Rnordman

The current economic expansion is long by historical standards, and thus the risk of recession rises with each passing month. Recessions catch many companies by surprise, with predictable results. In the 2001 recession, total sales for the S&P 500 declined by 9% from its pre-recession peak to its trough 18 months later—almost a year after the recession officially ended. But these periods also present opportunities for well-prepared companies to take advantage of the turmoil and gain share.

The best time to undertake major changes that will strengthen a company during recession is before it hits. Prior to the past recession, both eventual winners and eventual losers in a group of 3,500 companies worldwide experienced double-digit growth rates. Once the recession struck, however, performance began to diverge sharply – the winners continued to grow while losers stalled out. The performance gap widened during the recovery (see chart below). What did the winners do that losers didn’t? They pursued a variety of tactics before the recession that were designed to fortify the firm when the downturn hit – moves both within sales and beyond like adding a low-cost channel to serve small accounts or simplifying the product assortment.

 

We’ll focus here on what the sales organization should be doing now to prepare for the next recession, with an eye toward using new digital tools. The starting point, of course, must be to make sure you have the basics squared away: aligning sales capacity with the market opportunity (capacity tends to get rusted in place, leaving companies over- or under-resourced); sweating the details of daily execution (things like putting controls around discounting); and getting the back of the house in order (a nimble commercial operations groups is critical).

Digital tools and analytic techniques that have flourished in recent years can help make sure those basics are taken care of. Our recent benchmarking of nearly 900 B2B companies underscores the importance of these tools. On average, roughly four times as many winners – defined in this case as those companies that grew absolute revenue at a significant rate and gained market share within their industry over the previous two years – as losers have digital tools embedded into their core commercial capabilities. Digital tools can also open new go-to-market approaches.

Zero-base sales capacity.  Too many sales teams use outdated practices in making account and territory assignments. They rely on backward-looking sales data and broad-brush reports to calculate overall market size and gauge how many reps they need and where to assign them. Digital tools can help make more accurate matches. Case in point: Vertiv, a provider of digital infrastructure to data center and communications networks companies, has built an opportunity calculator using a heuristic model powered by a few salient data points such as the number of server racks a facility can hold. The calculator quantifies the total spending for three main product lines within each of the top 100 accounts and estimates the market for smaller accounts in each territory. With this new process, Vertiv recalculated the potential market of its top five customers, discovering that the potential market was 50% bigger than it had previously estimated ($1.8 billion vs. $1.2 billion). Armed with the revised estimate, Vertiv revised their account coverage to capture the newly discovered opportunity.

Know when to walk away. Many sales teams lose track of which accounts consume most of their time and how they spend the time they do have with customers. Worse, most don’t have a quantified view of profitability by customer, product line and transaction.

To counter this problem, one cloud services provider went through a data-intensive effort to quantify transaction-level profitability and concluded that, no matter how it cut the data, deals under $2,000 were unprofitable. This analysis gave executives a rationale for prohibiting the smaller deals, and, with the sales team focused on closing larger deals, the company hit its sales plan one quarter later, after several quarters of misses.

Amplify low-cost sales channels. In other situations, rather than walking away from smaller revenue streams, some companies devise a channel that can close small deals profitably. It’s a myth that a field sales rep always needs to touch the customer in order to make a sale; in some cases an inside sales group is the cost-effective way to pursue a sale.

Consider the case of an online advertising and software company serving car dealers. After a series of acquisitions, the company’s sales force was underperforming. In particular, selling to and servicing smaller dealers became so costly that it led to low or negative margins for those customers, and consumed too much sales rep time. For smaller dealers, the company shifted to an inside sales center that not only reduced costs but also improved the dealer experience by increasing the attention paid to a typically underserved segment. Sales reps, meanwhile, were freed up to spend more time on larger project sales. As a result, the company increased its new customer acquisition threefold over the prior year and reduced its customer attrition by a healthy margin.

A shift to inside sales usually requires better digital marketing capabilities. New data sources and predictive analytics software can help inside sales organizations identify target accounts and allocate marketing and sales resources in real time. For example, an IT services company uses DiscoverOrg to mine organizational data that might indicate intent to purchase, such as job postings for a vice president of network. After deploying this and other digital tools, the company’s sales team doubled its rate of scheduling a first meeting with a prospective customer.

Detect and reinforce effective behaviors. To understand what separates top performing sales reps from the rest, companies have increasingly turned to analytics engines that mine online calendars and email traffic in order to help identify exactly which behaviors correlate with superior performance. Those behaviors can serve as the basis of training, reinforced daily by front-line managers.

A B2B technology supplier used Microsoft Workplace Analytics and other digital tools to track the behaviors of its sales reps. The data highlighted that top performers were three times as likely to interact with multiple groups inside the company, twice as likely to collaborate with peer reps, and 50% more likely to have weekly pipeline reviews with direct managers. Training on such behaviors, consistently reinforced by managers, can lift the productivity of lower performers.

Automate account management. Strong account managers keep an up-to-date view of the opportunity, share of wallet, decision makers and influencers, and actions needed in each account. Software applications such as Revegy and Altify automate this process and plug into a firm’s customer relationship management platform, turning a tactical opportunity-tracking tool into a powerful strategic planning tool.

Analytics can also support retention and cross-selling efforts.  An industrial equipment distribution company uses artificial intelligence powered by Lattice Engines to identify the right products to cross-sell to customers. In their pilot, sales reps with the AI recommendations achieved 3% to 4% higher sales than those without. Since adoption, the distributor has seen revenue lift across all of its reps.

Streamline and digitize the back office.  Commercial operations groups tend to be early targets for cuts in a recession. It pays to get ahead of cost pressures here by digitizing and automating large portions of the work, which reduces the need for employees to pull reports and manually reconcile numbers. The best commercial operations groups use their staff to execute analytics that produce valuable insights, such as mining the installed customer base for cross-selling opportunities.

Another digital opportunity involves the bid desk or “configure, price, quote” process. For instance, one telecom company uses an iPad application to support executives’ review of deals.  The app pulls in the level of risk, commercial viability, and strategic opportunity for deals of similar size, plus margin and expected win rate, making it easy to access the information in one place.

Raise the game in pricing. Almost all B2B companies could do better on pricing. Bain’s recent survey of sales and marketing leaders at more than 1,700 companies found that 85% of companies believe that their pricing decisions could be improved, yet only 15% believe they have the right tools and dashboards to do this. Even high performers on pricing see opportunities to unlock additional value through digital approaches including:

• Dynamic deal scoring. By mining past transactions, current customer segmentation and preference data, win rates, and competitive pricing data, new software tools can create statistically derived pricing guidance tailored to each deal.
• Algorithmic pricing. With external market, customer, and macro data on current supply and demand, competitor pricing or weather, analytic tools can determine the optimal price for a moment in time.
• Iterative machine learning. AI-supported A/B testing in fast cycles can determine best price points at a SKU level to achieve margin and volume goals.

 Start small, fail fast

The vast number of digital sales tools can be overwhelming.  Where should sales executives start?

We have seen commercial organizations successfully work through these questions with small teams that test and learn as they go. Many use Agile principles, setting up sprints to produce real business results, not just an improved process. Their sole measures of success are incremental sales and profit margin. Starting small allows the team to quickly work out kinks in the process and try things that might not work, because the consequence of failure is also small. And successes can be scaled up quickly.

There’s little point trying to predict a recession with any precision, because most often you’ll be wrong. But winning companies focus on controlling what they can control well before and during the recession, including their sales organization and go-to-market tactics. And becoming more proficient at digital sales technologies gives companies an upper hand over competitors that lag in digital adoption. Armed with the right digital tools, sales teams might almost look forward to the coming recession rather than fearing it.

Recently, a friend and I were shopping together at my local Atlanta-area Trader Joe’s. I had a list in hand. We were going to cook dinner at my house that night and needed just a few things to complete the recipe (plus a restock of TJ’s famous two-buck-chuck).

Then suddenly, our cart was full. Far beyond the seven or eight items on my original grocery list. “How does this ALWAYS happen?” I mused aloud, looking at my accumulation of sauces and condiments, enough to carry me through the next six months. “I don’t know,” she said. “It happens to me all the time, too. It’s like they just understand me—and I always fall for the descriptions they put next to the item and think I just NEED that in my life!”

She was right! Five minutes prior, I never would have considered purchasing a coffee syrup. But I walked by and spotted the product description, which said something like, “Up your dessert game—try this poured over vanilla ice cream.” I bought it. And then some vanilla ice cream I didn’t need either.

Whoever Trader Joe’s sales copywriters are—they’re geniuses. And, they’re consistent. From Trader Joe’s direct mail piece—called “The Fearless Flyer,” —which gets sent out to neighborhoods within the vicinity of any one local store, to their in-store product descriptions, product names, detailed labels, and online presence, it all exudes the laid-back, relatable, quirky, yet trustworthy personality they’ve become known for. They seem to not take themselves too seriously even though their rabid, almost cult-like, fan base takes the store VERY seriously.

So, how does this 60-year-old grocery store take customer understanding to the next level? Below are six reasons why so many people say Trader Joe’s just gets me.

1. They really know their customers

Their target audience: over-educated and underpaid shoppers. Founder, Joe Coulombe, owned a grocery store called Pronto Markets in the 60s when he noticed a trend: college grad salaries were falling. So, he slashed prices and increased inventory on another product that his educated customer base appreciated: booze. “We essentially married the health food store to the liquor store,” he said. Customer understanding is about more than knowing your target audience and their demographics. It’s about understanding what drives them, what inspires them, their motives, aspirations, personalities, and lifestyle. It’s about understanding why they do what they do—not simply what they do—and then delivering products, services, and experiences to complement that. As Dawn Colossi, CMO of FocusVision, stated in this article, ‘‘What I learned in the first 90 days as CMO’’ “No data can speak louder than your customer.”

2. Their messaging is on point

Trader Joe’s knows their customers and they know how to speak with them. People look forward to receiving the Fearless Flyer in the mail not only to learn about new seasonal products that just hit the shelf, but because Trader Joe’s takes them on a storytelling journey. Mango O’s cereal is not just another Froot Loops copycat, but as seen in this description, ,they are “Sweet and tart, and O so crunchy, Mango O’s are destined for great things – in a bowl with milk, mixed into yogurt, as topping for ice cream, or even combined with our Marshmallows for a groovy mango version of a cereal-based snack treat.” Trader Joe’s maintains a relaxed brand voice while explaining their products in such detail that it becomes storytelling. They have mastered explaining to their audience what they need to know, why they need to know it, what they need to do with that information, why they need to do it—all wrapped in a message that is both entertaining and memorable.

3. They make grocery shopping a fun and relaxing experience

What other grocery store has cashiers dressed in Hawaiian t-shirts that ring maritime bells when they need assistance? Trader Joe’s stores are small and can get very crowded, especially on weekends, but the experience and ambience are always consistently pleasant. I remember a time when I had my increasingly impatient two-year-old fighting me to get out of the cart when a Trader Joe’s employee appeared with a roll of stickers and squeezable fruit pouch. She tapped my shoulder and with the objects hidden behind her back said, “Can I give these to your daughter?” Of course, thank you, thank you!! I practically shrieked in her face with joy. The employee then proceeded to tuck a few extra snack pouches in my purse and said, “This is on us!” That small gesture kept my daughter entertained for the remainder of our shopping trip, created even more brand loyalty for me, and became a shareable story that I continue to tell my parents and friends.

