list.

Sources

1&2 Moran, Patrick. The Sales Channel Development Guide (Kindle Location 216). US MarketSuccess, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

The year is 2018 and millennials are dominating the workforce.

According to Pew Research Center, millennials have officially surpassed Gen Xers as the most prominently represented generation in the modern workforce, with 53.5 million people. In the years to come, more and more of these millennials will be stepping into decision-making positions.

Since 68% of millennials admit to texting “a lot” (take that how you may) on a daily basis, compared to just 47% of Gen Xers, we firmly believe SMS is going to become a staple of the sales process. If millennials are calling the shots, it only makes sense to use their preferred communication channels.

Even though millennials are spending a lot of their time texting, they haven’t completely abandoned email. Given that, why bother texting leads when traditional communication methods like email have successfully yielded results for years?

Simple:

SMS creates a personal connection that email cannot.

Since the majority of modern conversations happen through text, people are getting used to building relationships—personal and professional—through the messaging app on their phone.

Prospects are comfortable having real conversations through SMS. Moving the sales conversation from their email inbox to their texting inbox will only deepen the connection you’re building.

Nowadays, the main question isn’t whether you should be using SMS but how you should be using SMS to maximize its potential and avoid sounding like a creepy salesperson. In this post we’ll highlight six ways you can effectively use text messaging to nurture leads and close more sales.

Let’s get started.

1. Don’t send a text the second they opt in

Nobody wants to get an unsolicited text from someone they don’t really know.

If a lead just gave you their number through an opt-in form, a relationship hasn’t been established yet. They’re not going to expect (or want) an immediate text from you.

The best plan of attack is scheduling a call or shooting a few emails back and forth before you jump in with a text. The key is to establish a relationship first, then start dabbling in the world of text.

2. Ask for quick & simple answers

One of the best reasons to use SMS messaging for communicating with leads is to get answers much more quickly than you would by phone or email.

The 2017 State of SMS report estimates that 7 billion text messages will be sent this year, and 90 percent of them will be read within three minutes.

Since text messages are short and sweet, they’re a great medium to send along quick questions you’re looking for quick answers to. More often than not, your texts will be read within minutes—if you can keep it concise, you’ll have an answer within minutes as well.

3. Use SMS as a unique way to follow up

We’re firm believers that the follow-up is one of the most important elements of the selling process. After you fire off an email looking for an approval or confirmation, a short follow-up by text could be the perfect nudge to get your prospect to take a look. Remember, since 90 percent of text messages are read within a few minutes, there’s a good chance your SMS follow-up will be seen right away and prompt your prospect to answer.

Your message shouldn’t be an essay. Something simple like this could work:

Hey John/Jane - Just want to make sure you saw the email I sent with my schedule.

Since all you’re trying to do is give them a quick nudge, the shorter your text, the more likely they are to act on it. Simplicity is key.

4. Use a voice & tone that fit the conversation

One thing to keep in mind when using text messaging as a sales tool is the context of the conversation, and the voice and tone that fit that context. When we interviewed HouseCall Pro, who increased their close rate by 15 percent using SMS, they shared their approach to finding the right voice and tone:

“It’s important to have a different text voice that matches your use of SMS. If you are doing demo confirmation and ‘transactional’ texts, then keep it professional and to the point. If you are using it for post-demo follow up and you’ve built up rapport with the Customer, then feel free to text more like you would with friends.”

The last thing you want to do is spoil the relationship—and the sale—by appearing unprofessional. Just because texting is the same medium you use to joke around with friends doesn’t mean your conversations with a lead should take the same tone—at least not at first.

5. Understand when it’s time to take a step back

The most important factor of all is recognizing when enough is enough. If you’re not getting responses to your texts, that’s not a green light to keep pushing and pushing. In our interview with HouseCall Pro, they emphasized the need to be mindful of signals from your prospect:

“If you send a couple texts with no reply, stop - it’s a very powerful way to reach out, but with great power comes great responsibility.”

Don’t be the creepy salesperson who won’t stop texting even when a prospect clearly does not want to text back. Some leads may love SMS. Others may absolutely hate it. Take the hint, or you’ll risk blowing the deal before it even materializes.

6. Manage & measure your SMS efforts in your CRM

Years ago when SMS messaging was on the rise, sales teams shied away from using it. Some of that reluctance was simply a fear of experimenting with something new, but it was also due to a lack of trackable data. As texting was taking off, CRMs weren’t built to track interactions happening through SMS.

Luckily, that’s become a thing of the past.

Our SMS integration in Close.io is as straightforward as our built-in calling and emailing integrations. You can send an SMS with one click to any SMS-enabled number within the U.S. or Canada using your existing phone number. Incoming SMS messages show up in your Close.io Inbox and activity feed just like new emails, tasks, and missed calls.

Here’s what it looks like when you work with it:

Now over to you

As millennials start to dominate the workforce, it’s time to shift common sales practices to favor their preferences. If millennials are spending a lot of their time texting, the best bet for salespeople is to take the sales conversation to text message. The key is making sure you’re doing it in a way that sets you up for success, while avoiding the creepy salesperson label.

Here’s a quick recap of six strategies for using SMS to talk to leads:

1. Don’t send a text the second they opt in
2. Ask for quick & simple answers
3. Use SMS as a unique way to follow up
4. Use a voice & tone that fit the conversation
5. Understand when it’s time to take a step back
6. Manage & measure your SMS efforts in your CRM

What are your thoughts? Have you already started leveraging the power of text messaging in your lead nurturing processes, or are you still skeptical? Drop a comment below with your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you.

Want even more actionable advice on how to engage prospects in the conversation and move the sale forward? Download your free copy of The Follow-Up Formula today.

Download the Follow-Up Formula

Driving app downloads and building a fanbase requires an effective launch strategy. The days and weeks after your app goes live are critical for generating demand, but you need a marketing plan in place well in advance to ensure success.

From a public relations perspective, securing press coverage for your app will drive substantial demand. Press coverage obviously helps in terms of awareness, since reporters will be sharing links to your app to their readers. This can mean thousands or even hundreds of thousands of readers. Press coverage also helps to separate your app from the rest of the pack because reporters are devoting time to cover your product, therefore providing validation that your app is worth it.

There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that needs to be done before you get to this point, however. Whether you’re going it alone or relying on a marketing team for help, here are 15 essential items you need before your app goes live.

1. Press release
   A document, usually 1-2 pages that explains your app, its key features, pricing and contact information. This is normally a “just the facts” type of document that also includes a statement from a company executive about that reinforces your key messages.
   
2. Company backgrounder
   A document with information about the developer’s history, previous work, corporate milestones, company size, and mission statement. This is less focused on your upcoming app and more on where your company has been.
3. Product pitch
   A short text blurb, usually 2-3 paragraphs, that is emailed to reporters explaining why they (and their readers) should care about your app. This normally includes information like when your app is launching, what makes it unique, and how reporters can test it out.
4. Press lists
   A list of the press outlets and reporters that you’re going to send your pitch to. This normally includes their email contact information, their main coverage area, and any notes on your previous correspondence to them.
5. Professional screenshots
   High resolution pictures of your app in action, demonstrating key features. These should be in a variety of file formats (JPEG, EPS, PNG) in case a press outlet has their own requirements.
6. Demo video
   A video, usually 30 seconds to 1 minute in length, demonstrating your app’s key features. This should be uploaded to social media websites (YouTube, Vimeo) so a link can be easily shared.
7. Employee headshots
   Professional photos of your company executives. These should be high resolution and include anyone who will go on the record as a spokesperson.
8. Company logo
   High resolution versions of your company logo. This should be in both high resolution .EPS format and .PNG format. The latter is most frequently requested by press, since it gives them more flexibility to include it on their websites.
9. Website
   A landing page where people can learn more about your app, view your collateral, and download your app. This should include a dedicated press page which lists recent press coverage and your contact information.
10. Business cards
    Cards with your logo and contact information. These are necessary if a reporter requests to interview you face-to-face or when attending networking events.
11. Online screensharing service
    A service that lets you do remote, real-time demonstrations of your app for reporters. Examples of these include Google Hangouts, GoToMeeting and BlueJeans.
12. Dial-in conference line
    A service that lets multiple people dial-in to a single conference line to hear from you. In some cases, reporters will only want to interview you instead of seeing your product.
    
13. Press release distribution service
    A service that distributes your press releases to thousands of people at once. These are normally paid services like Cision, Marketwired, or BusinessWire.
    
14. Press mention alerts
    A service that helps you track media coverage for your app. You can set up notifications with tools like Google Alerts and Tweetdeck whenever your app is mentioned.
15. URL tracking system
    A service that helps you understand how press coverage is directly influencing website visits and downloads. Tools like Bit.ly can create short links for you to share with press to measure which outlets are providing the most benefit to you.

David Wiens thought the 2,500-gallon (9,470-liter) stainless steel milk tank he purchased 20 years ago would provide more than enough storage for his dairy farm in Manitoba. These days he’s producing so much he’s had to order a new tank that can hold almost three times as much.

“We have to have everyday pickup now because we don’t have the capacity,” Wiens said from Skyline Dairy, a 240-head operation near the small town of Grunthal that he and his brother Charles have owned since 1989.

As the U.S. takes aim at Canada’s dairy sector as it attempts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, the nation’s farmers and processors are forging ahead with some of their biggest expansions and investments in more than a decade.

• Terence Corcoran: It’s Trudeau’s chance to save us from supply management. He’s blowing it
• A trade war is upon us. Canada must endure short-term pain, look beyond U.S. and open up dairy, telecom
• Canada’s dairy farmers say they’ve had enough and won’t give up any more ground in NAFTA renegotiations

That’s partly to do with rising demand for butter, which consumers increasingly view as a healthy part of their diet. Canada’s dairy sector receives tariff and quota protections from the federal government, and also benefits from a new policy, the so-called Class 7 pricing formula, which helps it deal with the leftover skim milk from butter-making.

Class 7 has made it cheaper for processors to buy domestic supplies, supporting the wave of new capacity that’s being built. It’s also attracted the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, leading him last year to describe Canada’s dairy policies as a “disgrace.”

For farmers like Wiens, Class 7 means an opportunity to produce more milk, albeit for less money: he’s now receiving about 73 Canadian cents (57 US cents) per liter instead of about 80 Canadian cents previously.

The change has spurred some big investments. Gay Lea Foods Co-operatives and Vitalus Nutrition opened a new $100-million processing joint venture in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last fall. This month, Nestle Canada said it will spend $51.5 million to increase production at its ice cream factory in London, Ontario. China’s Feihe International is planning to spend $225 million to build the nation’s first wet infant-formula facility in Kingston, Ontario, which is slated to be completed by 2020. More announcements are expected in 2018, according to industry lender Farm Credit Canada.

In ongoing NAFTA talks, the U.S. has proposed effectively killing Canada’s supply-managed system as it and other producers worry the nation will start exporting more skim-milk proteins, exacerbating a global glut. Canada’s expansion comes at a time when the U.S. dairy industry is struggling amid weak milk sales, eroding earnings for companies like Dallas-based Dean Foods Co.

