The Old Reader

07 May 14:10

The $300 Billion Problem: How To Fix Employee Engagement

by Paul Petrone

It all starts with hiring the right people.

The $300 Billion Problem: How To Fix Employee Engagement image Employee 300x225

This police officer could be described as “disengaged.”
Credit: Wikipedia Commons

One of the biggest problems in the American workforce today is disengagement, which means – as you might surmise – employees do not feel engaged at work and therefore aren’t nearly as productive as they could be.

Gallup estimates that disengaged workers cost their employers $300 billion - $300 BILLION – in lost productivity each year. And that’s no surprise, as a recent survey showed that 54 percent of American employees recently described themselves as disengaged – the highest recorded number ever – and another 17 percent described themselves as actively disengaged.

That means that only 29 percent of American employees are really trying hard!

Those stats are nothing that would shock any good human resources professional – they know this problem exists and are looking for ways to fix it. Yet the numbers show, to be frank, no solution has yet to be found. Until now, thanks to some interesting research by Dr. Paul Connolly, the president of Performance Programs, Inc. and a leader in organizational psychology.

The Solution

“The best way to get people to stay is matching the goodie they want to the goodie you offer,” Connolly said at a recent SHRM conference at Foxwoods Resort Casino.

We couldn’t agree more. And therein lies the answer.

The secret to having an engaged employee – not just an employee who stays, but one who stays engaged – is to match what they seek to what your company offers. And the real key is first understanding what your company offers and then finding people who seek those “goodies.”

Identifying What You Offer

So let’s say, for an example, you work at a company where a lot of people work long hours but there is the potential for growth and large raises if they produce. Also, it is a pretty independent environment, where employees are allowed freedom to do what they want – so long as they produce.

The goodies your company offers then are growth potential, the potential for a large income and independence. Now it is time to find people who seek those things.

It is worth noting here that not all jobs within a company offer the same “goodies.” For example, there might be jobs in manufacturing in your company that are very structured, have very precise start-and-stop times and have very regimented compensation packages. Meanwhile, sales jobs will be the opposite, much like the one I described in the first paragraph of this section.

So, for each job or each type of jobs, it is crucial your hiring team identify what “goodies” those jobs offer by honestly assessing each one.

Finding What Candidates Want

Okay, now you know what goodies each job at your company offers. Then, when you have posted a job and built your applicant pool, it is crucial that you ask some specific questions of each candidate to learn what goodies they seek.

This is best achieved as part of a larger screening interview via VoiceGlance or some other phone screening platform, so you have that information before having to waste valuable company time on them for an in-person interview.

Connolly said the best question to find out what motivates a person is a simple one: “What is your greatest accomplishment and why?” A candidate’s answer almost always reveals what they are motivated by.

As an example, if the person says their greatest accomplishment was working as a team to accomplish a goal, you know they probably prefer a more structured environment that allows for collaboration between employees. Meanwhile, if the person describes a time they accomplished something on their own, they probably prefer a more independent work environment.

Or, if they talk about a time they made a lot of money for the company, they likely are more driven by money. Conversely, if they talk about a time where they won an award or were highlighted in a crowd, they are likely more driven by recognition.

Conclusion

It isn’t that once you have hired the right person, they’ll be engaged for life. But it is much easier to engage someone who, again, seeks the goodies you offer than trying to engage someone without any lure to entice them.

Since what motivates a person often isn’t listed in a resume, it is best using the phone screening software out there to find out (along with gaining some other valuable information). By asking a few, simple questions using one of these programs, you can determine what each candidate is motivated by and determine which ones really will be the best fit for your company.

06 May 15:12

Using Google+ Local To Promote Your Business

by Ashwin Ramesh

Thus far, Google+ has taken a backseat when it comes to social media marketing, especially with enterprise focused campaigns. But, when it comes to local, G+ is arguably a more important asset than Facebook or Twitter. Ever since Google connected Places For Business with Plus, to serve a more integrated profile, it has become crucial for business’ to pay importance to their updates and presence on G+

While Google Places For Business is all about your core static business data (Name, Address, Phone, Category etc.,) G+ is all about the social aspects of it (Updates, Followers, Reviews) – it’s important that you pay importance to both, but Google+ is what will require regular posting and maintenance.

In this era of Local Social Media, what can a local business do to promote themselves on Google+ Local? Here are some ideas.

A. First, claim and verify your Google+ page

If you don’t have a verified page, Google+ considers you to be spam and your page will be flagged. Verifying your Google Plus is indepedent of your Google Places For Business verification and you’ll need to do this separately.

In most probability, Google will send you a postcard to verify and this make take 2-3 weeks to arrive.

B. Ensure your G+ Page is synced with your Google Places

Using Google+ Local To Promote Your Business image Google Plus Local Page Example1

Google is notorious for not being able to sync your multiple profiles and it’s important that you ensure that you have one profile per location nad it’s synced with your Google Plus presence.

C. Are your profile hygene factors taken care of?

There are some basic factors that you’ll need to handle to ensure that your Google+ profile is “hygenic”

i. Do you have your logo added?
ii. Do you have a cover photo added?
iii. Do you have additional media / images included?
iv. Have you added a description, hours of operation and other important pieces of data?

Google does have a very nice wizard that walks you through the different parts of your profile you’ll need to complete. You can see the Local SEO Checklist for more detailed steps to optimize your Google+ Local profile.

D. Seed your profile with a few updates

Once you’re done taking care of the basic hygene factors, it’s important for you to add at least a few updates to your Google+ page to make it look more attractive.

It’s recommended that you add at least 4-5 updates initially as soon as you set up your profile. It would be even better to spreads these updates over the next three to four days.

E. Set up a plan to update your profile on a regular basis

It’s not enough if you just create a fully optimized page on Google+, you’ll need to actively post relevant updates on the page to attract a following. If you already do regular updates on other social networks on Facebook and Twitter, it would make sense to do these updates on G+ too. You can use a tool like Hootsuite or Buffer to automate this.

If you currently don’t actively update your social media profiles, try to make a conscious attempt to do so on a daily basis. Businesses that are hard pressed for time can set up recipes on IFTTT to automatically post updates on Google Plus.

F. Have your customers add you on Google+

It’s important that you get a conversation going on your updates and to enable this, you need an initial fan following. A good way to achieve this is by sending your Google+ link to your customers, friends and family and asking them to follow you. Once you have a few people adding your page to their circles, add them back and get a conversation going.

G. Include links to your Google+ everywhere

If you don’t already have a link to your Google+ on your website, add it immediately! You can also add a link to your G+ on flyers, brochures, your email signature and business cards.

H. Interact and participate in communities to add to your following

Google+ Communities are a great way to interact with others within your industry. Some of these people may add you back and even turn out to become customers. You can add these communities to your Google+ feed and respond back to queries, ask relevant questions to connect with others.