4. Their customer experience lines up with their brand story

Trader Joe’s employees are different than most other grocery store employees. They’re much happier. In this Forbes article, the author interviewed several Trader Joe’s employees and discovered that “the company fosters an environment where collaboration is crucial to pulling off a successful day’s work. TJ’s employees aren’t working independent retail jobs—they’re working on interlocking pieces of a project, and that project is to make you happy.” They’re also known to receive great benefits such as medical, dental, vision, and retirement contributions. They’re also paid very well compared to others in the industry. For instance, store managers (aka “Captains”) earn over six-figures. It’s no wonder these Hawaiian-shirt-clad “crew members” are so quick to offer a helping hand with a smile.

5. They don’t overwhelm you with options

People crave simplicity in their lives. And with 1/4 as many SKUs than most grocery stores, with 80% being their own private-labeled products, Trader Joe’s delivers on their promise of curating a small amount of high-quality grocery items that customers have learned to trust. This ties back to creating a laid-back, relaxing experience. I have to admit, having five options of pasta sauce (that I know are all healthy, affordable, delicious options) at Trader Joe’s versus the 35 options at Kroger, definitely makes an over-thinker like me save time and feel more relaxed.

6. They deliver on product innovation at consistently low prices

Trader Joe’s is known for continuously creating new, high-quality grocery products at low prices. They’ve adopted a customer-value-driven pricing model where prices are based on buyers’ perceptions of value. Trader Joe’s is known for discontinuing products as soon as their suppliers try to increase prices beyond what they’re comfortable passing down to customers. They spend a lot of time testing different products and international cuisine to bring new and exciting items to market.

So, what’s the Trader Joe’s message for transformational marketers out there? Tell your story with ruthless consistency. Live out your story with ruthless consistency and ensure that your customers’ experiences match what you’re claiming. TJ’s is a notoriously secretive company that clearly slaves over every detail of its customer-facing collateral and products. From the storefronts, to the copy, to the in-store decor, to all that colorful hand-painted signage (did you know TJ’s staffs dozens of full-time calligraphers?), everything at TJ’s offers consumers the same life-affirming message: For the next 10 to 90 minutes, life is going to be affordable, friendly, stress-free—just about everything you want it to be. They are on point because they tell the same heartwarming story in their Fearless Flyers that they do in their insanely successful podcast.

If TJ’s success is about the proper alignment of strategy with a simple but powerful story, how can you tell whether you’ve achieved simplicity and alignment in your own messaging? Download our Transformational Marketing Playbook or order a copy of Marketing, Interrupted to find out.

Social media is short attention span marketing. It fits well with the attention span of today’s people… In fact, if you’re a marketer you probably realize you have just a few seconds to grab someone’s attention.

Though social media feeds can be busy, you still need to participate. Because if you’re not part of the noise, do you even exist?

Many people use a business’s social media profile as a way to gauge how involved you are with customers. A Facebook or Twitter page that has current posts, comments, and reviews can be a deciding factor for some potential leads.

Why is social media important for business?

We all know marketing is the process of communicating value to customers. Social media is a tool or channel for marketing and aids in helping brands build their visibility and social currency.

 

Social networks aren’t just about you connecting with your customers, but also it allows them to connect with you. In fact, 73.4% of users will follow a brand because of their interest in the product or service.

To further reiterate why social media is so important for your business, let’s take a look at these points…

Builds brand awareness

By having a social site, you have essentially increased your channels to share and syndicate your content. This means you have the opportunity to not only share but to be shared too. Though you may not go ‘viral’, you have made it easier for people to talk about you.

It only takes one customer to share your content or your page to get leads. Because with that share, a whole new group of people has the chance of stumbling upon your name while scrolling through a feed.

But, that’s not it. You become way more accessible too. Even if you have a website and can be searched, your social networks make it that much easier for customers to find you.

Think of it like this, a social site is like an extension of you. For example, if someone searches for your business by name or product, you might pop up in a variety of searches whether it be your website or your Facebook page. Making it easier for people to recognize you and thus building your brand awareness.

Can be cost-effective

Social profiles are free. So you can essentially build an empire with a free profile. And, if you’re like most businesses, you may pay to promote a post or two. Or you may even run an ad. But you don’t have to. This is why social media is important for businesses. It allows you the flexibility to pay as much or as little as you like while allowing you to have all the functions of a business page.

Though ads, even social media ads can be expensive you have the flexibility to choose how much you spend, how long your ad runs, and you can even choose which audience it gets sent out to.

Really the only ‘cost’ you might incur is your time. Luckily, you probably won’t even have to spend too much time on it. According to Hubspot, 84% of marketers found as little as six hours of work on their social sites per week was enough to generate increased traffic.

And, compared to traditional advertising or marketing campaigns, you’re likely to save a bit of money (this can be true even if you hire a social media manager too!).

Does social media increase sales?

Social media and social media advertising rely heavily on word of mouth marketing. Essentially you are sharing your business, content, and expertise, and getting people to talk about you because of your need for social currency.

When someone tags or mentions your business in a comment, you become a trusted recommendation to their friends. Plus, you’re likely to be put in front of quality leads this way. Therefore, increasing your leads and referrals, and potentially increasing your sales all over the globe.

Social media does have the potential to increase your sales, even while being a cost-effective channel!

Easy to engage with customers

Social media is a communication tool. Therefore meaning a specific tool you can use to communicate directly with customers. You can publicly communicate by commenting, or you can even reach out privately.

Most of the time this works in your favor. Because customers are already on these sites, sometimes multiple times a day they are more likely to share their good and bad experience with your business here. Giving you the perfect opportunity to respond accordingly.

If something negative were to be said, you have the ability to get in contact with the customer right away. Plus, you can use this as an opportunity to publicly apologize and move forward. Though this is a public setting, this interaction is personalized and can help strengthen that customer’s trust in you.

Though you may prefer receiving reviews on your review profiles, customers aren’t always on them. Nor do they want to always sign up for a new profile. If you turn on your reviews on your social sites, you are essentially creating a convenient space (where customers already spend a lot of time) to write reviews and to engage with you.

Social sharing buttons make it even easier to share and be shared

You can also engage with customers by sharing their user-generated content. For example, someone may publicly talk about you on their Twitter. You can easily retweet what they said and use that to increase your brand authority and trust.

And if you’re actively sharing and commenting on these types of posts, customers will also want to be more engaged. Meaning they may continue to share your content or their experience with your brand to their followers.

This will increase your chances of being seen by potential leads too. Whether it be a quick search or a friend of your customer simply browsing through their feed. Growth Gurus mentions “63% of consumers who search for businesses online are more likely to use ones with an informative social media presence”.

So if you’re actively engaging on your social site, you have a better chance of being chosen than a competitor who is not on active on social media.

Enhances your SEO rankings

As we have mentioned, social media can help you increase your content’s visibility. This is because you are essentially providing a second residence for your content. And making it incredibly shareable.

Because your content becomes much easier to share, you are increasing your chances of creating quality backlinks. This is because your content is much easier to find.

Be sure you are using your social profiles to your full advantage. Hashtags, optimizing your profiles, and creating catchy headlines/tweets can make your engagement skyrocket and boosts your SEO.

Is a paid, owned, and earned channel

It’s uncommon for marketers to rely on just one media channel. Unlike most options, your social profiles can fall into all channels, paid, owned, and earned media. In many instances, you’ll see a brand hit on all three of these types of media with one single post.

For example, a brand will publish an article on their blog (owned channel). They will promote that article on Facebook (paid channel). Then you will see people sharing that post or article (earned channel).

Social media as a paid channel – social media ads have become really popular. The ads themselves tend to blend in with the content around them and look like the rest of the feed around them (until you see the tiny ‘promoted’ stamped on it). With paid social media ads and boosted content you have a lot of leverage to choose what you want to spend and how long you want it to run.

Social media as an owned channel – You’re right, you don’t own the platform. But you do own your own little slice of real estate on it. Your profile is considered owned media. It’s a free channel that you can use to talk about yourself, share what’s going on with your company. You can really post whatever it is your heart desires, and in return, you can build your word of mouth.

Social media as an earned channel – As we mentioned this is a platform for you to share your content. On the flip side, this is also where you’ll see people talking about you and sharing your content. Because social media channels are so versatile and rely on communication, it’s a great channel for word of mouth to occur. Notice how Business Insider shared an article and within just 8 minutes, they have been retweeted and liked by a handful of people.

Statistics on social media – that proves it matters

By now you realize how vital of a role a social profile will have for your business. But, if you’re still not convinced, here’s a few social media statistics that prove it.

1. When a brand pays attention to its consumers it really pays off.

In fact, statistics presented by Lyfe Marketing suggests, 71% of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family.

This means that social media also plays a huge role in your customer service and the likelihood of getting referral leads. Want to know more about how social media and referral marketing work together?

2. If you’re on social media, you’re bound to find a ton of your customers are too.

A study by Hootsuite found…

There are now 3.196 billion people using social media, up 13% from last year.

Maybe you have some customers who aren’t internet savvy, but you have a pretty good chance of finding a good handful are.

3. Instagram can get you in front of a ton of new eyes.

Another Hootsuite study saw that 11 people joined social media every day. For Instagram, in particular, they found the total number of global Instagram users increased by a third over the past year.

More an more users join social media sites every day. Meaning you have a ton of potential opportunities to be seen.

4. Nearly half of all businesses use social media for their digital marketing strategies.

Infusionsoft found when asked which strategies they currently use for digital marketing, 49 percent responded with social media management.

At the rate of which social media continues to grow, it might be worth imagining this number to increase as well.

5. Engaging with customers of social media builds loyalty.

So much in fact, that Social Media Today found that customers spend more money (20-40 percent) on brands who engage directly with them on social media.

Do a little bit of engaging and see how it affects your customers. You’ll like find they are happy you are listening to them. This tiny act can turn a person into a true ambassador!

How to increase social media engagement

Now that you see social media is well worth it. How do you increase your engagement? As you’ll see there are a variety of ways to do it, and most of which are free.

Though you’ll find that a paid route may be beneficial in some scenarios, like advertising a new e-course or even promoting a specific new post or guide.

Here are a few ideas.

Use images in posts

Social may be a channel for communication, but it relies a lot on visuals. Most people will scroll through their newsfeeds and pause briefly to check out something that looks appealing.

So by including an image in your post, you are increasing your chances of providing some interesting visual stimulation. Plus, it can help you provide insight into what you’re talking about. You’ve heard ‘an image is worth 1000 words’, and in this case it is true.

Research has found that images can result in up to an 85% interaction rate on Facebook and increased retweets by 35%.

Some image ideas include:

• A product sneak peek
• Infographics
• Photos of behind the scenes
• Memes
• Photos that are unique to you

Ask your followers questions

Most people enjoy the interaction of a quick q&a. Really you can ask for their opinion on anything. Whether it be something that affects them or something that is more internal.

For example, you can get the customer to get to know you by asking their opinion on an in-office tie-breaker. This makes them feel like they’re on the inside and have contributed to your business. “Our team can’t decide on a Holiday Party theme, we need your help! Do you think ‘A western Holiday’ or ‘Winter Wonderland’ would be more fun?” Then of course mention, you will provide photos of the even.

Even though the survey isn’t about your product or your customers, it’s fun and it’s something that people will participate.

Additionally, you can engage with customers on other social sites like Reddit and Quora, and share those posts on your other social profiles.

Here are a few ways to build engagement via questions.

Polls

The example used above would fit into this category nicely. You can create a poll about anything. Whether it be a product question, a fun question, or a serious debate. Polls are great because they are interactive, but they aren’t too much work. You get answers and results quickly, and it takes hardly any effort for a customer to choose.

Twitter polls have been pretty popular, and you may have engaged with one yourself. If you look at a lot of today’s top brands, they use Twitter polls as a fast way to engage with customers whether it be purely for fun or insight.

Survey

You may have seen your fair share of surveys floating around the web. You’re probably also familiar with the ones that pop up every once in a while on your Facebook feed. You know the ones like, “Answer these questions and we’ll guess how old you are”, sort of thing.