Still, Canada says it has a trade deficit with the U.S. on dairy and has pledged to defend the sector, which is concentrated in regions whose support Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party relies on.

‘Easy Scapegoat’

While the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts Canadian exports of skimmed-milk powder are poised to grow 13 per cent in 2018, the nation’s shipments account for less than 4 per cent of world trade. The European Union and the U.S. are the top exporters.

“Canada became an easy scapegoat for them to blame,” said Philip Vanderpol, president of MDI Holdings, the Gay Lea-Vitalus joint venture. “Are world prices on protein are down? Yes, because there’s a lot of supply.”

Back in Grunthal, Wiens said the thorny trade environment has always been “that cloud in the sky” that hangs over the industry, but it hasn’t hampered his plans: he’s increased production by 12 per cent in the past 18 months and hopes to keep it up as there are 30 new calves poised to join his existing herd.

“Our exports won’t move the needle anywhere,” said Wiens, standing next to a pen of Holstein calves born a week earlier. “We’re not someone influencing the world price with the small amount we do.”

Bloomberg.com

Remember when Facebook was exclusive to college campuses? It’s hard to picture, right? It seems like millennia ago.

Now, with over 2.2 billion users worldwide, Facebook is as ubiquitous as your morning coffee. Add in Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, and YouTube, and you start to wonder what exactly we did with our time before social media.

Social media has accomplished some amazing things. It has connected our world like never before, and empowered grassroots movements that simply would not have been possible without it.

But, like pretty much anything men create, there are some nasty side effects that have accompanied the rise of social media. Many of which we’re only beginning to understand.

I like to watch TED talks. They’re often intriguing, insightful, entertaining, and sometimes even funny.

On the topic of social media, I’ve found these four TED talks to be the best. (in no particular order)

Watch them for yourself, and tell me you’re not going to look at social media in a different light.

How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google manipulate our emotions – Scott Gallaway

Scott Galloway is a Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business where he teaches Brand Strategy and Digital Marketing to second-year MBA students. He is also the author of the Digital IQ Index, a global ranking of the digital competence of the world’s biggest brands.

In this spectacularly entertaining rant, Scott shares insights and mind-blowing stats about the dominance and motivation of four of the world’s largest tech companies.

THIS is what happens when a society prizes shareholder value over everything else.

How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every single day – Tristan Harris

Tristan Harris is the co-founder of The Centre for Humane Technology, a non-profit dedicated to “reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity’s best interests“.

From Snapstreaks to Facebook notifications to YouTube autoplays to Netflix “next episode”s, a handful of people working at a handful of tech companies steer the thoughts of billions of people every day. And they all want one thing:

Your attention.

In this TED talk, Tristan shares how these companies prey on our psychology for their own profit. He calls for a design revolution in which our tech instead works for us, not against us.

The curly fry conundrum: Why social media “likes” say more than you think – Jennifer Golbeck

Would you like a side of creepy manipulation with those curly fries?

Jennifer Golbeck is an associate professor at the University of Maryland in College Park and is Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab.

In her TED talk, Jennifer explains how some applications of Facebook’s technology are not so innocent, and why she thinks we should return the control of information to its rightful owners.

Also, apparently if you like curly fries it means you are smarter than most people. Don’t ask, just watch…

Your online life, permanent as a tattoo – Juan Enriquez

Andy Warhol once famously said: “Everybody will be famous for 15 minutes.”

But what if he had it wrong? What if, instead of being famous for 15 minutes, we’re only anonymous for that long?

Juan Enriquez is the Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, an investment firm that specializes in “applying transformative life science technologies to solve problems in healthcare and beyond“. (whatever that means)

In Juan’s short TED talk, he looks at the surprisingly permanent effects of digital sharing on our personal privacy.

Think you can play online anonymously? Think again.

Yes, I am on social media

Before you launch yourself into the comment section to point out my hypocrisy, I do indeed use social media. I have, however, taken steps to keep it in its proper place. Steps that you can also take if you so choose.

Social media is a tool. How you use that tool is entirely up to you. Just know that there is a lot at stake here.

And choose wisely.

• Last year, Bob Moritz, PwC's global chairman, wrote a letter accompanying his firm's annual CEO survey recommending four things every CEO should do.
• Business Insider spoke with Moritz in 2018 at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose's CEO Investor Forum, which is dedicated to replacing toxic short-term fixation with a renewed emphasis on creating long-term value.
• Moritz believes that CEOs have an obligation to commit to a purpose that takes into account all shareholders not just because it's morally good, but because it's necessary for survival.
• This post is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

For the past two decades, the professional-services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers has been surveying more than 1,000 CEOs around the world each year.

Over the past few surveys, it's become clear that a growing number of CEOs are concluding that maximizing quarterly growth is not the path to sustainable, long-term value.

Treating employees as more than an expenditure or incorporating a societal purpose into your company is no longer seen as feel-good marketing, but a necessity for survival.

Business Insider spoke with Bob Moritz, PwC's global chairman, last year at Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose's CEO Investor Forum, where CEOs of international public companies met with investors to discuss ways to move toward prioritizing long-term value in a way that benefits all stakeholders, including customers, employees, communities, and shareholders.

Moritz told us that a CEO who complains that shareholders won't let them make necessary investments for the future were missing the point — a belief shared by Michael Bloomberg, the media mogul and former New York City mayor.

"You will never satisfy everybody," Moritz said, adding that you shouldn't have to.

"The onus is on the CEO and the management team to put forth a value proposition that over a certain time horizon investors should want to participate and share in the returns of the company," he said.

Moritz said that while the debate over how to balance short-term and long-term strategies has been going on in the United States since the 1930s, it has emerged in a new context because of the rise of instant data transfer, years of hedge funds and day traders, and an increasingly empowered and informed consumer base and workforce that is demanding more from businesses.

In the 2018 CEO survey, which had more than 1,200 respondents, Moritz wrote that the findings revealed a community of CEOs seeing a troubling misalignment of economic growth and social progress, fueled primarily by income inequality. He offered four suggestions for ways corporate leaders can address this.

Develop metrics beyond financial goals

"As business executives, we can supplement measures such as GDP and shareholder value with indicators of quality of life," Moritz wrote.

He said he'd found that an increasing number of chief executives were working with boards to developing long-term goals to improve the relationship with stakeholders other than investors. For example, Unilever, the consumer-goods company, is working toward having all of its agricultural raw materials be sustainable by 2020 as part of its ambitious and broad "Unilever Sustainable Living Plan."

Implement emerging technologies in a socially conscious way

For the past few years, one of the hottest topics in the business world has been the rise of artificial intelligence across all walks of life and how it will displace jobs.

Moritz recommended companies incorporate emerging technologies like AI in ways that take into consideration the ways they will affect their employees — an approach Microsoft's leadership team is focused on.

Invest in employee education

Moritz said he found it encouraging that the majority of the CEOs surveyed recognized the importance of investing in their employees' skill sets, given that we are in an age of rapidly changing technologies that will either transform or replace existing jobs.

Commit to a purpose that accounts for all stakeholders

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink caused a stir when he announced in January 2018 that his company, the world's largest asset manager, would do business only with companies that could define both their role in society and their long-term strategy.

Moritz agreed, saying it's a necessity in today's world.

"From environmental footprints to social impacts to investor demands, businesses are scrutinised by an ever-wider array of stakeholders," he wrote. "If they fall short in any respect, they erode a vital commodity: trust. In an age of enhanced transparency and heightened accountability, a loss of trust has profound consequences."

He continued: "Perhaps the most important job CEOs — and the broader business community — can do to contribute meaningfully to social progress, as well as business results, is to commit to a common purpose, a shared set of values and behaviours, and drive them through our organisations."

An earlier version of this post was published on March 24, 2018.

SEE ALSO: A top C-suite headhunter who's placed more than 100 execs in major companies shares 3 key traits he looks for in CEO candidates

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: An EVP at Microsoft gives his take on the technologies that will shape the world

The rapidly escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China is taking its toll on equity investors around the globe.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of up to US$60 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing quickly responded with a 25 per cent levy on imports of U.S.-made goods. They total US$3 billion on select items such as pork, fruit, wine, soybeans, steel pipes and recycled aluminum.

However, it may not be the size of the tariffs that markets are most worried about, but rather the response itself, which suggests more retaliation is coming.

“I’m not sure many Chinese have read the Art of the Deal,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff + Associates, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s best-selling memoir and business book. “No doubt, the President campaigned on protectionism, but so many of his supporters thought this was mere rhetoric. But it is now policy, aimed at supporting his Rust Belt Base, and for those of us in the investment community, this represents a new source of market uncertainty.”

• China urges America to pull back from the 'brink' as trade war looms
• Trump steel tariff threat back on for Canada, Mexico after U.S. sets deadline on NAFTA talks

Rosenberg noted that U.S. actions have gone beyond steel and aluminum, to include robots, rail equipment, electric vehicles and advanced technology products and drugs. The U.S. has also blocked Chinese investment in strategic sectors.

On the other side of the equation, the primary Chinese imports of U.S. goods in 2017 were civilian aircraft, engines, equipment and parts at US$17.6 billion, or 10.4 per cent of the total, according to CIBC World Markets.

Autos and autoparts (including trucks and buses) were next at 8.9 per cent, followed by gold, diamonds and jewellery at 7.6 per cent. Soybeans ranked fourth at 7.3 per cent, or US$12.4 billion, followed by semiconductors at 6.8 per cent, or US$11.5 billion.

Crude oil and other petroleum products, cellphones and telecommunications equipment, industrial machines and engines, medical equipment and drugs, and logs and lumber rounded out the top 10.

With that in mind, here are some stocks and sectors that may be vulnerable as the trade dispute heats up.

Boeing Co.

While Boeing already has had a much-publicized trade spat with Canada’s Bombardier Inc., and has been subject to Twitter threats by Trump, a trade dispute with China could end up being far more damaging.

Boeing received a US$38 billion order from China in 2015, but the country has already warned that it could give its business to rival Airbus if the U.S. raised levies.

The company’s sales in China were almost US$12 billion, or approximately 13 per cent of its total.

Agriculture

Soybeans and sorghum are the two soft commodities most dependent on China, as U.S. soybean exports are expected to represent 47 per cent of U.S. production in 2017-2018. China was also the top destination for U.S. soybeans at more than 60 per cent of total exports.

U.S. exports of sorghum (a grass species cultivated for its grain that is used in food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol production) are expected to represent 67 per cent of U.S. production, and China represented 88 per cent of U.S. exports in 2016-2017.

“China does not necessarily need to impose a tariff on U.S. soft commodities to wreak havoc on the industry,” said Ann Duignan, an analyst at J.P. Morgan.

Instead, it could simply draw down its current inventories and/or source from other regions, since the world has plenty of supply of all major crops.

Duignan believes U.S. farmers would be among the likely losers in this scenario, with equipment suppliers such as Deere & Co., CNH Industrial NV, and to a lesser extent AGCO Corp. all considered vulnerable.

Apple Inc.

Twenty per cent of Apple’s revenue, or US$18 billion, came from the Chinese market in the most recent quarter, making it an increasingly important part of its business.

Like many American-branded products, the company uses global suppliers for its parts, but iPhones and iPads are put together in China.