I. Run Google+ specific deals and offers

If you run a business that is capable of offering deals / offers, it might be a good idea to run offers and deals specific to Google+, this will help you get more footfalls and keep your audience engaged.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, you cannot ignore Google+ if you’re a local business and the impact of the social network will only grow in the months to come.

06 May 15:11

In A Decade On The Road, I’ve Learned Tech Can’t Fix Everything

by Matt Asay

ReadWriteTrip is a series that chronicles the modern challenges of tech-savvy business travelers.

For the past 10 years I've traveled a minimum of 125,000 miles each year, staying over 75 nights each year in a hotel room. While it would be inaccurate to suggest that business travel has become delightful, in some key ways it has become better.

For example, international travel is faster thanks to Global Entry. Security is easier to navigate thanks to TSA Pre. And while luggage sizes have remained constant, far more fits into them than before.

Technology, not surprisingly, is cause for both celebration and frustration in all of these changes.

Staying Connected At 30,000 Feet

Even five years ago, it was hard to stay productive on long-haul flights, both because laptop battery life was minimal and in-flight Wi-Fi didn't exist. This had upsides and downsides. On the one hand, once my laptop battery died I was free to read. But on the other, it meant that every flight was effectively a productivity dead zone.

No more.

See also: Wi-Fi Above 10,000 Feet: Which Airlines Provide The Best Connection?

Today Wi-Fi is becoming standard on air travel. While coverage varies from airline to airline, the network on my preferred airline, Delta, is exceptional. I no longer have an excuse not to be online while I fly. Alas.

Now that you can stay connected on a long flight, we now expect that laptop batteries will last, too. But even if you're still lugging around an old-model Dell that can't go more than two hours without topping up on power, airlines have also added in-flight power outlets. Again, availability varies from airline to airline and even plane to plane. Figuring that out used to be maddening, until tech came to the rescue again: You can figure out where to get power on SeatGuru, which uses comments from travelers like me as well as its own research to maintain up-to-date information about seat layouts.

Airline And Hotel Monogamy Pays Off ... Sort Of

Often your choice in airline and hotel will be made for you, through your location or employer or both. If you live in a United hub city like San Francisco, you're likely stuck flying United. (I'm truly sorry.) But you do want to centralize your flights on one carrier, or one airline alliance if you're flying internationally. Ditto for hotels.

Why? Because it's your only hope of being treated like a human being. I get upgraded on 90% of my domestic flights (Delta) and 100% of my hotel stays (Marriott). And many airlines and hotels have added perks that relate directly to your trips, like a waiver of fees for checked bags or hotel Wi-Fi.

Upgrades, not points, should be your motivator. The points are nice, mind you. I've paid for five honeymoons for my wife's five sisters using points, as well as several personal vacations. But it's getting harder and harder to actually use points.

This is the one big problem with loyalty programs: It has become so easy to earn points through things other than flying (e.g., branded credit cards) that loyalty points are far less valuable today than they used to be 10 years ago. The consolidation of airlines, and along with them their loyalty programs, hasn’t helped: More fliers are now competing for awards and status.

If this is new to you, check out The Points Guy's beginner’s guide—and consolidate, consolidate, consolidate.

The More Things Change

Which brings me to the things that have gotten worse or stayed the same over the years.

International voice and data roaming remain incredibly expensive. I pay $60 per month for 300 megabytes of global data and another $60 each month to be able to text freely while abroad (up to 600 SMS messages). This on top of my domestic data/voice plans. One Google Maps session while walking through London can chew up a significant chunk of that data limit so I tend to use cellular data only as a last resort while traveling abroad.

This is slowly changing: T-Mobile now has an “unlimited” international text-and-data plan, though you have to read the fine print: Only 1 gigabyte of data is included at full speed. I’ve been reluctant to switch carriers, though.

First-class service on all U.S. airlines has depreciated significantly in the last 10 years. Back in the early days of Pan Am, first class was truly first class. Now it's simply enhanced coach. Yes, we have lay-flat seats on international or transcontinental flights, but the overall experience—especially on domestic routes—is weak.

Even things like TSA Pre, which lets travelers go back to the halcyon days of not having to remove shoes from feet or laptops from bags at airport security, are quickly getting worse. While initially reserved only for serious frequent fliers or those in the Global Entry program, the TSA has opened it up to many others, making TSA Pre lines as slow as other lines. You’d think technology could be deployed to better screen passengers, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

If I had to sum it up, I'd say that the things you can control about business travel—what you pack and how much it weighs—have gotten better. The things you can't control, like airline loyalty programs or airport security, have gotten both better and worse.

The only thing you can truly control is the gear you put in your bag, so optimize for that. Look for more tips on that in an upcoming installment of ReadWriteTrip.

Photo by Dan Paluska

06 May 14:25

5 Ways to Keep Hyper Growth From Turning Into a Nightmare

by Peter Cohan

Accept wobbliness, and other tips from Jyoti Bansal of AppDynamics.

How great would it be if your startup could come up with a product that the world was scrambling to buy? For some entrepreneurs, this dream is a reality that quickly becomes a nightmare.

Why? Suddenly you have to hire lots of people quickly, keep multitudes of stakeholders happy, and maintain your culture while being flexible to changing market demands.

For strategies on how to manage hyper growth, I spoke with Jyoti Bansal, founder and CEO of AppDynamics, an enterprise application monitoring software company. In the fiscal year ending January 31, its customer count more than doubled to more than 1,000 buyers, while its sales grew 175 percent. In the past 15 months, it also tripled its staff and now has 450 employees. Here are Bansal's tips for staying sane and keeping his company booming.

1. Accept Wobbliness

Rapid startup growth produces a mixture of emotions: terror, excitement and a never-ending sense that things are about to reel out of control. Bansal calls this "wobbliness." Decide on the critical few things that absolutely must go right--like making and keeping commitments to customers and communicating frequently with staff--and accepting that the rest may be in flux.

2. Only Hire Top Talent

Hyper growth puts an entrepreneur under pressure to hire enough people to keep up. "It's very tempting to make a compromise and reduce the talent bar so that you can hire faster," says Bansal. "Don't make that mistake. You will get that recruit faster but it will [eventually] slow you down."

3. Take Culture Seriously

"One of the primary jobs of a hyper-growth company CEO is to keep the culture," says Bansal. "Define and articulate your cultural values clearly. Make sure all new employees embrace the company cultural values. Institutionalize your cultural values by aligning compensation programs around them."

4. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

An entrepreneur must pick a few simple and important messages and repeat them. Explained Bansal: "I have a rule that you have to do Strategic Repetition about 10 times before you can be sure everyone heard it. Don't assume that because you talked about it once everyone got it."

5. Embrace Change

"Accept that things will change rapidly in a hyper-growth company," said Bansal. "People will sometimes complain we are not doing things like we used to, but if you embrace change and lead it, everyone else will as well."