Well, these pop up because usually, your friends will engage with these types of surveys. They will post their answer, and others decide to join in on the fun.

As a brand, you can use this same idea. Even though most of these types of surveys are just for fun, you can use the concept to better engage with your customers. Even if you are trying to ask serious questions to gain real data, you can make it fun or intrigue people to answer by giving them a coupon code for completing the survey.

Make people laugh

Everyone loves a little bit of humor. And when you get people’s emotions going, you can facilitate engagement. This is partly why memes spread like wildfire. This is also the reason why brands like Wendy’s has done well on social media. They have found a way to make their responses and updates sarcastic and funny.

You don’t just have to be sarcastic to be fun or funny though. You can offer something fun or ask for people to participate in something fun.

Many brands have been asking their customers to “caption this”, or respond with an emoji. These are effortless tactics to get people to participate. This can further increase your engagement and loyalty.

Check out your local businesses Facebook or Twitter. You may find that some of them offer freebies for your participation. For example, this Chick-fil-A asked it’s customers to caption their image.

As you can see they added a bonus, a free chicken sandwich, making the ‘task’ even more fun.

Share the facts

Most people try to share things that make them look good, funny, and smart. If you share statistics or pull a statistic from your article and use it as the caption of your post, it’ll probably be shared. Statistics are great fuel for sharing.

By doing this you’re also paving way for your name or brand to be an authority in your niche. The more in the know you seem, the more believable and trustworthy you’ll seem.

All of which are great attributes for sharing. Not only just for sharing either. With an increase in sharing, you’ll likely see a higher engagement rate for your content too.

Start a giveaway

Everyone loves a giveaway. Especially if what you’re offering is something they like. Instagram and Facebook have taken giveaways to a whole new level.

One you may have seen a lot of lately are chains of businesses coming together to offer one mega gift or multiple gifts. For example, you may follow a brand on Instagram. That brand may host a giveaway with a couple of other similar brands. They want you to re-post their image, use a specific hashtag, and follow all the other brands in the giveaway. They may team up to give one lucky winner a mega basket of gifts, or they may each draw a different individual to reward with a prize after that person has completed all their steps.

Or the more simple version of retweeting or reposting a specific image and using the requested hashtag. Sometimes, these simple ones can bring in extra leads by requesting followers to also tag a friend.

Regardless of which route you choose to do your giveaway, you’ll likely see a ton of new engagement. And will likely get a ton of new followers because of it, providing increased exposure for your brand.

Tip: You can gain extra followers by including your profile link in your regular email blasts and promoting it on your blog. If you mention the giveaway on top of that, it might intrigue people to follow and like your page!

Other simple things to try to increase your engagement

We’ve mentioned quite a lot already on how to increase your engagement on social media. But, really the list can go on and on. Here are a few more of our favorites.

• Post videos or do live video shares – video content is huge. Videos have a way of intriguing customers to stop and watch. As we have mentioned visuals make an excellent medium for sharing and increase interaction.
• Talk about your niche, not just your brand – no one wants to land on your profile to read a bunch of salesly mumbo-jumbo. Most of the time, people are simply looking for information in your niche, and if they are interested…they will look into your brand further by visiting your website. If you can provide general information, and establish yourself as a thought-leader, you’ll be easier to engage with.
• Share content other than your own – Again, it’s not always about you. If you share other content, you may find that others are likely to share your content too. You should realize that a partner business may have the answer to a question that you aren’t as well-versed in. This is also a good way to build backlinks.

Be sure to monitor social media engagement

You’ve put in the effort, and now you can sit back and relax. Well, not quite. You need to monitor your engagement too. If you’re not tracking your efforts, you’ll never know if your hard work, time, and money are paying off.

If you truly want to evolve your social media marketing and take advantage of having your face in front of a huge database that you can trim down to your target market, the tracking metrics is a must. As it will allow you the knowledge to tweak as you need, to see what is and isn’t working.

Social media metrics that matter

There a few metrics you should consider when tracking social media engagement. Here are a few of the most predominant things brand’s measure.

Likes – One of the simplest metrics you can see are likes. Practically all social media platforms allow users to ‘like’ or ‘upvote’ a specific post. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. all have this feature and make immediately evident if what you’re posting works for your followers.

Shares – To bump it up a notch from likes, you can measure how many shares a specific post gets. A share usually means someone likes or trusts your post so much that they are willing to share it with their friends.

Growth rate – It’s important to pay attention to the rate of followers you’re obtaining. If you see a sudden drop of followers or a slower rate than usual, it might mean you need to do a bit of digging and make a few changes. Whether it be a change in the content you share or even when you share it.

Your follower ratio – Sometimes a mixed-matched follow to following rate can deter people from liking you. Even though it’s important to follow other pages and businesses, you need to slow your role if your follow rate far exceeds your number of followers. You may come off as spammy or illegitimate especially if your number of followers is very low, while the number of people you follow is high.

Clicks – You may get good engagement through clicks. This is a measurement of the number of times a link you shared was clicked. If you have a good amount of clicks it can be a sign that the content you share aligns well with your audience.

Social media tools

Your social pages will have built-in analytics and insights. Usually, these metrics include page views, page likes, and reach, along with a few other summaries.

But, if you want to get even more in-depth metrics, there are many social media tools that will allow you to take a deep dive into your social media analytics.

These types of tools allow you to measure your performance to help you learn how to take your marketing strategy to the next level.

Social media analytics tools include

Followerwonk – This one is aimed towards Twitter and offers a free version for you to start analyzing your Twitter profile easily. It provides you with an overview of your followers and their actions. You can also see when your followers are likely to be online, to help you plan the perfect posting schedule for maximum engagement.

Google Analytics – So this one is huge, and it’s a great analysis tool. Many businesses use it to track website traffic, but if you drill into it far enough you can get social metrics too. For example, you can determine how much traffic to your site comes from your social networks.

Klear – Klear offers quite a few free tools (as well as paid versions), all of which focus on helping you find your influencers on your social sites. Klear ignores fake and bot followers so that you can focus on your real metrics. You can even view your follower’s interests to help you plan exactly what to share.

SocialRank – The tool lets you easily identify, organize and manage your Instagram and Twitter followers. It also allows you to filter and sort your followers to further help you take the appropriate action in increasing your engagement.

How to calculate social media click-through rate

Calculating your social media click-through rate is vital in knowing how well your brand’s visibility is online especially when talking about ads. Your impressions are simply the number of page views. To figure out if you’re posts and ads are successful, you need to calculate the click-through rate.

You can do this by taking the volume of clicks and the number of views or impressions your page has and doing a simple math equation.

The ratio from your clicks and views is your click-through rate (CTR)

If you’re unsure of where to find these measurements your social profiles will give you this information (if you’re running ads). You’ll also be able to see this information from the analytic tools listed in the previous section.

Engagement rate formula

Depending on the platform you are using, you’ll have to modify your calculations. Here are formulas to determine Facebook and Twitter engagement rates.

Facebook – To find the engagement rate of a particular post on Facebook you’ll have to do a little math. No worries, it’s quite simple. You are basically taking the number of engaged users and dividing that number by the total reach of the post. Then multiplying that number by 100 to get a percentage.

Twitter – Similar to the formula above, Twitter uses the same idea but slightly different formula. You’ll be using your total likes and comments, dividing that by your number of followers and finally multiplying that by 100.

Summary

As you can see, when done right, social media marketing can be a wonderful thing for your business. It will help you increase your brand authority, brand trustworthiness, and it will even help you engage with customers.

You also see that increasing your customer interactions and engagement with social media isn’t really that difficult to do. But the effort you do put in can have a major pay off.

Just be sure to monitor your efforts, so that you can track what is an isn’t working for you.

Despite the rapid growth of digital marketing in the B2B space, events still provide marketers with a tried and true method to bring quality leads into the sales funnel. Unlike other marketing efforts, B2B events bring together prospects that are more likely to fit your ideal target audience right from the get-go. Why? Because events provide marketers with the opportunity to get highly personal, one-on-one time with potential customers, making it easier to strike connections and get prospects into the sales funnel.

With this in mind, events make up a crucial component of a successful demand generation strategy. Marketers who focus on better leveraging the impact of their event marketing will be better equipped to grab prospect attention and convey the value that convinces them to engage with a brand further, travel through the sales cycle, and reach a buying decision.

In fact, according to Harvard Business Review, 52 percent of business leaders say event marketing drives more ROI than any other marketing channel. What’s more, 24 percent of B2B marketing budgets are directed toward optimizing the impact of events. With this in mind, it’s safe to say that organizations who aren’t focusing on their event marketing are missing out on a serious demand gen opportunity.

(Source.)

In this post, we’re exploring three ways to bolster your event marketing and boost the impact of your demand gen efforts. Take a look:

1. Be a Voice for the Event on Social Media

Think about this: you’re attending an event and brand 1 has provided you with the important details you need to know before the event, led discussions into themes related to the event, and highlighted the unique problems and solutions the event aims to address. Brand 2, however, has provided little information on the event, nor have they showcased their presence at the event.

More likely than not, on the day of the event, you’ll be more inclined to engage with brand 1. This is because brand 1 became a “voice” for the event itself, educating potential attendees and engaging them before the event took place. With this in mind, marketers need to make sure they’re demonstrating their brand’s value by showcasing their contributions to an event, including attendees in social engagements, and facilitating discussions into the event’s subject matter.

Consider a recent study indicating 74 percent of event planners listed social media as the most effective tool for event marketing, leveraging social to become a voice for your next event can lead to serious results.

By leveraging social to engage prospects interested in an event, marketers gain the unique opportunity to differentiate themselves and showcase their brand’s value. Then, when it’s time for the event, a potential customer will still have your brand top-of-mind, likely leading to greater engagement, more demand being generated, and more quality leads entering the top of the funnel.

Take Boston Content’s event promotion for example. When the marketers behind the brand wanted to boost engagement for an event via social channels, they created a fun contest to boost conversion rates. In short, Boston Content put together a voting contest for “Boston Content Marketer to Watch,” asking prospective attendees to vote on their favorite marketers. The result? Increased engagement and awareness surrounding their event.

(Source.)

2. Develop Buzz by Engaging Prospects

At its core, successful events rely on one thing…excitement. Without an excited and eager audience, an event won’t generate high attendance numbers. When it comes to your event marketing (and your demand generation strategy), the same principle applies. By creating buzz around an event, your participation, and the value attendees can expect by paying you a visit, prospects will be more inclined to engage with your brand.

When prospects engage with your brand at a live event, the payoff can be big. According to a study conducted by EventTrack, a staggering 98 percent of users felt more inclined to purchase after attending an event. With this in mind, it makes sense to grab the attention of potential customers right out of the gate, right?

Consider promoting your event with interesting and engaging content that not only helps convey the importance of the event itself but also connects your target audiences to your brand. Events are hectic and often times, crowded. To cut through the noise, consider generating buzz by keeping some of these pre-event best practices in mind:

• Highlight the details your audience wants to know: Does your organization offer a specific product or service that aligns with key event themes? Where can a prospect find you, and more importantly, what value are you providing the prospects that pay you a visit? By highlighting the important details in your promotions (where the event is, where attendees can find you, etc.), you’re helping attract the right leads to your booth or session.

• Include some exciting elements into your promotions: Do you have a new product you’re looking to unveil? Maybe you’re providing attendees with a unique demonstration they won’t be able to find elsewhere? Tie your pre-event engagements to something exciting, and you’ll help entice attendees to engage with by keeping your brand top-of-mind.

• Start a conversation with your audience around event themes: Maybe there’s a specific product or service that aligns with themes of the event. Let your target audience know!