IHS Markit estimates that contract manufacturers in China, including Foxconn, represent just three to six per cent of the manufacturing cost of the iPhone X. However, current trade statistics count most of the manufacturing cost in China’s export numbers.

“With an iPhone, where China is just the final assembler, most of the value (contributed by China) is just the labour rather than the components themselves,” said John Wu, an economic analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation.

That makes it unclear how vulnerable Apple actually is, but the U.S.-based think tank estimates that a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese electronics imports would reduce U.S. output by US$163 billion over the next 10 years, and a 25 per cent tariff would slow output by US$332 billion.

Since Apple and other U.S. companies like Intel and Qualcomm use global supply chains to manufacture products in China, other economies could be caught up in a trade war.

“That is an important reason why U.S.-China trade friction will cause ‘collateral damage,’ especially in other Asian economies,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics research at Oxford Economics.

Nike Inc.

The world’s largest footwear maker continues to grapple with a slowdown in its North American business, but it’s having a lot of success in China. Nike’s sales in China rose 24 per cent to US$1.34 billion in the third quarter, and it hopes for more of the same as it rolls out the NikePlus membership program in the coming months.

“Nike’s Consumer Direct Offense drove strong double-digit growth across our international geographies, led by Greater China,” said chief executive Mark Parker.

However, with China accounting for 15 per cent of Nike’s total revenue, any disruption to its plans there could cause a big dent in its growth.

Nike and rival Under Armour have expressed their concerns about the negative impact tariffs could have on U.S. consumers, but further retaliation could also hinder its efforts to lure in more Chinese shoppers.

Facebook Inc.

The social media network would love to get a piece of the Chinese market, but it has been banned since 2009, and the current trade dispute — coupled with Facebook’s ongoing privacy woes – won’t help its chances.

The company’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wants Facebook unblocked in China, and has visited the country several times, including meetings with President Xi Jinxing.

But until the company sorts out its existing problems, most notably the data breach that saw the data of 50 million get into the hands of political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, its pursuits in China may have to wait.

“We think this issue is more likely to snowball than recede and that advertisers are reaching a tipping point at which spending on not only Facebook and other online platforms, is re-evaluated,” London-based brokerage Liberum Capital told clients this week.

With files from wire services

Why Web Application Maintenance Should Be More Of A Thing

Why Web Application Maintenance Should Be More Of A Thing

Darren Beale

2018-03-26T13:10:18+02:00 2018-04-11T07:40:08+00:00

Traditional software developers have been hiding a secret from us in plain sight. It’s not even a disputed fact. It’s part of their business model.

It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about high-end enterprise software vendors or smaller software houses that write the tools that we all use day to day in our jobs or businesses. It’s right there front and center. Additional costs that they don’t hide and that we’ve become accustomed paying.

So what is this secret?

Well, a lot of traditional software vendors make more money from maintaining the software that they write than they do in the initial sale.

Not convinced?

A quick search on the term “Total Cost of Ownership” will provide you with lots of similar definitions like this one from Gartner (emphasis mine):

[TCO is] the cost to implement, operate, support & maintain or extend, and decommission an application.

Furthermore, this paper by Stanford university asserts that maintenance normally amounts to 60% to 90% of the TCO of a software product.

It’s worth letting that sink in for a minute. They make well over the initial purchase price by selling ongoing support and maintenance plans.

Arguably one of the most underrated elements of enterprise sales is account planning. It takes time, energy, and focus away from other mid-funnel opportunities that require significant resource investment. However, even though strategic account planning sessions are viewed by the sales organization as helpful and important, they simply don’t happen often enough.

In fact, according to a recent CSO Insights 2016 Sales Enablement Optimization Study, 10.4% of those surveyed said that strategic account planning wasn’t relevant to them and therefore they wouldn’t do it. The data also showed that 24.8% of all global participants said that account planning is left up to each sales professional while only 31.7% said that salespeople are “encouraged” to develop strategic account plans. Out of all participants surveyed, only 33.1% require that each sales professional develop strategic account plans. That means over 50% of sales professionals don’t take advantage of account planning to map out how they pursue their strategic accounts. This is not preparation for success given how complex enterprise sales cycles often are, and the many obstacles that have to be navigated with precision: multiple decision makers, disjointed business units, budget considerations, procurement and contract review, vendor assessment, and so on.

In the absence of proper strategic account planning, too much is left to chance or to the discretion of the sales professional who then has to make decisions on the fly, often neglecting the organization’s methodology. Next time you’re debating whether or not to mandate strategic account planning, consider this: the time spent up-front is far less than months wasted later on if a deal goes by the wayside for reasons that could have been prevented. In this article, we’ll demonstrate 5 important elements that can make your team’s strategic account sessions not only bearable, but highly productive and worthwhile.

1. Develop Criteria to Determine When an Account Will Be “Strategic”

Account planning should be an important component of any sales process, but sales professionals who focus on small business or mid-market opportunities usually don’t need to plan as extensively. That’s why it’s helpful to set up a framework to determine when an account should be considered “strategic” and when it’s simply a sales opportunity. Several factors for consideration should include:

• Horizontal growth: Is there opportunity to grow into different departments, teams, offices, or geographies in the future?

• Scaling company: Is the company growing quickly or did it just fundraise in preparation for massive scale?

• Revenue/employees: Is the company’s revenue and/or employee count growing quickly?

• Brand recognition/logo: Is the brand recognizable? Is it one that you want your solution to be associated alongside?

2. Decide How the Internal Organization Will Support Each Deal

Once a deal is considered strategic, then it’s time to determine exactly what that means to the internal organization. For example, does a strategic deal get more support? Are they provided creative resources, solutions architects, or executive involvement?

In addition, consider whether or not strategic deals will be categorized based on the criteria discussed in the first element. For instance, will there be levels of strategic deals? Perhaps level 1 is reserved for deals that are $100k – $250k ARR and support includes templates from marketing whereas a level 5 deal of $2M+ ARR gets all-hands-on-deck with major support allocated to the deal. While a sales professional should always be viewed as the ultimate quarterback, this role becomes substantially more important as resources are added, further emphasizing the value and purpose of the strategic account planning process.

3. Assess the Gap Between Current Versus Desired Business Case

One of the most important components of strategic account planning is understanding that in almost every deal, a gap exists. If the account is a new business enterprise prospect, for instance, then it’s unlikely that the first conversation or even the first year of conversations will uncover every single business opportunity available. Typically, an enterprise deal will start with conversations surrounding a singular challenge, business unit, or opportunity. That’s why determining what’s initially likely versus the ideal long-term business case is so critical. Without a detailed roadmap to guide the sales professional in her conversations, it’s unlikely she’ll bring in just the right people at just the right time to have the necessary conversations that will fully realize the deal’s potential.

4. Begin Coordinated Execution

Once the team has been determined and the gap has been assessed, it’s time to actually begin coordinated execution against the plan – i.e., the sales process. As we mentioned earlier, the concept of the quarterback is one that really begins to manifest in this stage. The sales professional must rally the team, help them understand the vision, and coordinate each onsite, each customer call, and each interaction so the prospect sees the team moving in unison. It’s during this stage that iteration is also extremely key. What if the plan isn’t working as intended? What if the team isn’t able to engage the necessary stakeholders? What if the executive team pushes back in ways that weren’t considered? By continuously reviewing and optimizing the plan, sales professionals and managers alike can measure what’s working and what’s not so they can make adjustments on the fly.

5. Revisit Account Details Regularly and Make Adjustments to Process

Like anything in sales, a deal is never actually done – even after the contract is signed. Selling needs continued iteration and strategic account planning is certainly no different. Again, 1:1 coaching also plays a significant role in this stage of the process. Sales leaders can bring in their experience and use strategic account planning as an ongoing exercise to help guide sales professionals and insert their experience. Rather than set strategic account planning sessions to occur at a specific time each year or each quarter, it’s best to make them ongoing and a part of weekly 1:1 discussions so no detail is left undiscussed for too long.

With the right process in place, strategic account planning doesn’t need to be painful or even terribly time-consuming. Think of it this way: any amount of time that is spent planning and researching an account on the front end is time and effort saved on the back end when the deal avoids stalling at the proposal stage. By emphasizing the importance of strategic account planning and by making it a part of weekly discussions, your sales team will have a significant advantage over the competition. Better yet? You’ll be better positioned to expand the account for years to come and build a long-term partnership.

The post 5 Important Elements For Strategic Account Planning Sessions appeared first on OpenView Labs.

Here are the questions you may be asking yourself:

Why doesn’t my prospective client return my calls?

Why doesn’t anyone reply to my emails?

How do you compel a prospect to call you back or reply to your email?

First, let’s make sure we understand the nature of the relationship between you, the salesperson, and your prospect, the person who you are asking for their single, finite, non-renewable resource, their time. You are pursuing your prospect in hopes of obtaining their business. They are not pursuing you in hope that you will kindly bestow upon them the generous opportunity to do business with you. These things being true, your prospective clients have no obligation to reply to you at all.

Next, it is important to understand why your prospective client doesn’t respond. They are busy running their business. They have said yes to meetings with salespeople who created so little value as to be no better than a commercial for their company and product. They are overwhelmed with requests from people on their team and from their own clients. Your request for time isn’t likely enough to crowd out the more important priorities for which they already have too little time available. Unless, of course, it does rise to that level . . .

To be someone worth meeting with, you must have something worth gaining from that meeting. You must trade enough value that your pitch for time promises more value than the value of the time your prospective client is gifting to you (and it is a gift). Unless and until you get this right, not only will you not get a return call or email, you also will be deprived of the meeting you so badly desire.

If you are professionally and persistently pursuing your dream client, know that this means it is your responsibility to call them again, and it is not their responsibility to return your call or email. It’s also your responsibility to frame your request as a trade for value in which they are on the receiving end, whether they do business with you or not.

Stop staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring. Pick up the phone and try again with a more effective approach.

The post It’s Not Your Prospect’s Job to Call You Back appeared first on The Sales Blog.

Whether they are involved in winning new business or seeking to retain or expand existing business relationships, one of the key things that every member of your sales organization needs to understand is how they establish unique value for each existing or prospective customer.

In the case of new business, this is about the future value that your prospective customer believes they will derive from implementing your solution. In the case of existing business, it is about the actual business value they have already derived from using your solution.

This is nothing to do with having superior features or functions: it is about the superior business outcomes that your solutions enable your customers to achieve. You’d hope that understanding this would be baked into the DNA of any competent B2B sales person.

But all-too-often, when I ask salespeople how they create tangible business value for their customers, their answers turn out to be disturbingly vague…

Projecting our potential value for new customers

The impact of this value vagueness on new business is profound. The most common reason why sales people lose apparently well qualified opportunities is because they failed to establish how their capabilities create clear and unique business value for their prospective customer. They either lose to a more value aware competitor or to a decision to do nothing.

If customers don’t see the need to act – if the discomfort of sticking with the status quo is less than the perceived cost and risk of change – the most common outcome is that after considering their options, they end up deciding they can live with their current situation.

Even if your sponsor sees the need for change, they will almost certainly have to persuade a group of senior stakeholders to sign the project off – and in most organizations of any significant size these ultimate decision makers require a robust business case before giving their agreement.