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06 May 14:25

How Buyers Buy... and Four Ways You Can Help Them Choose You

Buyers are busier, they have more choices, and they are better informed than ever. So, what are companies that are bringing in new customers and growing their accounts doing different from the rest? Read the full article at MarketingProfs

06 May 14:24

Three Factors To Successful Email Marketing: Relevant Content, Timing And Frequency

by Glenn Taylor

Three Factors To Successful Email Marketing: Relevant Content, Timing And Frequency image email marketing shutterstock 106733003 300x200 Despite rumors of the death of email, it remains a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media — nearly 40 times that of Facebook and Twitter combined, according to research from McKinsey & Co.

Like all of the tools in the B2B marketer’s arsenal, email marketing is driven by data. Data helps ensure that email campaigns align with the pain points and interests of prospects and customers. If you touch a nerve, the email is more likely to get opened.

Supporting this point, personalized emails produced transaction rates and revenue per email rates that were six times higher than non-personalized emails, according to the 2013 Email Marketing Study from Experian Marketing Services.

Once you get users to open an email, don’t just send them to your generic home page. Customized landing pages — which send the user directly to the item or offer featured in the e-mail — can increase conversion rates by more than 25%, McKinsey research noted.

“The inbox is getting crowded these days,” said DJ Waldow, Digital Marketing Evangelist at Marketo. “You get updates from social media sites, personal emails, work emails and daily deal emails. All sorts of different content is coming into our inboxes. If your email is not relevant and if it’s not targeted, timely and valuable, people are opting out.”

Message timing and control are other factors that email marketers need to take into account. Timed emails, also known as trigger-based messages, are sent out based on previous buyer activity, behaviors and interactions. The purpose of these emails is to engage buyers at times when they are most comfortable receiving a message, making the collection of buyer data even more vital to the process.

“A customer’s or prospect’s behavior is a greater signal of intent than what they say,” said Loren McDonald, Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Evangelist at Silverpop, in an interview with Demand Gen Report.

According to the Q2 2013 Email Trends and Benchmarks report from ad agency Epsilon, triggered message open rates were 73% higher than non-triggered rates in the quarter, while triggered click-through rates were 152% higher than their non-triggered counterparts in the same period.

“Today’s B2B marketers should be moving toward a stage-based approach to marketing, which involves tailoring marketing messages to your buyer’s stage in the sales cycle,” said Adam Blitzer, VP and General Manager of Pardot. “Email is the perfect vehicle to distribute these stage-based messages, especially when lead nurturing is used to “drip” top-, middle-, and bottom-of-funnel resources to your buyers.”

Part of this staged approach means understanding the level of frequency required for an email campaign to build engagement and not drive potential consumers away. While the optimal frequency varies based on the intended audience or buyer expectations, a study from MailChimp indicated that frequency and engagement are negatively correlated. In short, as marketers send more emails, potential buyers lose interest in clicking on email links.

With 91% of consumers reporting that they check their email at least once a day, according to research by ExactTarget, sending daily messages is a good start for marketers looking to engage consumers. From there, marketers can test different subsections of customers to gather data regarding which factors are most effective in building engagement.

“Monday has a high open rate, but doesn’t have a high action rate,” said Ron Cates, Director of New Market Development at Constant Contact. “In the U.S., I really like [to send emails] Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, unless there’s a compelling reason for something different. I like 10:30 a.m., because buyers clean out their inbox at 9:00 a.m. and they have time later to spend checking their emails. I like 1:30 p.m., after lunch, when they’ve done the same thing,” he said, adding that it is important to test with your specific audience.

Although social media has gained popularity in the marketing world, email marketing is still appealing, especially when it comes to targeted offers and communication. There are nearly three times as many email accounts as Facebook and Twitter accounts combined.

“[Email marketing] has become the default way that B2B buyers put themselves through the research and purchase process,” said McDonald. “Today, buyers are doing so much of the research on their own as opposed to engaging with a sales rep. There’s this exchange that goes on that says ‘if I’m going to do that research and try to figure out if I want to purchase your product or service, then I want your great content. In exchange for that, I’m going to give you my email address knowing that you’re going to communicate to me and nurture my account.’”

Adapting To A Rapidly Changing Industry

Over the past two years, the email marketing space has been influenced by the mergers and acquisitions of major marketing automation providers. With more robust, sophisticated options than ever before, marketers in all types of businesses can now conduct their own email campaigns.

Jeannette Kocsis, EVP of Digital Marketing of The Agency Inside, and Robert Howells, Group Managing Director atMason Zimbler — both subsidiaries of Harte Hanks — noted that marketing technology makes real-time, dynamic content distribution possible.

However, some companies are still short of content, Kocsis and Howells explained: “Dynamic content in real-time requires a library of content assets. Most companies are struggling with content availability, and this can impact how dynamic and relevant communications can be. Although triggered email drives results and revenue, trigger campaigns are extremely complex to set up, often with intense business rules and technical requirements. Marketers may need additional help to setup those campaigns to run effectively, and optimize them over time.”

Have A “Mobile-First” Mentality

A large portion of email marketing has to focus on the mobile user who might only be able to respond to emails via a smartphone or tablet. Research conducted by email marketing service provider Litmus indicated that 51% of all emails are now opened on a mobile device.

More than half (58%) of marketers said that the pervasiveness of smartphones and tablets would affect their email programs over the next 12 months, according to the 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report fromMarketingSherpa. However, only 42% of marketers said they designed their emails to render differently on mobile devices.

“If you get an email and you’re reading on your mobile device and you have to pinch-and-zoom and scroll a lot, you’re more likely to not read it,” Waldow said. He specifically pointed to responsive design as an option for B2B companies, as it “recognizes which devices you’re on and optimizes emails for that particular device. The same email that I’m opening on my mobile device is going to look different on my desktop and on my tablet. Designing for mobile is really critical now, so you have to consider any design available for email.”

Kocsis and Howells advised marketers to have a “mobile-first” mentality, in that mobile email design should take priority over other devices.

“The thumb is the new mouse,” Cates added. A single-column format, larger type and sizeable, clickable images in place of text links are necessary for a successful mobile email.

Complement Your Email Marketing Practices

For all its successes as a standalone marketing touch point, email sometimes is deployed best in conjunction with other campaigns and tactics. Buyers go through about 57% of the purchasing process before even talking to a sales person, according to CEB, so it is likely that at certain touch points, the process will be coordinated beyond email.

“Too many marketing organizations have people who do email marketing in a silo, almost as if other aspects of marketing don’t exist, and that’s a problem,” said Alan Bunce, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at RedPoint Global, a marketing automation software provider. “Prospects certainly see their relationship with your company, or with you as a prospective vendor for them, as being more than just an email marketing relationship.”

