Rnordman

The threat of competition is one that drives business to act erratically at times. We fear that our competitors are working on a product that’s much better than ours. Or that they will offer theirs at a lower price. Or that new competitors are out there waiting to pick us off. Or that they’re stealing our secrets without us knowing.

So we safeguard, and we experiment, and we test. These are all good, healthy effects of a competitive marketplace.

But one question seems to come up again and again when I talk to marketers and small business owners in these kinds of competitive environments. Should I match my competitor’s price?

Chances are your company is not the cheapest. Few are. And so you may have asked this question of yourself or your colleagues at one point.

The answer is, as is often the case, it depends.

One reason this question does not have a straight answer is because it originates from a false understanding of price. In very few industries, price is all that matters. For the most part, consumers are interested in more than just price.

Consumers are looking for the best value. Value incorporates price, but it also includes benefits. Think of it this way:

Value = Benefits – Cost

To increase value you have two levers. You can lower cost. Or you can increase benefits.

If your products carry benefits over and above those of your competitor who is charging a lower price, you can justify the higher price. In fact, lowering your price might hurt you by masking the value that you are providing to customers.

So let’s get back to the question: Should you match your competitor’s price?

The answer is yes, only if you can’t beat them on value. If you’re offering the exact same thing they are at a higher price point, you can’t win.

The picture above features a mainframe computer from the 1960s. Yet despite its sheer size and the two people shown operating it, we can now wear more data processing power on our wrists (hello, Apple Watch) than exists in this photo.

Data and our ability to make sense of it has grown rapidly, particularly in the last few years – into a $122 billion market, to be exact. Yet while marketing has been busy visualizing data and crunching numbers with mere clicks for what feels like ages, sales seems to have been stuck in Excel hell until just recently.

And now, the next generation of sales intelligence is upon us. We’re about to take a stroll through the evolution of sales intelligence and see that, while each generation has an important place in the sales organization, they have all culminated to the quintessential holy grail of sales intelligence: prescriptive insights.

Descriptive Data

The first step to transforming data into a useful sales tool involved simply making it easy for teams to get answers to everyday questions without having to rely on IT or spend hours crunching numbers in Excel. This type of sales intelligence essentially describes what is happening in your business at a given time in response to a particular query. In other words, think of descriptive intelligence as organized outputs of very specific inputs.

Questions that can be answered by descriptive sales intelligence solutions include:

• What were my total sales last quarter?
• Are my reps performing according to plan?
• How many calls did my reps make yesterday?
• Am I on target to hit my forecast?
• What is the average stage duration for my deals?

As time has gone on, the answers to these queries have grown increasingly granular, and their presentation has become far more visual. Think Tableau or Domo. But while descriptive information is 100% essential for sales teams to have, it is fairly one-dimensional in that it only allows you to look behind you at where you’ve been, but offers no insight as to where you may be going. Enter predictive analytics.

Predictive Analytics

As the name implies, predictive analytics anticipate what will happen in the future. This is made possible by artificial intelligence (AI) as well as an understanding of the events, activities and outcomes of the past. Predictive analytics take many forms, but for the sake of this blog we will take a closer look at three of the most popular.

Email sentiment: Using natural language processing, predictive sales platforms can detect whether or not an email that you’ve received contains any negative sentiment, signaling that the deal may be in jeopardy. Examples of words or phrases that may trigger negative sentiment alerts include “unhappy,” “need to speak right away,” “disappointed,” etc.

Lead scoring: By isolating the key qualities of your best prospects and customers, as well as identifying common traits shared by high-value businesses, predictive lead scoring assigns a numerical value to each of these signals – industry, title, number of employees, etc. The higher the score, the more likely the lead is to eventually convert.

Forecasting: Forecasting tools estimate the win likelihoods and close dates of your deals based on your previous wins and performance patterns. Using this and other key information, they can then calculate the probability of winning deals to predict expected revenue and help you create more accurate sales forecasts.

Examples of platforms that provide predictive analytics include Oracle Advanced Analytics, Salesforce Einstein and Base’s very own All-in-One Sales Platform. Predictive sales intelligence is extremely valuable, with high-performance sales organizations claiming to be 4x more likely to use predictive analytics than underperformers. However, it’s important to note that these predictions are formulated based on information that is already known, either within the technology itself or within existing business patterns. This means that, while predictive analytics can tell you what might happen, it cannot tell you how to correct course if you are unhappy with your “fortune.”

Prescriptive Insights

Finally, the latest and greatest generation of sales intelligence, prescriptive insights, actually prescribes the exact actions that a sales team can take to achieve a desired outcome. Unlike descriptive data, it can look beyond the situation at hand and analyze potential future scenarios; unlike predictive analytics, it does not have to rely on pre-existing patterns or performance outcomes to make assumptions about the future.

Rather, scientific sales solutions like Base Apollo have the power to dynamically codify and analyze millions of data points at once to isolate the key dimensions impacting your sales performance. These dimensions range from lead source, to rep activity, to stage duration and more. Identifying and isolating these factors gives way to actionable recommendations as to the specific levers that your team can pull to achieve results.

In other words, prescriptive insights don’t tell you what’s happening or what might happen; they tell you why something is happening and how you can increase sales growth. The chart below illustrates the difference between descriptive, predictive and prescriptive sales intelligence:

Descriptive Data Predictive Analytics Prescriptive Insights

The Science of Sales

Sales intelligence has come a long way since the days of the 1960s supercomputer. And while descriptive and predictive sales intelligence undoubtedly have their place and purpose within the modern day sales organization, the future lies within prescriptive sales insights. If you’d like to learn more about how to achieve actionable, prescriptive sales intelligence, download this free white paper: Why Your Business Needs the Science of Sales.

Fall is in full swing, and that means holidays filled with rich heritage and storytelling. On October 30, India celebrated Diwali. During these festivities, the retelling of mythical tales plays a critical part in the events. Stories become introspective metaphors that compel people to resist darkness and focus inward on good deeds. Right after that, millions enjoyed the spooky tales of eerie Halloween nights. Now that November has dawned, Mexico will observe its colorful Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, holiday. Around the country, people create homemade altars and gather at cemeteries to commune with departed ancestors. Our societies, regardless of culture or location, have flourished as a result of stories. History itself is a system of tales — chronicles of events, parables, myths and beliefs told to localized groups of people who then venture to spread them through an evolving process of oral, written and digital media. Stories capture our imaginations. And for that reason, compelling stories have great power in driving recruitment marketing efforts. Let’s see how contingent workforce leaders can fuel their hiring in this autumnal season of tales.

The Power of Compelling Stories

One of the most fabled Halloween tales in American history is Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” What some may not realize, however, is that Sleepy Hollow is a real locale. Birthplace of Caitlyn Jenner. Home to Irving’s remains. Up until 1996, North Tarrytown was a quiet industrial village just north of New York. That year, General Motors shuttered its Hudson River factory, leaving 4,000 locals without work and the town stripped of its primary source of tax revenue.

So what did the village do? It officially rebranded itself as Sleepy Hollow and capitalized on the power of storytelling. The image of the Headless Horseman now haunts the town for real. It’s everywhere. In fact, Sleepy Hollow’s spooky fall festivities have made it a thriving tourist destination.

As Forbes’ Henry DeVries wrote of Jeremy Hsu’s intriguing 2008 Scientific American article, a good yarn holds tremendous sway and influence: “Storytelling is a human universal, and common themes appear in tales throughout history and all over the world. The greatest stories — those retold through generations and translated into other languages — do more than simply present a believable picture. These tales captivate their audience, whose emotions can be inextricably tied to those of the story’s characters.”

Shortly after Hsu’s piece was published, marketing researchers at Vanderbilt University discovered that test audiences in an advertising study responded more favorably to ads conveyed in a narrative format rather than just those listing the comparative benefits of a product or service. “Studies such as these,” DeVries observed, “suggest people accept ideas more readily when their minds are in story mode as opposed to when they are in an analytical mind-set.”

It’s true, data now drives the focus of organizational leaders in the staffing industry. We concentrate on metrics, key performance indicators, Big Data and people analytics. And that information is instrumental behind the scenes. Our recruiting strategies, however, must still sell our client’s employment brand. It’s not enough to provide candidates with compensation figures, numbers about the company’s growth or competitive rankings. We have to engage them, entice them and inspire them. That means detailing corporate culture, opportunity, vision, mission and development. In short, our success often hinges on our ability to tell a captivating story.

Your Recruitment Marketing Story in Three Acts

Contingent workforce leaders don’t need to head back to school and study up on the elements of fiction or the complex mechanics of literary analysis. Stories that resonate come from the heart and speak to the motivations and aspirations of an intended audience. Anyone can spin a majestic yarn by following three fundamental rules for constructing a good plot.

In mythologist Joseph Campbell’s groundbreaking 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces, he introduced us to the concept of the monomyth — the hero’s journey. It’s the very template on which most great tales are based. To summarize, using Campbell’s own words: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

Our stories to candidates can easily conform to these ideals. There’s a villain, a hero and a mentor. There’s a journey that must take place across paths fraught with obstacles. There’s a wise and experienced leader to help guide the young hero. There are magnificent opportunities that await, which can better the situation of every stakeholder at the successful conclusion of the adventure. This is the employment story for candidates — their heroic journey. And because contingent talent are usually brought aboard to tackle projects or conquer specific challenges, the concept of a quest seems fitting.

The Villain

In this instance, the villain isn’t an individual or supernatural presence. It’s a situation, an obstacle, a greater problem that must be overcome. Introduce your prospective hero to the client’s villain. It could take the form of skills deficits, stalled innovation, a lack of diversity, the status quo, the need for fresh perspectives, an aggressive competitor or other obstacles on the road to progress.

Paint a vivid portrait of the issues facing the client and the rewards to be gained by solving them. Give your talent something to champion, a shared mission they can rally behind as vital contributors who will learn new skills and refine their abilities along the way.

The Mentor

Every memorable hero’s tale involves a mentor. This role belongs to a learned and experienced veteran who will provide guidance, inspiration, training and direction. The Hobbits had Gandalf, who himself relied on the insights of Galadriel, a mighty elven queen. King Arthur sought counsel from the wizard Merlin. Buffy the Vampire Slayer learned from Giles. Luke Skywalker became the most powerful Jedi thanks to the lessons bestowed on him by Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Contingent workforce leaders are ideal mentors. They possess the tools, the acumen, the experience and the people skills to fit top talent to highly engaging assignments. They are not gatekeepers hoarding information, or dictators pushing down orders to the frontlines. They lead with empathy. They serve as advocates, mentors, facilitators and negotiators. They give talent a voice and lend talent an ear:

• Exceptional contingent workforce program leaders take a genuine interest in the personal and professional aspirations of their people, and help steer them toward paths that lead to attaining those goals.
• They recognize the efforts, contributions and achievements of their talent or staffing partners.
• They schedule time to meet and talk with crucial stakeholders: hiring managers, contingent talent and staffing partners
• They have meaningful interactions — they ask open-ended questions about projects, challenges, ideas and recommendations — and they actively listen to responses.

Other team members who are already working the job on behalf of the staffing partner are equally strong sources of knowledge, comfort and creating welcoming climates for their new colleagues.

At Crowdstaffing, we listen to our workers and provide feedback about their performance, areas for continuous improvement, and offer mentoring from qualified internal coaches with related skills and experiences. This is a practice that translates well to the onboarding experience. Bringing in peers with experience at the client organization and knowledge of the MSP creates a safe and supportive coaching outlet where new workers can ask all their questions upfront, without worrying about the reception.

The Heroes

Your top candidates don’t want to battle villains alone. Show them the strength of the team members who will support them through the quest. Think of the rebels in Star Wars, Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings, the crew of the Starship Enterprise and the band of friends who worked alongside Buffy to slay all those undead monsters. Victories are achieved by teams of heroes.

Also consider how diverse those teams tend to be. In the stories we cherish, we often find that our valiant groups include a broad swath of society — members who represent different genders, races, ethnicities, cultures and experiences. Together, their diversity brings greater strength and value to the mission.

The best way to highlight the exceptional workplace culture and employment brand of your clients is to tell the stories of their talent to your new heroes. Even better, encourage a social media campaign — driven by other workers — that allow them to tell their stories directly.

Telling Your Tale

Nearly everyone is familiar with Irving’s 19th century romp through the woods of Sleepy Hollow — an epic chase through the supernatural wilds of the Hudson Valley, where a galloping Hessian ghoul expels a superstitious, supercilious and opportunistic schoolmaster from the quaint community he’s attempting to exploit. Although the story makes clear that a local rowdy in disguise did the deed, the ghostly legend endures because everyone loves a good tale.

It’s the same reason we cling to old myths, comic books, space operas, fables and folklore. When crafted well, there’s a truth being revealed in these stories that reaches out to us in a more visceral way, without obscuring the real message. It draws us in and inspires us. Why, as children, do we dress up on Halloween as the heroes of stories we love? Because they embody the challenges we want to overcome, the contributions we want to make and the heroes we one day hope to be. For contingent workforce professionals, treat your candidates to a meaningful story during the recruitment process, not just a list of numbers and duties. That’s how contingent workforce heroes rise.

You might say that I have a soft spot, in fact a fascination and high respect for engineers. My three daughters would be rolling their eyes at me right now saying “Yea Dad. A little too much.”

Just let me explain…

I might have had all three of them playing instruments by the 5th grade because I heard somewhere that children who play instruments are better at math and science. Hey, that actually became true and they are good at math. So was I wrong?

I might have also repeatedly sent them links to engineering websites such as “Engineering Girl” or something like that. I guess I was secretly hoping that these subtle hints would slowly infiltrate their subconscious until one day they woke up and said, “I think I want to be an engineer. That’s so unexpected…”

No? It doesn’t work like that?

Well shockingly one of my daughters did become an engineer, probably because all of my tactics actually worked, but who’s keeping score? She was actually the one I least expected would enjoy math or science. Until her Sophomore year of college, she showed no signs of hope to cross over to the engineering side. I mean seriously. When asked, she said that Lunch was her favorite subject in school.

So, one day at dinner when I was visiting her in San Diego, she was telling me her frustrations with the lack of available engineering and construction information online. She was a Construction Manager in the US Navy at the time, and it seemed like she had to jump through hoops to find information relevant to her projects, materials, RFP processes, contractors, mistakes to avoid, etc.

I thought that was strange since it seems that most industries are charging towards the Inbound Marketing methodology to grow their companies online. As a result, you can find almost any information online. In fact, if your company is not publishing content, then it can affect your credibility and brand awareness.

Since engineers are usually at the forefront of innovation, technology and growth, I was baffled when I came to find out through research that almost the entire industry was pretty much left behind when it came to effective online marketing and sales.

I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother or affect me much. I would look at the websites and social media pages of leading engineering firms and let out a sigh of disappointment with what I saw.

So why am I writing this?

I’m rooting for the engineering industry. If I can make even one firm face the reality that they are so far behind in one of the most critical areas a business needs to succeed and grow, then I would be beyond proud of that firm.

Now For The Necessary Evil of Telling the Ugly Truth

Engineers are extremely smart, very analytical and have lead our country and the world through the most fascinating innovations that the mind can deliver. But why is it that engineering companies still struggle with digital marketing?!

Is it because they lack the ability to creatively think outside of the traditional RFP box? Or, are they still hanging on to the outdated, outbound marketing approach, as if the digital world has not evolved in their industry?

This year we were requested to evaluate 10 very accomplished engineering companies from a digital marketing perspective. Honestly, I was a little stunned with what I found.