Recent research has shown that in 85% of cases your customers expect a significant business decision to be supported by a credible business case – but in a disturbing asymmetry, only 15% of vendor proposals include an adequate commercial justification. Is it any surprise that your sales people’s most common competitor is probably the status quo?

For new business customers, we need to get them to believe the future business value that will result from a decision to implement our solution. And that’s what it is – a projection, hopefully based on credible examples of past customer success. There’s inevitably going to be a certain level of imprecision or vagueness. Let’s not add to it!

Ensuring existing customers acknowledge the value we have created

But there’s absolutely no excuse for value vagueness when it comes to the benefits our existing customers have derived from their use of our solution. And yet far too few customer relationship managers – whether you label them installed base sales, account managers or customer success managers – seem to have anything like enough understanding of the business value that has been created for your customers.

Some don’t even bother to ask. Some don’t know how to ask. Some spend their lives talking to people on a day-to-day operational level who wouldn’t know how to answer the question. Some pride themselves on achieving “customer delight” but define or measure that largely in terms of an NPS score or the speed with which they respond to customer requests.

They may assume that their relationship is a good one. But they don’t understand what the strategic decision makers in their account value, or how they measure it. They are often painfully and dangerously unaware of the business outcomes that their solution is supporting.

So, when it comes to renewal time or if the customer’s business priorities shift, your presence in the account can suddenly become vulnerable. Someone – very likely NOT the people they have been interacting with on a day-to-day basis – asks “why do we need this solution?” or “couldn’t this be done cheaper?” and stimulates the vendor to engage in a panicky and often ineffective last-minute scramble to justify their value.

We can’t afford to wait to be asked. We need to understand what value our customer expected when they decided to invest in our solution, and we need to understand what measurable value we have actually enabled them to create.

We need to establish the proof points that support our value assertions. We need to make the power sponsors and change agents within the customer aware of our contribution. And we need to collaborate with them to identify other opportunities to drive further value. We can’t afford to be vague about our value, and we can’t afford for them to be vague about our value either.

This is a blindingly obvious challenge for most SaaS businesses, whose very business model depends on retaining and expanding their footprint in accounts. It’s why almost all of them now employ customer success managers. But even here, there is often room for improvement.

Whether by accident or design, many of these customer success functions are largely operationally focused, and only turn their attention to commercials when a renewal is due. It would be much more productive if every customer success function also saw its function as measuring the tangible business value that their solution was generating and making sure that this was visible to the strategic decision makers in the account.

The three vectors of value

So – what do your existing and prospective customers actually value? Inevitably, each individual customer will have different outcomes and metrics. But every customer environment has three potential high-level vectors of value:

Increase revenues

The first way in which you can create value for your customers is to enable them to increase their revenues. For example, your solution could help them to:

• Increase their prices
• Reduce their discounts
• Win more deals
• Increase their market share
• Increase their share of their customers’ wallets
• etc.

Reduce costs

You can also create value by enabling your customers to reduce their costs. For example, your solution could help them to:

• Spend less money
• Spend less time
• Improve efficiency
• Reduce or eliminate waste
• etc.

Achieve goals

The third – rather broader – category creates value by enabling your customer to achieve their corporate, departmental, functional or personal goals. For example, your solution could help them to:

• Eliminate risks
• Reach objectives
• Improve productivity
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Enhance their reputation
• etc.

Preferably you’ll want your customer to agree that you create tangible value across a number of different dimensions. But if they don’t believe you can create or have created any specific tangible value, your chances of winning a new customer or retaining an existing one are heavily compromised.

And remember, the only entity that can agree that something is valuable is your customer and the people that work for them. You can’t simply tell them. All you can do is to guide them, and to open their eyes. They have to recognize the value for themselves and confirm it back to you.

What next?

I strongly recommend that you initiate an urgent value audit for all significant current sales opportunities and existing customer relationships. Find out what is truly valuable to them. Establish how you contribute to it. Get them to agree to the role they recognize that you are playing (or they expect you to play) in creating value.

Help them to acknowledge the unique attributes that allow you to create this value and make sure they establish a clear connection between the two. And then explore – with your now more value-aware prospect or customer – how you can collaborate with them to create the next wave of incremental business value.

And if any of these value audits draws a blank, or can only identify vague, amorphous and hard-to-pin-down value, I strongly suggest you get very focused on proving your value before your prospect or customer concludes that you have none.

There’s been a lot of talks lately that email marketing is either dead or dying. It seems that we no longer trust emails. And, frankly speaking, browsing through your inbox has become quite a tedious task. Now you have to dig useful and needed emails out of the huge pile of garbage, namely promotions and spam.

These days you can find a lot of communication channels to invest your money into, such as social media, search engine optimization, link building, and so on and so forth. Maybe, email marketing is no longer among top priorities of lead generation.

We wanted to answer this question ourselves. Take a look at what we’ve found out.

1. Email tips and tricks

One of the main purposes of emails is to deliver value. That’s why instructional letters perform very well. Here’s what you can share:

• hacks on how to use your product;
• tips on something related to the industry;
• expert opinions about your product or the type of solutions you provide.

Connect your email to seasonal events

In email marketing, it’s important to be at the right place at the right time. It’s no secret that sales rates in December get higher than ever, all because of Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Marketers and salespeople can use holidays to their own advantage. For example, think about how your solutions can be linked to certain events. Try to be creative with some fresh ideas.

Tip: if there’s no creative spark, sign up for mailing lists of a few brands, and you will get inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.

Write Cart Abandonment letters

It’s a good method to reach out to prospects who visited your site, added a product to the cart, and left without purchasing, and turning them into customers.

Cart abandonment letters are an extremely powerful tool for e-commerce practices. Statistically, 68.9% of shopping carts end up being abandoned, and 30% of sales are possible to be recovered with such a letter:

For additional efficiency, consider adding a promotion coupon to the letter or offer free shipping to motivate people to check out.

Let your subscribers know when new goods arrive in the store

Of course, in order for you to win sales using this technique, you have to update your stock frequently and inform your customers about the new arrival with the help of one of the many email reminder services. Also, it’s more efficient if the goods are something to shout about: a clothing brand everyone was asking for, a gadget that is popular on the market, etc.

Speaking of examples of Stock Update emails, the picture below is a good one:

Segment your emails

These days personalization matters. People get piles of emails, so they only get interested in the ones that respond to their interests and which match their experiences.

However, if you have a large number of readers, it’s hard to write an email that could meet all their needs. That’s why segmentation can come in handy.

You can make segmented lists based on different criteria:

• hobbies of your subscribers;
• behaviors (groups of products they browsed);
• stages of sales funnel consideration, ready-to-buy, etc.);
• location (newsletter for Americans, Russians, etc.).

Odds are, segmentation will dramatically boost up your return on investment (ROI). At the very least, the opening rate will be higher than it was before. Why? The answer is simple: people are exhausted of being buried in tons of irrelevant emails. Take a look at the following data:

As you can see, almost 50% of respondents get irrelevant emails daily. Most of them end up in the Spam folder for different reasons:

Being flagged as Spam is one of the worst nightmares that could happen to your email campaign. It can drop your deliverability, and subscribers won’t even get your next letters. An effective way to avoid this is to employ CRM, thanks to which the letters will always get to clients’ inboxes. This ensures that your letter will be seen and significantly increases the chances that it will be read.

If you segment letters, your subscribers can get news about the offers that match their interests. A research conducted by Technology Advice determined several ways for email marketers to improve their strategies.

Do you know what is good news here? Email segmentation covers top three points, therefore, immensely improves your marketing strategy.

Reward customers for being loyal and re-engage the old ones

Do you have people who have been consistently buying your products during the last year? Email marketing is a great way to say “thank you”. Here are some ways to do it:

• a “thank you” letter;
• a gift card of a certain value;
• a free product.

This technique will get you some devoted fans and brand advocates.

If you have old clients who haven’t bought anything from you during the last year, use email reminder service as a re-engagement tool. Send your old customer a gift card to remind them that you are there for them.

Segmentation Via Shopping Behaviors

The idea of segmentation via shopping behaviors is somehow similar to cart abandonment emails, but not by all means. The idea behind this is to reach out to the customers who visited your website, even if they didn’t add anything to the cart.

This algorithm has been implemented by a significant number of retailers all over the world. It is very efficient as a reminder for people who might have forgotten to check out because they switched to some other activity.

Send follow-up emails

Most shops don’t deliver products right after they’ve been ordered online. Odds are after your clients made a purchase, they’ll have to wait for a while.

Don’t leave them disoriented. A follow-up email is a great way to keep your client posted and inform them on what they can do afterward. Here’s what you can write about:

• thank a client for a purchase;
• update them on the status of their product;
• remind that you have customer support ready to answer any questions.

A follow-up email is quite a little detail, but it’s a great way to keep in touch with your clients.

Ask Subscribers For Insights

This is by far the most productive way to develop your email list: asking the readers themselves to influence the business they deal with and the service they receive.

This strategy is winning because of its transparency. A user can know what to expect from your brand, therefore your emails won’t get high rejection rates or be flagged as Spam.

2. 10 tips to increase sales through email marketing

So far we have looked at the importance of email marketing, how sales can be increased with its help and what efficient practices there are. Now, let’s go through the tried-and-true tips to generate even more revenue with the help of email marketing.

1. Find and test the most effective email formats

The advantages of plain text:

• Lower risk of being marked as spam. Due to the flood of promotional emails with pictures, videos, and links, spam-checkers are now very cautious regarding rich HTML. Plain text, as well as basic HTML, don’t stand the risk of being considered spam.
• Suitable for mobile devices. Plenty of modern smartphones display nothing but text. By sending a plain-text message to subscribers, you can be sure that they will see it on their devices just as you intend them to be shown.
• More personal. Plain text emails are perceived as much less commercial than bright HTML-templates. You’ll be creating the effect of personal communication, hence looking more trustworthy.

The disadvantages of plain text:

• Limited forms of content supported. You can’t use bright pictures, GIFs, links, and videos. Therefore, the text is your only hope of winning your subscriber’s heart. Plain text emails are not visually powerful, therefore you’ll have to work twice as hard on your copy;
• Lack of visual appeal in displaying links. In order to put a link in a plain-text email, you’ll have to fully type it. Since some links are long enough with strange characters in them, and most of them don’t look pretty, it may be hard to encourage the reader to click them.

When should you use HTML?

It’s clear that you need minimal efforts to write a plain text email. With HTML, however, you’ll need someone to code it for you, optimize it both for computers and mobile devices, test it on different screens. Sounds like a lot of hustling. Is the result worth all the trouble?