Like many other solutions, the success that comes with installing email marketing and marketing automation programs hinges on understanding the human-to-human relationships they are trying to support. As revolutionary as these technologies may be, marketers would be best suited to learn as much as they can about the clients they are working with and the practices necessary to foster valuable interactions.

“B2B marketers also need to be careful not to abuse the marketing technologies that either already are, or soon will be, at their fingertips,” Blitzer said. “Email marketing and marketing automation tools are powerful, giving marketers the ability to use email to reach thousands of people at once. Successful B2B marketers should still comply with email deliverability best practices, limit email frequency to acceptable levels, and use an opt-in strategy.”

This article originally appeared on Demand Gen Report. Register for the weekly newsletter to receive the latest news and insight in the B2B industry.

06 May 14:24

Content is not King

by info@sharondrewmorgen.com (Sharon Drew Morgen)

Content Is Not King Do you know the point in the buyer’s journey that they read your content? Is it when the assistant hands her boss a stack of articles to help him prepare for a meeting? Has your content ever been used by your competitors?

Much content is not being used to enlist trust, brand recognition, gain followers and ultimately a sale. But we keep writing it and using every means at our disposal to distribute and track it, hoping that someone, at the appropriate point in the decision path, will use it and want to seek us out as a result.

A lot of hope, guesswork, and crossed fingers. But it can be a far more targeted, interactive experience that enables active decision making.

There has always been a struggle to bring buyers to the table. We’ve tried Sandler and Spin, Challenger and QBS. We’ve tried marketing automation, content marketing, and social marketing. But the problem remains an enigma: how do we get in? How do we get the attention we need? How can we convert?

WE’RE OUTSIDERS

We’re so busy explaining, pitching, writing about, introducing, presenting our solution that we’re not using the right thinking to help buyers or followers do what they need to do first: manage change and get the buy-in they need. Systems congruence and preservation will always come before a purchase, a relationship, or loyalty to an outsider.

We are outsiders. We aren’t there at the meetings. We have no idea what’s going on on the golf course. We aren’t helping assemble the full Buying Decision Team or help manage the political issues. We are pushing our ideas and solution data against their closed system, waiting for an opening but not facilitating one, doing our best to get in, get attention, change minds, influence, and sell solutions.

It is possible, however, to use content to facilitate the actual decision making process, help assemble the right people, and align the non-solution-based criteria of the Buying Decision Team/Stakeholders.

So decision facilitation is king. Content is a wonderful tool to use at the three points along the decision path where it’s needed. But it’s merely a tool.

I can work with you to make your content accessible to facilitate action and decisions and help you become invaluable relationship managers, and differentiate you from the competition.sharondrew@sharondrewmorgen.com or www.buyingfacilitation.com.

Content is not King is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

06 May 14:24

What Sales Lessons are You Learning Today

by Lori Richardson

successful sellers always learning Think of the skills and attributes that make you great in sales:

You need to be a language expert – being able to convey great messaging
You need to be a listening expert – hearing what is said and not said with potential buyers
You need to be an organizational expert – working your own plan and the plan your boss expects you to work
You need to be an inter-generational expert – understanding how to reach and connect with all ages of buyers
You need to be a sales expert – in basic sales competencies
You need to be a negotiation expert – understanding when to know what to say to your customers
You need to be a psychologist – since this is such a people business

It’s as if you need ten or twelve books of knowledge to help you win.

I sat in a session at ASTD’s International Conference yesterday that my friend and colleague Mike Kunkle of GE presented which really got me thinking about so many skills that the top sales performers need to have to be the most successful.

Selling is not just about “wearing nice clothes and focusing on making money” as one HR colleague blurted out this week to me.

Mike talked about research he’s been involved with over 20 years with the “top 20%” of the “top 20%” – in other words, the very top 4% in selling. These are the men and women sellers who, consciously or unconsciously, have mastered the following skill areas:

Analysis
Value Creation
Communication
Judgement
Learning
Organization
Networking

I know Mike understands B2B selling and has seen it from all sides – as a customer, as part of a corporate training solutions provider, and as an outside consultant. He seems to bring an objective view – partially because he is not selling anything but rather sharing his experienced viewpoint and observations.

I’ll be writing more about this presentation but for now it simply caused me to think about sales teams, sales leaders, and individual contributors.

If you are on a sales team, do you have group goals about how the team is to improve?

If you are a sales leader, do you have individual improvement plans for each of your team members?

If you are an individual contributor, do you have your own personal plan of attack to be better at communication, negotiation, psychology, and what the 4% are mastering?

Read Mike’s post about the topic of the skills of the top 4% in sales.

What checklist do you have to help you grow and learn?

Do you have a professional development plan for yourself? If not, why?

Don’t wait for your boss to give you one – create one and share it with your boss. Think about what you want to learn this quarter, and this year. Make it happen.

When I was new in sales in my early 20′s, I considered myself a “student of communication and psychology”. The most senior sales reps today still don’t have every skill they need to succeed tomorrow.

If you are a sales leader, it’s on you to know what each team member is strong at and what they need help developing. Urge them to create their professional development plan, or better yet – do it with them.

Lori Richardson is recognized on Forbes as one of the “Top 30 Social Sales Influencers” worldwide. Lori speaks, writes, trains, and consults with inside sales teams in mid-sized companies. Subscribe to the award-winning blog and the “Sales Ideas In A Minute” newsletter for sales strategies, tactics, and tips in selling. Increase Opportunities. Expand Your Pipeline. Close More Deals.

email lori@scoremoresales.com | My LinkedIn Profile | twitter | Visit us on google+

The post What Sales Lessons are You Learning Today appeared first on Score More Sales.

06 May 14:24

The Voyeur, the Hermit and the Social Sales Stars: How to Use Social to Recruit the Winners and Scrap the Losers

by Sean Burke

Imagine a scenario in which two sales reps are competing for the same job opportunity. The first candidate has years of sales experience but lacks any social graph. She was “too busy” to deal with social networking or cultivate a following. The second candidate, although less experienced, has built a large, engaged following on Twitter and Google+. He regularly puts out content that is valued by his customers and is considered to be a thought leader in his industry. Which candidate do you think the company will want to hire?

For me, the answer is obvious. The candidate who has taken the time to build a community is better equipped to tap into his network’s collective intelligence and influence prospective buyers online.

In no space is that more relevant than in sales recruitment, where talent acquisition is now a zero sum game. Hiring managers use social as one of the first steps in the process – at KiteDesk, it’s in many ways first and last, as it’s the key to our recruitment process.

The dilemma is, to those in the job market, how are future bosses and sales executives using social to ascertain whom to hire? That’s the million dollar question to internet citizens looking to score a dream gig, and recruiters looking to accurately use social to find stellar employees.

How Sales Hiring Managers are Dissecting Social Profiles

Merging the elements of personal and professional lives in the social stratosphere is no easy task. Many workforce participants struggle over whether or not to include things like party pictures, wedding photos, and other off-duty casual shots, worried they might contrast with the desired professional image.