As a group they appeared to be 5-7 years behind in the most effective digital marketing methodologies, such as Inbound Marketing.

To share my insight with you, here are the 7 most common inbound marketing mistakes we found in the evaluation of these 10 major engineering companies:

1. Weak or Non-Existent Value Propositions

These were all well-accomplished engineering firms to say the least. But it was difficult to find a value proposition on their website that clearly stated what made them different from their competition.

In fact, if you were motivated and stayed on their website long enough, you may eventually determine how they can help you and why you should choose them over their competition. But, within 8 seconds or less, your prospective customers want to know “What can you do for me?” and “Why should I choose you?”

I think that 8 seconds was horribly breached.

Your value proposition needs to be able to quickly and effectively communicate why website visitors should choose you. Your visitor should see your value proposition above the fold on your home page before ever having to scroll or click around.

And you need to continue to have evidence throughout the entire website that supports and gives your value proposition credibility.

To be honest, this is an area that even the most experienced marketers struggle with and often completely miss the mark when it comes to their own website. That’s because it’s sometimes difficult to articulate your own value prop when you are too close to it.

Value propositions are critically important in order to keep your target audience engaged on your website from the first moment they arrive. It is also a key factor in converting them from an anonymous visitor, just trying to do their research, into a known lead or prospect that you can follow up with.

The reasons why so many engineering companies are challenged with effectively communicating a compelling value proposition are because:

• They have never actually identified a value proposition for their company yet
• They have not clearly expressed their value proposition
• They have never tested and measured the effectiveness of their value proposition to know if it is working

2. Weak or Non-Existent Calls-to-Action (CTAs) and Landing Pages

Lets Begin With The CTAs…

CTAs are key to motivating your website visitor into action in order to engage with your company further. CTAs were actually used by 60% of the engineering firms evaluated but they were weak. They mainly consisted of:

• “read more”
• “signup”
• “submit”
• “download our brochure”

Instead, consider starting your CTAs with much more effective and descriptive verbs, such as:

• “Get…”
• “Start…”
• “Build…”
• “Join…”
• “Learn…”
• “Discover…”

You also want to personalize your CTAs. This includes using words such as:

• “You”
• “Your”
• “Me”
• “My”

CTAs need to communicate value in the minds of your prospects with words they understand and relate to. And they need to describe what they will get if they click on the link. Don’t make them “submit.” Instead, allow them to “get” or “download” you guide, eBook, or whatever you are giving them.

And More Importantly, Landing Pages…

Even more concerning to me in this evaluation is that none of the engineering firms used landing pages.

The CTA is meant to get your prospective customer’s attention and motivate them to learn more by going to a landing page. The landing page is meant to describe the offer and the benefits they will receive after providing basic information collected by a form, such as the person’s name and email address. The collection of this information gives you to opportunity to market and connect with your prospect.

3. For the Love of Blogs

Only 40% of the evaluated Engineering firms published blog articles. Blog articles are one of the the most effective organic website traffic generators from search engines. The blog articles help rank your website higher in the search engines for the specific key terms your prospects are searching for.

We even found one of the engineering websites prominently promoting their blog on their home page, yet when you clicked to their blog, there were no articles in it!

If you are not going to consistently publish blog articles, don’t bother putting up an empty or outdated blog. This is more harmful to your credibility.

4. Content Was Definitely Not King

None of the engineering companies we evaluated provided educational content offers such as:

• Guides
• eBooks
• Whitepapers
• Case Studies
• Checklists
• Webinars
• How-To Videos

According to research by Engineering.com, engineers are twice as likely to go to a digital publication or website to gather information than a print publication.

However, engineering firms tend to post pictures of a bridge, road, waterway, building, etc. on their website with only a project name associated with the picture, as if that tells you something of value. A few will describe the project in a little more detail, but they significantly lack key information about their projects that their prospects are searching for as part of their research, education and evaluation process.

Next, there were no whitepapers or case studies to educate their prospects or show their measurements of success in a way that is meaningful for their potential customers. Engineering firms do generate a lot of public relations information in the form of news and press releases, but that is still not educational content.

Even with the high volume of news and press releases generated by these firms, only 20% were optimized for search engines and effectively distributed throughout Google News and other online press release networks. That means that only 20% of the press releases they most likely worked very hard on were actually effective.

5. Websites Are Not Mobile Friendly

We found that only 60% of the engineering websites we evaluated were optimized for mobile devices using responsive design.

Responsive, or mobile-friendly websites, are a big issue for all business websites. In April, 2015 Google announced that it would take into consideration (hint, give preference) in search engine rankings to mobile-friendly websites for searches conducted from mobile devices. And the reality is that over 50% of Google’s searches are from mobile devices.

Since over 50% of all engineers use a mobile device to find and consume engineering content, the engineering firms that do not have their website optimized for mobile devices are in trouble. In fact, over 70% of millennial engineers use a mobile device to access engineering content, based on research by Engineering.com.

Rumors are now that Google will soon base all of their search engine results on mobile-friendly websites, even if searched from desktop computers.

Basically, time is running out to get your website mobile-friendly if you care about ranking well in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

6. Social Media Usage Dominated by Self-Promotion

Engineering firms lean towards LinkedIn as their preferred social media network. They should in our opinion, since engineering is basically a B2B industry.

However, the social media posts for the firms that we evaluated were all self-promotional and almost entirely linked to their public relations and recruitment departments.

That left very little educational content to help someone seeking and researching their services.

We also saw a divergence in how civil engineers chose to work based upon their age.

For example, 64% of millennial engineers rely on digital media for engineering information. In contrast, only 20% of the senior engineers rely on digital media, preferring more traditional trade or print publications instead.

7. Lack of Marketing and Sales Automation

Only 10% of civil engineering firms we evaluated have implemented marketing and sales automation tools and processes.

Of the firms interviewed, the common reason for not implementing any type of marketing and sales automation seemed to be “this is the way we have always done it.”

Marketing and sales automation tools and processes have proven to be critical for effective marketing across all industries, especially in our 24/7 digital ecosystem. No industry is immune from this digital life that we must be plugged into daily.

Engineering.com’s research reveals that:

• 73% of engineers are seeking information weekly to help them perform better at their job.
• Most engineers use a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing to acquire engineering information.
• Engineers do not want to speak to sales and marketing representatives until midway or later in their buying journey. Only 20% of engineers are open to talking to a sales person at the beginning of their evaluation process.
• 55% of engineers want to be contacted only after they have researched online and narrowed down their options.

Marketing and sales automation, with related processes, is key to marketing and selling effectively today and in the future. Engineering firms clinging to the “old-school” way of marketing and developing business will struggle to find continuous success in the new digital era.

The executives and managers of engineering firms need to evolve their marketing practices and methodologies to be more successful now in order to sustain it for the future.

It’s time for engineering companies to seriously reevaluate their marketing efforts to grow their business today.

As a marketer, you might have heard about the customer lifecycle in one form or another. It’s essentially the different stages that buyers will go through as they interact with your brand—from initial awareness through to purchase and advocacy.

Why is it important? It serves as a framework for your marketing team to think about their goals at each stage, map those goals to key measures of success, and develop the right content and campaigns to drive success for each of those stages.

At Marketo, we’ve seen many versions of the customer lifecycle model, each with their unique stages, and have even gone through a few iterations of our own. What we’ve come to realize is that even though marketing has evolved significantly over time, the customer lifecycle model hasn’t evolved to reflect the same changes.

The models we’ve seen have two things in common:

1. The customer journey, usually represented either as a circle or a funnel, is sequential. In a sense, this represents traditional marketing in which marketers have bombarded their entire audience with one campaign, then another, in sequence. This model is flawed and needs to evolve, since your buyers move through the customer lifecycle at their own pace.
2. Different stages. The customer lifecycle stages of awareness, engagement, retention, loyalty, and advocacy are usually found across models. However, do these really represent all of the different ways that a buyer interacts with your brand? The purchase stage is a discrete stage unto itself, separate from retention, as is growth. The model needs to be expanded to reflect all of the stages.

At Marketo, this is how we envision the customer lifecycle model, which represents unique buyer’s journeys and fluid stages:

Here are three fundamental changes to the customer lifecycle model to reflect the unique buyer’s journey, which can serve as a framework for you to evaluate your own:

1. New Model

The sequential customer journey in the form of a circle or a funnel is dated. Each buyer’s path through these stages is different–some buyers go through the same stage multiple times, some skip a stage, and some may revert back to an older stage before taking two steps forward. In the past, it was hard for marketers to identify individuals in the journey, let alone react to where they are in the journey. That’s changed, however, with the emergence of more sophisticated marketing automation platforms and complementary technologies, and the model needs to evolve to reflect that reality.

The new customer lifecycle model, represented in a Venn diagram, accurately reflects a fluid customer journey. All of the stages converge at a common point at the base, reflecting that buyers can move to any stage from another. You may have a potential customer in the awareness stage who sees a web advertisement about your product that they click through to, and then they may spend multiple cycles in the engagement stage–coming back for a couple of visits to your product page, engaging with your social media page to learn more about the latest announcements, almost purchasing, but then abandoning their cart…only to make the purchase later through a re-targeted ad for cart abandoners.

This is a model that better reflects customer behavior as it stands–ever-changing–and it allows marketers to plan better for a much more personalized experience based on buyer behavior as well as which stage in the journey they’re in. It’s a win-win for both your buyers and your brand.

2. 6 Core Stages

Many customer lifecycle models are missing a few key stages: the purchase stage before loyalty and the growth stage before advocacy.

The purchase stage needs to be distinct from the retention and loyalty stage. You need to use specific tactics to transition a buyer from being interested to purchasing the product–such as making the purchase transaction easier for the customer, in the case of a more complex product, helping with set-up and support immediately post-purchase.

The growth stage is distinct as well–it’s all about getting a customer to like your products enough to purchase larger quantities of the same product or purchase other products from you. You need to be able to understand usage patterns, anticipate needs, and take action accordingly.

These two stages have been included in a number of models, but most models try to simplify and sometimes exclude these stages. A complete model includes these six stages:

1. Awareness: When a buyer first learns about your brand or product
2. Engagement: When a buyer becomes interested in your product or service
3. Purchase: When a buyer is ready to make a purchase
4. Retention/loyalty: When a customer purchases the product, uses it, and keeps coming back
5. Growth: When you identify complementary products to cross-sell or upsell the customer to continue to provide increased value
6. Advocacy: When customers love the product so much that they influence others to consider the product as well

3. Flow

The new customer lifecycle model can also be inverted based on the value of each buyer to your brand. Buyers in the awareness stage, though large in number, represent the smallest per capita value. From a customer lifetime value perspective, the diagram gets turned inside out, as advocates represent the largest value for the company, and thus constitute the largest stage. From this, it’s natural that our efforts as marketers should be focused on driving as many customers into the advocacy bucket as possible, growing the pie to its maximum potential.

What does the evolution of the customer lifecycle mean for marketers? For decades, we have relied on the old, sequential model to help plan and budget our activities in each stage, moving customers sequentially across each of those stages. Now that our buyers have higher expectations and are self-educating, our marketing needs to become more personalized and respond to individual behaviors. As such, the customer lifecycle model your organization uses should reflect this reality, enabling you to plan across each stage as you did before while giving you a full understanding of the different types of activities going on for each unique buyer.

Yesterday the article’s headline read, 84 percent of B2B Sales Start with a Referral — Not a Salesperson. Today the headline has been changed to read How B2B Sales Can Benefit from Social Selling.

The text is the same, “Outbound B2B sales are becoming less and less effective. . . . Meanwhile, 84 percent of B2B buyers are now starting the purchase process with a referral, and peer recommendations are influencing more than 90 percent of all B2B buying decisions.”

Poppycock.

Enter, Reality

Pull up your pipeline of opportunities right now. Look at the name of the company for the first opportunity on your report. Was that opportunity generated by a referral? What about the next opportunity? If the first two weren’t referrals, then statistically speaking, the next eight opportunities were generated that way.

Wait? What is this you say? None of those opportunities were generated by referral? Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Think of all the salespeople you know. How many of them have a pipeline with 84 percent of the opportunities generated by referral? How many have a pipeline with 10 percent of their opportunities generated by referral, for that matter? For most salespeople, 10 percent would be far better than they have now, and more than many of their peers.

The reality is that very few opportunities are generated by a referral. In fact, most salespeople don’t ask for them, and even fewer buyers go out of their way to refer their suppliers to their peers.

A Lie Repeated Long Enough

The problem with lies is that if they are repeated often enough, they eventually begin to sound like the truth. You’ll likely see a slide with this 84 percent statistic at a sales conference in the next year, with this HBR article cited as its source.

No doubt you’ll hear that social selling is what generates enough referrals that you should no longer use any other method to prospect and create opportunities, least of all cold calling.

The fact that this may very well become the newest in a long line of bunk will not make it true. Nor will it make it useful.

Poor Social

Poor social selling again takes a beating. Drivel like this over promises and under delivers.

For social selling to be a useful toolkit for salespeople, it doesn’t have to create a pipeline that is made up of 84 percent referrals. It doesn’t have to exclude all other methods of prospecting. Worse still, because so many ridiculous statistics are bandied around as if they are truth, they are all now suspect.

If you want to build a pipeline of referrals, call your best clients and ask them to refer you to someone they know who would benefit from the same value you created for them. If you want to use social as part of this process, go to LinkedIn and see who they know before you make the call.

The post Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, and Pure Social Selling Nonsense appeared first on The Sales Blog.

Canada’s Best Jobs Top 100 List Best Employers

(Illustration by Janne Iivonen)

Marie-Huguette Cormier is about to step into a room filled with her company’s most valuable assets. It’s a Friday morning a few months into a new era at Mouvement Desjardins, and the co-operative is hosting a convention for the general managers of its caisse—or branch—network. The bank, headquartered in Lévis, Que., may have more than $250 billion in assets and over 300 caisses in Quebec and Ontario, but financial services is ultimately a people business. “It’s the people who give the service,” says the senior vice-president of HR and communications. “They have to be treated the same way we want them to treat customers.”

Size and employee happiness tend to have an inverse relationship. But though it’s Quebec’s largest employer, Desjardins has consistently won awards for the way it engages its 48,000 workers; it is a Platinum-status Aon Best Employers in Canada honouree this year, its sixth on the list. It’s not resting on those laurels, however. Desjardins recently came under new management, and freshly elected CEO Guy Cormier has made “investing in people first” the core of his mission for the company. It’s the kind of platitude you might expect from a new boss, but Cormier and his team are backing it up by refocusing the bank’s sprawling organizational structure so it empowers employees.

Desjardins is organized as a co-operative, meaning that each of its caisses has members rather than customers and maintains its own board. The CEO of Desjardins is chosen by an electoral college of regional representatives. Guy Cormier, a 24-year veteran of the company, succeeded Monique Leroux in the top job in March. (He also serves as president and chair of the board.) “It’s the employees who make the difference for members [through] the quality of service they provide and their ability to listen,” he told the Lévis Chamber of Commerce two months later, referencing his experiences as a caisse general manager.

To ensure “people first” becomes more than just a corporate catchphrase, Desjardins is working to update the tools and training available to employees, and to simplify the processes governing the giant organization’s operations. For example, front-line caisse workers have expressed irritation with having to juggle different protocols and technological systems for each of the company’s various service offerings—personal banking, credit cards, investment accounts, insurance and so on—while serving a single member. “Employees are getting really frustrated,” says Marc-André Malboeuf, Desjardins’ vice-president of HR solutions, “so we’re trying to simplify their experience.”