There are some undeniable advantages of HTML emails that you should take into account:

• They promote brand awareness. In a plain text email, you cannot put your brand logo, images, custom fonts, etc. HTML opens a lot of visual possibilities, so the reader can remember your company better.
• Strong visual appeal.HTML-emails are bright, fancy, and captivating. You can challenge your creativity adding images, GIFs, and videos of all kinds;
• Easier for a reader to scan. Most of the HTML-templates are designed in the way that it’s not even necessary to read them. Your reader can just scan the letter and focus on the most important parts (for example, the offer). Nowadays, when most of us have a short attention span, having a chance to read emails in few seconds can be a huge advantage to your subscribers;
• You can use clickable buttons and hyperlinks.With the help of HTML, you’ll be able to format the link the way that’s going to be the most appealing to readers. Make it either as a hyperlink or as a button;
• The possibility to measure the efficiency of performance. With HTML-emails, you are free to use all kinds of metrics: open rates, click through rates, etc. You’ll always know exactly how your campaign is performing.

Disadvantages of HTML

• Takes much more time and effort to create. You’ll either need to dive into coding yourself or hire someone who can do it for you. Also, the code should be as clean as possible, otherwise, welcome to the spam folder;
• Is associated with promotional emails. Most of HTML-emails your readers get are promotional. Therefore, our trust to beautifully coded and bright letters is quite low. Chances are, no one will even read an HTML-email.

Basic HTML vs Rich HTML

As was mentioned above, plain text can outperform HTML due to the two main reasons: people feel suspicious about bright letters with lots of pictures, buttons, etc., and spam checkers filter HTML.

However, those problems usually come up when we think of Rich HTML format. It’s the one that’s all bright and shiny, like this:

If you don’t want to appear aggressive, consider using basic HTML. The difference between two formats is that basic HTML is, in fact, your average plain text email where HTML is used only to add several simple elements, such as headlines and clickable links.

What do your subscribers think?

To every format, there are pros and cons to consider. Sometimes it’s not that easy to make up your mind. Here’s a solution to that: find out what your readers want to see in their inboxes.

2. Make your email mobile friendly

Among the other tips to increase sales with email marketing, this is probably the most important one. It is a crucial thing to remember about because over 60% of people read emails using mobile clients. Good news is making your email mobile friendly is really a walk in the park. All you have to do is to follow some simple tips:

1. Use one-column template
Mobile screens have limited navigation possibilities. Therefore, consider creating your letter using a single column template. It’s compatible both with tablets and phones and is more straightforward for different email clients.

2. Your emails should be up to 600px wide
These days, most of the modern gadgets can handle responsive templates. However, on less recent devices, viewing a complex design can still be a problem.

In order to deliver any notification or news to your subscriber in its best quality, we suggest you keep your emails up to 600 pixels wide. You can do it by setting a “width” attribute or a CSS width property.

3. Use a larger font size
10 px font is hard to be read even on a computer. On mobile gadgets, there is a tendency that small fonts become even smaller. That’s why you should use 16 or 18 px for a newsletter. 14px font is fine as well.

4. Don’t use images or display them
When people use mobile Internet, it’s mostly 3G. So, in order to load an image, your subscribers will need to use more traffic and subsequently spend more money.

The simplest way around is to reduce the number of images. You won’t suffer much. On the other hand, if visuals are important to you, think about optimizing them accordingly.

We recommend that you shrink the image by 50% and compress it slightly. Also, if you have some coding skills (or someone on your team does), apply the practices of responsive coding.

5. Don’t use an image as a call-to-action
Some email clients only show images if they come from verified addresses. If you state your CTA in a form of an image, and it’s not displayed, congratulations, you’ve lost the most important part of your email.

If you have decided to go with an image for CTA, don’t forget about ALT-tags. Make sure each your alt-tag precisely reflects the message the image would’ve brought.

6. Avoid stacking links
The finger tap is not half as precise as the click of the mouse. When you put a stacked link in your emails, it’ll look like this:

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

For a user who reads on a mobile device, it’s going to be extremely tough to click the right link. Instead of the first one, they can accidentally tap on the second or even third. Irritating.

If you need to include multiple links, the solution is to separate them with text, images, or blank space.

7. Test your emails on multiple devices
Of course, it doesn’t mean that you have to buy phones with different screen sizes. There are tools such as Litmus that will help you see how a letter will look on different devices.

In order to run such testing, you’ll only need to have an HTML-template of your email.

3. Test your email campaign

It’s important to be sure that your email is proofread before you hit “Send” in your email reminder service. Hyperlinks that don’t work, pictures that don’t show up, a <b> tags that are somehow left out in the test, and spelling mistakes: all this can jeopardize your chances of winning your next client over.

Double-checking your email campaigns can be stressful: you don’t know where to start or what to look for. That’s why we came up with a simple yet helpful checklist to spare you the trouble:

• Start with copy: grammar, spelling, the accuracy of dates and time, capitalization, punctuation, etc.;
• Your email address;
• Subject lines: typos in subject lines are the worst. Don’t lose face because of them;
• Send yourself a test email and make sure it looks okay because that’s how your subscribers will see the letter;
• Look for design flaws in both desktop and mobile versions;
• Send your test to a colleague. A fresh set of eyes matters, so ask someone to proofread your letter.
• Double-check subscribers lists and segments: is everything okay?
• Press “Send”, you are golden.

4. Communicate with individuals, not crowds

You don’t talk to companies, departments, or any other crowds. You talk to a specific guy or girl, face-to-face. The personalization of your emails should go beyond using someone’s first name. In order to do that, here are some things to take into account.

1. Find something common that’s uncommon.
We unite because of our interests and feelings. And so do your readers. We all tend to trust someone similar: perhaps, it goes far back to the time when people lived in tribes and preferred sticking with the ones from their own village.

However, looking for a common characteristic of your subscribers is not that easy. Perhaps, your first temptation will be to look for something that’s 100% true: “We know you like listening to music”, “You enjoy having free time”.

There’s nothing unique in the statements above. Almost everyone can relate to those things but they won’t unite you.

Hint: look for something you have in common with your subscribers but it’s not particularly common.

2. Find some mutual connections
Another way to gain trust is to underline some connection that you and your subscribers have in common. There are two ways to look at it:

• Find a real offline connection. Maybe, you collected subscribers’ emails because they were the members of a conference. Then your subject line can be: “I saw you at the [Name of Event’]”. Even if you didn’t, there were thousands of people attending events, so how can your subscribers check?
• Refer to someone they respect and trust. For example, as you reach to a subscriber, name-drop a trendsetter one reads. Speaking of that, why not to write something like “What have we learned from Neil Patel?”. When a subscriber sees a familiar name, she’s more eager to read the email and relate to it.

3. Use subscriber’s name (and MORE than once).
Addressing a subscriber using their first-name is already a mainstream. However, it rarely goes beyond the subject line. Such a small detail as mentioning your reader by name more than once can have a surprisingly good effect.

4. Use praise for personalization
Check whether your readers have had some big achievements lately. Read more about them. Then praise your subscribers in an email.

Try to go beyond “I’m amazed by you”. That sounds a little bit hollow, doesn’t it? It’s better to go with something like “I’m amazed you won [the name of award].

5. Reuse successful campaigns

It’s totally okay to be using the same letters twice. This time, you’d be reaching people who didn’t read your email the first time. Maybe the timing was wrong or they were too busy to open the email.

Give your successful campaigns a second chance. It’s going to save you time, and results won’t be disappointing.

6. Use storytelling

People love listening to stories. In fact, that is the reason why we play games, watch movies, and read books. In marketing, storytelling works as well. However, when you sell with stories, they should be the ones worth listening to.

Here are some tips that will help you incorporate storytelling into your email marketing strategy:

1. Don’t make up fake stories
People can feel when they are lied to. We can sense if someone is trying to fool us. More importantly, we hate being fooled more than anything else.

That’s why you should aim for true stories in your campaign. Of course, it might seem that you have nothing to tell. In that case, take some details, feel free to exaggerate, but leave the base of your story real.

Take a look at how Uber does it. They had a beautiful story about a driver, who saved passenger’s lives. It doesn’t sell the idea to order Uber but implements the message that Uber is safe. It’s much better. Now people will want to call Uber.

2. Tell your customer’s stories
“Happy clients” is the easiest kind of stories. Here, you don’t need to write a long story or be a big brand. Even ambitious yet small companies have clients that enjoyed the product and will be happy to speak about their experience.

7. Use the power of P.S.

It’s also one of the fine marketing tips to increase your sales. As you know, P.S. stands for Latin “post scriptum” which translates to English as “written after”. We are using it in email marketing a lot, all because first and last sentences are usually the ones people read.

Here’s what you can add to your P.S.:

The hyperlink. The hyperlink. You can include the URL in your P.S. to increase the chances of the click. It’s fine to mention your selling points in Post Scriptum, but make sure they have a new angle than the ones you’ve written about before.

Create urgency. P.S. gives your email the feeling of immediacy. Therefore, it’s a good chance to talk about limited offers and promotions.

The Bonus. It’s by far the most effective kind of P.S. It gives your readers a sense of surprise. They’ve been reading the letter, haven’t expected anything, and then boom, you have free stuff for them.

Testimonials. P.S. is basically your last chance to reassure an indifferent subscriber and turn them into your customer. So, an endorsement from someone who’s already tried the product can be a fine approach to change one’s way of thinking.

8. Show your subscribers what they will miss

According to the article “How loss can be a Winning Strategy” posted by Neurosciencemarketing, people are so scared of losing that it even pushes them towards an irrational and illogical decision. We are all loss averse, and marketers can use it.

The first thing you can do is simply reframe some data. Everything can be put as a win or as a loss. For example, you have $50. I’d say you can keep $30 or gamble with a risk to lose all you have. It’s non-optional. As it turns out, most people are willing to keep the money they already have.

Here’s another scenario. You have $50. I say you have to either lose $20 or gamble and risk losing all your cash. The situation is the same: even in case you lose $20, you still get to keep your 30 bucks. But the perception changes everything, and 62% of people are now willing to gamble.

That’s the approach you can use in email marketing: frame the alternative to buying as a loss.

9. Don’t sell until the target’s ready

It’s like winning somebody’s affection. Until you do, you get to be a friend, a teacher, a shoulder to cry on: anything but a salesperson. Sell yourself before you start pushing the product.

10. Tackle the information gap

There is a powerful force that gets people to as far as abandoning basic survival instinct, not to mention opening the email. It’s called curiosity. If you want to increase open rate, appeal to your readers’ interests. Think of some ways to wake up the sense of curiosity. Those could be:

1. Outperform the expectations.

The idea is to write a subject line that will turn readers’ world inside out. Basically, you have to turn this headline:

“How To Increase Sales By Using Email Marketing”

into something like this:

“1 Campaign, 6 Emails, 20% Higher Sales Rates”

The second subject line makes readers wonder about something. It gives something you don’t expect.

According to the research by Loewenstein, curiosity increases if you cover someone’s knowledge gap in the are of interest. So make it happen.

2. Tease your reader

There has to be a little bit of teasing. It’s not irritating, but interesting, and tempting. In order to do that, assure that you are talking about something extremely new. In the same research, it says that people assume that they know a lot more than they do in reality.

However, if you offer some unique knowledge that your subscriber can’t possibly get elsewhere, you’ll increase their curiosity.

Compare these subject lines:

“5 Lessons For Email Marketers”

and

“5 Lessons For Email Marketing Only Gary Vaynerchuk Can Teach”

In the first case, a person can assume that he/she already knows those 5 things. The second one is backed up by a trusted source, therefore giving much more value to the content.