I have always felt such things don’t negatively impact a prospect’s chances at being hired, and that managers should embrace all facets of an individual’s personality. What I suggest top sales hiring managers look for includes the following:

Length of tenure
Number of overall contacts and connections
Value of contacts for potential contracts and networks
Recommendations from colleagues

Experience and knowledge of the position is obviously also key, but so is a clear representation of balanced interests. In other words, profiles that are one-dimensional are far less appealing than those that show a well-rounded person.

Life, in Pictures

Photos are often the biggest conundrum. One of the biggest mistakes people make is not having photos at all. Make sure to place recent and accurate photos of yourself on your profile, but avoid some of the common pitfalls.

No group shots and no high school poses either; these are deal breakers. With every photo viewed of a prospective employee, I suggest managers ask a single question: “Would I do business with this person?” It’s a yes if the picture depicts a happy and casual scene. It’s a no if there’s lewd behavior, recklessness, and various other unsavory traits on display.

Other Top Profile Tips

I also like to emphasize the importance of staying current with social data. Please don’t put your high school on there for a mid-level job and above. If you’re still touting older accomplishments, managers can often assume you haven’t achieved much in recent years.

In the social sphere, it’s also common knowledge that most of us don’t achieve greatness by going it alone. Be mindful of the number of I’s versus We’s in your accomplishments. In other words, resist the need to be narcissistic in your expressions, and give credit where credit is due. I also like to caution that managers be weary of hiring a very me-focused social profiler.

By all means, don’t forget to be interesting! Express in detail what you want in a career; wishy-washy candidates are rarely appealing. At KiteDesk, we dismiss profiles that are inconsistent with what we are looking for. If you don’t dare to reveal what you’re looking for, you’ll be passed up completely.

How Managers Can Identify Social Sales Stars

Curious what hiring managers should really pay attention to on social profiles? Here are some top attributes:

500+ connections
Active and current posts across various networks
Similar connections (to the company / industry the applicant is applying for)
Obvious willingness to engage, and ability to get others to engage

Here’s another key tip: don’t forget to follow and engage with the social presence of all companies you apply with. It’s this kind of initiative that separates the mediocre recruits from the full-on must-haves.

The Most Prominent Gaps in Social Profiles

I see a lot of rookie mistakes in the social presence of many of our applicants. Here are the most common gaps that you should definitely avoid:

No professional, polished photos
Profiles that are too me, me, me centric
Profiles that don’t tell a story – too flat or generic
A lack of client recommendations
Interests that don’t match the position or industry the recruit has applied for
Profiles that are either too aggressive about employment, or too passive

Social and sales jobs are a highly competitive landscape, and learning to present oneself skillfully on social platforms is paramount to overall success. Likewise, it’s integral that managers become adept at spotting the stars and loose cannons in the space as well.

As a manager, how have you learned to use the social space to segment the hires from the no-hires? And as a prospective employee, what are your core questions about how to create balance in your social presence?

06 May 14:23

Getting your marketing timing right

by Bryony Thomas

Essential techniques for making your communications more customer-focused

It’s no secret that effective timing is an essential ingredient of successful marketing. Spotting seasonality and maintaining frequency are the easy things to manage. Getting people to want to spend time with you is more of a challenge.

This doesn’t just mean showing up at the right time, it means earning the right to person’s precious time

To pull people through the buying decision, you need to understand how much time they want to give to the process. Then, ensure that you have the right tools and techniques of an appropriate duration, available when they want them.

Grabbing someone’s attention is something that’s done in seconds. A person will either notice you, or they won’t. Then the moment has passed. If they then start to consider buying from you, they will gradually increase the time that they’re happy to devote to finding out about your products and services.

Leading on from the discussion in my last article about balancing emotion and logic in your messages, it’s easy to see that emotional triggers get intuitive and instinctive responses, which means they’re quick. As the logical brain kicks in the processes become far more conscious and considered, and take more time.

You’ll also find that the greater the risk or value of the purchase, the longer the buying process.

This is not least because people feel they need to show that they’re giving the decision proper attention.

In professional buying, this is called due diligence. But, it doesn’t only happen in business.

The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that even if a person has already completely emotionally bought-in to the purchase, they will often slow themselves (or someone around them) down to show that they’re not being rash.

EXAMPLE: Does this sound familiar?

I recently bought a new handbag. It wasn’t cheap. I went into the store looking for something quite different, and the bag caught my eye. I immediately loved it and had all but decided to buy it before looking at the price tag. I then proceeded to show it to my husband, and on the 20-minute walk around the store I rattled off how it would go with so many different outfits, it would fit my laptop and work books which meant I could use it for work and casual; I pointed out the high-quality stitching suggesting that it would last – I even had a stab at working out how much it would cost per use over the next six months or so. Now, let’s be clear – my husband didn’t care whether I bought the bag or not, it’s my money, and my decision. I wasn’t seeking approval from him; I was seeking approval from me. By taking the time to demonstrate (and externally validate) the logic of my purchase, I could justify my emotional desire to have it.

This example for a purchase nearer the impulse end of the spectrum. Which goes to show that whatever you’re selling, you need to give people the time and space to run this process.

To secure more, and more profitable, sales your marketing needs to take the emotional and logical messages from the first element of the Watertight Marketing Framework, and deliver them in steadily increasing time chunks across the buying decision, as in this second element of the framework. If you nail this you will steadily earn the right to a person’s precious time.

Are you earning the right to a person’s time?

Note: This framework builds on an original model of decision making from Dr Philip Kotler.

Match their schedule

You’ll need to work out what amount of time your buyers want to give to this process, and then design materials or activities of about that duration. Put yourself in their position and think about how you would go through the buying decision.

Consider the likely blocks of time they would have in their day for thinking about it. For a non-work purchase this is likely to be over a cup of tea, in a lunch break, on the journey to work, in the evening in front of the TV, or at the weekend.

For a professional buying decision, it’s worth thinking about the way that people typically chunk their work diaries – for example, 30 minute or 1 hour meetings. And, it’s worth thinking about what you can do to help them make better use of a hectic schedule. Can you find ways of fitting a little information into those ‘times in between’, like 5 minutes before a meeting, whilst travelling, etc?

For my marketing consultancy business, this looks something like this, over a 6 to 12 week period:

To map this for your own business, lay out the stages in a typical buying decision and ask yourself:

How long might you have to grab their attention?
If they’re casually interested, how long will they give it?
If they’re starting to evaluate what you do, how long?
How long might they give you to demonstrate or explain your products?
How long might they spend reading a detailed proposal before approving it?

Don’t give them too much, too soon

Getting your timing wrong can scupper your sale. If your buyer has 5 minutes, but all you have available to them is a densely packed product guide that would take 20 minutes to read, you’ve lost them. And, if you have a competitor who got to the point more quickly, it’s highly likely that this buyer is now considering their offer, not yours.