3. Leverage Interactive Content to Capture and Engage Prospects

In the B2B setting, leveraging events as part of a demand generation strategy is separated into three parts. First, you need to pique the interests of prospective customers enough to visit you at the event. Next, you need to engage them in a way that lets you capture the information needed to get them into the sales funnel. Lastly, you need insights into their particular needs, interests, and pain points that allow you to nurture those prospects well after the event is over.

With this in mind, interactive content may be the secret weapon you need to unlock your event marketing potential. Interactive content works by engaging your potential customers in a fluid, conversational manner across the content you already use. From there, those prospects can be connected to tools, resources, and additional content that helps them reach an informed buying decision.

Using interactive content before, during, and after your event can be a great way to generate interest, demonstrate value to your prospects, and most importantly, gather participant data for more impactful marketing. Considering the fact that 77 percent of B2B marketers indicated leveraging events to distribute their content for content marketing efforts, the more your content can work for you, the greater demand you’ll generate for your organization.

(Source.)

Knowing this, B2B marketers need content that helps them stand out from the scores of other businesses leveraging content for their events. Moreover, that content needs to be able to both inform and entertain prospects. That way, marketers can pique interest before an event, engage potential customers at the event, and understand the leads they acquire on a more granular level that leads to more targeted, relevant nurturing.

Take this interactive assessment for example. A quick, and fun way to test participants’ knowledge on bad data, it’s a fresh take on traditional quiz style content that helps facilitate discussions at the event booth and educate prospects. What’s more, it contains lead qualification questions that help marketers target the right leads following the event.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to demand generation strategy, event marketing can be a powerful tool that excites and educates prospects. However, in order to ensure that events successfully bolster demand generation efforts, marketers need the ability to not only draw attendees in but capitalize on personal engagements they make with prospects. In doing so, marketers will boost their event engagement, and more importantly, the quality leads those events help to generate.

For some creative ideas that you can use to help boost your demand gen efforts before, during, and after events, check out our Use Cases pages. We highlight a variety of different strategies marketers can use to help them generate event traffic, boost engagement, and understand their leads.

Want to create a stronger presence for your company on LinkedIn? Wondering how others are using company pages to support their business goals? In this article, you’ll discover how 10 prominent businesses are making the most of LinkedIn and 4 key components of an engaged LinkedIn company page. #1: Recruit Talent Tesla is on a […]

The post How to Make Your LinkedIn Company Page Stand Out appeared first on Social Media Marketing | Social Media Examiner.

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn quietly introduces a new privacy setting that defaults to blocking a user's connections from exporting the user's personal email address  —  A win for privacy on LinkedIn could be a big loss for businesses, recruiters, and anyone else expecting to be able to export the email addresses of their connections.

Liz Alderman / New York Times:
With only 10% of Swedes using cash this year, down from 40% in 2010, officials are trying to slow its demise as they determine societal costs  —  Cash is disappearing in the country faster than anyone thought it would.  Now, officials are trying to slow its demise as they determine the societal costs.

Right now, video content is slowly shifting to favor mobile devices by turning vertical As of the third quarter of 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones, up from 50.3% in the previous year. That 2.2% shows …..

The post Are vertical videos the future of your video marketing? [Infographic] appeared first on Smart Insights.

On this edition of The Predictable Revenue Podcast, we turn the reins over once again to our friends at the StartupCircle podcast, who welcomed Aaron Ross for a recent chat on how to do sales outreach the right way.

The post How to do sales outreach the right way with Aaron Ross appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

Small U.S. bourbon producers are finding that European drinkers love their products. It’s those tariffs that don’t go down so smoothly.

Following the European Union’s June implementation of a 25 percent tariff on bourbon, the popular U.S. whiskey variety, the impact has been clear. One American producer said his exports have “dropped to zero” as a result. Last year, they made up 15 percent of revenue.

“Every U.K. buyer backed off,” said Paul Hletko, the owner of Evanston, Illinois-based Few Spirits. “They may want to buy it, but if they can’t sell it at the right price, that’s not doing us any favours.”

Small distillers cite the drought as proof their fears of a global trade war are coming to fruition. Europe had been blossoming as a source of new revenue — but this market has been effectively cut off for producers that lack the clout or brand recognition of titans like Brown-Forman and Diageo. Now they’ve been sent back to square one.

The tariffs, which target U.S. goods such as Levi Strauss & Co. blue jeans and Harley Davidson Inc. motorcycles, are the EU’s retaliation to President Donald Trump’s duties on foreign steel and aluminum.

Hletko said the low six figures he’s made this year from international orders all were booked before the tariffs’ imposition. Meanwhile, Rob Cassell, the owner of Philadelphia-based New Liberty Distillery, said European buyers have dissolved.

“Everybody shops by price,” Cassell said. “If your product before was 25 euros ($37.74) a bottle and all of a sudden it’s 35, but nothing’s changed, that’s not the same great buy for you that it was before.”

Spiros Malandrakis, head of alcoholic drinks research at Euromonitor, said that the tariffs have stunted the growth of bourbon in Western Europe. Consumers will likely go to new whiskies from countries such as Canada or Sweden, or drink something else, while big players like Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniels will find ways to absorb the additional costs — a luxury that smaller, upstart companies don’t have.

“Taxation and trade issues do play a role in drinking habits,” Malandrakis said. “It will be the smaller craft manufacturers that will start taking the biggest hits.”

• William Watson: For supposed 'free traders' Canada's ranking on complex tariffs is... complicated
• U.S., China clobber each other with biggest sets of tariffs yet — and consumers will take the hit
• Manchego vs. Manchego: How cheese started a Mexico-EU trade tiff

Brown-Forman, which got just over a quarter of its revenue from Europe in 2017, opted to absorb the tariff’s impact in the short term before implementing delayed price increases. While the Louisville, Kentucky-based company has this option, it’s still feeling pain from the tariffs, and in August it lowered its profit forecast for the fiscal year.

At Milroy’s, a whiskey shop in central London’s Soho district, American whiskey brands make up 25 percent of the bar’s 200 plus spirits. Over the last three to five years, customers bought it more than ever before, according to managing director Martyn “Simo” Simpson.

Prices for a third of U.S. brands have jumped 10 to 15 percent, and he may even stop selling some by springtime, he said.

“The whiskey drinkers aren’t going to stop drinking whiskey, they’ll just go on to something else,” Simpson said. “Scotland’s going to be loving it.”

There is no question that Millennials or Generation Y consumers (born between 1980 and 2000) are an unusual breed, with very different values, buying habits and attitudes that confound older generations. However, the most noteworthy trend is their decreased desire to own things or buy them through traditional channels. Instead Millennials are obsessed with having a memorable experience, which will have a reverberating impact on positioning brands in the future. They are just not buying stuff like other generations.

The obvious winners of this significant trend are industries like events, travel and dining. Millennials are increasingly spending money and time on concerts, social events, athletic pursuits and all kinds of cultural experiences. A happy, worthwhile life for them is more about creating, sharing and capturing memories earned through personal experiences. Their focus is not on possessions or career status. A recent study by Harris Poll supports this trend:

• 78% of Millennials would rather spend money on an experience or an event over buying something desirable.
• Most (69%) said they believe attending live experiences helps them “connect better with their friends, their community and people around the world”.
• 83% of respondents said they participated in a “live event” in the past year.
• Looking ahead, 72% said they would like to increase their expenditures on experiences in the coming year.

One company that has successfully capitalized on this growing desire for travel, dinners and engaging activities is Airbnb. Their promise goes beyond affordable accommodations; it is all about experiencing the lifestyle and charm of a local culture. Even big banks have recognized the opportunity to offer new experiential services that appeal to these Millennials. JPMorgan Chase recently launched its Sapphire Reserve, a premium credit card that offers generous rewards for spending on travel and dining. They positioned this brand as a “card for accumulating experiences”, and it has become a big hit with Millennials who today represent more than half of their cardholders.

So what has caused this dramatic change in spending habits that have led to this emerging “experience economy”? Probably the most influential event was the devastating crash of 2008. The repercussions were severe and broadly experienced – less spending as wallets were closed, job layoffs including the parents of Millennials, losing life savings, etc. Millennials obviously took note of the world crashing around them, and they haven’t forgotten. They don’t want to suffer like their parents and grandparents did. Today they prefer access over ownership. In particular, since younger consumers have more debt, fewer assets and less job security than previous generations, they don’t want to own as much and strongly desire more flexibility.

This terrible Recession of 2008 led to other related trends that will deeply affect how brands will be positioned in the future. One is the “sharing economy” which is linked to this growing desire for flexibility. The benefits are especially meaningful to Millennials – reduced waste, more authentic experiences and convenience.

Shopping has changed too. Not just more purchasing online, but shopping with a conscience and desire to reward a brand that is giving back to society. This often means buying less yet with good quality. Millennials are also sensitive to the environment and well-being of our planet. For example, they are very aware that most clothing goods are made overseas where workers are often not treated fairly. Another influence for new shopping patterns is the end of scarcity, or the overabundance of almost everything online where we can find and own practically anything we want, at any time. Hence owning something in the traditional sense is becoming less important.

The motivation behind selecting a product or experience is different today, as well. Instead of just a sense of pride from owning a product, younger consumers are more interested in how a product/service connects people to something or someone, what they can do with it that is worthwhile, what they can tell others about it, and finally what having it says about them.

What can brand marketers do to capitalize on these trends? In addition to offering flexibility that will embrace Millennials’ passion for individuality and their phobia for commitments, transparency is critical. One example of a company that has successfully made transparency changes to appeal more to Millennials is ConAgra. This food giant simplified its recipes and eliminated all artificial ingredients from many of its snacks and ready meals, clearly signaling it to younger customers who now account for 80% of its growth.

Brands must promise more than functional benefits in the future. Engaging customers with a related activity that offers a relevant emotional appeal, a customized version that acknowledges individual tastes and an authentic experience will be crucial for success.

How do you turn a one time client into a repeat customer? This is the question every single business owner needs to ask themselves.

Attracting a new client has a certain acquisition price attached to it—how much you spend on advertising and marketing to make a sale. However, successful businesses are the ones that figured out a strategy to keep the customers coming back time and time again.

The trick to promoting customer loyalty is engagement, and one of the best ways to promote engagement is with a company newsletter.

Newsletter Definition

A newsletter is either physical, or more commonly, digital periodic content that a company distributes to its customers. You choose what to put in the newsletter, but typically it contains product-specific articles, coupons, deals, new product announcements and more.

A contact list is required to distribute the newsletter, which means that businesses should collect their customers’ email addresses online or at a brick-and-mortar location.

Benefits of Utilizing a Newsletter

There are numerous advantages that set apart businesses that distribute newsletters from those that don’t, including:

• Increased sales—when customers are alerted to new products or sales, they are more likely to make a purchase.
• Customer loyalty—when you upkeep regular communication with your customers, your brand stays fresh in their mind and they don’t forget you.
• Customer trust—when you share relevant and educational content with your customers, they start viewing you as an expert and trust your recommendations.
• Cost effective—a digital newsletter is free to create and distribute, which is a cost-effective marketing strategy.
• Trackable—online software allows you to analyze how many people opened your newsletter, and whether they took any actions (clicked a link, visited a website, made a purchase).

Three Tips for Creating an Effective Company Newsletter

It’s important to remember that your customers typically get dozens of new emails in their inboxes, so you must take steps to encourage them to open and read your newsletter. Follow these tips to create a truly effective newsletter:

Research

You want to create a unique newsletter that offers your readers tips and advice they can’t find anywhere else. However, how do you know what’s out there without doing research? Subscribe to your competitors’ newsletters to see what content they are disseminating, what you can learn from them and what you can improve on.

Do research in your industry to read about the latest developments to see what you can share to educate your customers and set yourself up as an authority figure.