Simplification is a major theme for Guy Cormier’s Desjardins; it’s one of four core behaviours the company is trying to inculcate in all of its staff. Large organizations can often get tangled in red tape of their own making. An institution of Desjardins’ size would not function without codified processes, and while the co-operative has plenty—143 distinct ones when it counted a few years ago—it is now looking to give employees more leeway to act on the front lines by, say, allowing a caisse teller to offer an additional incentive at the counter. Such autonomy requires relaxing the rule book, but the thinking is that it will result in happier members, more empowered employees and, importantly, fewer bureaucratic bottlenecks. “We’re trying to stop [decisions] at the right level and make sure people have the autonomy to do their jobs correctly, without necessarily having to escalate everything,” explains Malboeuf, adding that staff have been asking for such freedom for a few years now. This change essentially enables agency without anarchy, the exact sort of motivation-boosting autonomy touted by author Daniel Pink in one of the most-watched TED Talks.

The idea is to keep good people in the fold, something Desjardins takes seriously. High turnover is common in financial services, and while the bank’s wide variety of products, and preponderance of business units offering them, give employees plenty of opportunity to move up (or sideways) instead of out, the company has learned not to leave loyalty to fate. Some technical hires—accountants, for example—are presented with set career paths, while employees with general business backgrounds are encouraged to apply for open positions and discuss their ambitions with their bosses. And if they do decide to pursue an upward move, they won’t be on their own. Desjardins is implementing a program to support workers stepping from the front lines into their first management roles. It teaches key skills, such as performance evaluation, and is meant to help employees see that Desjardins rewards loyalty. (Another indication? The nine executives Guy Cormier chose for his management committee have spent a total of 153 years at the company.) These measures will become even more important as the organization works to recruit and retain millennials. “We want our managers to always think about, What is the next challenge I’m going to give to that employee?” Marie-Huguette Cormier says.

To those ends, the company is pushing for employees and managers to spend more time talking with one another. Instead of a yearly meeting at which bosses simply tick goals off a checklist—“We found our [previous] performance management process very administrative,” Malboeuf says—Desjardins is moving toward a so-called “continuous loop” of feedback, in which people discuss challenges and opportunities as they arise. And the company holds focus groups of employees who come up with ideas that would improve their jobs—one recent suggestion, for a platform that allows workers to commend the efforts of their colleagues to their teams, is being seriously considered. Managers also ask staff what they think of its practices at what it calls “moments of truth,” such as during the onboarding process.

Desjardins’ efforts to engage and empower its people is not just an exercise in building a fuzzy, feel-good employer brand. There’s a strategic imperative at play, too. Founded in Lévis in 1900, the organization only truly became a single Desjardins in 1990, when a centralized federation was put in charge of the various divisions and business units. Significant acquisitions in recent years—including the 2014 takeover of State Farm’s Canadian business, which gave Desjardins a presence in the western provinces—and the autonomy enjoyed by individual branches have created the need to re-emphasize a common unifying philosophy. “You have a specific culture if you’re in a business unit [or] a caisse,” explains Marie-Huguette Cormier. At the same time as the company is putting its people first, she says, it also needs to get them pulling together. “We need to boost the Desjardins [culture]—one culture, one group.”

---

More About Canada’s Best Jobs

Five Ways to Get Hired Now

Five must-see job-hunt apps

How to Move for a Job

---

How booming cities made urban planning Canada’s hottest job

Urban growth—not to mention truckloads of infrastructure spending coming down the road—spell opportunity for urban planners

---

Best Employers 2016: The top companies people love working for

Our second annual ranking of Canada’s Best Employers uncovers the companies where people can’t wait to get to work

The post How Canada’s Best Employers build corporate cultures that put people first appeared first on Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News.

TORONTO – Pete Breese remembers seeing a leather jacket he wanted to buy — but not pay full price for — in a store when he was a teenager, so he asked for a discount and walked away with his new purchase shortly after.

“Ever since then, I realized that you can haggle just about anywhere,” he said — and he’s continued to do it “all the time.”

It may seem like haggling is confined to car dealerships, Kijiji sales and travels abroad, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Few prices are non-negotiable, say seasoned hagglers, and people shouldn’t fear asking for a discount most anywhere so long as they follow the proper bargaining etiquette.

“There’s always room,” says Mohammed Halabi, director and founder of MyBillsAreHigh.com, which negotiates down the cost of individual and business phone, Internet and TV plans.

The only exceptions, he quips, are gas and hydro bills.

All other companies — like furniture retailers, hotels or electronics dealers — are fair game, he says.

“There’s room for those places to, you know, either sweeten up the deal or get a reduction in cost,” says Halabi. Instead of a price cut, consumers could ask a hotel for a free upgrade or petition a telecom provider to add in more data without an extra fee.

To secure any deal though, a customer must first ask and there are some ways to help ensure that goes smoothly.

The best way for someone browsing to start a negotiation is to mention how much they love an item, says Breese, who now owns Eclectic Revival, a vintage and custom lighting store in Toronto, where it’s acceptable to bargain rather than just pay what’s scrawled on the price tags.

“When I see somebody being enthusiastic about a piece (it) is definitely going to soften my heart,” he says.

A polite demeanour is also a must. Recently, Breese stopped engaging with a man who repeatedly demanded he sell an item for $100 less than its price after he had already said the most he was willing to drop it by was $75.

On the flip side, trying to bring down the price by pointing out flaws on an antique is likely to backfire, he says, because it could offend the seller, who is likely aware of any nicks already.

It’s also important to be knowledgeable, says Halabi, who believes his years of experience selling services on behalf of telecom providers give him an edge in securing the best deal.

If shoppers don’t see any success from speaking to a salesperson, Halabi suggests escalating the matter by requesting to speak to a manager, who may have more leeway.

Customers must also be reasonable about what they’re asking for.

“Rule of thumb is … try not to cut somebody in half,” says Breese, adding it’s acceptable to start by asking for a 20 to 30 per cent discount.

But not everyone wants to start a negotiation and anxiety around haggling is common.

A recent survey commissioned by AutoTrader.ca found nearly one out of five respondents said they were holding off from purchasing a vehicle because they feared negotiating over price.

Breese says there’s little reason to feel nervous about haggling — a conversation that typically takes only a few minutes in his shop.

“The worst thing they can say is no.”

Follow @AleksSagan on Twitter.

The post How to negotiate price cuts or freebies when shopping for nearly anything appeared first on Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News.

Sales training

If you look back over the last decade, a number of industries have gone through dramatic change. They have changed what they buy, how they buy, and what they are willing to pay for it. The future will produce more of the same with the changes likely to be even more dramatic.

If your customers are making changes of substantial magnitude, then the case is made that it’s no longer business-as-usual for your sales team. It becomes a matter of doing something different rather than simply doing a better job doing what you are doing. The required shift in sales isn’t incremental; it’s transformational.

Because it is transformation, the design work involves more than just some word changes to the title page of your sales training documents. Doing something different requires a greater time commitment, a different type of training design and greater top management engagement.

How do you design sales training when companies need to help sales reps do something different rather than just doing a better job doing the same thing? First, let’s explore that topic from a sales leadership perspective, then drill down and examine what it means for designing sales training.

Understanding the leadership task. Not long ago CSO Insights published a report entitled Sales Management 2.0: Optimizing Sales Performance that included two outstanding articles on sales transformation from a leadership perspective. They pointed out four particularly important pitfalls:

• Under commitment. “If your management team does not fundamentally believe that successfully redesigning your sales process is one of the top strategic challenges your company faces, don’t even start a sales transformation project.”
• Lack of coordination. Successful sales transformation projects require an enterprise-wise orientation. “If you let each of your departments attempt to deal with their portion of the sales process independently, you may create a configuration that even Rube Goldberg couldn’t figure out.”
• Champagne dreams and beer budgets. “Trying to implement a sales transformation cheaply is another common mistake.” The key is to “figure out what you want to achieve, determine what it will cost to get there, compare the benefits to the costs and then decide if it a good investment.”
• Expecting to “just add water.” Designing and implementing a sales transformation effort is not a quick fix. It is unlikely that Version 1.0 will be a perfect fit for your organization. “No new sophisticated sales effectiveness strategy will work perfectly the first time.”

Exploring sales training design lessons. All that leadership stuff must be addressed before crafting a sales training intervention that will help the sales force understand the new sales process and develop the skills required to implement it. However, once done, what are some of the lessons for designing an effective sales training component for a sales transformation initiative?

• Understand the difference. The profile of the sales training solution is strikingly different if the challenge is to help a sales team take the next step at getting better at doing what they are doing versus doing something different. Achieving the latter requires greater design innovation, a longer timeframe and a more comprehensive plan for skill acquisition.
• Build upfront understanding and enthusiasm. Before the sales training, the leadership team must set the stage for the sales training. This includes communicating what is to be done and why it is being done. The sales team needs to see why the sales process needs changing, what the new process and skills sets look like, how others are also being asked to change and what the anticipated payoffs will be.
• Select the right partner(s). There are 100s of viable sales training companies if you are selecting a sales training vendor for your national sales meeting to deliver a sales training presentation. The number is dramatically reduced for a sales transformation project. The best fit will, of course, depend on the specifics of the transformation being planned – nobody is the best across-the-board. However, there are some overarching considerations. Your partner needs to have the capability and the commitment for: understanding your industry and culture, committing the A-team, bring innovative design and implementation expertise, and being receptive to alternative pricing models.
• Spotlight the pivotal job. The front-line sales manager is the pivotal job for driving the success of any sales transformation effort. They need to be engaged in defining the new sales process and take a leadership role in introducing it to the sales teams. They will also be the key element in helping the sales people learn the new required skills. They need trained first – and subsequently they should participate in the sales reps training – most importantly, they need to be committed to providing coaching over the long haul.

Remembering some basic principles. If the industry you sell into is undergoing transformational changes in the way they buy, it is likely that a parallel effort will be required on your part from a sales perspective. From a competitive standpoint it does not pay to be the last holdout for the ways of yesteryear. Three final principles are worth keeping in mind:

• Changing behavior is tough. Your sales team has been doing what they have been doing for a long time – changing technology is easy compared to asking people to change their behavior.
• Walking before running is okay. Once the change reaches a certain level, it is worth considering doing it in phases or using a “skunk works” approach to work out the problems.
• Sticking to your guns. Sometime doing the change, a crisis such as a fall in revenue will occur; this of course is the time when the brave of heart must step forward.

Why is customer centricity such a challenge?

Theories abound ranging from customer ownership delegated to someone other than the CEO; a culture that does not appreciate the link between employee engagement and customer success; lack of in-depth customer understanding; processes that don’t consistently deliver a valued lifetime experience; or a perspective that customer engagement belongs to marketing, to name a few.

From my experience working with Fortune 100 to 5000 companies across a wide range of industries, these ‘theories’ are at play but they are not the root cause of the challenge. That lies in their business strategy.

Setting business strategy is as critical to an organization’s success as having delighted customers. The first sets direction and focus. Done correctly it enables employees and partners to align their efforts, resources and plans to achieve the measurable and time-bound objectives of the organization. The second, delighted customers, is the path to market share growth. Yet many business plans lack specific goals or objectives for customer success. The two are one; not separate.

The role of the annual business plan is to get everyone in the organization to have a shared vision of the future and agree on what needs to be done, when, by whom and with what resources to achieve target end state. Only through planning can we confirm that everyone sees the same thing and has worked through the issues to reach that point of acceptance. Not only does everyone in an organization need to sing the same verse from the same hymn from the same book, they need to also sing it with the same level of gusto. It sounds trite but it can be hard to achieve.

Most organizations have no problem setting goals. Goals are broad statements of the company’s aspirations for the future, stated in external business environment terms, are generally enduring and often not measurable. Rarely do companies struggle with setting goals around revenue/profitability, mindshare, reputation, market share, product mix, thought leadership, organizational agility, culture or customer success. A typical customer success goal is worded along the lines of: “To maintain solid, sustainable customer relationships with the highest level of loyalty and sustained satisfaction.”

The challenge comes in defining objectives. Objectives are internally focused and defined in financial, statistical or numerical terms. Performance against measurable objectives is the prime indicator of whether the related goal is being achieved. While goals are stated in multi-year terms, objectives are time bound and stated in quarterly, monthly and/or annual terms.

Planning teams inevitably get stuck on setting objectives for the ‘customer success’ goal. They get stuck because the company often views customer delight / loyalty / satisfaction (pick your favorite label) as a separate set activities loosely related to other goals.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Customer success is interdependent as well as part of all other goals. Miss any goal’s objective and it will have a direct impact on achieving customer success.

Two things typically happen at this point. An epiphany occurs on the depth of the interdependency between the rest of the business plan and customer success. Or management focuses on putting customer success in a box. Most companies opt for the latter because addressing the interdependency is seen as “opening Pandora’s box”. Their focus, incorrectly, is on finishing the plan instead of planning a path to assured success.

The missed opportunity is on the road less traveled.

Companies that invest the time to understand their current and future target customer groups’ lifetime ‘value’ expectations and match them to the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, market opportunities, threats and resources consistently develop more achievable strategic plans in good times as well as bad. Best-in-class companies do this matching across a number of internal and external scenarios to identify where the ‘rubber meets the road’ in achieving true customer and company success. Not only are their plans more consistently achieved, their companies also have significantly greater internal alignment, are more agile and innovative.

The most common push-back to this approach that I hear is “it takes too long”, “we know our customers”, “our business strategy is not dictated by customers”, and/or “we don’t have time to overhaul our strategy”. None of these are really true; they are just excuses for not getting outside of one’s comfort zone and seeing the many shades of future reality.

Leaders looking to ground their business strategy in customer success can start by:

1. Journey map the lifecycle of their highest value current and target customer groups.

2. Map interactions, their associated emotional and value states.

3. Conduct a detailed SWOT, emerging trends and competitive chessboard analysis.

4. Co-create with highest value customer groups a higher value-producing, distinctive customer lifecycle experience.

5. Evaluate current 12 to 36-month macro-strategy against #3 and #4, identifying areas of change.

6. Define the target end-state and timeframe for change area.

These six steps will give you a solid start down the path of customer-centric business strategy. The key is to not boil the ocean, be too attached to sacred cows, and limit future opportunities by screening them based on today’s resources and market states.

The holistic focus enables employees to understand the key interaction/process activities, emotion/culture intersections, and internal/external variables that drive preference, engagement and market share growth. Embracing the interdependency of customer success turns the platitude of customer delight into a tangible, achievable reality.

The post How Leaders Should Ground Business Strategy in Customer Success appeared first on Christine Crandell.

Through running training sessions and talks I have spoken to countless businesses across the country and indeed around the world. We all understand the value of generating new business, so one of my favourite exercises when talking to someone is to take five minutes to demonstrate the potential from their perspective alone.

Let us assume you are a firm of accountants based in London. You want to work with construction companies located in Manchester. So you need to connect with people that are Director level and above of such companies, particularly where they have more than 11 staff and are located within a 10-mile radius of the centre of Manchester. Based on a LinkedIn search which takes me less than 5 seconds, I can tell you there are over 1600 prospects right now, on LinkedIn, who meet these criteria. If I widen the search to 25 miles I can tell you there are over 3300 prospects.

Let’s change the location to London and see what happens. A 10-mile radius nets 6900 results. At 25 miles, you get 11800 results.

Or basing your search around Bristol you get 726 people at 10 miles and 1400 people at 25.

These numbers are real, from searches conducted as I write this blog. They clearly demonstrate that right now, as at today, there are more than sufficient people on LinkedIn who are relevant to you, and could make great clients. If you conduct other, similar searches, you’ll get even more results to back this up.