These tips will help you increase conversions and click-through rates of your email campaign. Also, you can do email marketing even more efficiently, if you have additional tools to help you.

3. What can you expect after using these tips?

If you implement everything we’ve talked about, with the best email marketing practices to increase sales, you should have a really positive impact on your business. Here’s what you’ll experience:

1. High engagement and communication

Email campaigns will begin the interactions between customers and your brand. You will get the link clicks, email replies with customer opinion, and better brand awareness. According to Forrester Research, email marketing makes up 11% of overall interactive marketing.

You’ll connect with your clients and gain their dedication.

2. High Conversions

The study by Fluent shows that over 75% of people buy goods after they get an email from the seller. If you succeed in creating a good selling copy for your email, there is a good chance that your work will pay off.

3. Keeping in touch with all customers

Do you know how sometimes a person buys something from you and fades away? With consistent email marketing, it won’t happen so much. Now, you are constantly reminding your customers that you exist. You announce new services and products, update them on the latest news, so if they need something, they are likely to come back to you.

As for a cheap and relatively easy form of marketing, email marketing has awesome effects on your business if you use it right.

4. Conclusion

If you are looking for ways to increase sales with email marketing, you have chosen the right way. It’s cheap, easy to manage, and extremely effective.

There are some important strategies you should follow: try different formats of letters, segment your subscribers, and personalize your emails. The help of email reminder service, special tools and software will also come in handy.

This post originally appeared on NetHunt CRM Blog.

Want to Sell More? Here's How

In this article, you'll learn: 3 ways to gain trust with your customers.

Introduction

The meaning of trust is the reliance on the integrity, strength, ability or surety of a person or a thing.

You need to get customers trusting you. You can’t do this disagreeing with them or insisting they do certain things.

Skepticism

This planet has many unethical salespeople who have misrepresented the benefits of their products, so customers won’t always trust you. Some consumers are skeptical of all salespeople, so it’s not just you. This skepticism keeps people on guard.

It’s critical you’re aware of the skepticism and that you tackle it.

Distrust is not the buyer’s problem—it’s your problem. If your customer doesn’t trust you, the information you offer them will be minimized, challenged, shopped, and maybe thrown in the trash.

Why Do Customers Have Distrust?

When your buyer leaves and doesn’t buy something, that is a decision. When a buyer decides to put it off and “thinks about it”, that’s a decision. The decision to “shop” is caused by some level of distrust.

If the buyer had full and complete confidence in you, the product, the terms, and the company, they would buy now. As a salesperson, you always get a decision from a customer. When the buyer doesn’t trust you or something about the presentation, they are going to add time to the cycle by not making a decision to purchase.

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Every decision is a decision and this is why trust is critical. If they don’t make the decision to buy, chances are there is some level of distrust.

Creating Trust is Your Responsibility 

Customers don’t make sales, salespeople do. You will either make or break the sale. It’s your job to create trust with your customer. This is why you need to know how buyers think.

When you are a salesperson you are in the arena of handling people, not just selling products. When sales are down most salespeople blame their customers. When you turn responsibility over to another person, it’s an indication of a very low level of responsibility, and low responsibility equals low levels of production.

I want to give you 3 practical ways you can increase trust today with your customers:

#1 Credibility

The higher your credibility the higher you will increase your sales. Distrust causes you to lose credibility, and a loss of credibility adds to the time cycle and reduces your chances at a sale.

You can be trusted but still lose your credibility. “I’m not sure”, “I don’t know”, “I can’t tell you that yet”, or having to check with a manager causes credibility issues.

Credibility is one of those valuable assets you have as a salesperson. Credibility doesn’t have to do with trust, although it has something to do with gaining or losing trust. Credibility is vital to you appearing as a professional.

When something happens that puts your credibility into question, like if you misquote something or give wrong information, they will not trust you with their decision. If a customer doesn’t trust you it won’t matter what you say or how much you beg, you will have your hands full.

Ignoring the credibility issue will not make the credibility issue disappear. You need to work on your credibility by knowing everything there is to know about your field. Being credible is just part of becoming a master in the art of selling.

#2 Use Third-Party Data

Your presentation can be validated by using 3rd party data. When you are documenting facts for your customer, it’s preferable to use 3rd parties rather than you.

If Bob said something about a product, it’s more believable than if I said it as the salesperson. You don’t go into a military operation without equipment and supplies, nor should you as a salesperson go to your customer without 3rd party data.

Show your customers the benefits of the product on paper. Show them proof about how your product can improve whatever your product improves by using statistics and success stories in writing.

Take the time to prepare materials that will show them what your competition does or doesn’t do in writing. Remember that an informed buyer is always better than an uninformed buyer. This is because uninformed buyers can’t make a decision.

Informed buyers armed with data are quicker to make a decision. Do you pull the trigger when you don’t know what you’re doing? Of course not. So why would your buyer? Information builds credibility, credibility builds trust, and trust leads to decisions. 3rd party data helps with these things.

#3 Show, Don’t Just Tell

I’m sure you’ve had a customer not listen to you, we all have. This happens when the buyer doesn’t trust you, as I’ve already spoken about. The interesting thing is, people will take the written word out of a newspaper—and even if it’s false—they will buy it. This is why you always need your prices and information written out for people to see.

Having it in writing lets them see it with their own eyes and makes you more believable. Buyers don’t believe the words they hear but put a lot of significance on the words they see in print.

When people see something in writing it becomes more real to them. When you ask for the price of something and the salesperson tells you it’s $100 bucks, you will still probably look for the tag on it to see if what he says is really true. That’s because you believe what you see, not what you hear.

As a salesperson, you need to tell people and show them. Assume that your buyer won’t believe what you say, so always have written data on hand to back up what you say.

Summary

To gain the trust you need which is critical to the sale, remember to show and not just tell, to use 3rd party data to back up your claims, and to know everything you can so you don’t ever lose credibility.

Think about getting the job done—whatever it takes. A buyer who tells you “I’m not buying today” indicates a lack of trust either in you or in their ability to make a good decision. You need to be understanding of the customer that shows distrust. Only then can you gain trust.

Get on one of my Certification Programs today and I will coach you to become a master in sales and jack up your income to never-before-seen heights.

Be great,

GC

Automating your business is not just a nice thing to do; these days, it’s an absolute must. Why spend unnecessary time handling administrative duties or other repetitive tasks when your time is better spent talking to prospects and clients or just working to grow your business?

With a plethora of online tools at your disposal, adding automation to your sales, marketing and customer service process can be simple.

Automate Sales Processes

Ideally, the only people your sales team talks to are the people who are already qualified, know exactly what they want, and are ready to sign a contract. In reality? Your sales team all-too-often spends their valuable time talking to prospects who are just kicking the tires, not ready to make a commitment.

By automating some aspects of your sales process, you can help the team get closer to that ideal. One option is adding a pricing calculator to your site. This lets the prospect pick and choose the level of product or service as well as compare features and benefits. They’ll be able to determine if they even have the budget to hire you, which makes the sales call geared towards the benefits of working with you rather than focusing on the cost.

Another way to free up your sales team is to set up a service to automate meeting scheduling. Your sales team dreads having to go back and forth with their prospects via email, trying to find a time for a meeting.

Ask your team to set up the blocks of time they have available, integrate with their calendar, and voila— prospects can pick and choose which time works best for them. This makes the process of talking to sales effortless; your prospects (and your team) will appreciate it.

Finally, automating the follow-up emails for sales means they don’t have to spend all day chasing leads, but rather talking and closing the leads that are actually interested. Setting up a tool like HubSpot CRM’s Sequences means you can have a phone call, put the lead into a Sequence and let them drive the next steps. You can provide reference material, case studies and other useful info in subsequent emails, and set up another call to close the deal.

Automate Marketing Processes

Marketing is by far the biggest source for time-saving automation ideas. It starts off with automatically segmenting your list in your marketing tool. You can create lists based on contact record information and see your Marketing Qualified Leads, Sales Qualified Leads, and those leads who are in your system but will never buy— all at a glance. You can also see, depending on your forms, what they’re interested in, what their biggest need is, and when they’re looking to solve their problem.

Based on those above lists, you can set up Workflows or drip campaigns to email leads over time and point them in the direction of sales. Someone interested in one of your services may not be interested in another service; you want to be able to send them content relevant to their interests instead of mass-emailing them all. You can use Workflows as a way for HR to manage potential new hires, and automatically change contact records based on what they click in an email.

Finally, a task that most marketers spend too much time on is social media. Simple automation like having new blog posts automatically post to Twitter or Facebook can be easily set up. Tools like Edgar allow you to set up buckets of topics and post information automatically based on a schedule you set up.

Automate Customer Service

Supporting your customers post-sales is the only way you’re going to keep them around for the long-haul— and we all know it’s better to keep an existing customer than to find a new one. When customers or clients have questions, answering those questions in a timely and thorough manner is paramount.

You can automate some of this process by using two methods of support: support tickets and knowledge bases. A number of project management tools also have a support ticketing method in place, whether it’s just sending a simple email to a Trello board or a full-fledged system like Salesforce or Teamwork Desk. Whatever you use, make it easy for your customers to get their questions in front of you and out of your email inbox.

Having a knowledge base means common questions that come up all the time can be turned into a valuable resource for new customers. You can transform support tickets into knowledge base items as they come in, building that resource with every support request.

And finally, creating a feedback loop for client support means getting quantitative and qualitative feedback, instead of relying on gut-feeling. Maybe there’s someone on your team who’s amazing at retaining customers and you just didn’t see it, or maybe someone is dropping the ball and you need to have a chat.

A great program for setting up a feedback loop that I use for my clients is Customer Thermometer. You can create different ‘thermometers’ for sales, marketing, support and for one-off times like on-boarding. Pair this with an automated workflow and you’ll only need to set it up once.

What processes do you want help automating? What task do you do all the time that you’d rather not do? Send me an email and let me know.

A few weeks ago, I attended my first trade show on behalf of a client in three years. It was a rather large trade show and I was tasked with social media strategy and execution during and after the show.

I’ve always found trade shows to be fun–pure adrenaline and exciting for me, as a solo, to work with people for a few days–but yet challenging considering the days are usually long (9-12 hours, usually) and devoid of solid food and beverage choices (lots of water is my mantra).

But, for many brands, trade shows are still content goldmines. Your customers are at trade shows. Thought leaders are at trade shows. Media are at trade shows. And, influencers are sometimes at trade shows. These all represent significant content opportunities for brands in different ways.

At the shows I’ve helped manage in the past, we typically focus on five different kinds of content:

• Promotional (straight-forward–what are we there to sell?)
• Thought leadership (both our own thought leadership and others at the show)
• Trends (what are we seeing at the show, what are people talking about, new technology unveiled at the show)
• Media (engaging with reporters on Twitter, sharing earned media we’ve secured at the event)
• Show-specific (engaging with the show sponsor’s Twitter account, for example, or talking about sessions at the show).

The formats range from video (heavy on interviews) to text/photo to more interactive (Facebook 360 pics, gifs of you walking the show floor, that kind of thing).

Usually, our approach is to capture a ton of content at the show, share some of it during the show, and save much of it for after the show to share over the course of the next 2-3 weeks (if not more).