Keep it Simple

Don’t get overly excited about the opportunity to connect with your readers; instead, decide on the angle you want to cover in each newsletter. Don’t bombard your customers with too much content, but focus on a specific topic (individual product or service, how to guide, a review, etc.) and then organize your newsletter around that.

Avoid Being Too Salesy

Although the main goal of the newsletter is to increase sales, don’t give that fact away to your readers. While you want to promote your brand, focus on the educational aspect first. A good balance is 90% educational and 10% promotional, which would provide the ultimate value to your readers.

You may want to invest in software in order to create professional and unique layouts and formats for your newsletter. It may be advantageous to hire a professional copywriter and designer to create graphics and images.

Every once in a while, I like to do a jigsaw puzzle. It’s nice to do in the evening, no distraction from devices, there’s the great tactile feeling as I pick up a new piece, trying to figure out where it fits. Then there’s the great reward at the end, once all the pieces are in place, you finally see the whole picture and it makes sense.

Sometimes, I think selling, and all the things salespeople must do to be successful, is something like a jigsaw puzzle. It’s often confusing and difficult to understand each of the pieces/parts until you have put the entire puzzle together and can see the whole picture. And the reality is, often, there are a lot of pieces missing.

Too often, we inundate our people with all sorts of things they must do to achieve their goals. Ongoing prospecting, finding/qualifying deals, moving them through the buying/selling process, building healthy funnels/pipelines, forecasting, account/territory planning, call planning, creating value for our customers, developing competitive strategies, and on and on.

Overlaid on this is the endless administrivia, CRM updates, dealing with all the latest sales enablement or marketing programs that are supposed to be helpful.

And then there are the latest new initiatives, programs du jour, new product announcements, and on and on and on……..

With all this going on, it’s no wonder salespeople get confused! They don’t know what they should be doing, when, where their focus should be–other than the continued quest to make the numbers.

Yet we keep demanding they do these things, but they don’t know why we are asking them to do these things, and how the pieces/parts fit together. Too many salespeople I speak with tend to view all of these as disjointed, vaguely related activities—“My manager is the one obsessed with the pipeline, I focus on deals….” or “The only reason I do account plans is because I have to do one….”

But all these activities are closely related, and balancing our activities across each is critical to achieving our numbers and sustaining performance. Failing to do all of them impacts our ability to perform.

How do we put the pieces of the puzzle together, what’s the complete picture look like?

A framework or picture helps understand the relationship of the /pieces parts.

Referencing this image, at a high-level, starting from the left:

1. Account plans and territory plans are, at the simplest level, structured prospecting plans. It is in our targeted accounts or our territory (however that might be found), we find and qualify the opportunities we want to chase. To find new deals, we have to be prospecting and the account/territory plan focuses on the most productive areas in which to prospect. Without them, we would struggle to find the right deals to pursue and to fill our pipelines.
2. The sales/buying process and the related opportunity/deal plans are all about the deal. These are qualified opportunities, in our sweet spot, with customers that have a high sense of urgency to change. Successfully executing our deal strategy enables us to win orders and business. The sales/buying process provides us the most effective way to maximize our win rate, compress the buying cycle, and maximize our ability to create value with the customer. The deal plan is the tool we use to execute the process with a specific customer, helping us identify the specific problems/opportunities, the buyers involved in the process and how we help the customer navigate their buying process.
3. Meetings/calls are how we execute our account, territory, and opportunity plans. We engage with customers in meetings/calls. The meetings we have in the account/territory plans are prospecting, qualifying, nurturing meetings. The meetings we have executing the selling process/deal strategies are focused on helping the customer move through the process. We want to maximize the impact of each type of meeting, leveraging design thinking in planning these is very powerful (but that’s a different post).
4. The pipeline/funnel is the tool we use to track all of these things. Fundamentally, it focuses on the question, “Are we doing enough of the right things to achieve our goals?” The pipeline doesn’t solve our problems in achieving our goals, but it helps identify where the problems are–causing us to focus on improving our ability to better execute our account/territory, sales process/deal strategy, call plans. Pipelines, too lean, focus us on prospecting–executing our account/territory plans. Win rates too low, deals stalling, our pipeline points us to improve our execution on our deal strategies. In each of these, we want to plan meetings to maximize the impact of each.

I’ve only developed this at a high level, but you get the idea. Helping our people understand how each piece of the puzzle fits with the others, creating a complete picture of how we most effectively achieve our goals is important. Understanding the total picture and how the components inter-relate is critical in maximizing performance and helping our people perform at the highest levels possible.

How are you helping your people understand the pieces of the puzzle and how they fit together?

 

 

You know who really believes that salespeople are self-oriented, smarmy, money-grubbing brutes? The answer may surprise you. If you guessed that it’s buyers, customers, and clients, you would be incorrect. Instead, those who believe salespeople are awful, foul, nasty monsters are the self-loathing sales experts (read charlatans), especially those of the LinkedIn variety.

There is no scientific study that I am aware of, but if one were to look at the number of posts on social platforms where a buyer, customer, or client complains about a salesperson and contrast it with posts in which a self-loathing sales expert writes about how terrible are their brethren, the numbers will be shockingly tilted toward the latter.

If evolution is designed around the survival of the fittest, then certain traits tend to be minimized over time and better traits built on top of what came before. Evolution is an apt metaphor here, especially since the behaviors that have long been eradicated haven’t served salespeople for decades. These behaviors haven’t largely been eliminated by sales experts, as much as by salespeople adjusting their approach based on their experience.

The reason high pressure tactics are no longer in practice is because they no longer work, having been eliminated as customers and clients had more choices and less reason to buy from someone they don’t like or trust. There are plenty of people who are smart enough to create value and are also likable.

The reason salespeople don’t sell people things they don’t need-even if the salesperson would personally benefit from doing so—is because there wouldn’t be a second sale in their future. Salespeople who refuse to trade their integrity and their relationships for a deal are the norm, with the few salespeople with low moral quotients being the rare exception of those who would do “whatever it takes.”

Salespeople who succeed now know that their success is a direct reflection of the value they create for their clients and customers, including any financial success they hope to have. They also know—and have known for decades—their longterm success requires them to be accountable for delivering the outcomes they’ve sold. Great salespeople have always developed the business acumen and situational knowledge to provide advice to their clients, with the only real novelty here being the demand they have much more of it, not that they become “social sellers,” the high-water mark in the minds of the self-loathing sales expert, who is left to complain about the cold call and a variable compensation structure as proof of how bad are salespeople.

The post The Only People Who Complain About Salespeople appeared first on The Sales Blog.

I probably should come out of the closet.  I’m a pushy sales person.  Perhaps some will recommend a 12 step program or some other therapy to make me less pushy.  But, to be honest, I like being pushy.

My customers and clients, for the most part, appreciate it too–though at some times my pushiness makes them uncomfortable. (I’ll come to that later.)

By now, some of you may be thoroughly confused.  If you’ve read my blog for some time, this would seem out of character.  Many would say, “No one likes a pushy sales person.”

So it’s important to provide context around my pushiness.

My pushiness is never about “getting the order.”

My pushiness is always focused on the customer/client and their ability to achieve their dreams, goals, and objectives.  If a customer’s buying or problem solving journey stalls, I believe it’s incumbent on me to gently remind and prod them about why they started the journey in the first place.  It’s important to help them understand how they might move forward and to help drive clarity to the choice they are making.  I genuinely feel bad to see a customer not achieve their goals, particularly when I can help them do so.

Clients and customers appreciate, or at least understand the motivation, giving me permission to push them in helping them achieve their goals.  They recognize and appreciate the intent, knowing it’s focused on their success.

At the same time, my pushiness is about achieving my own goals.

Now you are probably scratching your heads, thinking, “What the hell is he talking about?”

To some these may seem incompatible.  How can one be driven by the customer’s attainment of their goals, yet be focused on one’s own goals?  Aren’t those in conflict?

And I think that’s the important point–these can’t be in  conflict!

The only way I achieve my goals is through the customer achieving theirs!  I have no business taking the time of customers/clients trying to help them on problems that I’m not the best in the world at solving.  I’m misleading them, I’m wasting their time and my time.

Being driven by helping the customer achieve their goals can never be in conflict with achieving our own goals.  By definition, when what we sell doesn’t help the customer achieve their goals, then we aren’t being helpful.

By definition, we aren’t being helpful when the customer doesn’t want or need our help.  Trying to be helpful then is wasting both our times.

Too often, I think we fail because we chase the wrong opportunities–or we don’t have clarity about what the right opportunities are.  We are chasing opportunities where we can’t help our customers achieve their goals or they simply don’t care–they may have other priorities.

Sometimes the concept of “pushiness” is discomforting to our customers.  The word, itself, is charged, mostly because we see our experience is always of the most negative contexts of the word.

But the pushiness I am describing, like Productive Conflict, has nothing to do with what we perceive as the negative attributes of pushy behaviors–these have no place in selling or business.  The foundation of the pushiness I am describing is really about caring.

It’s knowing that one can have an impact on the businesses and lives of customers, developing trusted relationships with those who value that help.

We can help them confront their own internal challenges and problems.  We an help them think about what they are doing and to consider the value of changing–of doing things differently.

Effective pushiness is also about being open to differing perspectives and ideas.  It’s about being collaborative in how we engage customers and help them engage each other in solving their problems and achieving their goals.

Effective pushiness is not necessarily about being “comfortable.”  Change is never comfortable.  But perhaps effective pushiness can provide context and meaning to the discomfort people may experience in implementing change.

Unfortunately, too many sales people don’t understand what effective pushiness is–they are just annoying!

 

How do you assign value to your channels and touch points? There are a variety of attribution model methods. For example, do you attribute more weight to the first touch (such as clicking on a digital ad) than the webinar that generated an online demo of offline conversation? Or do you give equal weight across all the touch points? Maybe you use a graduated scale where you give touch points closer to the end of the buying journey more value than touches earlier in the process?

Your approach will impact the decisions regarding which touches and channels affect customer behavior and deserve investment. The leadership team expects Marketing to understand which channels, touches and content have the greatest impact on generating conversations, consideration and ultimately consumption. To do this you must enter the realm of optimization and attribution modeling.

Build Your Attribution Model to Account for a Multitude of Touches, Content and Channels

A study by MMAGlobal found there is almost no correlation between click-through rate and sales. Why? Because their understanding of the role of various touch points, channels and content along the journey was too narrow focusing on a limited channel and touch. Attribution modeling is about understanding the multitude of your touches and channels and the variation among these across the entire buying process and then assigning and measuring attribution to improve and optimize your multi-touch marketing campaigns.

Let’s take an example. You have data that represents the following: prospect name, request for proposal date, deal size, deal status (won or lost), marketing channel (website, trade shows, digital, etc.), marketing touches (demo, phone calls, online chats, email, etc.), and marketing content (white papers, customer testimonials, thought leadership articles). Now you want to know which channels, touches, and content are having the greatest impact on driving customer opportunities and wins.

To answer this question you need an attribution model that encompasses the entire ecosystem of touch points and assigns a quanti­fiable value to each element within the context of the experience. The goal is to understand how each touch point is performing and which combination of touches, channels, and content produces the best results. Data is the essential ingredient for any attribution model.

It’s All About the Mix

A brief tutorial on the topic of optimization and attribution modeling might be helpful before we launch into a conversation about various attribution models. There are a number of sources and tools available today to help create your model. Both attribution and optimization modeling are about improving mix and understanding the impact of Marketing investments on customer behavior. Both approaches are important for measuring and improving the performance of multi-channel, multi-touch campaigns. Let’s begin by reviewing what these models are, the pros and cons of each model, and when to use them.