Having an idea of the different time blocks your buyer is likely to want to give to their decision allows you to create appropriate tools and materials to meet this.

Most businesses already have lots of great material, it’s just not cut up into the right chunks. You’ll hear people talk about bite-sized chunks.

It is worth taking a moment to say that if someone wants a meal, you need to give them one. That is, if they want to really interrogate your offering, you need to have all the information they would want available. They just may not want it all in one sitting.

To get really practical, let’s consider how you might present a case study across a buying decision. A case study is not one item – it’s a piece of content that work its hardest when split into appropriate chunks:

Have you mapped your content into time-bound chunks across the buying decision?

If you’ve worked out the likely durations your buyers spend at each stage of the process, you now need to take a look at your marketing materials to see if you can slice them up accordingly. This is much more effective than putting everything in one place and expecting your buyers to look at it all at once or sift their own way through it.

By breaking up your materials you allow your buyer to:

Reach the right messages at the right time
Digest what they need to in the time they have available
Feel like they are giving the decision due attention
Dip into different materials over an extended period of time.

The most important thing about recognising how people spend time as they move through their decision, is that you can create compelling marketing and effective sales conversations that steadily earn the right to their precious time.

Thanks to Bryony Thomas for sharing her thoughts and opinions in this blog post. She is the best-selling Author and Founder of Watertight Marketing, and a no-nonsense marketer and business speaker, specialising in helping ambitious small businesses set things up. Her blog post is adapted from her 5-star book, Watertight Marketing, described as an entrepreneur’s step-by-step guide to putting a marketing operation in place that delivers long-term sales results. You can download a free sample chapter or connect with her on
LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

06 May 14:23

INFORMATION IS THE PROBLEM: WHAT’S THE SOLUTION?

by info@sharondrewmorgen.com (Sharon Drew Morgen)

Information, when used to influence or sell, has cost us untold loss in business and relationships. It actually causes resistance.

information-resistance

INFORMATION CAUSES RESISTANCE

For some reason, we maintain a long-standing belief that if we offer the right people the right information at the right time, presented in the right way, those it’s intended to influence will be duly impressed and adopt it. But that’s erroneous. Just think how often we

patiently explain to our kids why something is bad for them,
present a well-considered idea to our boss,
offer great data as rationale to lead change initiatives,
offer brilliant pitches to prospects to explain our solution

and how often our brilliant delivery and logical (and probably accurate) argument is not only ignored but rebuffed. Certainly the ineffective behaviors continue regardless of the logic of the information we offer. Are they just stupid? Irrational? We’re ‘right’ of course: we’ve got the rational argument and data points.

But do we?

We don’t. And we’re wrong. We’re actually creating resistance, losing business, destroying relationships, and impeding change.

Here’s why. When we present rational data, or make arguments based on logic or wisdom or knowledge, and hope it will sway an opinion or get a new decision made, we’re putting the cart before the horse. While the data itself may be terrific, the timing we use to present it stinks. You see, until there’s internal buy-in for change people have no place to put the information.

As outsiders – leaders, sales professionals, coaches, managers – we are engaged to amend the status quo of clients, prospects, or staff, using information as the rationale for change. But information does not teach someone how to change: information is a knowledge issue, not a behavior choice. Change is a systems problem, not a misunderstanding problem.

Let me explain. People and teams, companies and families, are each unique systems with components that buy-in to agreed-upon rules -idiosyncratic beliefs and maps of the world – and determine our behaviors. So someone, or a company, with ‘green’ beliefs won’t adopt non sustainable activities, and who/whatever is uncomfortable with these accepted beliefs aren’t admitted into the system.

OFFER INFORMATION ONLY WHEN SYSTEM READY FOR CHANGE

It is only when parts of the system seek a new level of excellence and can figure out how to change without disruption will any sort of change be considered, regardless of our initiatives as outsiders to influence the change. If the system had recognized the need to change and knew how to fix it congruently they would have fixed the problem already.

At the point the need for change is considered, even by a small part of the system, the system must get buy-in from everything and everyone that will touch the new solution and knows how to change its underlying rules in a way that insures minimal disruption. In other words, no buy-in/no agreed-upon safe route forward = no change considered = no information accepted: the information doesn’t fit anywhere, can’t be heard, can’t be understood. We end up pushing valid data into a closed system that doesn’t recognize the need for it.

Telling kids why they should clean their rooms, telling prospects why your solution is better, telling managers to use new software doesn’t create the hoped-for change, regardless of how cogent the information except where the kids, buyers, managers were already set up to/seeking change and know how to move forward congruently (i.e. the low hanging fruit).

Here are a couple of simple examples.

1. As you run out the door to get your daughter to school your spouse says, “I think we should move.” Huh! “We’ll speak more tonight,” you reply. On your way home you notice a great house for sale and you buy it. Do you think the information about the house is relevant to your family at that point (even if it’s the perfect house)?

2. You and your team are getting ready to launch a new product you’ve been developing for two years. Your boss tells you the company has been bought out and it may affect the launch, certainly effects next year’s budget, your work location, and the team. Then a sales person calls selling team building software. Do you think the information about the software is relevant at this point (even if it’s a perfect solution)?

3. You’re a consultant hired to lead a team through a reorganization. The team is stable, has been working successfully together for three years and enjoys great productivity and camaraderie. Do you think the information about the rationale of reorganization will be adopted effortlessly and effectively?

It’s not about the need or efficacy: change cannot happen until the system knows who or what:

will be affected by the new solution;
an acceptable solution should be that considers all;
the criteria that must be met;
the parameters for change to ensure minimal disruption;
the level of buy-in or change necessary;
the new rules and norms that must be adopted.

As I say in Dirty Little Secrets: the system is sacrosanct. We learned about homeostasis in 6th grade: anything that is seen to be pushing the system out of balance will create resistance. Giving information to any part of the system before everything is managed first merely causes resistance as the system fights for balance.

And so, our brilliant, necessary, cogent information gets ignored, resisted, objected to, or misunderstood and we must handle the ubiquitous objections and resistance. Hence long sales cycles and implementation problems.

Conventional sales, marketing, training, coaching, and leadership models use sharing and gathering information at their core. I’ve developed a model called Buying Facilitation® which is a generic decision facilitation model that enables a system to manage change and manage all of the behind-the-scenes elements needed to garner buy-in first; information is offered once there is agreement for adoption. If you’re a coach, negotiator, seller, purchasing agent, leader, doctor, or implementer add it into your current skills. Then when it’s to offer information, your clients will be ready for it and eager to accept it.