Generating these kinds of figures from searches conducted on LinkedIn works for most key sectors, business types, in over 200 countries. As you’ll see, this is significantly more targeted than attending a conference or event, where you might go with the hope you encounter a decision maker and get the chance to speak to them in any meaningful way. LinkedIn is a network which can be leveraged with enormous success, and I know many professionals across a wide range of sectors who have done just that. You can read about their success here.

One of the latest trends in the world of technology and engineering is “machine learning” — in fact, all of the big technology companies today have invested in artificial intelligence and machine learning projects.

The term “machine learning” was first defined by Arthur Samuel, way back in 1959. He defined it as “the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed,” which basically means that a machine could learn from its own mistakes and reprogram itself to improve its performance over time.

The idea gained popularity in the 90s when the concept of data mining came into existence. Data mining uses algorithms to look for patterns in a given set of information, which led to data-driven predictions and decision making. This encouraged engineers to develop complex machine learning algorithms by making use of data mining and predictive analytics.

Innovations that are driving business advantage

Today, machine learning algorithms are already being used widely in various ways. Here are some, everyday uses of machine learning that you probably didn’t know.

1. The face detection feature in your phone camera is an example of what machine learning can do. Cameras can automatically click when someone smiles or take photos by simply blinking, looking at your phone. This is possible because of the advances in machine learning algorithms.
2. The face recognition feature with which a computer can identify an individual from a photo is another use of machine learning. We use it often on Facebook, while automatically tagging friends in photos they appear.
3. Have you ever noticed that your phone sometimes suggests freeing up space by deleting duplicate photos, photos containing the same image, which it automatically detect? This would not be possible without machine learning.
4. Every time you search something on the Internet you make use of machine learning. Google uses machine learning to improve search results and search suggestions.
5. Machine learning is used in anti-virus and anti-spam software to improve detection of malicious software, spyware, or adware on your devices.
6. Machine learning is also changing the way vehicle systems are engineered and built. It is being used extensively in self-driving cars.

Machine learning becomes mainstream

The technology is advancing at a rapid pace as we continue to find new ways of using machine learning. Enterprises too, are keen to get a hold of machine learning for the betterment of future products and accomplishment of strategic goals.

Machine learning brings value to all the data that enterprises have been saving for years, by churning high volumes of data and helping gain deeper insights and improve decision-making. The figure below depicts some of the applications of machine learning across multiple industries.

Source: TCS

Future application to use machine learning

Machine learning algorithms are being used extensively to re-engineer business processes such as sales, marketing, logistics, procurement etc. across industries. The beauty of it all is that these algorithms keep getting better with time by itself.

The real reason behind this accelerated adoption of machine learning is that the algorithms are iterative in nature, repeatedly learning and probing to optimize outcomes. Every time an error is made, machine learning algorithms correct itself and begins another iteration of the analysis. And all of these calculations happen in milliseconds making it exceptionally efficient at optimizing decisions and predicting outcomes.

Machine learning makes it easier to devise sophisticated software systems without much human effort. Instead of spending years coding features or fine tuning a system with a lot of parameters, we can use machine learning to get done in a much shorter time span. Don’t be surprised if you soon begin to see and use technology and gadgets, which is as of now seen in science fiction movies.

The post How to use machine learning in today’s enterprise environment appeared first on ReadWrite.

Hootsuite founder and CEO Ryan Holmes. (Hootsuite)

When we built the 2016 Power List, we used financial records, corporate documents and analyst reports to help quantify the influence of business leaders. This approach allowed us to back our ranking with hard numbers; it also meant that we could only assess the CEOs of publicly traded companies. So here’s a list of politicians, bureaucrats, heads of private companies and others. We couldn’t measure their power, but they clearly wield clout within the country’s business community:

Ryan Holmes, CEO, Hootsuite

Holmes was just 34-years-old when founded Hootsuite  in 2008. Today, the company’s value approaches $1 billion and it makes the most widely used platform for managing social media in the world, boasting 1,800 enterprise customers including PayPal, Oakley, Sony Music Entertainment, Orange, Adidas, and L’Oreal. Holmes’ authority, like his technology, extends globally. Last year, Holmes was listed alongside Richard Branson and Bill Gates as one of LinkedIn’s Top 10 Influencers.

Katherine Barr, Founding Partner, Wildcat Venture Partners

One of a handful of women to be a general partner at a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Barr uses her influence to bolster emerging Canadian tech firms. She’s also a founder of the C100 Association, an organization that helps Canadian companies raise venture financing. She frequently advocates for policy changes aimed at easing access to financing for tech start-ups.

Heather Munroe Blum, Chair of the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board

Last year, Blum’s pension fund conducted $34 billion in transactions. It’s now the eighth largest fund in the world. An academic who served for a decade as President of McGill University, she is currently a Director of Royal Bank of Canada and CGI Group and previously served on the boards of Four Seasons Hotels, Alcan, Yellow Media Inc., and Ontario’s Hydro One among others.

Canada’s Most Innovative Companies 2016

Ron Mock, President and CEO, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan

Ron Mock, a former Ontario Hydro Electrical engineer and founder of Phoenix Research and Trading, now oversees $171 billion in assets in more than 50 countries on behalf of 316,000 past and present teachers. Since the OTPP’s inception in 1990, the fund has produced average annual returns of 10.3%.

Dave Mowat, CEO, ATB Financial

ATB Finance is an Alberta government agency, meaning the financial institution is also a useful policy tool for boosting the provincial economy. In the wake of the province’s wildfires, Mowat announced ATB would work with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) to make $1 billion in capital available to small- and medium-sized Alberta businesses. He’s held three chief executive posts and sat on boards including Telus, Visa Canada, Citizens Bank Canada.

Stephen Poloz, Governor, Bank of Canada

Eight times a year, Canadians mortgage holders, CFOs and small- and medium-sized business owners all wait to hear whether Poloz will change our key interest rate. He may not have the swagger of predecessor Mark Carney, but he still wield tremendous power as the man who directs monetary policy.

Michael Sabia, CEO, la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec

Since joining in 2009, Sabia has grown the provincial pension fund’s asset base by $130 billion. He’s now being lauded for a plan to help build a light-rail system for greater Montreal that will improve public transit and boost the fund’s bottom line.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister, Canada

The Liberal politician is taking an activist role in growing Canada’s economy. Rolling out $50 billion in infrastructure spending is part of it, but so too is new money for innovation, encouraging inter-provincial trade, introducing a carbon-pricing scheme, legalizing marijuana and pursuing implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.

Canada's Best Brands 2017: The Top 25

Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS

Treurnicht runs a non-profit innovation hub whose emerging companies have attracted $2.6-billion in capital and earned $1.25-billion in revenue over its 12-year existence. The former entrepreneur enticed legendary Canadian business leaders to MaRS’ board, including former RBC CEO Gord Nixon and Richard Ivey.

Kathleen Wynne, Premier, Ontario

Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper wouldn’t talk to Wynne, but Justin Trudeau’s October 2015 election changed Kathleen Wynne’s status in Ottawa overnight. She now has a federal ally aligned with many of her key policies. She’s leading the charge among the provinces for an expanded public pension plan, a national carbon-pricing plan, expanding public transportation and greater interprovincial trade.

---

More Lists & Rankings:

Canada’s Best Jobs 2016: The Top 25 Jobs In Canada

Canada’s Best MBA Programs: The Top 10 by Reputation

The Top 25 Richest Neighbourhoods in Canada

The post Canada’s Most Powerful Business People 2017: Beyond the Boardroom appeared first on Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News.

Jennifer Edgin is the Chief Technology Officer of the Intelligence Division at the Headquarters of the Marine Corps. As the Senior Technical Advisor to the Director of Intelligence, she is responsible for building and infusing new technologies within the Marine Corps Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Enterprise (MCISRE). Jennifer is one the “innovation insurgents” inside the Department of Defense driving rapid innovation. Here’s her story of the Lean innovation accelerator she’s built for the Marines.

If you asked 100 people to describe a United States Marine, they would probably use words such as “Warrior,” “Fierce,” “Patriot,” “Honorable,” and “Tough.” Marine Corps culture transcends generations and is rooted in the values of courage, honor, and commitment.  Marines are known for adapting to change and overcoming obstacles and adversity to meet new mission requirements continuously.  Three years ago, Marine Corps Intelligence outlined a mission to harness the disruptions occurring in the new frontier of warfare, the Electronic battlefield. To achieve this mission, we established a framework that leveraged Marine Corps tenacity, agility, and adaptability to create a persistent culture of innovation.

One of our primary goals in establishing this framework was to keep the user front and center, and to quickly deliver solutions to their challenges. To achieve this, we stood up the Marine Corps Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Enterprise (MCISRE) Accelerator. Like a tech startup accelerator, the MCISRE Accelerator assembles a cohort of active duty Marines of all ranks, experiences, and disciplines and pairs them with developers, designers, and mentors through a 12-week “Design—Develop—Deploy” cycle.  Marines are taught tools and methodologies from the Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and Service Design practices, which are then used to zero in on a problem; identify the target customer segment; validate the problem and solution by “getting out of the building” and submitting their problem and concept designs to peers for feedback, designing wireframes and prototypes, developing a minimum viable product (MVP); and finally pitch the MVP to the Director of Intelligence (DIRINT) and other leaders and stakeholders for a go/no-go decision for release.

Over the course of the last year, we have carefully measured and monitored our framework so we could quickly identify what was working, what was not working, and tune accordingly so that the end result created value for both the Marines in the cohort and the larger community of Marine Corps Intelligence. Below are the top 5 factors we found are necessary to successfully innovate.

1. Understand Your Customer and Teach Them to Solve Real Problems
Innovation begins and ends with understanding the customer and the specific problems they are facing. Too often in government, problems are talked about in generalizations, users are not part of the design and development of solutions, and anecdotal information gets passed around without data to validate it until at some point it becomes “truth” and is accepted without verification.

One of the most difficult exercises for our cohorts is distilling “world-hunger”-level challenges into discrete, focused problems we can solve in 12 weeks. We learned that if you cannot define your problem in one sentence that a 7 year-old can understand, you don’t understand the problem.  If you want to create innovative solutions, you must start by defining real problems. Real problems—when defined properly—have metrics that quantify the scope, magnitude, and impact.

Before we launched the MCISRE Accelerator, we conducted site visits, and spoke with Marines from around the world to hear from them what wasn’t working and what was.  After our site visits, we identified common issues across each of the sites, disciplines, and ranks, and launched data surveys to explore and quantify problems.  The data showed us how users were currently performing a mission, where deficits existed in enabling technology and processes, and which anecdotal problems were actual problems and which were not. We then compared the results of the surveys with the site survey interviews and prepared a list of the top issues and challenges facing Marine Corps Intelligence. When we launched the MCISRE Accelerator, we used this information to quickly move the focus of the cohort from the world-hunger view to zeroing in one or two key issues that caused major disruptions in their tasking and productivity.

One of the biggest benefits to this process was that it helped shift the focus of the Marines from nebulous systems-centric thinking—“The network architecture sucks”—to identifying specific pain points impeding their productivity on the job. Because the tools and methodologies we use are simple but highly effective for analysis and problem solving, many of our cohort Marines take them back to their units so that they can reframe problems within their communities of practice.

2. Always Be Shipping
If vision without execution is hallucination, frameworks that don’t produce tangible products breed insanity.  Within the MCISRE we have two frameworks that engage Marines. Our yearly technical design meeting (TDM) brings together Marines to identify and address challenges and issues across the MCISRE. The outputs of the technical design meeting are used as primers for defining the problem themes that each MCISRE Accelerator cohort will work on.  The MCISRE Accelerator pairs Marines with developers and designers who work collaboratively both in person and virtually to design, prototype, and then develop and build a minimum viable product (MVP) in 12 weeks.  These two frameworks allow us to continuously innovate from within, creating a pipeline of challenges to be solved over the long term and implementing against them iteratively and quickly.  This rapid implementation creates real metrics that allow us to create quick, measurable value and kill bad ideas before too much time, money, and human capital has been spent on them. Rapid implementation also allows leadership to make quicker decisions on where, when, and how to apply resources.

3.  Always Be Measuring
Big idea fairies live everywhere, sometimes for a very long time. This can be particularly true in the government where the acquisition lifecycle imposes “shipbuilding timelines” on information technology systems. Successful innovation requires one simple act: always be measuring. Using the Lean Startup methodology to build, learn, and measure in a 12-week cycle provides quantifiable data and user feedback that allows us to validate problem/solution fit quickly. By the time our cohort is pitching to the DIRINT and other leaders and stakeholders, the minimum viable product (MVP) has metrics that validate its value to users as well as prevent redundancy, loss of, or misalignment of capability, funding, and other key resources.

4.  To think differently…be different
Most meetings within the government involve PowerPoint, a conference table, and a bunch of subject matter experts espousing the relative merits or demerits of a point. These meetings can last hours to weeks, and at the end, there might be nothing tangible to show. When we set out to create this culture of innovation, we knew that to get people to do things differently, we had to get them to think differently.

Our first mission value was to create an experience for our Marines, stakeholders, and mentors that was counter to the typical meetings they were used to and focused on establishing a co-creative environment where everyone’s input had value regardless of rank, experience, and skill.  Our technical design meetings and Accelerators use little technology; are not set up as lectures; encourage jeans and your favorite T-shirt; and require constant, active participation. When you walk into our rooms, you will see Marines on their feet, Post-It notes and markers in hand, diagramming, sketching, and plotting furiously on white boards, flip charts, and any other available surface.  They paper the room with problem statements, lean canvases, journey maps, value proposition canvases, process flows, wireframes, and Pixar-worthy storyboards. By the end of the week, you can walk the walls and see the progression of problem to solution in their words, through their eyes, from their point of view. This process takes Marines outside of the normal rank structure that they are accustomed. It is admittedly uncomfortable for them at first. But within hours of the kickoff, these simple tactics result in ideation, collaboration, and production that is evident to them and fundamentally changes how they approach problem solving and conduct meetings when they return to their units.

5.  Do It Again… and Again… and Again
With any new skill, repetition is important.  Marines don’t learn close order drill with a one-time explanation, they spend countless hours on the drill field until they have mastered it.  We apply the same repetition mindset for our innovation methodology because it creates an environment of continuous learning.  With every repetition, we learn more about our problems and how we can solve them.  We learn which solutions are working and which ones are not.  We learn what techniques for engaging Marines are working and which ones are not. We learn how the operating environment is evolving.  Continuous learning is the objective of our innovation activities, and it is more powerful than the solution itself.  Learning means successes, learning means failures, learning means growth.

November 10, 2016 marks the 241th anniversary of the formation of the Marine Corps; 241 years of adapting to changes and 241 years of innovation. Innovation does not mean that it has to come from external entities.  Sometimes you just need to put Marines in jeans, challenge them to think differently, and give them another opportunity to adapt and overcome.

I’ve personally always been a huge fan of Google+, but it’s been several years since I’ve been consistently active: It simply became too difficult to keep up with posting.

Has the same been true for you?

I’ve always known that Google+ is good for SEO reasons, personal branding, and content sharing; I just found myself moving more naturally toward Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook — networks that I could use Buffer to manage all of my posts and share similar content. Sharing to Google+ natively was too much of a stretch from my regular routine of scheduling everything in one place.

Well, I’m excited to share some good news and some helpful G+ tips. Now, you can connect a Google+ account to Buffer, which we hope will make your Google+ brand even stronger. And if you’re still on the fence about the future of Google+ or its value to marketers today, I’d love to share five reasons why Google+ could be interesting for you to try.