• Optimization relies on predictive models that track non-linear relationships between specific goals and spend levels in order to “predict” the incremental changes in conversions based on the relationship between the variables. Many organizations attempt to “optimize” campaigns via A/B testing, a form of scenario analysis. Unfortunately, A/B testing doesn’t address the complex non-linear interactions. An algorithmic approach that simultaneously analyzes all possible scenarios is needed to see which combinations produce the best incremental results.
• Attribution is based on capturing touch point data over a historical period to determine which touch points are the most effective at which stages in the buying process to support investment allocations and produce higher aggregate results.

Three Approaches for Creating an Attribution Model

The approach you take in building your attribution model has significant implications into the insights you’ll gain from your campaigns and investments. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. There are various approaches to attribution. Most Marketing organizations have moved beyond first-touch attribution, where 100% of the credit goes to the first touch point in the journey. While this model is simple – and suggests that no sale is ever made without some type of Marketing – the first touch is often very far away from the final deal and only tells a partial story, especially in complex consultative B2B solutions.

As a result, last-touch, equal, and fractional attribution approaches emerged:

1. Last-Touch Attribution: The opposite idea to first-touch attribution. This is based on the idea that the last touch has the greatest impact on the buying process. It shifts the majority or all of the credit for the entire sale to the final step in the conversion path. It focuses on the last thing that triggered the conversion, while ignoring the path up to that point. This approach ignores all the steps that were taken up until the point of conversion, such as your nurturing campaigns, your SEO and content Marketing, any social media or digital ads, any events, etc. – even if they are part of the customer journey. Like the first-touch model, this approach does not reflect how and what the customer consumes and uses as they make their buying decision. Despite the problems inherent in this approach, people use it because the model is relatively easy to create and works fairly well for products with a short buying cycle.
2. Equal Attribution: This approach is one way to overcome last-touch attribution issues. Just like it sounds, it assigns an equal value to each touch. The downside is that you may end up unnecessarily duplicating some efforts because you aren’t sure which touches have the greatest impact. With this approach you may end up investing more than you need to – because it doesn’t provide insight into which touches perform best. That takes us to the concept of Fractional Attribution.
3. Fractional Attribution: This approach assigns a calculated “weight” to each marketing touch throughout the buyer’s purchase journey. Typically, this weight is determined by the corresponding relative impact that particular touch will have on producing the desired business outcome, such as purchase. This approach enables marketers to take multiple prior exposures into consideration. Determining the weights requires understanding which touches perform best. Using fractional attribution requires understanding of the statistical significance of the various touches in order to quantify their contributing effect. When building this type of model and assigning weights it is important to keep in mind that there are touches other than marketing touches that drive the desired outcome.

To Crack the Code, You Need to Know the Key

Most attribution experts agree that fractional attribution is better than last-touch or first-touch attribution. These experts typically recommend that marketers assign weights to touches based on their type and position in the buying process (at the beginning vs. closer to the end) to create the model. Marketers can then use this model to make touch point and investment decisions.

The key challenge to address with the fractional attribution approach is that buying decisions are not serial or linear. Rather, often a combination of touches impacts behavior. This is why some experts have created incremental attribution models, which attempt to calculate the change in revenue resulting from a particular touch. With this technique, touches are classified by the buying stage they support, and buyers are tracked as they move through the stages. Marketers use this structure to compare the effectiveness of different touches (messages and media) in moving buyers from one stage to the next in order to determine the incremental impact on cost and revenue of the different touches.

As we move from first or last touch to fractional attribution there is increased complexity and sophistication. Attribution models are typically framed in terms of assigning credit for a particular purchase. Marketers know that one touch has ripples that can affect multiple purchases and behaviors. If you decide to tackle attribution, the need to combine online and offline quality data will become increasingly apparent.

Make Better Decisions with Your Attribution Model

The ultimate goal of an attribution model is to better understand customer behavior. Attribution modeling serves as an important decision-making tool. Attribution focuses on evaluating the performance of each touch point in the buying process. We believe that any attribution model must in some way account for ALL the touches that impact the buying process.

To create any type of attribution model you need data related to both converting and non-converting opportunities. We recommend a phased approach to marketing attribution, so you can take advantage of test and learn. Starting small allows you to refine the model and build momentum as the model becomes more stable.

If you’re just beginning the process, create a road map for how you plan to approach model development, including defining the data sources and methodology. If you’re further along in your efforts, by all means dive in. Regardless of how you decide to proceed, good data will be essential. Turning data into insights is table stakes in today’s environment. Looking for more on this topic? Check out the free white paper, Intuition To Wisdom: Transforming Data Into Models and Actionable Insights.

Artificially intelligence is now making its way into every aspect of your digital lives. While most companies cannot stop talking about what they’ve done in the field, there are a host of cutting-edge AI-powered websites that are useful for everyday tasks today.

Here are several awesome and insightful artificial intelligence sites you probably don’t know about.

1. PixelDrive: Compress Your Photos

PixelDrive is a cloud storage platform which employs a set of machine learning algorithms to significantly compress your pictures without compromising many details. Its developers say that only about 10% of quality is lost. And we did find that to be true. For instance, a 4MB file I uploaded was brought down to 500KB and the quality seemed pretty much identical.

What’s more, since the engine is constantly learning to know which pixels are important and which can be eliminated, that number will only get less as more users sign up. PixelDrive is free for up to 1GB of data and for more, you will have to pay.

2. Rave: Be a DJ at Your Next Party

Artificial Intelligence has come to a point where it’s being considered a threat to several jobs and professions. And a new tool called Rave tries to replicate the job of a DJ.

Rave lets you mash multiple soundtracks into one mix with an automated AI-powered DJ. All you need to do is simply supply the YouTube or Spotify links and Rave will conjure up a remix in a matter of minutes. Surprisingly, more often than not, Rave’s claims do prove accurate and the outcomes it yields turn out coherent and enjoyable.

Rave is also entirely free of cost but you probably shouldn’t redistribute what it produces due to the absence of copyrights.

3. Iris AI: Find a Solution in a Research Paper

If you’re still a student or a researcher, you know how painful it can be to locate similar papers online. Well, not anymore as AI comes to the rescue again.

Iris AI is a free service you can log into for surfacing related research papers based on their topics. You can begin by feeding in a title, existing link, or even a TED Talk YouTube URL. Iris AI will then comb through all the available resources and present you with a nifty interface you can quickly go through to find a specific document.

4. EveryPixel: Search for the Best Stock Photos

EveryPixel is a smart search engine for stock images which relies on a neural network to find the best ones available based on your search query. It does so by evaluating all of them through a beauty score and prioritizing the pictures which have the highest among all.

In addition, EveryPixel also cleverly breaks down your search terms to pull up the most relevant results. You can also filter them through a bunch of factors. Plus, there’s also an option to specify whether you’d like some free space on the stock image for any further edits or additions.

5. Delay Predictor: Avoid Flight Delays With AI

Delay Predictor is a handy tool for travelers that can predict flight delays for up to three days in advance to your trip. It takes your essential information such as the flight number, dates, and sifts out the delay period if there will be any.

The tool functions by analyzing previous the flight’s history, and other circumstantial factors such as the weather. Unfortunately, though, Delay Predictor, for now, is limited to the United States.

6. Beautiful.AI: Impress With Beautiful Presentations

Beautiful.AI is the new-age presentation builder we all deserve. The app uses AI to help you through all the stages of creating a presentation. It begins with finding the appropriate template and you can nudge it by simply typing what is your presentation all about.

Next, you can employ a series of automated tools to add anything you want including pie charts, team members, demographics, and more. The AI engine can also adapt to the changes you make on its own and recommends new elements accordingly.

Beautiful.AI has a free plan that comes with 50+ smart templates and customizable themes.

7. Trint: Your Automated Transcription Service

Trint is a digital transcriber that comes with the ability to process recordings (video or audio). You get editable as well as searchable transcriptions. In addition to that, Trint also offers a host of editing tools which can prove useful if you’re editing interviews such as highlights or assigning the speaker to particular sentences.

When done, you can export these into a variety of formats as well including XML, Microsoft Word, HTML, and more. If you are into transcription, consider signing up.

Trent does not have a free option in its pricing plans but does offer a free trial.

8. CaptionBot: Let a Robot Caption Your Photos

CaptionBot is a fun, little app that is powered by Microsoft’s Cognitive Services. CaptionBot illustrates how digital bots process images by generating a caption for any file or URL you upload. It only takes a few seconds for CaptionBot to come up with an outcome and it’s usually quite on point.

Of course, this can’t be used to figure out captions for Instagram posts but it’s certainly a nice, educational experiment.

9. Quick Draw: Google Helps You Draw

Another experiment you should take a look at is Quick Draw which is one of the popular Google AI Experiments. Its neural network tries to predict what are you trying to doodle as you draw it with a mouse or on a touchscreen. The game is built with machine learning (which is different from AI). Quick Draw learns as you play with it and you can notice that behavior if you try it a few times.

Artificial Intelligence Is Here

Artificial intelligence is a double-edged sword. There are dangers and there are benefits, like how AI is fighting cybercrime today. You can be worried and also question if A.I and machine learning’s effect on humanity.

To have a more in-depth understanding of the subject here’s why scientists think you should be worried about Artificial Intelligence.

Read the full article: 9 Great Sites Where You Can Explore the Benefits of Artificial Intelligence

As 2018 comes to an end, we are all taking some time to reflect on our business decisions this year. During this time, we will celebrate our failures, and work to improve where we are lacking.

When it comes down to it, there is one big problem that plagues business owners and marketers. They have trouble building a healthy interactive lead list.

The prediction for 2019 is that there will be 3.7 billion email users worldwide. That’s a gigantic market that has almost unlimited room for growth. To get these insane profits, you need to get email subscribers. That’s why we are here today.

Let’s take a quick dip into the world of email marketing and what you need to do to retain customers and bring in new subscribers for 2019.

K.I.S.S.

Before you ask, no we are not suggesting you kiss your potential subscribers. That would be a tad bit strange. Instead, K.I.S.S. is an acronym commonly used in the telemarketing world. It means “Keep It Simple, Stupid.”

Funny insults aside, keeping it simple IS the best way to bring more subscribers to your lead list. When you offer customers the chance to join, do they have to give you the full rundown of their life before they can confirm their subscription? If so — stop it.

Instead, opt for an easy to use form maker that allows you the opportunity to create vibrant, personalized forms without all of the extra questions and nonsense. They can enter their email address then click submit. Bam. No more lost subscribers because they didn’t have two hours to complete the previous submission form.

Remember, just K.I.S.S. Here a great example of keeping it simple while still remaining vibrant and true to the brand.

Create an Incentive

There is nothing in this world that will drive people to a destination like the words “sale” and “free.” When you’re trying to bring in email subscribers you have to figure out what’s in it for them. Think of it this way. Potentially, every single person who visits your site has the potential to sign up for your email subscription — they need an incentive.

As previously mentioned, there are two ways to convince your audience that they absolutely must sign up for your email subscription. The first way is with deals and sales.

As an incentive, let customers know if they sign up with your service they will get 20-30 percent off their first order. If someone is on the fence about buying your product because of the price, this seemingly small change can be the single factor that leads to the conversion.

Feeling particularly generous? Okay, in that case, offer them something for free. You can hook them up with a free e-book about the niche where you work. You can also offer them gifts with their first purchase after they subscribe. Very few people balk at the word “free.” Just look at this example!

Advertise on Social Media

Chances are if you’re a business you have a laundry list of social media accounts dedicated to your brand. Do you have a strong following on social media? If so, use this to your advantage as a way to boost your email subscribers in the coming year.

Just hop on all of your accounts, or schedule a post with scheduling software, and let people know that you have a newsletter — this is a great time to mention the previously mentioned incentive. Let people know that it’s a breeze to sign up and give them a link to sign up. It’s also helpful to ask them to share the post.

There’s a good chance that many of these people follow your brand because they are interested in either your products and services or your niche in general. This predisposes them to want to show interest in the topics you discuss in your newsletter.