Sharon Drew Morgen has developed a generic, scalable model to facilitate and influence buy-in based on human criteria. She’s written many books and over 1000 articles on her Buying Facilitation® Method, currently used in sales to help buyers manage their behind-the-scenes decisions necessary before making a purchase. Sharon Drew works with companies to address the place where people, systems, and change intersect – at the very beginning of a change management initiative or implementation. To date, she has worked with banks, tech companies, health care providers, communication providers, and retail. Contact: sdm@austin.rr.com

To read articles and hear podcasts on change management, resistance, systems, bias, and leadership, go to www.sharondrewmorgen.com

INFORMATION IS THE PROBLEM: WHAT’S THE SOLUTION? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

06 May 14:23

Win More Sales with an Indirect Strategy

by Steve W. Martin

For the past two decades, business-to-business selling has been conducted in basically the same way. Salespeople directly approach customers armed with facts, features, and the benefits of their products to convince customers to buy. However, customer decision making has changed and today’s buyers are smarter and more sophisticated than ever. In addition, competitors have not sat idly by. They’re focused on defeating you so they have educated themselves about your products and sales tactics.

Sales success today requires a new way of thinking about sales strategy. The question is, what is the right strategy?

In his classic book Strategy, famous military historian Lidell Hart detailed the “indirect” approach to war. In painstaking detail he described the superiority of the indirect strategy over the direct strategy, using examples throughout the history of warfare. He theorized that the outcome of every major war from Roman times through World War II could be attributed to the grand strategy the parties selected. Instead of a brute force direct attack to overwhelm the enemy, the victors always chose to battle indirectly. When forced to fight, the indirect strategy involves using surprise, intelligence, logic, and human nature to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses.

For example, at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BC, the smaller Carthaginian army under the command of Hannibal defeated a numerically superior Roman army using the indirect strategy. Hannibal placed his weakest infantryman in the middle of his line to give the impression of vulnerability while positioning his heavy infantryman and cavalry on the flanks. As the battle progressed, his flanks closed in on the surprised Romans and they were vanquished.

Hart argued that the indirect approach was not solely a war strategy but also an influential philosophy that could be applied wherever opposition to new ways of thinking exists. He said, “The direct assault of ideas provokes a stubborn resistance, thus intensifying the difficulty of producing a change of outlook.” For example, “The suggestion that there is a bargain to be secured is far more potent than any direct appeal to buy.” Below, you will find seven principles of the indirect strategy and their business-to-business sales application.

1. Employ psychology. The first and foremost principle is that the indirect strategy is a psychological operation (“psy-op” in military jargon) based upon understanding, predicting, and influencing human nature. In sales, winning requires earning the trust, respect, and friendship of another human being. The victor builds the strongest customer relationship. The secondary psychological goal is to sew doubts among your enemies, because a halfhearted warrior is more than halfway to losing.

2. Plan your overriding strategy. During a long sales cycle of several months or more, it’s easy to focus on individual battles and lose sight of winning the war. The sales cycle is reduced to a series of battles without an overriding grand strategy. Salespeople become fixated on the next customer interaction, proceeding from the initial sales call to the sales presentation, then on to the product demonstration and evaluation. However, all salespeople are like generals who should create a strategy to win their wars long before the first battle begins. The successful military leader preplans how and where he will attack in accordance with the resources at his disposal. The victorious commander achieves his objective through calculated maneuvers to gain the advantage and counter tactics to neutralize his enemy’s advantages.

3. Know your enemies. How well do you know your competitors? How much time do you spend studying their websites, products, and marketing collateral? Do you take the time to perform an honest win-loss analysis after each engagement? Most salespeople argue that they simply don’t have enough time for these types of activities. However, history repeats itself for those who don’t learn from the past.

4. Be the first on the battlefield. As a rule, it is always best to be the first salesperson in an account. The chance to understand a customer’s environment first, establish relationships, and set the criteria for the selection process are obvious advantages. But if you work for an underdog company that competes against industry favorites, being the first on the battlefield is the difference between success and failure.

5. Get privileged information from spies. Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, Chinese general Sun Tzu wrote about the indirect strategy when he said, “Knowledge of the enemy’s position can only be obtained from other men. Hence, the use of spies.” These words are still true today. In order to win any complex sale you need proprietary information that only a spy can provide. These spies are members of the selection team, other company employees, or business partners. They provide valuable information about the internal machinations of the selection process and inform you about the thoughts of the various selection team members. Without a spy, you never know how well you are positioned in an account or what the enemy’s next move will be.

6. Understand how the objective is organized. All battlefield commanders need location-based information so they can map the way to reach their objective. Similarly, salespeople need a complete understanding of how the evaluators are organized within their company because political power during the decision-making process goes far beyond the lines and titles on an organization chart.

If you are involved in selling an enterprise solution, you already know the importance of understanding the inner workings of the various departments within a company. Your product might be purchased by the information technology department and used by accounting and manufacturing. Therefore, it’s critical to map out the political interrelationships between evaluators and their respective departments of the organization.

7. Create turning points. The indirect strategy is based upon creating turning points which cause enemies to lose momentum they can never regain. Like a battle, every deal has a critical moment, or turning point, that determines the winner and the loser. In sales, information can be used to create turning points that eliminates competitors. Your expertise on the customer’s industry, understanding of best practices, knowledge of unflattering facts about your archrival, and the willingness to raise critical issues the customer is unaware of can be used to create turning points.

For the sales warriors of the business world today, the difference between being hailed as a hero or branded a failure hinges on winning. But in order to win, you must know the steps it takes to develop a winning strategy. Winning is everything in sales as it is in war. In the words of master strategist Napoleon Bonaparte, “Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.”

06 May 14:22

Tips to Convert your Leads into Customers

by Stephen Moyers

How do you increase conversions? How do you lure customers into buying your products/services? Basically by providing them what they require and not by manipulating or hypnotizing them. Indeed, it can be a win-win situation for both you and your customers if your conversions increase.

Tips to Convert your Leads into Customers image Conversion Funnel Leads To S 45402127 600x450

To achieve higher conversion rates you have to serve them well — and earn additional profits at the same time. In this post I’ll explain the ways in which you can convert your leads into conversions, including using psychology to boost your marketing initiatives.

Keep track of your progress: You can know your present state of affairs, and can make plans for the future, by keeping track of past records. By determining what your conversions rates were in a fixed, past period you can establish a standard for yourself and establish future goals. This will help you work out a plan to raise conversions in a scientific manner. It will also give you the requisite motivation. You can revise your goals as you go forward and strive to make things better for yourself.

Keep in touch with prospects: Don’t write off potential customers who don’t buy from you now; they may purchase your products/services sometime in the future. So keep in touch with them by sending them greetings or cards on their birthdays and other holidays/festivals. If they do need a service or product that you provide, chances are they will contact you for it when the time comes. Become their adviser and update them about new products, product changes and new technologies.

Help them to buy: Don’t behave like a salesperson who is only focused on the commission he/she will get from a sale and who doesn’t think about the customer’s needs. You have to earn your customers’ trust by being ethical and knowledgeable when dealing with them. Help them to make the right choice. Focus on their goals – not yours.