To make Google+ marketing as easy as possible for you, we’re proud to say that starting today you can connect your personal Google+ profile to Buffer, along with any of your Google+ pages, and fully manage your Google+ presence alongside Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest all from the Buffer dashboard.

Now, onto the five good reasons to make time for Google+ posting.

1. Google+ content gets indexed immediately and shows up in search results

You’ve likely heard that Google+ pages and profiles can greatly help your SEO, and it’s true!

Google+ is a powerful search engine marketing tool for companies, influencers, and your own personal branding. Sharing blog posts on Google+ in particular is an excellent way to …

1. Rank for keyword terms that you might otherwise not be able to
2. Drive search traffic to your Google+ profile and then back to your blog and website

Sometimes it happens without even realizing it. Such was the case for Patrik Antinozzi of Rapid Web Launch who ended up in the search results for Pokemon Go thanks to his Google+ post.

How does this Google+ ranking boost happen?

Well, rumor has it that Google crawls and indexes content posted to Google+ almost immediately. Here’s what Moz found:

If you share new content on Google+, chances are that Google will index the page very quickly.

Rumor has it that new URLs are crawled almost instantly. This makes complete sense as part of the purpose of Google+ was to replace Twitter when creating Google’s Realtime Search.

In the old days, if you wanted a website indexed you filled out a webform and waited several weeks. Today, it’s as simple as pressing a +1 button.

Content that you post to Google+ is far more likely to show up in search results than other pages, websites, articles, and content posted to other social networks because Google ranks their own social network higher and they crawl it faster. The added benefit is that Google even previews certain Google+ posts with rich snippets (profile picture, media, etc.), giving them even more real estate in a search!

As Laura Donovan shared in her Business2Community article on Google+:

While our company Google Plus page does not have a lot of followers, it does seem to give us a boost when it comes to how visible our blog posts are in Google searches.

Is there a catch?

Well, you do need to build a network on Google+ using Google+ Circles. The more people you add to circles and the more people who add you to their circles, the more likely you are to show up in search results for your network. Imagine if every person you emailed got added to a Google+ circle? You’d have a list of friends, family, colleagues, prospective leads, business partners, and much more who would see your content first! The broader your network on Google+ the more likely you are to show up in search results.

How can you take advantage of this? It’s pretty simple!

1. Make sure your Google+ personal profile and/or your Google+ page is fully complete.

Why bother? Well, Google indexes this information. This is an ideal place to make sure that Google knows who you are (and for those who find you on Google+ to know where to click to learn more).

In order to fill this out completely, you can:

• Head to your Google+ personal profile, hit “Edit Profile” then click the “I” icon to go to your About Me page.
• From there you can add your introduction and use words that relate to your brand in your tagline and about section
• If you hit the + at the bottom of the page, you can add relevant sites and include links to your website or blog
• Double check that the privacy for your introduction and sites is set to “Public” or whatever you are most comfortable with

2. Grab your custom URL with your full name or business name

After you claim your custom URL (you can follow the instructions here for desktop and mobile), it’ll be even easier to extend your branding into the search results since Google indexes the URLs, too.

3. Stay active on Google+

Make sure all of your recent blog content is being shared there, plus any relevant curated articles you wish to share. (It’s as simple as Buffering it now!)

4. Share your own blog posts, using the blog post title, immediately after they’re published

This is the fastest way to get your URL indexed and crawled to rank on Google search. Take care when sharing to Google+ to include the full title of post and even a small description to make ranking even more likely to be indexed and ranked.

5. Keep building your circles

The more people you have in your circles, the more likely you are to show up in search results! One idea: You could add everyone you email to a Google+ circle.

—

2. Everyone You Email Can See Your Google+ Profile

One billion people use Gmail every month. Are you one of them? If you aren’t, you’re probably emailing with a bunch of them!

And here’s the great benefit of Google+ and Gmail: Your Google+ profile appears in every one of the emails you send, for whoever opens your email in Gmail on desktop.

It’s this information, right here:

Have you ever tried clicking on someone’s photo in an email and had it take you to their Google+ profile?

I’ve done that quite a few times when I’m looking to find out more about someone, and it’s always awesome when their bio is filled out and from there I can find their website, other social handles, or just generally learn more about them.

How can you optimize this?

• Add a photo to your Google+ profile
• Optimize your Google+ profile by including:
  • Links
  • Bio
  • Workplace
  • Anything else you’d like to tell people

This way if your profile gets clicked, it contains all of the relevant information someone might be looking for and is a strong start to making sure your profile and content shows up in search.

Bonus: Maintaining an active presence on Google+ will also give people more content to click through and more context to learn about you.

—

3. There’s a Very Specific, Engaged Demographic on Google+ (Maybe Your Target Audience!)

It’s hard to pin down exactly how many people are using Google+, recent numbers say 375 million monthly users, whereas other places mentions between 4 – 6 million active users and in total there are 2.2 billion profiles since every new Gmail account ends up creating a Google+ profile as well.

It looks more likely that people enjoy using Google+ to host their photos, with 1.5 billion photos uploaded every week. I’ve done this myself as not all of my friends and family are on Facebook or Instagram, but they all have Gmail and can view the photos that way.

Regardless of how many people are using Google+, they are an active bunch. Google Communities in particular now average 1.2 million new joins per day!

What I found most interesting is the key demographics from those active Google+ users.

It’s common to hear that Google+ is great for reaching people in tech and it could be true based on these demographics.

This beautiful infographic from Sprout Social explains a bit more what demographics look like for other social networks:

Based on these there are a few things to note:

• Google+ has the highest ratio for men on social media at 73%
• And in particular, men in the United States with that as the location for 55% of users
• Based on stats describing the top occupations, it’s likely 78% of Google+ users work in a role related to tech.

If that’s your target audience, then you’ll definitely have a higher likelihood of reaching them. Even if it isn’t, Google+ still has millions of active monthly users, who’s to say they won’t be interested in your brand or company?

—

4. Google+ Communities are Powerful (and Popular)

Google recently released the numbers for communities on Google+ as having 1.2 million daily new community joins.

So what is a community on Google+? According to Google:

• Communities can have more than one owner and moderator, and other people can join that community
• When you’re a member of a community, you can post to that community. Members of that community may see your posts in their home stream.

If you’re still starting out on Google+ and don’t quite have a following yet, posting content to communities is a great way to build an audience. Some workplaces also use Google+ communities as an internal social network for employees.

There are tons of active Google+ communities, here are just a few examples:

Landscape Photography, with nearly 1 million members

SEO and Internet Marketing, with over 150,000 members

Social Media for Entrepreneurs, with over 135,000 members

Funny Videos and Pictures, with over 2.5 million members

Body Building, with over 440,000 members

—

5. These 10 Major Brands and Influencers Are Seeing Success on Google+

Scrolling through Google+, I easily came across many brands and influencers who have enormous followings. NASA and National Geographic use Google+ to share stunning photos, the Dalai Lama shares his message with nearly 7.5 million followers and gets great engagement, Evernote has a colorful profile with popular, active collections and communities on their page.

Google+ is a great space to build a following with a lot less competition and noise than some other social networks. The added benefits from SEO ranking and visibility in Gmail, make it all the more attractive.

Here are 10 brands and influencers doing well on Google+ to serve as inspiration:

1. National Geographic
2. Evernote
3. NASA
4. Dalai Lama
5. Arianna Huffington
6. Van Gogh Museum
7. Globe and Mail
8. H & M
9. BMW
10. PlayStation

—

Plus, It’s Never Been Easier To Share Your Content to Google+

We’re excited to announce that you can now connect your Google+ personal profiles with your Buffer account! It’ll only take a click to add the content you’re already sharing on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest and send it out to Google+ as well.

Connect your Google+ personal profile with your Buffer account here.

I’ve been making sure to share everything that goes on LinkedIn (since that’s where I do thought leadership) on Google+ as well as to start getting the SEO benefits. It’s also super easy to connect a Google+ page to your Buffer account if you haven’t had a chance to yet!

Over to You

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you found this article helpful, I’d love to hear how all of this feels to you:

• Do you use Google+? Does your company or brand?
• Do you think you might find your target audience on Google+?
• If you haven’t been posting to Google+, I’d love to know a bit more about why if you’re up for sharing!

I’d love to hear what’s working for you and any thoughts you may have in the comments below. Excited to keep the conversation going.

You can think of this as a blueprint for complete business derailment. Or, if inefficiency is not your goal, you can flip it upside down and think of it as a roadmap for achieving optimal efficiency and streamlining management processes.

Either way, these seven common management mistakes can teach us a lot about how and how not to optimize internal operations in any organization. As they say, it’s always important to learn from one’s mistakes. But, let’s face it, it’s even better (and a whole lot less painful) to learn from someone else’s errors. Here are our choices of 7 mistakes that can make you sink faster than Donald Trump’s campaign figures after a bus ride.

1. Mismatching your product offering with your customer needs.
2. Hiring the right person for the wrong job.
3. Not keeping your best employees.
4. Not rewarding excellence.
5. Staying behind on technology adoption.
6. Focusing too heavily on sales and not enough on cutting operational costs.
7. Lack of focus – And then communicating that focus to your employees.

1. Not matching your product to your audience, and vice versa. You’d think that one would be a no-brainer, but the reality is that the mismatch happens more than anyone would guess – and it can even happen in your business, without a full measure of ongoing analysis and planning. The trick is to really drill down to fully understand both the value of your product(s) and the needs of your audience, and to make sure they align (which can be a moving target!). Don’t be afraid to ask your peeps what it is they really want and need and then see if your product can and does match it.

2. Hiring the right person for the wrong job. Agree or disagree, personnel decisions are some of the toughest decisions any business leader can make. It’s no cakewalk to size up a new recruit and match them perfectly to the position in your company. Even the most talented person won’t improve efficiency or productivity if their skills aren’t the ones needed for the job.

3. Losing your best employees is one tried-and-true way to muck up the works. And it couldn’t be more common, in large part because the employees who can be relied on to excel at their jobs with minimal “handling” are also the people it’s easiest to take for granted. The problem employees are a lot more time-consuming for managers and they’re the folks who tend to get all the attention, at the expense of the ones we should be catering to. In fact, an entire paradigm has developed around keeping employees engaged with their business and creating a common “company culture” because, survey says, engaged employees are happy employees – are productive employees – are the kind that hang around – and improves business productivity while also saving your business money.

4. Which brings us to not rewarding your star employees, a related pathway to lost productivity and declining morale. If undermining your business really is your goal, this is one of the best ways to go. After all, everybody wants to be rewarded and recognized for a job well done, and rewards and recognition have positive ripple effects throughout a business. Remember when we said employee engagement can improve productivity and reduce operational costs, well, this is how you do it. Besides boosting the productivity and job satisfaction of the star employees, showing in a tangible way that they are appreciated also sets the bar for the entire staff and lets everyone know that good work pays off.

5. Letting technology pass you by is a surefire way to fall behind the competition. Today’s tech solutions can help you achieve remarkable efficiencies in every facet of business, from internal and external communications to workflow to integrating processes across the organization. Failing to take full advantage of technology, and to adapt quickly to emerging technologies when they come onto the horizon, can have a crippling effect on businesses in the hyper-competitive marketplace.

6. Focusing too much on sales growth and too little on cutting operational costs can be a great way to keep reality from interfering with optimistic projections. But it may not be the best way to improve the bottom line. Before you shoot for the moon, it’s sometimes a good idea to make sure that everything is in order on at Mission Control. Likewise, a hard look at the costs of doing business and the possible savings to be found in increased efficiencies may have at least as much to do with the success of your mission as sales growth will, at least for the short term. And the bonus is, optimizing operations now will continue to pay off as sales do continue to grow.
   
7. Running around in circles is one common business strategy that efficiency-minded operations generally try to avoid. In its purest form, it’s what happens when that strategic plan someone worked so hard to develop gets buried beneath a stack of papers in the bottom drawer somewhere and never really becomes the living, breathing document every company needs. Instead of spending their workdays actually implementing the strategies the company has identified as central to its operations, employees may not even know what’s expected of them or even that such an expectation exists. If communication is lax and there are no explicit standards and processes in place, then don’t be surprised when your business is not progressing on a straight line toward a shared goal.

How to succeed in business by really trying

Maybe when the popular musical comedy “how to succeed in business without really trying” debuted on Broadway more than 50 years ago it actually was possible to do just that. But that’s a stretch today, now that everyone’s competition has gone global and every competitor is armed with a fancy M.B.A. and an arsenal of mind-boggling tech tools. These days, mistakes and missteps can be fatal, and there’s often very little time for a company to regain its footing before competitors just pass it by.

Given all that, it’s never too soon for any company to bear down and take the steps that can lead it to increased operational efficiency–if that’s in fact its goal after all.

Last month one of us (Jonathan) gave a talk at Stanford to a hall full of healthcare entrepreneurs. The comments began with a favorite quip used, to desired effect, many times over the years: “I really think…this internet thing is going to be big.” There, in the shadow of Google’s global headquarters, the audience laughed on cue, quickly grokking the embarrassing point: it’s 2016 and this $3 trillion industry that our lives depend upon still relies on faxes, clipboards, and isolated instances of legacy software locked away in hospital basements.

Despite healthcare’s remarkable track record holding out against the tides of change, there are finally holes in the dam. The healthcare internet is emerging node-by-node, provider-by-provider, and patient-by-patient. So, there’s really no longer a question of whether healthcare will join the rest of the economy and concede to the inevitable. The real question is what it will look and feel like for patients and providers once care is connected and the “network effect” begin to take hold.

It turns out we have a pretty good sense of what’s to come because we know what AirBnB has done to hotels (and homes), Waze to GPS systems and fold-up maps, and Uber to taxis. To us, these disrupters illustrate well the three dimensions of the network effect that is poised to transform healthcare: administrative automation, networked knowledge, and resource orchestration.

Administrative automation

AirBnB, now used by 50,000 renters each night, is considered to be directly responsible for an estimated $450 million of lost hotel revenue each year. Behind their upending of the hospitality business is their platform, which makes it ridiculously easy to turn your house into a hotel. They’ve organized, scaled, and automated the myriad administrative details involved in such a way as to minimize the barrier to entry and limit the potential for error, miscommunication, or unwarranted variation. They’ll walk you through where to put the square footage and what kind of photos entice the most interest, and they use predictive modeling to show you the best and worst days of the year to get a booking at a particular price. They’ve even partnered with H&R Block to streamline tax filing.

Insight Center

In healthcare, the need for administrative automation is viscerally felt – and the potential for alleviating burden and draining cost from the system is significant. From athenahealth’s network data, we know that the average doctor spends just 60% of her time each year seeing patients and documenting their care. She spends the other 40% processing 3,744 administrative documents, 750 school and camp forms, and chasing down 600 missing lab and imaging orders. When providers do what AirBnB hosts have done and set up shop on a network, then much of the work that consumed their day can be automated and dispatched at scale so they can focus on delivering care. A network-based service can, in aggregate, take on administrative tasks like medical claim submission and posting and get continuously smarter and more efficient with feedback from the network. At athenahealth, for example, we have a rules engine with 40 million billing rules (yes, there are that many ways to be denied) that enables us to execute our clients’ work more efficiently than they ever could alone.

Networked knowledge

As Marshall Van Alstyne, Geoffrey Parker, and Sangeet Choudary articulated recently in HBR, “With a platform, the critical asset is the community and the resources of its members.” In this networked world, the traditional consumer becomes an active producer who adds knowledge and value to the system in a positive feedback loop. By enlisting the driver as a data source, Waze revolutionized the average commute, aggregating data in real-time to flag traffic jams and suggest alternative routes. The app is now so effective that 70% of the time Waze registers a traffic accident before a 911 call is made.