During the show is pretty straight-forward–it’s a mix of sharing via Twitter (for real-time, hashtag following, tweeting more often here), Facebook (with paid support, of course, far less often than Twitter), Instagram (quite often, depending on the show) and LinkedIn (a post a day at absolute most).

After the show is where things get interesting. And it’s also where brands miss an opportunity to really repurpose that content they captured at the show in many ways. In my experience, I’ve found the following to be particularly effective:

1: Wrap-up and trend blog posts

This is where you can talk all about those tech trends you saw at the show–including your new product! This is also a prime spot to incorporate interactive content you captured at the show–embeds of 360 pics on Facebook, video interviews and gifs of you walking the trade show floor work well here.

2: Arm sales reps with key video assets

All those video interviews you captured of customers at the show? They’re great assets to share with your sales team as they approach customers in the coming months. In fact, you could create short email templates/language for your sales reps to use that include links to your video interviews on YouTube or Vimeo.

3: Follow-up with customers with email marketing featuring social content

Remember all those customer leads (email addresses) you got at the show? Why not follow-up with them in a couple weeks with an email that includes many of the content assets you grabbed at the show including customer interviews and the wrap up blog post above? Great way to show added value without asking for a sale (save that for the NEXT email!).

4: Add key social assets to product and service landing pages

Those video customer interviews are great content assets to add to any product landing page. They add instant credibility, and for many landing pages, they may be the only video assets you have on the page.

5: Create and promote your own Twitter Moment

Recapping the show is easy on Twitter now with Twitter Moments. Just grab your very best tweets (a mix of interactive content works best, in my opinion), a few customer tweets, and other tweets from the trade show organizer (the welcome and closing tweets to the show are good) to partner orgs or vendors at the show to put together your Moment.

6: Re-share social videos a few weeks after the event

Those video customer interviews from the show that you shared DURING the show–yeah, you can use them again! They probably don’t have an uber-long shelf life, but you should definitely use them a few weeks after the show again to max out on exposure and use.

7: Make sure to share on employee comms channels

And finally, all these content assets we’ve been discussing make for great content to share via employee e-newsletters, intranets and other internal communications. Ideally, you’d want to tether these communications fairly close to the end of the show though. Kinda like a “take a peek at what our team was up to last week at CES in Las Vegas”-type thing.

Influencer marketing is widely considered a B2C tactic. No Instagram photo of a famous person using your app is going to launch a thousand corporate account sign-ups. No B2B brand is going to take an eight percent drop in stock value because a Kardashian (or any other celebrity) made a less than flattering comment about it.

But of course, B2B businesses have always engaged in influencer marketing to a certain degree. After all, what is influencer marketing, but old-fashioned referral marketing pulled through the digital transformation looking glass?

Yet changes in the B2B software landscape may mean that getting B2B influencer marketing right is the difference between long-term profitability and drowning in your churn. What changes, you ask?

1. Increasing commodification of the software product makes brand image a key source of differentiation. Influencers have a critical role to play in establishing and maintaining brand image.

2. The growth in shadow IT (all those SaaS apps employees buy and use without formal company approval or budgeting) creates an interesting group of potential influencers for SaaS companies. Using ground-up interest from end-user employees to influence larger, official company sales can “give [a company] a full picture of the gaps in [its] current IT solutions” and help you close the deal.

This means influencer marketing is a potentially high-value strategy in your SaaS marketing and sales plans.

Starting with the fundamentals

As with every marketing campaign, start with your personas. What websites they visit and podcasts they listen to, who they follow – really understand where your audience goes for industry and business content. From these different buyer and decision-maker personas you can start building influencer personas.

However, for a B2B influencer campaign, you don’t want to just create external influencer personas. For those of you engaging in account-based marketing (ABM), try to identify commonalities across accounts of those people who play the role of influencers within their own companies. Keep these persons handy and build segmented lists in your Marketing Automation software so they’re ready to go at any time.

They may or may not be on the decision-making committee, such as shadow IT-using employees. Keep in mind that business managers increasingly have their own IT budgets and authority. In these cases, typical influencer criteria, such as number of followers, may be less relevant.

As a B2B company, you should also keep in mind that other companies and brands can be influencers for you. Joint branding campaigns or cross-posting and cross-sharing content with a related company can expand the reach of both organizations.

3 Influencer Tactics

There are three well-worn, proven influencer tactics that are powerful for SaaS companies:

• Developing a strong, positive reputation on SaaS review sites
• Creating influencer-targeted content that inspires influencer-generated content
• Actively engaging with your self-identifying influencers

1. B2B buyers start at review sites

According to a CEB survey of 1500 B2B buyers, 72% of them start their searches on Google, but it’s the Google results that typically have software review site links in the top spaces below the ads. The review sites are where most B2B buyers first start learning about what apps are out there in the niche they’re searching. This is a critical point where a SaaS company can make it to a “further research” list or reject list.

Volume and ratio of reviews is important, but written reviews are crucial as well. A Dimensional Research survey found that 90% of respondents said their buying decision was influenced by positive reviews and 86% were influenced by negative reviews. Written reviews bring personal authenticity and credibility, even without the authority of a recognizable influencer. Run campaigns that encourage both numerical and written reviews at scale.

When you do have a written review from someone who fits your influencer criteria – perhaps they have a strong social media following or publish articles on a blog or other sites – you can reach out directly and ask them to share their positive review.

2. Influencers deserve targeted content – and they’re more likely to share it

Just like you create content that targets each of your personas, your different types of influencers deserve content that meets their needs. This means going beyond just answering the questions they have or addressing their needs as you would for prospects. Create content that addresses the issues they explore and talk about. Share resources that aren’t only something they’d share, but that they’ll use and quote in their own content.

Surveys, research and industry analyses are always high authority, info-rich content that can get shared multiple times. Doing roundups of quotes from leaders or trendsetters is a tried-and-true method to get a lot of people with platforms to share your content, especially those you’re quoting. The same goes for creating content that quotes or references the influencer’s content – with attribution, of course.

Don’t leave it to chance whether the right influencers find and share your content. Put together an influencer outreach campaign that directly contacts different influencers to let them know about a specific piece of content you think would be relevant to their audience for them to share.

3. Don’t forget to set goals and measure results

Discrete influencer campaigns each have their own goals. Define your goals and do a cost analysis to determine what results will justify the spend.

Where the goal is to build your SaaS company’s brand image, you want to measure things like brand perception and sentiment. Don’t get sidetracked by focusing on impressions, shares and clicks, which may be relevant if your goal is brand awareness, but aren’t relevant to a brand goal.  Perception and sentiment are more challenging metrics to measure, but they’re more relevant to understanding the strength and value of your brand.

If the goal is more directly tied to revenue, shore up your attribution tools so you can track traffic from influencers that convert to leads, and then on to opportunities and sales.

In many ways, the marketing strategy lines between B2C and B2B are blurring, so open your mind to influencer campaigns if you’ve written them off before. There’s no need to get a celebrity and their publicist team on board – you’ll waste time and money on the wrong market. But do go after the celebrated members of your industry, and use their leverage as influence. The SaaS world is crowded, so it can be helpful to have influencer relationships in all the right places.

The post Influencer Marketing for B2B Software appeared first on OpenView Labs.

Are you using WordPress’ formatting features to their fullest?

I expect you already know the basics of formatting your blog posts to make them more readable. (If you’re just getting started, you might want to check out 4 WordPress Formatting Tips to Make Your Posts More Readable for an overview of the basics.)

But many bloggers – even experienced ones – don’t realise just how many formatting features are built into WordPress.

Understanding the WordPress WYSIWYG Editor

Whether you write your drafts in the WordPress editor or elsewhere, it’s important to be familiar with the WordPress WYSIWYG toolbar and know what all those buttons do.

WYSIWYG (pronounced “wizzy-wig”) stands for “What You See Is What You Get”, and describes any interface where you can see how your text will actually look as you apply various types of formatting to it. Microsoft Word, Google Docs and WordPress are all WYSIWYG editors.

Whenever you create a new post or page in WordPress, you should see the WYSIWYG editor. The toolbar (the buttons along the top) looks like this:

(If you don’t see these buttons, make sure you’re using the “Visual” rather than the “Text” version of the editor. You can swap between the two using the tabs on the right-hand side of the box where you write your post.)

If you’ve written and formatted your post in another WYSIWYG editor and copied the text into WordPress, some of the formatting may have been preserved. But some formatting options, such as blockquotes and horizontal rules, can only be applied in WordPress.

(Don’t worry if you have no idea what “blockquotes” and “horizontal rules” are. You’ll know all about them, and how to use, them by the end of this post!)

Even if some of the buttons look confusing right now, they’re all straightforward to use. We’ll take the toolbar one row at a time.

The Top Row of the Toolbar: The Most Common Formatting Options

The buttons are divided into two rows. The top row contains the options you’re likely to use most frequently.

Here they are:

We’ll go through them one by one:

#1: “Paragraph” Dropdown

HTML tag equivalent: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc. and <pre>.

This dropdown menu lets you format your text using heading styles:

Heading 1 is used for the title of your post, and so should be avoided for subheadings within your post.

Most bloggers use Heading 2 for their main subheadings and Heading 3 for any subheadings nested beneath those. (In this post, for instance, the subheading The Top Row of Buttons: The Most Common Formatting Options is Heading 2, and the subheading #1: “Paragraph Dropdown” is Heading 3.)

The “Preformatted” option can be used if you’re including sections of code in your post. it will display the text exactly as written using a monospaced font.

#2: Bold Text

HTML tag equivalent: <strong>

The button that looks like a B is probably familiar to you from Microsoft Word and other programs. It makes your text bold like this.

To use it, you can either:

• Click the “B” button, type the text you want in bold, then click “B” again to turn back to normal text.
• Type your text as normal, then highlight the portion you want in bold and click “B”.

Use it for: Emphasising a key sentence, or creating a subheading where you don’t want to use a heading style.

#3: Italic Text

HTML tag equivalent: <em>

The button that looks like an I is probably also very familiar. It makes your text italic like this.

Use it for: Emphasis on a particular word, or for a sentence or two of explanatory text (e.g. a note at the start of your post saying This is the first in a four-part series).

#4: Unordered List (Bullet Points)

HTML tag equivalent: <ul> for the list, <li> for each item on the list

The button with three dots and lines might look a bit like Morse Code, but it’s actually used to create a bulleted list (also known as an “unordered list”) like this:

• Item one
• Item two
• Item three

Use it for: A list where the order or number of items doesn’t particularly matter. If each item on your list is more than a paragraph long, you’ll probably want to format your list differently (e.g. using subheadings).

#5: Ordered List (Numbers)

HTML tag equivalent: <ol> for the list, <li> for each item on the list

The second list button is for a numbered list (also known as an “ordered” list) like this:

1. Item one
2. Item two
3. Item three

Use it for: A list where the number or ordering of items matters (e.g. you’re giving step-by-step instructions or writing a top ten list).

For more help with lists, check out my post How to Use Lists Effectively in Your Blog Posts.