Don’t take social media for granted. These platforms are some of the most visited sites in the world. They can get you, subscribers, if done correctly.

Add an Exit Optin Option

There are going to be people who come to your website, don’t buy any of your products or check out your services, nor do they sign up for your newsletter. They show up, look around, then leave. It’s the “then leave” part we are going to focus on now. This is an excellent opportunity to pull them in and add them to your subscriber email list.

If they came to your website, there was a reason. They are interested in your niche, and therefore likely to sign up. However, maybe they didn’t see your subscribe box. Now you can change that.

Add an exit popup to your website. This is a pixel that triggers whenever someone tries to wander off the page or click the x on the tab screen. You can design these exit popups however you would like. Here is a good sample message.

As you can see, the goal is to politely suggest that there is a ton of information available on your website, and you don’t want them to miss out on what you’re offering. Chances are if they are people window shopping until they get paid or the like, they’ll sign up and become an email subscriber.

Conclusion

As you can see, there is a multitude of ways to boost your email subscribers in 2019. In many cases, these tips go hand in hand. It’s a great way to make your email marketing plan for the new year thrive.

For example, you can make a note of the incentive in the exit popup. You can also work at making your form easy to use while advertising on social media. The people who want to opt in will be able to do in seconds and get right back to scrolling again.

The possibilities are endless. As the new year settles in, there is no doubt that we will discover more exciting ways to bring more subscribers to your list. Until next time, don’t forget — every “no” is one step closer to a “yes!”

Quantum Machines, an Israeli startup launched by three Ph.D. physicists, wants to build the operational and control layer for quantum computing. Today, it announced a $5.5 million seed investment led by TLV Partners with participation from Battery Ventures.

The three principals have been studying quantum computing for a decade and they understand that to commercialize it, it’s going to require a complete solution. Right now the majority of the research is centered on increasing the number of qubits at the processor level. Co-founder and CEO Itamar Sivan says in order to advance the technology, it’s going to take an operational and control layer to make it all work, and that is where the founders decided to concentrate the company’s efforts, he said.

Sivan explained that there is a point where the classical computers we use today and the quantum computers of the future will have to work together to pass data and interpret commands. He described three layers in a quantum computing stack. The first is the quantum processor. Next is a classical computing control layer with classical electronics you would find on any computer today. Finally, there is the software layer where you program a classical algorithm that has to be passed to the quantum processor.

He says that some companies are trying to build full stacks, but the bulk of research as been concentrated on building quantum processors. Quantum Machines decided to focus on one part of the stack. “We have come to the conclusion that there must be a company laser-focused on a vertically integrated control solution that includes the classical hardware and software,” Sivan said.

“The power of quantum computers stems from their complexity and richness, though it is also this complexity which makes them incredibly difficult to control and operate — this is the problem our company is attempting to solve,” he added in a statement.

The company is currently working on prototype hardware to build this layer and is working with several beta customers at the moment. It’s early days for the company, but the seed money should help them accelerate that vision and get a product to market more quickly.

Today we’re going to talk about how to create the ultimate tool kit for your affiliates. The tool kit we describe today will be in the form of a PDF info packet. This tool kit, or info packet, will contain information to help your affiliates write better content promoting your products.

Below we’ve highlighted the eight main sections of an ultimate affiliate tool kit.

About Us

Who are you as a merchant? What is your mission? What are your goals? Where are you from/located? These questions can all be answered in an “About Us” section within your info packet and can help give affiliates greater insight into your company and potentially give them some additional reasons for choosing to promote your product(s).

Product Specs

It’s important to have a section in your info packet to dive into the specs of your product(s). Get really detailed. List out sizes, measurements, number of SKUs, etc. This section is going to vary greatly from merchant to merchant but the main idea is to provide your affiliates with additional information about your product(s) that can help them write a more informative article or post promoting what you’re selling.

Product Highlights, Features and Benefits

Along with going into detail on the specs of your product(s), it’s also valuable to include information on any features and benefits you provide to your customers. These could end up being selling points that affiliates can use to sway customers to click through and convert a purchase on your site.

Some examples of features and benefits that you want to make sure to cover in your tool kit are any warranties associated with your product(s), trial periods or money back guarantees, shipping times, and return policies. If you have a way that you can offer free shipping, make sure to mention that! If you have a product that’s famous for a long trial period or powerful warranty, make sure to include those details in this section. These kind of product highlights, features, and benefits, when positive, can end up acting as additional salesmen for you and your affiliates.

Press Releases

Press release content is a great thing to share with affiliates and should definitely be included within your affiliate tool kit if you have it. By providing an example of a press release or a sample of one you give your affiliates insight into how you, the merchant, see your company and choose to promote it. This is very helpful for your affiliates because it can give them ideas on how to best sell your product(s).

Sample Product Reviews

Some of the most successful affiliate content that is out there today is product reviews. Before consumers make a purchase they like to see what other people are saying about the products and a positive endorsement often helps push customers over the edge to complete a sale. If you provide your affiliates with some sample product reviews in your tool kit then they can get an idea for what people are saying about the product and structure their own potential review in a similar way.

Taglines and Key Marketing Phrases

For Nike it’s “Just Do It.” For Gatorade it’s “Is it in you.” Capital One used “What’s In Your Wallet?” Most companies use taglines like this and other marketing phrases to help sell their product(s), but not every merchant has taglines that are these recognizable. Instead of keeping you taglines and marketing phrases a secret, share them with your affiliates in your tool kit! A section with bullet pointed phrases and taglines can be very helpful for affiliates as they put the finishing stamp on their content.

Images

You want to make sure your tool kit is complete with many images of your product(s) and other imagery that could be useful for affiliates and easy for them to pull out with a simple screenshot to add to their content.

Contact Info

Lastly, make sure there is a contact section in the tool kit that reiterates your contact information so your affiliates never need to look too far to find a way to get in touch with you. Personal relationships are important within the world of affiliate marketing so you always want make sure you’re making it easy for affiliates to get ahold of you whenever they have any questions or concerns.

Good luck with your affiliate program management efforts and feel free to email us or comment below with any ideas or questions.

The post How to Create the Ultimate Affiliate Marketing Tool Kit for Your Affiliates appeared first on Affiliate Marketing Blog by Geno Prussakov.

Do you consider yourself a pretty motivated person? Whether you’re self-motivated or not, it can be difficult to remain motivated when you’re going after a particular goal.

Setting goals can be exciting because you’re riding off the adrenaline that comes with envisioning your success. However, it takes lots of time and hard work to bring some goals to fruition. So it’s important to stay motivated throughout the ups and downs of the process.

Lack of motivation can actually cost you time and money which are two precious resources. Unmotivated people are likely to not work as efficiently as possible. If you invest money in your goal from the start then lose motivation, you’ll have wasted finances on your end.

If you’re looking for ways to get motivated to reach your goals and stay motivated, here are a few things you can do.

1.Reset Your Mindset

Your mindset is key when it comes to staying motivated to reach goals. In fact, the wrong type of mindset will only deter you from accomplishing what you set out to do.

This isn’t just about being or thinking positive. Sure, it’s important to have an optimistic attitude, but it’s also crucial that you understand how you can control your mindset.

As humans, we’re naturally wired to move toward that brings us pleasure and away from what brings us pain. We like easy and try to naturally steer clear of anything that could be difficult. Knowing this, you have to be willing to work toward any resistance that you have to try something new and perhaps take a risk to reach your goals.

You need to control your thoughts and take your mind from scarcity from abundance. Whenever thoughts enter your head that deter you from feeling motivated to reach your goal, replace them with thoughts that restore your motivated and get you excited to push forward. Remember, you control your thoughts so you can think whatever you want.

2. Understand That You May Face Challenges

Even when you set goals, it’s best to be realistic and understand that you may face some challenges along the way. Even the strictest planner can’t plan for life’s unexpected events.

That said, you don’t need to wait for doomsday but have a backup plan for the moments when you may fall off track. Identify which challenges you may face of the course of the process and how you will overcome them.

3. Get Clear on Your Why

A goal without a why is a pretty empty one. There has to be a strong reason why you want to reach a particular goal. If you don’t have, you’ve already shortened your chances of achieving the goal in the first place.

Having a clear why keeps you focused which can come in handy when you need to get motivated. Consider who you are trying to reach your goal for and how it will impact your life once you get there.

While it’s common to want to reach certain goals so your kids or spouse can benefit and have a better life. However, you’ll probably be more successful when you include yourself in your why. It’s okay to set goals that are going to benefit you personally and you should because everyone deserves to be happy.

If your why is strong enough, it will give you the fuel and determination you need to keep working.

4. Break Your Goal Down

Depending on how big your goals are, they can seem pretty overwhelming. Remember what I said about most people wanting to move toward pleasure and away from pain? Overwhelm is often closer to the pain side and people tend to avoid it if they can.

You want your goal to be something that draws you in – not something you need to hide or run away from. If you’re feeling intimidated by your goals, one solution is to break down your larger goal into smaller, more attainable chunks.

For example, if you’re looking to increase income and revenue by 50%, see if you can break that down to a quarterly or monthly goal instead of looking at the bigger annual amount.

This allows you to focus on what you need to do day by day, week by week, and month by month so you can pace yourself.

5. Stay Focused

This sounds like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many people lack a clear focus during the day-to-day. Whatever you focus on will grow. You will also obtain more motivation to continue to grow it.

Focusing may mean you need to cut out other responsibilities and tasks so you can have more time and energy to dedicate to reaching your goal.

It helps to get on a schedule and cut distractions from your day. Get rid of time wasting activities, pointless meetings, and shiny object syndrome.

I used to be guilty of setting way too many goals. This caused me to split my focus among so many different things and I hardly ever accomplished anything. Don’t make that mistake. Prioritize your main goal when creating your weekly schedule and cut out distractions to stay focused.

6. Embrace a Productive Environment

Your environment can directly affect your motivation and level of focus. If you’re working on a personal goal, make sure you surround yourself with positive people a stable environment that motivates you to get to work and thrive.

If you’re going after a professional goal, your environment is still important. You may want to clear off your workspace and reorganize your desk. If you’re self-employed, you can also consider heading to a coworking space where you can work among other self-motivated individuals and focus better.

7. Track Your Results

There’s nothing quite as motivating as seeing your results. Once you break your goal down and focus on achieving it, you’ll start to make progress. Develop a system to track and recognize your progress.

Once you see that you are getting results, it will be one of the best motivators to keep going.

How do you stay motivated to reach your goals? Which one of these tips to you use most?

The post Ways to Get Motivated to Reach Your Goals appeared first on Calendar.

The Sackler Family (previously) are a family of self-styled philanthropist billionaires who have been largely successful in their campaign to whitewash their family name by giving away a few percentage points off the profits they earned from deliberately creating the opioid epidemic by tricking and bribing doctors to overprescribe Oxycontin, falsely claiming that it was not addictive, and promoting the idea that any doctor who left a patient feeling pain was engaged in malpractice.

Destroying America was only the beginning for the Sacklers: even as their family business, Purdue Pharma, was admitting to its wrongdoing, they were engaged in exactly the same kind of deliberate corporate murder in new markets like Brazil -- and then attacking public education with a ideologically motivated PR campaign aimed at replacing public schools with charter schools.

But the noose is tightening on the Sacklers: as the family dissolves into a bickering mess, they are facing mass litigation and criminal investigations all around the world.

The Guardian's Joanna Walters rounds up a good cross-section of the legal troubles descending on the Sacklers, who are on the receiving end of legal threats from cities, states, class actions, and more.