As more patient data gets liberated from isolated systems and added to networks, comparable knowledge and value can be generated for healthcare. Recently, for example, in a meeting with athenahealth’s clinical team, leaders from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) expressed concern about the number of women with hypertension who, not yet knowing they’re pregnant, continue to use ACE inhibitors that cause serious malformations in fetuses.

We ran a real-time query of the 63 million patient records on our network and identified 62,000 women of childbearing age who were prescribed ACE inhibitors and therefore at potential risk. We were able to alert the women’s doctors, suggesting they prescribe a different hypertension drug or urge their patients to get on effective contraception. This kind of network medicine, as we’ve begun to call it, can transform care delivery by aggregating knowledge across a vast network and closing the gap between that knowledge and appropriate intervention.

Resource orchestration

Uber brought the taxi industry to its knees by figuring out how to extract new value from excess capacity in the system. They started back in 2009 with black car limos, which were essentially the academic medical centers of transportation: extremely expensive and mostly empty. By tapping into that excess capacity and making it available on a network they generated new market demand, which led to UberX and a thriving community of 160,000 drivers conducting one million rides a day.

Think of the potential for this kind of orchestration of resources in healthcare where waste accounts for an estimated $750 billion annually. On any given day in America, 40% of hospital beds lie empty, their enormous fixed costs weighing heavily on the system. Or take medical appointments. In a recent Commonwealth Fund study of patients around the world, 52% of American said they couldn’t get a same- or next-day appointment with their provider when they were sick. When we look across athenahealth’s network of 80,000 providers, just 4.4% of all appointments are shown as “available” in the next 30 days. But looking back 30 days we can see that just 17.5% of all slots were used, suggesting there’s a systemic problem in how our industry manages this critical area of patient access. The good news is that the opportunities, and upside, for connecting unsatisfied or latent demand to unused capacity are virtually endless.

So, who are healthcare’s Ubers? Well, the first that comes to mind is…Uber. Last year they ran a one-day pilot to deliver 2,000 flu shots over four hours in 35 cities. More recently, they partnered with a company called Circulation to offer a fully integrated service that allows hospitals to dispatch an Uber to transport acute care and elderly patients to appointments – addressing the very costly issues of missed appointments and deferred care. There’s Pager, an on-demand service that with the tap of an app will spirit a doctor to your office or home, giving providers (like Uber drivers) a new marketplace to sell their extra bandwidth. There’s Candescent Health, which is virtualizing radiology scans so a radiologist who specializes in pediatric lungs can spend all his time reading pediatric lungs instead of wasting time with knees and elbows. And a child in rural Wyoming can have her lung x-ray read a thousand miles away by the best pediatric lung radiologist in the country.

By all accounts, healthcare in the U.S. is at a critical juncture, with an urgent need to bend the cost curve – slowing the rate of cost increases. While the government attempts to mandate transformation through maddeningly complex, and largely untested, models for driving savings and efficiency, we might best be served by looking around us at market-driven models that are transforming the way we shop, travel, meet friends, listen to music, and more. Once we do, the power of the network effect will be profoundly felt by providers and patients alike.

The Internet has eaten great swaths of the traditional media industry and the leviathans in publishing have been hobbled as citizen journalism, blogging and personal publishing have ascended.

The public relations industry continues to transition too — as the dominant, large and generalist global firms compete against scrappy, nimble boutiques, especially those which are specialists. What all agencies, regardless of size, have recognized and adapted to (if they want to survive); is that there is less emphasis on traditional media relations and more on influencer relations, content creation and social media.

As our industry has changed, so have clients’ expectations. In this day and age of analytics and higher agency accountability, the challenge has been how to price our services — and demonstrate ROI.

During my career I have worked on the client-side, at Top-5 global public relations firms, integrated agencies and my own media and influencer relations firm. I have worked with and for some incredibly intelligent and farsighted PR industry veterans. What continues to surprise me is that our industry’s pricing models have not evolved to match clients’ ROI initiatives.

With globalization and an ever-increasing level of competition, it will be critical to match the right pricing model with clients’ expectations. To maintain competitive and to prosper, innovation in pricing is as important a business strategy for public relations firms as it is to innovate in creativity and other services.

Monthly Budget / Retainer Pricing Model

Today, there are essentially three main public relations firm billing models — monthly budget or retainer, service fee and pay-for-performance. The monthly budget or retainer is the predominant billing model in our industry. This is a bit ironic since it inherently pits the financial interests of the client against those of the PR firm. Clients naturally push agencies to work beyond both the scope and number of hours the budget or retainer is based on, while agency account teams seek greater profits by doing less. Additionally, this model promotes the extensive use of junior team members and limited use of senior team members’ and agency executives’ resources for clients.

Service Fee Pricing

The service fee model is generally reserved for special projects outside the normal scope of activities. Services such as media training, messaging and positioning, crisis plan development and specific content development fall under this category. It supplements many agencies’ regular billing models.

Pay-for-Performance

Finally, there is the controversial pay-for-performance model. Public relations firms get paid for every placement they generate. If there is no coverage, clients don’t have to pay.

While it is a significant innovation, pay-for-performance has its critics. Most notably from large, established PR firms. The primary criticisms include:

• Pricing media coverage among various outlets appears to be inconsistent between firms.
• How do you value a “hit” in CNBC compared to a powerful trade publication or an industry analyst report?
• How do you account for all of the strategy being delivered that is not recognized or paid for by a client?
• What about all of the missed opportunities for coverage resulting from spokesperson….flubs?
• How do you account for interviews that a client misses?
• How do you keep a client engaged when they have no “skin in the game” until coverage appears, and they seemingly go missing?
• How do you ensure that in a month with significant coverage, the client can afford it?

And here is a big issue — the business pricing model in itself is not enough — why do pay-for-performance firms lead with that as their first or only benefit message?

While the previously mentioned criticisms could be addressed, why haven’t more PR firms adopted or modified the pay-for-performance model?

I would posit that for most PR firms, the pay-for-performance pricing model is a deal-breaker because it impairs the ability to forecast revenue at an agency level. It also appears complicated to implement and it forces employees to deliver on what is mandated or receive absolutely no compensation, making hiring and retaining people more challenging.

So, despite its flaws, the budget / retainer billing model is one that large corporations and most PR firms appear to be most comfortable using. Most startups and emerging businesses still accept the status quo of retainer billing. But with public relations comprising a significant amount of young companies’ marketing spend, there is certainly growing discontent.

In my next article, I will share some insights into the successes achieved with an evolved PR pricing model.

Proposals are usually requested during the final stages of the sales process. All of the effort a salesperson has put into building awareness, rapport and trust with a buyer has paid off, and it has culminated with the opportunity to submit a written offer. Regardless of whether this offer is a simple proposal or an in-depth request for proposal (RFP), it is typically the weakest point in the sales process for most vendors.

Why is this? After all, a proposal is essentially the vehicle for a vendor’s total offerings, and if executed ineffectively, it can render an entire sales process null up to the proposal submission. Your product or offering could truly be the right choice for a buyer, but if your proposal doesn’t convey value or clearly articulate competitive differentiation, you may lose business.

There are many ways that proposal generation can be improved, and it all starts with content management. Below are four challenges associated with proposal and RFP generation, and how they can be tackled with the right content management and collaboration strategies.

Challenge #1: Efficiently crafting a customized story

There are a few components to this first challenge. The obvious one is creating a thoughtful, personalized and unique proposal without compromising turnaround time. RFPs and proposals are often on strict deadlines, and you never know how many your proposal director or team will have at a time. “RFPs are like snowflakes; no two ever seem to be the same, and I’m amazed that I’m still getting questions I haven’t been asked before,” Seismic’s Proposal Director, Marnie Bingham, explains. “For most RFPs, I spend time finding answers I have on file, tweaking them for the current purpose, drafting new answers, and enlisting sellers and subject matter experts across the organization to contribute information. And then of course there’s organizing and formatting everything in accordance with RFP specifications, and getting the right people to sign off on everything.” This process is time-consuming and in most cases quite tedious, but having the right content management tool can help you store, locate and reuse questions. Of course not every RFP will contain the same questions, but the more proposals you complete, the more questions you’ll be able to pull from. (Bonus points if this response management and storage is done automatically!)

Challenge #2: Empowering sellers to take on proposals independently

Most organizations have a proposal team, or at least an individual dedicated to the completion of proposals. But this doesn’t mean the sales team can’t help, too. Salespeople can speed up the entire proposal generation process using Seismic’s LiveDocs technology, which pulls together the bones of the proposal story quickly and easily. The sales rep can choose from cover letter options that have been pre-approved by the marketing or proposal teams, pull in CRM data (such as customer name, address, date, and more), and can even apply CPQ data for pricing. This eliminates all number crunching, copying and pasting, and empowers salespeople to get proposals to a good place in minutes. Reps can also use Seismic’s latest WorkSpace functionality to share the proposal draft with other team members, who can make suggestions and comments, all before involving the proposal team.

Challenge #3: Sifting through all existing RFPs and proposals for appropriate responses

Most proposal teams have a file folder of all completed and submitted RFPs, and spend a ton of time using the CTRL+F function to locate proper answers. This is time-consuming and risky, considering answers may be outdated, or for a specific buyer, vertical, use case or industry and may not be appropriate for the current proposal. As touched upon in the first challenge, having a knowledge base of existing RFP questions is imperative to efficiently and thoughtfully crafting a proposal. Seismic’s Word plugin helps Marnie find answers from the knowledge base, insert text, images, and charts into a proposal in a matter of seconds. “I just format everything with the usual tools in Word; I never have to leave,” she explains. Questions are managed by the proposal team, so you’re sure to always use the right responses in the right places—quickly and effectively.

Challenge #4: Rounding up subject matter experts to provide the best responses

The best RFPs incorporate knowledge from individuals across the entire vendor organization. With Seismic, proposal teams and individuals can add questions from proposals to the knowledge base and assign them out to subject matter experts within the organization. That person is notified of the request, he or she submits the answer, and it’s automatically updated in the proposal document. Collaboration is imperative for proposals, and WorkSpace ensures that the right people are involved at the right times to get the best quality RFP out the door in no time.

None of these challenges can be addressed without a proper content management system and strategy in place. Siloes must be broken down, sales, marketing and proposal teams must be centered on collaboration and efficient workflows, and companies must be dedicated to diligently managing content (including RFPs and response knowledge bases). Once vital content management needs are met, the proposal process can be revolutionized and companies can reap the benefits of shorter sales cycles, higher win rates, and more closed deals.

Interested in hearing more from Marnie Bingham, Seismic’s Proposal Director? See the full interview about her proposal process and best practices below!

I talk to a lot of professional services executives about recruiting the right type of talent to support their marketing strategies. Interestingly, teams don’t get as tripped up on how to build a strategy as much as on how to implement those strategies. Why is implementation so overwhelming? The answer is simple: implementing a strategy requires a wide variety of skillsets that aren’t always on leadership’s mind, and some of those skills may need to be outsourced as opposed to recruited. Even the simplest, most practical and straightforward marketing strategy can require several skills to pull it off — from writing to design to technical skills. That’s why teams often find themselves overwhelmed with:

• Too little time
• Too much to do
• Uncertainty over what to write about
• Simply getting enough leads in to fuel the business

This is a problem that has to be addressed from the top — by a firm’s leaders. But first they need to understand exactly what talents go into a successful marketing program.

The graphic below illustrates the marketing skills most firms need to carry out a modern marketing program. In smaller organizations, individuals often handle more than one function, so the number of people on your team is less important than the range of skills they bring to the table. But it’s rare that a small staff can cover the gamut. For example, research skills required for developing a brand survey are entirely different from the skills needed to apply the research findings to a marketing strategy. An entirely different set of skills are needed to turn that strategy into a new positioning statement. And so on.

To outsource or build the skills organically?

Our research on marketing priorities for professional services firms shows that almost half of professional services firms rely on a mix of internal and external marketing resources for strategy execution (see chart below). Supplementing internal marketing talent is often more affordable than hiring each of these skillsets.

The Seven Marketing Skills Every Professional Services Firm Needs

1. Research Skills

Research lays the foundation of any good marketing strategy. While research can take many different forms, let’s look at two important types that are essential to the success of your strategy:

Keyword research: Keyword research is critical to any content-based marketing program. The person conducting the research needs not only a mastery of keyword research (its tools and techniques), but an understanding of your buyers and the challenges they face. They also must keep up with the frequent — and often significant — updates to Google algorithm. This is the job for a specialist in SEO.

Target audience research: This type of research should be conducted by a professional who understands survey design and is comfortable conducting executive-level interviews with your clients and prospects. Without a strong grasp of these fundamentals, a researcher can produce deceptive or invalid results. This researcher also needs to be able to analyze and interpret the data collected during the interviews.

There are two sub skill areas that fall under target audience research:

First is an ability to extract key issues from the research findings — issues that your team can address in your content. These issues then need to be further refined and turned into titles for blog posts, webinars, speeches and other pieces of content. This skill requires an understanding of your firm’s core services (so that you can eventually turn readers into clients), an appreciation of your clients’ challenges (so that you attract the right readers) and the ability to apply keyword research to the content (so that you can be found in online search).

Second is a talent for outreach — identifying and securing guest blog posts, finding speaking opportunities and reaching out to potential partners. So this skillset requires someone with strong organization, communication and writing skills.

2. Strategy Skills

In researching your target audience, you’ll often uncover important information about your competitive landscape. Target audience research will also help inform your differentiators and how you should be positioned in the marketplace.

An ability to interpret the results of the research and turn those results into tangible marketing assets (such as differentiators and positioning) and a marketing plan requires strategy skills — the ability to not only see the big picture but really understand it. This person will have the ability to say “here’s our overarching goal at the 10,000-foot view, and here are all the tactics we need to achieve that goal.”

Your strategist should be able to use target audience research to figure out how you need to be positioned, what messages each audience needs to hear, and what issues will make up the core of your content strategy. They’ll know how to promote that content, and how to build the right types offers associated with each piece of content so that you’re continually building engagement.

3. Writing Skills

Marketing Copy: By marketing copy, I’m referring to the type of copy that has to convince a prospect that your firm is the best choice. Think promotional emails, web offers, website copy, pitch decks and proposals. Not all long-format writers are able to write succinct, persuasive marketing copy. It’s a specialized skill.

Editorial Copy: The meat of your content will be pieces that educate your audience — and are so interesting that readers are compelled to share them. Unlike marketing copy, which is about convincing and persuading, your editorial copy allows your target audience to sample your knowledge — even get a sense of what it might be like to work with you. This type of content “sells” your expertise, but in an experiential, non-promotional way. Typically, editorial content will appear in your blogs, newsletters, webinar scripts, white papers and similar educational media..

4. Promotional Skills

To promote your educational content, you need a person who loves working and communicating with other people, who can network on your firm’s behalf in social media and, possibly, at tradeshows and networking events, as well. This role requires both interpersonal and technical skills.

5. Analytics Skills

Regular tracking, monitoring, testing and reporting on each component of your marketing strategy is of paramount importance to the long-term success of your firm. This person will decide what activities and metrics to track and interpret the analytics for the rest of the team. Here, I’m talking about analytics such as website or social media traffic, email open rates and conversions, results from A/B testing, etc. He or she may also conduct A/B tests to improve performance of various elements of a campaign.