#6: Blockquote

HTML tag equivalent: <blockquote>

Blockquote (or block quotation) formatting is used to style quoted text so (normally) it has a wider left margin than the standard text. Depending on your blog’s theme, the blockquote text may also be in a different font and have quotation marks alongside.

This is how blockquotes look on the ProBlogger blog.

Use it for: Any quote from someone other than you that’s more than a few words long. Very short quotes can be placed within quotation marks in a sentence.

#7: Align Left/Center/Right

HTML tag equivalents: <p>, <p style=”text-align: center;”>, <p style=”text-align: right;”>

By default, your text will be left-aligned (flush with the left-hand margin). But you can also align your text so it’s centered or right-aligned.

This text is centered.

This text is right-aligned.

Use it for: Creating a sales page or special offer, where it might make sense to center your text. Some bloggers even use centered text for poems or other slightly unusual types of content.

#8: Link/Unlink

HTML tag equivalent: <a href>

This button lets you turn text into a link that readers can click to visit a different post or page. Simply type the text (e.g. the title of a post), then highlight it and click the link button. You’ll see this:

You can then paste in the URL (web address) of the page/post you want or, if it’s on your own blog, you can search for the page/post by title.

Your link will show up like this:

Which is the Best Blog Hosting Solution?

Use it for: Internal links to your own posts (good for SEO and encouraging readers to stick around longer on your blog), and external links to other people’s posts or other resources (good for demonstrating your knowledge/expertise within your field, and for building relationships).

#9: Read More Tag

WordPress tag equivalent: <!–more–>

Some blog themes show multiple posts on the front page or index page. A “read more” tag breaks the post into two parts: the first part will appear in the index, and the rest will only be shown once the reader clicks “read more” (or clicks on the post title).

Other themes are designed to show only an excerpt from the post (auto-generated or hand-crafted), so you won’t need a “read more” tag. You can see this in action on our own “Blog” page.

Use it for: Breaking off posts after the introduction, or if you want to show part of each post rather than full posts on your home page/blog index page.

#10: Toolbar Toggle

WordPress tag equivalent: n/a

The “Toolbar Toggle” lets you show/hide the second row of icons on your toolbar. (It used to be called “Show/Hide Kitchen Sink”, which you might recognise if you’ve been blogging for a long time.)

Use it for: Viewing the second row of toolbar buttons. Or hiding them if you find them distracting or only have a small screen to work with.

The Bottom Row of the Toolbar: Less Common Formatting Options

While you might not use these buttons very often, it’s useful to know what they do just in case you need them.

Again, we’ll take them one at a time starting on the left.

#1: Strikethrough Text

HTML tag equivalent: <del>

Strikethrough text is crossed out, like this. As with bold and italic, you can click the strikethrough button then type, or you can highlight existing text and apply strikethrough formatting to it.

Use it for: Humorous effect (if that suits your blogging tone), or for special offers on your products (you can “cross out” the normal price and display the offer price).

#2: Horizontal Rule

HTML tag equivalent: <hr />

The horizontal rule creates a line that runs across your post. It can be useful for breaking a post into one or more visual sections (although it doesn’t act as a “read more” tag).

It looks like this:

---

Use it for: Setting off the start or end of a post (e.g. if you’re introducing a new series of blog posts at the start, or making a special offer at the end).

#3: Text Color

HTML tag equivalent: <span style=”color: #ff0000;”> (for the color red)

Your text will default to the colour set by your blog’s theme – normally black or very dark grey.

Sometimes, you might want to put text in a different colour. You can do this by either:

• selecting the colour, using the A dropdown, then typing
• highlighting existing text and then choosing a colour for it.

After you click on the dropdown, you can pick a colour simply by clicking on it:

If you prefer, you can create specific custom colours by clicking “Custom…” and then setting the RGB values.

Use it for: Occasional coloured text, perhaps to highlight a special announcement or offer. Be careful not to go overboard with different colours in your posts. You might want to use the “custom” colour option to match special coloured text to the colour palette of your header or branding in general.

#4: Paste as Text

HTML tag equivalent: n/a

Most of the time you’ll want to paste text into the WordPress editor and keep its formatting. If you paste text that you drafted in Word, most of the formatting will automatically copy across too.

But sometimes you may want to paste text without the formatting. Simply click this button, which looks like a T on a clipboard, to toggle the “paste” function to “plain text mode”.

From now on, when you paste text, all the formatting will be removed. (You can click it again to toggle back to the normal mode.)

Use it for: Pasting formatted text (e.g. blog post titles that are formatted as a header, when you don’t want to keep any of the formatting). Remember to toggle it back off again if you only want to use it temporarily.

#5: Clear Formatting

HTML tag equivalent: n/a

To remove formatting, you don’t need to get rid of each instance of bold, italic, coloured text,  etc. individually. Instead, you can use the “Clear Formatting” button, which looks like an eraser.

Simply highlight the formatted text you want to change and click the button.

Use it for: Getting rid for formatting that you don’t want. That might be formatting that you accidentally applied, or formatting that’s appeared when you’ve copied text into your post.

#6: Special Character

HTML tag equivalent: n/a, though individual characters will have a special ASCII code

Occasionally, you might want to include a special character in your post or page that you can’t actually type, such as the copyright symbol ©.

To use this feature, position your cursor where you want the special character to appear, then click the Omega symbol to open a panel of special characters and select the one you want:

Use it for: Inserting a copyright notice with ©, using a Registered ® or Trademark  character when writing about your products/brand or someone else’s (if appropriate), or inserting any other special character!

#7: Increase/Decrease Indent

HTML tag equivalent: <p style=”padding-left: 30px;”>

If you want to indent text (push it over to the right), you can use this feature. The right-hand button of the two creates the indent; you can click it again to increase the indent.

Use the left-hand button to reduce or remove an indent that you’ve created.

Use it for: You might choose to set off specific text using an indent and perhaps a different  colour too (e.g. if giving an example within a “how to” step).

#8: Undo/Redo

HTML tag equivalent: n/a

You’re probably already familiar with these buttons from your usual word processor. Use “Undo” (the arrow pointing to the left) to undo whatever you just did. Use “Redo” if you change your mind again.

Use it for: Easily undoing an action (e.g. if you applied formatting you realise you don’t want, or you accidentally deleted your whole post and want it back).

#9: Keyboard Shortcuts

HTML tag equivalent: n/a

Most of the toolbar functions also have a keyboard shortcut, so you can easily use them without having to move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse. Click the ? button to see them in a handy list:

Some of these shortcuts may be familiar from other programs, such as Ctrl+B for “bold text” and Ctrl+Z for “undo”.

But there are others here that are specific to the WordPress editor, such as Shift+Alt+m to insert/edit an image.

Use it for: Speeding up your workflow, especially if there’s a particular type of formatting you use a lot.

While the WordPress toolbar buttons might not be the most thrilling aspect of blogging, being able to format your posts and pages effectively can really make a difference. Well-formatted posts look professional and are easy to read, and well-formatted pages can do a better job of converting prospects into leads or customers.

Is there a new feature you’ll be using in your next blog post, or on one of your pages? Which one will you be trying out?

Or did you learn about a feature you never even realised existed? Let us know in the comments.

The post How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Toolbar to Format Your Blog Posts Like a Pro appeared first on ProBlogger.

Are You Ready for More Revenue?

In this article, you'll learn: How to fix your business.

Introduction

Business is created when there is an exchange. Big companies like Toy “R” Us and iHeartRadio made a mistake. They are using a broken business cycle. They spend all of their money advertising to get leads. What happened is they couldn't sell the leads when they got them. They get a lead but don’t know what to do with it when they get it. There’s no exchange.

Your Financial Statement

The most important element on a financial statement is the income—the top line. It only takes up 2 inches but the expenses and debt are 26 inches. See how powerful income is? It controls everything in the statement.

Your household is a business. You have income, expenses, and a net profit. If you bring in $6K but $6K goes out to cover expenses, you have no profit. That’s an income statement.

The biggest mistake I’ve made in my last 30 years was that I spent too much time on my bottom line. Don’t make the same mistake. You’re told by your mom to save money. Your attention is on expenses, debt, and leftovers. You try to lower your expenses instead of increasing income.

What is easier, to lower your $6K of monthly expenses or raise an additional $6K? You have to pay for rent, gas, groceries, etc… Even if you cut back on how much Starbucks you buy, you can only cut expense so much. You’ll always have to pay for your basic necessities.

If you want to 10X your business, you need to fix your broken business cycle by getting leads that give you money. How do you do that?

The 7 Steps of a Correct Business Cycle:

1. Idea
2. Attention
3. Intention
4. Solution
5. Proposal
6. Close
7. Follow Up

You first have an idea. Say you want to raise $100,000. Most of you go from idea and get stuck with the business plan, accounting, or manufacturing. Go straight to funding by getting attention. There is no financial statement in the world that doesn't list income first.

Focus on income—idea straight to funding.

Google and Apple's Business Cycle

Google never launches a perfect product. How many problems are there with every new iPhone? Yet, Google and Apple are able to turn their idea (sell ads or a new phone) and monetize right away. The more time you take between idea and monetization, the more quickly you'll increase your income.

Tips and Tricks

If you have a job, quitting should be the last thing that you should do. Get attention in the vehicle you are already in. Make the company need you more than you need them.

At the beginning of any sale, price is sensitive. The first rule of selling—agree with the customer. Agreement gets attention. You lose attention when you disagree. When you present your offer, give options and put people into brackets—A, B, and C. Most of you think that if you give too many options you’ll confuse your customer. You won’t.

Grocery stores have an average of 58,000 products! You don’t go into the store for all 58k. You go in for a frozen pizza, some toothpaste, and maybe a toy if your kid was with you. What am I telling you? You are not going to confuse people—give them options in your proposal. If you have an intangible product, take it out of the intangible universe and create physical mass.

Your Closing Ratio

When you close, your goal should be a 10% closing ratio. I don’t always hit that but I know it’s possible. I can close anyone but some sales take longer than others. One sale might occur years later. That's where the follow up comes in.

Commit to the income, not the problem. Sales is what grows the top line and the top of a sales funnel is people. If my daughter wants some slime, skates, or a bike—she knows that she needs to get some leads. Leads are people.

Summary

A correct business cycle that follows the steps I outline will be the difference in you winning. People need to win. You can’t win if you’re broke. Make no mistake, if Lebron James is winning, he’s making money. Everything in life is a financial statement. Winning = income.

Make more money. Make 10X income.

Be Great,

GC

Grant Cardone is a New York Times bestselling author, the #1 sales trainer in the world, and an internationally renowned speaker on leadership, real estate investing, entrepreneurship, social media, and finance. His 5 privately held companies have annual revenues exceeding $100 million. Forbes named Mr. Cardone #1 of the "25 Marketing Influencers to Watch in 2017". Grant’s straight-shooting viewpoints on the economy, the middle class, and business have made him a valuable resource for media seeking commentary and insights on real topics that matter. He regularly appears on Fox News, Fox Business, CNBC, and MSNBC, and writes for Forbes, Success Magazine, Business Insider, Entrepreneur.com, and the Huffington Post. He urges his followers and clients to make success their duty, responsibility, and obligation. He currently resides in South Florida with his wife and two daughters.