A spokesman for John Durham, the US attorney for Connecticut, declined to comment. Prosecutors for the southern and eastern federal districts of New York state did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the northern district of New York said the Department of Justice does not confirm, deny or comment on the existence of any investigation. A spokeswoman for the western district of New York declined to confirm or deny whether the US attorney is conducting a criminal investigation into the Sacklers. A spokesman for Purdue Pharma declined to comment on behalf of the company and the relevant members of the Sackler family.

Those same Sacklers were also sued by name in a lawsuit filed by Massachusetts in June. This alleges that Purdue, its directors and owners “deceived prescribers and patients to get more people to use Purdue’s opioid products, at higher doses, for longer periods” by misrepresenting and downplaying the addictive and deadly risks of the drug. And even claiming that OxyContin, which is derived from opium, was safer than paracetamol or ibuprofen, the common painkillers sold over the counter, the state alleges.

The Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, told the Guardian that experts estimate that the epidemic cost the state almost $15bn in 2017 alone in lost productivity, public safety and healthcare, to say nothing of the human tragedy that has cost thousands of lives in that state alone.

Sackler family members face mass litigation and criminal investigations over opioids crisis [Joanna Walters/The Guardian]

(Image: Edwardx, CC-BY-SA)

Close alignment and cooperation between Sales and Marketing is key to a successful account-based marketing program. Here's how you can set up your ABM program for success and avoid common mistakes. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

Whenever someone tells me they have 10 years of experience, I always wonder: Do they really have ten years, or do they have one year of experience multiplied by ten?

Sales operation needs to be in lock-step with your sales leader on your coverage plan exercise? Many sales operations leaders are stuck in tactical and daily activities. How can you elevate your sales operations team to think strategically? Sales operations

The post How to Get the Most Out of Your SDR Team in 2019: A New Playbook for a New Year appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Like a long and arduous hike that seems to go on and on, a prolonged sales cycle can leave your team feeling drained, exhausted, wondering if they’ll ever reach the summit … and if they do, whether they’ll have the energy to climb the next mountain!

We’ve all had at least one instance where we’ve felt overstressed, overworked, and under quota due to a long, drawn-out sales cycle. Though there’s never a one-size-fits-all solution to anything in sales, I’ve found that proper use of sales data and analytics tools can drastically reduce the time to close.

Take a look at the tips below to learn what data is most valuable to sales leadership and how you can use the power of data to shorten your sales cycle.

Lay a Firm Foundation of Market Data, Then Move On

It is critical to understand your total addressable market (TAM), as well as current trends, risks, and opportunities. All of these insights can be gleaned through market data, whether current or historical. Like the foundation of a house, market data is crucial to building actionable insights and learnings—but it cannot stand alone. You need to ask yourself which segments are experiencing true growth, what companies are primed for expansion, or what companies have the funding necessary to commit to investments. Your TAM can and should be segmented, just make those segments realistic and manageable. A word of warning: Be careful when leveraging market data. This is an oversaturated realm of the datasphere, and sales managers can quickly get lost and overwhelmed by information overload. Focus!

Use Insights from Activity Data to Inform Sales Training

If market data is the foundation, activity data is the framing. The book, Cracking the Sales Management Code, introduces a methodology based on “activities, objectives, and results.” Sales activities, such as numbers dialed and demos presented to prospects, help you achieve predetermined objectives, which ultimately should give you the results you desire. In short, the “activity” part is what sets this equation in motion.

But too many sales teams dedicate too much time to activities, the volume of which might not necessarily yield more or better results. Data can help leaders not only determine the amount of time each rep should spend on a respective activity, but also the best way to execute the task. Technology like Gong can help reps determine what type of language is best to use for certain audiences, as well as what types of words reps should avoid in sales discussions. As activity data is used to constantly coach and correct members of the sales team, your team will be able to conduct more meaningful tasks and spend less time on meaningless ones.

If you’re spinning your wheels churning out a high volume of sales activities and wondering why you aren’t seeing results, analyze your data to uncover what’s going on (or not going on) and determine how your reps can amp up the quality of their output. 

RELATED:  How I Built a High-Performing Data Driven Sales Team [And How You Can Too]

Rely on Past Sales Data to Reveal Trends

While activity data gives us a view of specific tasks, past data allows us to have a zoomed-out, big picture view of the sales team. Analyzing past sales data allows leadership to answer questions like: What types of activities (e.g., face-to-face visits, online demos) allow us to close at a higher rate? What is my average deal size? What size deal do I have the highest propensity to close in the shortest amount of time? On average, how many days do opportunities sit in any given stage of my sales cycle? Where are the best deals coming from? Which marketing activities lead to more opportunities rather than just leads? How do I shorten the sales cycle?

A notable client in the music discovery platform business had an average sales cycle of 14 days—from lead created to converted. The client wanted to reduce the time it took for prospects to convert. Using a statistical model to predict success, we looked at features and patterns of leads that converted the earliest, then focused efforts on key drivers with the highest predictive value. We found that the greatest predictor of success for leads that closed fast was the same as those for leads that were contacted first. In response, a data visualization dashboard was created, along with best practice sharing throughout the team to equip sales reps with relevant data points. After 90 days, the average sales cycle was measured again. The result? The sales cycle had been reduced by three days. In addition, the analysis also found that leads touched within the first 24 hours converted twice as often as those that were touched after 24 hours (10 percent versus 5 percent).

Develop an Ideal Customer Profile, and Stop Wasting Time on Accounts that Won’t Convert

Market data, activity data, past sales data—all reveal important information and help leadership train reps to sell better and more efficiently, but there’s always one more entity involved in a sales deal: the customer. Although we can’t control a customer’s decision, we can do a few things to increase the likelihood of a closed deal.

Develop an ideal customer profile. You already own massive stores of data that can determine what your perfect customer looks like, not only at a corporate or enterprise level, but at the buyer level as well. Analyze recently closed deals and review the types of contacts within each organization. Who were involved in the decision, and what role did each person play? Once you drill into this type of data, you can draw strong correlations, such as that when dealing with online retailers, directors of digital marketing are the contact likeliest to close in the shortest amount of time.

RELATED: How to Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile (And Then Target Them)

Shorten Your Sales Cycle; Create Predictable Revenue

Not only does sales data allow you to shorten your sales cycle, but it also arms organizational leaders with the invaluable ability to look ahead and clearly understand what types of deals are going to close and what type of revenue will be generated in upcoming quarters. When it comes to predicting revenue streams, there’s nothing more important or reliable than a solid sales forecast. Deploying and gaining insights from the right pieces of data will not only help your sales team reach the summit (i.e., deals) quicker and with more ease, but it will also allow you to have greater visibility of the deals that lie ahead.

Quick Guide: Do’s and Don’ts of Using Data to Shorten the Sales Cycle

• DO optimize your CRM platform like Salesforce.com to record the right sales data. To use data, you must first have a method of collecting it.
• DO have a user-friendly dashboard that allows you to query data for different elements of analysis.
• DO embed data as part of your DNA and refer to it often in review meetings, sales meetings, one-on-ones with reps, and so on.
• DO use data insights to constantly coach your reps. Learnings will do nothing to shorten your sales cycle if they aren’t used to train team members.
• DO exclusively target accounts in your ideal customer profile (developed based on customer profile data).
• DON’T overcomplicate data. It should be simple and consumable.
• DON’T become distracted by the plethora of data available, especially when it comes to market data. Focus!
• DON’T use data just to determine the quantity of sales activities. Use it to also reveal quality of sales activities.

The post How to Use the Right Sales Data to Shorten Your Selling Cycle appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Account-Based Marketing is a term that is floating around sales and marketing conversations as the latest trend in B2B lead generation. But how does it work, and is it worth it? In this post, we’ll dig into the details.

What is Account-Based Marketing?

The simplest definition of Account-Based Marketing, is explained in contrast to traditional marketing: rather than crafting a message and applying that message to a market in order to get a few clients or accounts to raise their hand in interest, we rearrange the process to treat each account like it’s own market, and craft messages for each account.

How Is Account-Based Marketing Different than Lead Generation?

So account-based marketing removes the focus from lead generation towards lead conversion. You already start in the account-based marketing approach with a list of potential targeted client accounts. You enter the entire engagement with a known universe of possible candidates for your product or service. The big focus of account-based marketing is to attract and convert those accounts into customers through a series of engagements.

What Activities Go Into Account-Based Marketing?

The activities for inbound marketing, or demand generation, are the same in account-based marketing, but they’re done with a different focus and volume. You might still create articles, yet instead of focusing on SEO value, you would focus on applying industry value to the targeted consumer. When this potential customer is on your website, they’ll see content that will help them along the buyer journey.

Similarly, the website is still critical to your ABM, or account-based marketing strategy. Instead of applying or creating pages for a vertical, you might make a page for a particular account using customized tokens, or landing page generators to help customize that experience. Again, you are treating each account like an individual market on its own.

So you can imagine the funnel of activities moving from initial engagement, (call or emails, or targeted ads), to nurture (email, webinars, offers, consultations), to close ( quotes, consultation, case studies, etc). All the same basic pieces of an inbound campaign, yet focused on the account, rather than the persona or buyer type.

Does ABM, or Account-Based Marketing, Require the Sales Team?

In short, yes. An ABM approach to marketing requires a deep consensus between marketing and sales as to which clients are the right ones to target, as well as what value they could possibly have for the company as a whole. Without this, marketing is operating in the dark, and sales is unaware of the steps or progress achieved in reaching an account for sales nurturing.

The best case scenario is for sales and marketing to create an ABM campaign around a market segment they would like to enter or grow in geographically. Create the list of potential customers, rank them in value and difficulty, and plan out the campaign. This needs to be done with sales and marketing together to create the right touch points and coordinate the messaging so the campaign can run as smoothly as possible.

Do You Need ABM Software?

Although all marketing metrics are helpful and there are many pieces of software to track your ABM campaigns, they are not all needed to implement a successful campaign. I would highly recommend using an automation platform for ABM that will allow you to track the connection between your channel activities.

Here are some reviews of ABM Software, and also a link to some of the more popular ABM Software Solutions.

But doing a basic campaign does not require more than a spreadsheet and a CRM to get started. I would generally recommend that as you go forward in your initial campaign.

Why Does ABM work?

The reason ABM works in the short term is that it allows a cohesive link between marketing and sales to achieve a deeper focus on landing bigger accounts. In the broad sense, the approach is as old as time, but technology and competition have created an environment where the focus on landing bigger accounts has created a high-touch, high-customization, high-personalization opportunity. Modern technology and communication channels are opening the door to a business method that everyone needs to participate in.

When we ask “does something work” what we are really asking is, “Is it worth it?”. And that is truly the question. For any marketing approach, we need to understand the ROI or return we expect from the expense. ABM (account-based marketing), is a high-cost campaign because it puts a lot of money into a few accounts each quarter or round, and gives a limited reality on return.

One could say that all marketing has a limited reality on return, and that would take us to a whole other article. Yet the truth remains that understanding what the outcome would be is how you would determine if it is worth it. Would spending 90K on landing 2 clients with a LTV of 1.2M be worth it? Some companies might say yes. Some might not. Either answer is feasible.

Either way, you’ve got to do the math to really answer this question.

Does ABM work for all businesses?

No, ABM is not going to work for all business because the pool of potential clients needs to be small enough and focused enough to drive revenue. In addition, the businesses themselves need to be able to capture and compete at a level of business to sustain the approach. A one-time campaign of 50K to reach 3 new accounts worth 1M in sales for a company that did 200K last year might actually break the company if it worked. Or, if they don’t, because the expense is so great, they might go under. So discretion has to be used in determining if it is the right approach for you and if the cost is sustainable over the long run.

Additionally, the focus works really well if you have a sales team. If you do not have a sales team, the approach will miss a few key components and will misfire on some needed face-to-face interactions and phone calls. It is a high-touch method of marketing and sales alignment and needs someone in the sales or BDR role to really succeed.