6. Design Skills

Many firms can’t afford a full time designer, so they often outsource this skill. Good graphic design can create a powerful impression on your audience, and weak design can negatively affect perceptions of your firm. So choose your designers with care. They will touch many of your marketing materials, from email templates to blog images to banners and brochures. A word of caution: outsourced design teams should understand the professional services, for they very different than consumer companies and markets.

7. Implementation Support

Putting your marketing strategy into play is the work of your implementation support team. These are the folks who manage your editorial calendar, update the company website, publish blog posts, and handle the scores of details that keep your marketing running smoothly. They may be in charge of your marketing automation and CRM tools, as well as manage your lists and contacts.

As you consider your marketing program, think about the talents, skillsets and knowledge you will need to achieve success. The seven skills I’ve described above are a great place to start. Do you have these skills in-house? Or will you need to outsource some or all of them? Find the right people and you will not only eliminate man of your team’s anxieties and frustrations, you will discover that your marketing is far more effective and powerful.

Author: Sachin Kalra

As a marketer, you might have heard about the customer lifecycle in one form or another. It’s essentially the different stages that buyers will go through as they interact with your brand—from initial awareness through to purchase and advocacy.

Why is it important? It serves as a framework for your marketing team to think about their goals at each stage, map those goals to key measures of success, and develop the right content and campaigns to drive success for each of those stages.

At Marketo, we’ve seen many versions of the customer lifecycle model, each with their unique stages, and have even gone through a few iterations of our own. What we’ve come to realize is that even though marketing has evolved significantly over time, the customer lifecycle model hasn’t evolved to reflect the same changes.

The models we’ve seen have two things in common:

1. The customer journey, usually represented either as a circle or a funnel, is sequential. In a sense, this represents traditional marketing in which marketers have bombarded their entire audience with one campaign, then another, in sequence. This model is flawed and needs to evolve, since your buyers move through the customer lifecycle at their own pace.
2. Different stages. The customer lifecycle stages of awareness, engagement, retention, loyalty, and advocacy are usually found across models. However, do these really represent all of the different ways that a buyer interacts with your brand? The purchase stage is a discrete stage unto itself, separate from retention, as is growth. The model needs to be expanded to reflect all of the stages.

At Marketo, this is how we envision the customer lifecycle model, which represents unique buyer’s journeys and fluid stages:

Here are three fundamental changes to the customer lifecycle model to reflect the unique buyer’s journey, which can serve as a framework for you to evaluate your own: 

1. New Model

The sequential customer journey in the form of a circle or a funnel is dated. Each buyer’s path through these stages is different–some buyers go through the same stage multiple times, some skip a stage, and some may revert back to an older stage before taking two steps forward. In the past, it was hard for marketers to identify individuals in the journey, let alone react to where they are in the journey. That’s changed, however, with the emergence of more sophisticated marketing automation platforms and complementary technologies, and the model needs to evolve to reflect that reality.

The new customer lifecycle model, represented in a Venn diagram, accurately reflects a fluid customer journey. All of the stages converge at a common point at the base, reflecting that buyers can move to any stage from another. You may have a potential customer in the awareness stage who sees a web advertisement about your product that they click through to, and then they may spend multiple cycles in the engagement stage–coming back for a couple of visits to your product page, engaging with your social media page to learn more about the latest announcements, almost purchasing, but then abandoning their cart…only to make the purchase later through a re-targeted ad for cart abandoners.

This is a model that better reflects customer behavior as it stands–ever-changing–and it allows marketers to plan better for a much more personalized experience based on buyer behavior as well as which stage in the journey they’re in. It’s a win-win for both your buyers and your brand.

2. 6 Core Stages

Many customer lifecycle models are missing a few key stages: the purchase stage before loyalty and the growth stage before advocacy.

The purchase stage needs to be distinct from the retention and loyalty stage. You need to use specific tactics to transition a buyer from being interested to purchasing the product–such as making the purchase transaction easier for the customer, in the case of a more complex product, helping with set-up and support immediately post-purchase.

The growth stage is distinct as well–it’s all about getting a customer to like your products enough to purchase larger quantities of the same product or purchase other products from you. You need to be able to understand usage patterns, anticipate needs, and take action accordingly.

These two stages have been included in a number of models, but most models try to simplify and sometimes exclude these stages. A complete model includes these six stages:

1. Awareness: When a buyer first learns about your brand or product
2. Engagement: When a buyer becomes interested in your product or service
3. Purchase: When a buyer is ready to make a purchase
4. Retention/loyalty: When a customer purchases the product, uses it, and keeps coming back
5. Growth: When you identify complementary products to cross-sell or upsell the customer to continue to provide increased value
6. Advocacy: When customers love the product so much that they influence others to consider the product as well

3. Flow

The new customer lifecycle model can also be inverted based on the value of each buyer to your brand. Buyers in the awareness stage, though large in number, represent the smallest per capita value. From a customer lifetime value perspective, the diagram gets turned inside out, as advocates represent the largest value for the company, and thus constitute the largest stage. From this, it’s natural that our efforts as marketers should be focused on driving as many customers into the advocacy bucket as possible, growing the pie to its maximum potential.

What does the evolution of the customer lifecycle mean for marketers? For decades, we have relied on the old, sequential model to help plan and budget our activities in each stage, moving customers sequentially across each of those stages. Now that our buyers have higher expectations and are self-educating, our marketing needs to become more personalized and respond to individual behaviors. As such, the customer lifecycle model your organization uses should reflect this reality, enabling you to plan across each stage as you did before while giving you a full understanding of the different types of activities going on for each unique buyer.

The Evolution of the Customer Lifecycle was posted at Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership. | http://blog.marketo.com

The post The Evolution of the Customer Lifecycle appeared first on Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership.

The way people utilize email has evolved quickly, and that means sales email techniques need to adapt as well. Just five years ago, a sales rep could write an email to a CEO and say, “You are likely not the right contact for me to be reaching out to, but could you put me in contact with the buying decision maker at your company?” and the CEO might have facilitated an introduction. However, salespeople across the globe now inundate inboxes with unsolicited messages.

This means that if you hold a decision-making position at your company you are likely stuck with the task of wading through a sea of irrelevant email daily. The consequence of this is that decision-makers are highly unlikely to respond to a salesperson’s cookie-cutter email, especially if there’s no phone follow-up.

That being said, email remains a necessary tool for sales communications, and continues to be an important element of any prospecting strategy.

The Epidemic of Mass Email

Aaron Ross, the author of Predictable Revenue, which was published in 2011, introduced automated contact strategies at a time when mass email outreach was still a fairly new technique. Then, the concept of a calculated, volume-driven approach heightened a company’s sales impact significantly. Unfortunately, over the course of five years, consumer demands and expectations have shifted, so much so that click-through rates average around 3 percent today. The amount of time and attention potential customers are willing to spend on marketing and sales emails is rapidly decreasing.

Now more than ever, sales reps need to understand that prospects’ receptiveness to outreach will be colored by the channel it comes through. Therefore, salespeople must be strategic about when and how to send an email, as well as when it is time to take a different approach.

Salespeople are moving a hundred miles a minute, and the temptation to rely on email essentially comes down to efficiency. They have quotas to meet and assume it is easier met when casting a wide net with mass emails. However, sales is not just a numbers game, it is also about converting prospects into happy customers. Salespeople should email with purpose. If reps have a thoughtful and strategic approach towards emailing prospects, they have a better chance of connecting with a receptive audience.

4 Rules to Make the Most of your Sales Emails:

1. Personalization: According to Aberdeen Group, personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14 percent and conversions by 10 percent. As a salesperson, you should never send an email that does not have something tailored and specific to the recipient within the first line. Research your prospect on LinkedIn and Twitter, look at where they work to get a sense of what their needs may be prior to developing an email. From there, create a concise and personal introduction. If you’re lucky enough to have a common connection in your social or professional network, be sure to mention that in the email.

2. Ditch the clichés: Dropping someone’s name into the subject line does not equate to personalization. We have become far too accustomed to templated emails for the prominently inserted name to capture attention. Instead, it is more likely that a prospect will associate a name in the subject line with spam and completely ignore the email. In a similar vein, attempts at being “cute” with follow up techniques; such as asking individuals if they have been trampled by wildebeests to explain their unresponsiveness is worn out and can leave a negative impression.

3. Leverage a multi-channel approach: Utilizing more than one channel is one of the most effective ways to move a deal forward quickly and reliably. Be sure to send emails, but also follow up with a phone call. It is less likely for a prospect to dismiss a phone call the way they can an email. It is also a more effective way to develop relationships with potential customers. Leveraging both channels in unison further proves to the buyer that there is a real person behind the communication, not just a bot. In fact, a study found that prospects who receive emails have a 16 percent higher chance of being reachable by phone.

4. Establish a cadence: Research has shown the optimal number of times to reach out to a buyer by email for a first connection is five. In order to remain relevant and top of mind for a prospect, those emails should be strategically spaced out, being conscientious not to overwhelm potential buyers. Prospects are busy and often being pulled in different directions, which is why striking a balance between sending initiating contact and hounding them is an art that salespeople must master. Maintaining the approach of five well-thought-out and timely emails balances being persistent with being respectful.

Email will continue to be a key sales communication tool for the foreseeable future. However, using it effectively is a dynamic art. By sticking to the four rules outlined above when sending emails, sales reps can ensure that they are making the most out of their outreach attempts, while also building valuable relationships.

Back in the 1960s the successful salesperson was typically seen as a confident and trusted ally that helped you solve a variety of business issues.  It’s a given that the product or service had to work; the core of the relationship, however, was personal.  It was between two people who trusted each other and were committed to each other’s success.

Without the benefit of smartphones, cloud applications, big data or analytics, salespeople possessed deep understanding of their industry, market trends, products and usage best practices, and customers’ preferences as well current and anticipated needs. It’s arguable that sales people back in those days knew their customers better than we do today. The measure of a successful sales person was consistently exceeding quota, respected by their peers and high customer loyalty.

Those same measures are just as valid today. Technology advances redefined how we think of the salesperson.  We began to believe that successful sales people could be made.  In the 1980s a movement began to standardize sales processes, how they thought and the activities that filled up their days.  From SPIN selling, Miller Heiman Blue Sheets and “Dress for Success” to today’s predictive analytics and Account Based Selling, a tremendous amount of effort is spent on teaching sales people to  replicate specific actions, steps, processes and communication styles.  Technology is available to helping them know which leads to pursue, provide real-time coaching, recommend what up-sell product to offer, and real-time forecasting all in the unwritten belief that successful sales people can be built.

“Today it’s about copying the practices and methodologies of ‘A’ players to help ‘B’ players become more than just gifted amateurs,” shared Leslie Stretch, CEO of Callidus Cloud, a cloud-based sales, marketing, learning, and customer experience solutions vendor.

Today what stands between the customer and the purchase order is the sales person.

That is about to change rapidly and dramatically by the Internet of Things or “IoT” for short.

With IoT, devices and machines are starting to automatically send purchase orders for inventory, replacement parts and repair services directly to vendor computers.  The sales person is out of the picture.  IoT disintermediates B2B account management.  No one needs the sales person because there is no one for the sales person to talk to – or is there?

Stretch sums up the question that is on everyone’s mind as “What is sales’ role when machines take care of themselves and order for themselves?”

Counter to obsoleting sales, IoT shifts the definition of the sales person back sixty years to a time when relationships matter.  Success will be once again defined by the long term value generated by the sales person, as defined by the buyer. Value that is often beyond the product or service he or she is selling.  Relationship trumps everything.

What IoT triggers is the reversion of the definition of a successful sales person back to the consummate professional relationship builder, behaviorist and strategic advisor that takes their business personally. There is evidence that the shift is already underway – not from how CEOs think of their sales stars but in the actual characteristics of sales “A” players.

“The Persona of Top Sales Professionals”, is a recent study of over 1,000 sales professionals by Steve W. Martin that was sponsored by Velocify, a sales acceleration platform. The study defines the personal attributes, attitudes and actions of successful sales people who achieved more than 125 percent of their quota last year. The study focused on six areas: Focus and motivation, career orientation, personal attributes, customer interaction strategy, attitude, and self-perception.

We all know that highly successful sales people are driven by much more than money or greed as Martin calls it.  What may be surprising is the study’s finding that being recognized by their peers and held in high esteem “based upon their knowledge and the recognition that comes along with being thought of as an expert” is as important as money.  Quota-busters “believe that their knowledge is their most powerful attribute” and “are masters of language…[and] accomplished communicators who know what to say and, equally important, how to say it.”

The study found that sales super stars rely on their intuition a bit more than pure rational logic when making critical decisions.  Their understanding of human nature, and of themselves, and drawing on those insights at key times is a hallmark of consistently over-quota achievers defined as people who exceed quota over 90 percent of their careers.   While pure-logic decision makers also exceed quota, they just don’t do it as often as the sales person that listens to their intuition a bit more closely.

When it comes to how the most successful sales people approach customer relationships, the overachievers focus on “getting customers to emotionally connect with them” followed by customizing their sales approach and asking the tough questions in ways that showcase their knowledge and expertise.

Sounds a lot like some of the best sales people from the last century – David Ogilvy, Mary Kay Ash, Joe Girard, and Zig Ziglar, to name a few.

The bottom-line is that successful salespeople in the era of IoT are focused, as they were in the 1960s, on the emotional, political and personal drivers of the buyer.  The study found that successful sales people are able to “build a trusted relationship and personal friendship in a short period of time.”  To the sales person it’s about more than just the sale, it’s about owning a personal responsibility for and a dedication to their client’s success.

What does that mean for sales organizations going forward?  Stretch believes the focus should not be on a salesperson but on the entire team involved in the account. He adds a “key is to compensate everyone supporting the customer because that directly impacts renewal and account expansion.”

Based on my client work, I’m a strong proponent of ending the practice of hosting annual sales training to drill standard processes, systems and procedures in a one-size-fits-all approach into the heads of inside sales and account managers. Instead use these events to deepen industry expertise, understand emerging trends, and teach people how to apply this knowledge to customer situations and drive value-add beyond the boundaries of the product.

I also recommend these four new best practices:

• Test sales candidates based on their behaviors and motivations using new tools such as GRI
• Individualize sales coaching to build self-confidence, personal certainty, and self-pride
• Hire behaviorists to sharpen communication, sales intuition and human behavior skills
• Teach sales how to use data to alter their behaviors to align with customer characteristics

You might say all of this has always been the hallmark of sales superstars. That’s true.  However, in the era of IoT, it means that all of sales need to have these characteristics not just the “A” players.

The post How IoT Redefines What Sales Success Looks Like appeared first on Christine Crandell.

So you’ve got some great blog posts under your belt, and they’re working pretty well to bring in new leads. You’re also sending out email newsletters regularly, and you’ve got a killer case study in the works. In other words, you’re running a successful content marketing campaign.

However, there is always more you could be doing to improve conversion rates and the reach of your brand’s message. Here are five types of content that many businesses overlook, but that can be wildly effective for increasing lead generation.

1. Webinars

Live webinars are a great way to score hot new leads. People who sign up for your webinar are likely in the later stages of the buyer’s journey, and if you can show them (via a demo, presentation or Q&A session) how your product can solve their problems, you’ll see a huge uptick in lead gen.

Tip: Limit the number of participants in each webinar, so that you can spend some time talking one-on-one near the end of the session. This personalized attention will showcase your great customer support, and allow interested prospects to ask pertinent questions about your product.

2. Microsites

A microsite is an independent website with a different URL than your main branded site, and can showcase a single product, use case, or blog content. Some microsites are created to support a campaign (a small tool that you built, or a contest you are running), while others publish content more regularly. In either situation, the goal is to bring people into your sales pipeline using multimedia, interactive content, and usually a different marketing strategy than your main website.

Tip: Include a call to action, large and obvious, in several places on your microsite. You want visitors to convert, so be sure to ask them for their email address, or to connect with you on social media.

3. Slideshares/Presentations

Showcase your expertise by uploading a presentation to Slideshare, and distributing it via other channels like social media, email and on your website. Great presentations can position your brand as a leader in your space, and can convince uncertain buyers that you know your stuff – and you’re the company they should work with.

Tip: You can repurpose webinar content into a Slideshare, by simply uploading the slides without the audio or video component. Or, reuse content that you shared internally, or at a conference. Not every piece of content has to be 100% original. It just has to be useful to your audience.

4. Videos

Businesses with a digital presence (i.e. most businesses) say they understand the importance of video, but they often fail to act on this knowledge by actually creating any video content. Reading an article might be too tedious for your audience, so why not create a video instead? You’ll stand out from the crowd, and grab their full attention.

Tip: Use a service to measure how long people watch your video, and at which point they leave. This can help you fine-tune the messaging to be more effective.

5. Infographics

A fantastic way to present complicated information or statistics is via an infographic. These visually pleasing graphics are often highly shared on social media, so you can reach a wide audience if you put one together.

Tip: Don’t skimp on either the “info” or the “graphic” part of an infographic. You want to share unique, interesting information using graphics that match the content.

Connecting with prospects on the phone is the original method of sales correspondence, and with a modern dialer platform, it’s one of the best ways for Sales Development Reps to become creative sales dialing machines. But in order to scale fast, SDRs also need to employ modern email cadence tools to contact their leads in a regular but scalable fashion.

And while most Customer Relationship Management tools like Salesforce have a native email function, users employing a modern sales engagement process prefer to use third party tools with more functionality — those with best-in-class email cadence functionality and a framework based on one core sales principle: success requires persistence.

Pleasant persistence isn’t a new phrase to the sales community, and for good reason. Studies have shown that only 10% of SDRs contact a lead more than three times over the course of their correspondence process. This is a major sales problem, considering another study by Telenet and Ovation Sales Group found that, in 2007, it took 3.68 cold call attempts to reach a prospect. But that information is about a decade old.

Here in the end of 2016, it takes at least 8 touches — of varying mediums — in a sales process that’s about 22% longer. The good news is: it’s possible to create high-quantity and high-quality correspondence with the right email cadence tools. The best ones, for example, give you the power to send email directly from CRM, in Salesforce, while providing a framework that allows SDRs to stay organized, stay on top of their leads, and stay persistent.

That’s why we created our newest ebook,“Salesforce for Sales Engagement: Sales Development Reps,” to empower modern SDRs to use their sales email cadence game plan in an integrated way with their sales engagement tools and CRM.

DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK TODAY

But how do these magical email cadence tools provide persistence for sales development success? It all comes down to the prioritization of a few basic things: organization, personalization, and semi-automation.

For starters, all of your sales leads can be sorted into specific cadences (think: a series of emails broken into steps based on time or lead activity). Sure, this can be done manually within Salesforce, but it becomes nearly impossible to manage over time. That’s why the right sales engagement tools handle this for you, automatically reminding you when to send emails to certain prospects and allowing you to send them in bulk with the click of a button.

Then, SDRs can take this framework and create multiple cadences and sales email templates for different audiences. And as if that scalability wasn’t enticing enough, that email cadence framework can be shared across the team to ensure that everyone is working with the best material possible.

And if you’re a skeptical data scientist out there, cocking your head at the word “better,” rest assured that the right platform tracks all crucial metrics such as open, click, and response rates, automatically, so you know that you’re always leading with the best performing messages. Seriously — the best. And ultimately, each of these activities is automatically logged into Salesforce, streamlining workflow and empowering Sales Operations with one single source.

Download your free copy today and start getting the most out of Salesforce by executing a sales email cadence. Just few small tweaks to your process can turn a CRM like Salesforce into your secret weapon for customer acquisition.

The post How a Sales Email Cadence Provides Persistence for Success appeared first on SalesLoft.

What if you only got 20% of your paycheck each month? What if your car only used 20% of the gas after you filled it up? What if your phone only used percent of its battery? Sounds absurd, right? Ok, here’s a serious question – what if sales only prospected into 20% of the leads marketing gave them?

According to research by Reachforce, sales ignores as much as 80% of the leads that marketing passes to them. If that’s not a problem, I don’t know what is.

If there was one golden rule to Account Based Everything, it would be this: Silos don’t work in an account based world. They lead to inefficiencies, broken systems and problems at every level. The pioneers of account based approaches have all come to the same conclusion: it works best in companies where all the revenue-generating disciplines are closely aligned.

The True Cost of Misaligment

Teams that work in isolation are the ones that miss opportunities, duplicate efforts, waste insights, drop the ball during handoffs, and inhibit every important metric, from deal velocity to close rates.

In contrast, teams that work together in coordinated Account Based Everything programs that target key accounts are dramatically and measurably more efficient and effective. According to a Marketo ebook, alignment sales and marketing results in 208% more value and 108% less friction in the sales process.

There has been a lot of talk about aligning sales and marketing, but it’s easier said than done. In my experience, I’ve heard a lot of executive leaders talk about getting their sales and marketing teams on the same page, but have rarely seen organizations pull it off with the skill and execution of a master. Some are all talk; others believe they’ve achieved alignment, but the numbers and actions speak for themselves.

4 Warning Signs You Have Misalignment

Here are some signs that you still need work on aligning your entire organization:

1. Marketing talks about leads while sales talks about accounts. For the longest time, marketing has been focused on leads. The traditional demand generation model with a big focus on inbound required it. It was about casting a wide enough net and reeling in as many fish as possible. However, marketing hands deals off to an Account Executive, not a Lead Executive. And, at the end of the day, you close accounts, not leads. At Engagio, one of the most effective things we’ve done to gain alignment is banishing the Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) metric and implementing a Marketing Qualified Account (MQA) metric.
2. Sales and marketing sit in opposite corners of the office. If management feels the need to separate the two departments because they can’t get along, you have a problem – even if there’s an SLA in place. If each team talks down about the other behind their backs, it’s time to bring in the marriage counselor. Here’s another thought – even if sales and marketing “get along” on separate sides of the office, if they can operate without having to talk to each other, you’re doing it wrong. It would be like if the wide receiver on your football team never talked to your running back. The run game is much different than the pass game, but if you want to be a real threat on offense, both need to be working together.
3. Marketing doesn’t have revenue responsibility. Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, articulates, “It’s time for marketers to embrace revenue responsibility. You can’t buy a beer with an MQL. What really matters to the organization is the closed deal. ” He goes on to say, “To change [marketers’] objectives, change their compensation. If the sales team at the end of the month and the end of the quarter is grinding it out to hit their number but the marketing team’s at the bar celebrating because they hit their retweet goal, then something’s misaligned.” Well said, Matt.
4. Sales has no idea what marketing does all day, and marketing has no idea what sales does all day. When this happens, communication breaks down, processes break and trust disappears. In their book Aligned to Achieve, Tracy Eiler and Andrea Austin explain, “Alignment takes a good deal of understanding each other’s roles, challenges, and actions. Both sales and marketing rely on the other for high performance.”

There’s No “I” in Account Based

Marketing can’t execute an effective Account Based program without the help of sales, and sales can’t execute without marketing. We’re not looking for a hero. If Marketing embraces ABM without a deep alignment with Sales, you get isolated tactics like, ad retargeting and fancy mailers or field events that Sales doesn’t care about or participate in.

To really engage with a target account, the human touch is essential: someone needs to pick up the phone, send a personal email, or make a real connection on social channels. Only then can the ABM tactics make an impact.

Similarly, ABSD without support from Marketing leads to a bunch of junior reps generating their own accounts and writing their own emails– then doubling the volume to try to improve performance, usually at the cost of quality.

Finally, account based approaches in isolation results in Account Executives wasting their time prospecting without any support or leverage. That’s expensive and inefficient. What works is integration. That’s the heart of any account based strategy.

“ABM is a strategic business initiative. If it’s only sponsored by Marketing, it becomes a campaign.”

Jeff Sands ITSMA

7 Critical Elements to Aligning Your Sales and Marketing Teams

On the account based journey, complete alignment is the goal. But the important thing is to always make progress towards it. You can’t stop your revenue machine, hold everything and wait until you’ve achieved perfect alignment, so get going now.

Here are seven ways you can begin to get organizational alignment.

1. Start with an alignment workshop – sit down together and discuss the account based strategy and why you need to change the way you work. Have your marketers look at your sales metrics and your sales team look at your marketing metrics. I mean really give them unfettered access to all the numbers and they’ll see for themselves the disconnect. If you, as a sales or marketing leader, are embarrassed to do this, I hope you can see the need for change.
2. Come up with clear and consistent definitions – make sure you’re all aiming for the right deals. Give both sales and marketing a seat at the table when defining your target accounts. You should be able to show anyone on your team an account, and everybody separately comes to the same conclusion of whether or not it’s an MQA and exactly what stage they’re at in the pipeline.
3. Orient your teams around a common objective – agree on key metrics and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Agree on your objectives, activities, what metrics you’ll track, and what commitments you’ll make to each other. Give marketing revenue responsibility!
4. Build a foundation – implement an account-centric data infrastructure, including things like lead-to-account matching. You must also know your pipeline metrics. For example, in order to get the pipeline you need, x% of that needs to come from marketing. You can even drill down with data models to determine what you need from each marketing program. Both sales and marketing teams can come to the table knowing exactly what is needed from a numbers perspective to hit their revenue goals.
5. Meet regularly – review processes, metrics, and progress. At Engagio, our sales and marketing teams meet weekly. I’ve even seen teams do bi-weekly scrums/standups. Then, every quarter, executive leaders from each team should review progress and make small adjustments to things like the SLA or metrics.
6. Use common data and technology platforms – There are many great tools and technologies in the Account Based Everything market map that will help your team implement and execute an account based program effective and efficiently.
7. Avoid silos – if marketing and sales are using different tools to accomplish similar goals (e.g. sending emails to target accounts), you should worry. Integrated systems help encourage aligned departments.

If you’re still having a tough time imagining what it would be like for sales and marketing to work together, here’s one scenario. Marketing can help their sales counterparts understand an industry and gain insight for breaking into their target accounts. They can further help gain a better understanding of particular accounts and the key buyers at the table. Marketing can follow them on social channels, set up listening tools like Mention.com or BuzzSumo, and help engage influencers at the right times. Marketing is also skilled at paying attention to trigger events that could cause a target account to actively seek a solution. Sales can then give marketing feedback on specific language and messaging that resonates with the different buyers to help them craft more effective content. If the silos are down, this information easily flows between the teams and deals close quicker and with more ease.

Think this whole alignment thing could become a reality at your company? Good! Next steps: read the Clear and Complete Guide to Account Based Sales Development for more alignment tactics. Then, send it to your counterpart in sales or marketing. Now you’ve got something awesome in common – you’re welcome.

The world’s most remarkable business event, INBOUND 2016 unleashed this week with incredible entertainment, keynotes, networking, training and, of course, new tool releases. This year’s big reveal? Facebook for HubSpot Ads, a new add-on that brings the most popular social network full force into HubSpot’s marketing and advertising platform.

While B2B marketers may not think Facebook Ads coming to HubSpot is a big deal, you may miss a major opportunity to supplement your social media advertising. In this article, I’ll be discussing three major topics that will change how B2B marketers strategize in 2017.

Why B2B Marketers Should Use Facebook

With 1.7 billion active users on Facebook, it is the largest and most popular social network in the world. While some think that Facebook is geared toward consumers, it has added elements and features to its ad platform that make it a great option for B2B marketing. Today’s Facebook is capable of meeting all your B2B marketing goals, such as:

• Educate audiences and increase brand awareness
• Reach decision makers and build out your contact database
• Nurture leads through the sales cycle
• Pass leads off to sales the moment they indicate sales readiness

Here are a few more reasons why Facebook is perfect for B2B marketing.

Facebook is a Byway to Mobile Audiences

When people reach for their smartphones on the go, they are launching applications, such as Facebook or Instagram, and not going to Google to surf the web. In fact, one in every five minutes spent on mobile spent on mobile is on Facebook, over half of the monthly users are mobile-only. However, while a majority of users are on mobile, there are fewer mobile Facebook ads being created—which means a perfect opportunity to position your products or services to these individuals.

Facebook is the Best for Content Sharing

In the last few years, Facebook has shifted to a content-sharing platform. User-generated content is on the decline, and the sharing of sponsored content, videos, business articles and news reports is on the rise. Case in point: Facebook beat Google as the traffic source for news last year. These pivotal shifts in user behavior mean significant advantages for B2B marketers, who can use inbound marketing to create and share content that will reach and generate greater brand awareness and leads.

Facebook Connects You with Business Professionals

Facebook’s targeting menu has incorporated employer and job title filters since 2014. But today, there’s more targeting options than ever, including company size, function and industry, to help B2B marketers reach and connect with decision makers. While you may not think that professionals use Facebook, a recent study conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation found that people spend at least one hour of their workday on social media. This gives you an opportunity to reach and engage your B2B target audience while they are at the workplace.

Facebook is a Cost-Effective Ad Platform

True, ad cost will depend on many factors, including what type of ad you run and what your campaign objectives are. But Facebook is famous for having one of the lowest cost per click (CPC) rates, with the average in Q2 2016 settling in around 27 cents for the United States.

How B2B Marketers Should Use Facebook Advertising

We dished out the why. Now for the how. Having a Facebook page isn’t enough, and advertising on the platform allows you to target and reach new audiences without requiring a prior connection. While other PPC platforms are often limited to a few options, Facebook gives advertisers many different advertising products and targeting options. Here are five powerful ways B2B marketers can use Facebook ads:

Use Custom Audiences

Facebook’s Custom Audiences feature allows you to find and target Facebook users based on the email addresses of your existing connections. B2B marketers can cross-match their various lead and customer lists with Facebook’s database and target these people with ads. These ads typically convert at a better rate, because the targeted audience has already shown an interest in your brand, which pre-qualifies them, and enables you to create highly targeted ads to guide them to the next step.

Use Lookalike Audiences

The Lookalike Audiences feature allows you to create a new audience based on the characteristics of your current followers or an uploaded custom audience. For B2B marketers looking to increase brand awareness and generate new quality leads, this option can help you find more people who match your best converting audiences.

Target Based on Job Title

Like LinkedIn, B2B marketers who want to target a particular work category can do so on Facebook. WIth this feature, Facebook allows you to target employers, industries, job titles or even work arrangements (for example, telecommuters).

Retargeting

B2B marketers can retarget individuals who previously visited a specific page (or set of pages) on your website with a Facebook Ad. This is a great way for B2B marketers to nurture leads who showed interest in their products or services, or a particular page on their website, but failed to complete the call-to-action. You will need to add offsite pixel coding to the pages you want to track. When someone visits that page, they will automatically be added to a Custom Audiences list. Use that list to create highly targeted, personalized ads based on their prior behaviors and interests.

How HubSpot Ads Makes Facebook Advertising Easier Than Ever

The folks at HubSpot realized early on that there was a disconnect between the marketing and advertising realms. Click data alone doesn’t illustrate which ads work. Marketers need to know how many leads and customers each ad generated to prove ROI and optimize ad spend. With the addition of Facebook, to go along with Google and LinkedIn, the Hubspot Ads tool will provide marketers a wealth of quantitative and qualitative data to make advertising decisions.