Fast follow-up: A fast follow-up will definitely help you clinch a potential sale. Customers like it when they feel you are concerned about their needs and that they are important to your company. When you respond to them quickly, chances of them coming back to you to seal a deal get brighter.

X Y Z leads: You can categorize your leads into X, Y and Z classifications, for instance. Then develop different plans for each category. You can place customers who will buy now in X; Y can have people who intend to buy in the coming 2 months and people in Z in the next 3-6 months. Modify your plans for the different categories when things start to happen – positive or negative. Then you’ll know exactly how to go about either clinching a sale or how to retain a potential customer who has begun to show disinterest in your product/service.

Free trials: There are many ways to draft your free trial offers and one of the most common phrases used for this purpose is: “Sign up for X-day free trial.” As far as it can be done, avoid using this line. Try something different which says the same thing like, “For one month don’t pay a cent.” In the sub-text you can insert some additional offers like giving cancel options.

Make use of labels : One way to make your customers feel important, and show that you care for them, is to add a personal label in the product they buy. You can fix a condition for this, like give labels to customers who have been coming to you for a long time or have performed a certain action. Give them ‘silver,’ ‘gold’ or ‘diamond’ status – you can use many methods to please them; put on your thinking hat and pluck out some innovative techniques to make your customers feel distinctive.

Admit shortcomings: If you’ve done something wrong, then admit it to your customers. Many companies either delay admitting their wrongdoings or don’t reveal it at all until some person/agency finds it out. Then it could prove quite damaging to the reputation of that company. But don’t repeat your wrongdoing often!

Stand for a cause: If you are backing a charitable cause, make sure that your customers know about it. You will be looked upon as a company of high values and subsequently attract more customers. Suppose you are selling shirts. Then announce to your customers, “Every shirt you buy, we give one free to the needy people of XYZ (country, state, institution).

Use Psychology: You must learn what psychological triggers stimulate people into taking certain actions. Remember, all people are basically stimulated by the same activations. You can understand your customers better and influence them if you know what motivates them and use this in your marketing endeavors. Human beings decide in their minds what they want to buy. By knowing the functioning of the mind, you will be able to influence buyers.

Tips to Convert your Leads into Customers image Sales Leads Dollar Sign Ball S 60227324 600x524

In pursuit of pleasure: Essentially human beings look to avoid pain and seek pleasure in all their actions. Even when it appears that a person is doing something painful, he is actually looking for a pleasurable outcome – like a fire-fighter who will sometimes suffer to achieve the pleasure of having saved someone from a burning building. In your marketing you must take your customers from point A to point Z – that is, from the point where they are to the point where they want to be. You must instruct your potential buyers how to move to the final point. As they approach it, the chances of them purchasing from you increase.

Quick delivery: If a festival or a birthday is approaching and customers order something online and they don’t reach them before time, they start getting stressed out. This can adversely affect your conversions and cause pain to your customers. To remove this pain make special delivery measures as some companies do by giving a guarantee about the arrival of the product ordered. Same-day shipping and 30-minute delivery are 2 examples of this.

Surprise! Everyone likes a surprise so treat your customers to unexpected delicacies. Your brand loyalty will soar and so will the testimonials your customers give you. You can also offer free returns of products and get some more customer testimonials on your site.

Summing Up

A fine mix of the basics of marketing, professional handling of your customers and good use of market psychology can do wonders to your conversion rates. You have to be persistent, ethical and active every day. All your tasks are vital, however small some may seem to be. Be human in all your dealings with your customers. Make your customers’ needs your commands. Respect their choice and their voice – after all it is they who are seeking something; you are duty-bound to provide it to them. Do this and you’ll soon see your leads turning into conversions.

06 May 14:22

20 Must-See SlideShare Presentations That'll Inform, Inspire & Entertain

by rsprung@hubspot.com (Rachel Sprung)

slideshare-presentation If you're regularly on our blog, you know that we love SlideShare presentations. What better way to display valuable pieces of information than through a visual format like a SlideShare?

Last year we posted an article about 20 inspiring SlideShare presentations we wanted to share with our audience. Well, we can't get enough. There are so many more presentations like these that are valuable that we wanted to share another 20 for you to check out.

If you haven't seen that original post, be sure to check it out! But in the meantime, here are an additional 20 presentations that are truly inspiring pieces of content.

P.S. If seeing these SlideShares makes you want to design one of your own, feel free to use these PowerPoint SlideShare templates so you can create one! They're all set with the right dimensions and everything ;-)

20 MORE of the Best SlideShares for Marketers

1) 40 Tools in 20 Minutes: Hacking Your Marketing Career, Eric Leist

Marketers are constantly trying to multi-task while also trying to figure out ways to streamline some of their day-to-day responsibilities. From Zapier to IFTTT to Signals and Litmus, HubSpot customer Eric Leist gives us a snapshot of valuable tools to help marketers hack their marketing careers. We loved this presentation so much we even wrote a blog post about it.

40 Tools in 20 Minutes: Hacking your Marketing Career From Eric Leist

2) 10 Ways to Be a Marketing Genius Like Lady Gaga, Jesse Desjardins

Believe it or not, Lady Gaga is one of the best marketers of our time. She may do it in her own quirky way, but she is still a marketer. This presentation walks through all of the marketing lessons we can learn from Lady Gaga -- from leveraging social media to acting as a thought leader. There is actually a lot we can learn from Lady Gaga (besides how to have a poker face).

10 Ways to be a Marketing Genius Like Lady Gaga From Jesse Desjardins - @jessedee

3) 10 Tips for Landing on the Front Page of SlideShare, Explorics

When you create a SlideShare presentation, your probably want to land on the first page of SlideShare. But how do you do that, especially if you haven't had a SlideShare hit yet and are not a well known brand? Don't worry -- it's still possible. This presentation goes through everything you should keep in mind while creating your SlideShare that will help you land on the front page.

10 Tips for Landing on the Front Page of SlideShare From Explorics

4) The Hard Truths of Entrepreneurship, Rand Fishkin

It wouldn't be a true list of the best SlideShare presentations without an appearance from Rand Fishkin. We look at Rand as not only a thought leader in SEO, but an inspiration for up-and-coming entrepreneurs. But being an entrepreneur isn't all the fun and glory it seems -- it's a lot of hard work and perseverance. In this presentation, Rand walks us through what you need to be an entrepreneur, including some of the ups and downs you will encounter along the way.

The Hard Truths of Entrepreneurship From Rand Fishkin

5) Networking Tips for Introverts (and Shy Folks): Visual Sketchnotes, MarketingProfs

Networking isn't just for extroverts, right? Okay, disclaimer. I'm an extrovert, but some of the most admirable and remarkable professionals in this industry are introverts!

First of all, this presentation presents the information in an awesome way -- through sketchnotes. But it also gives valuable information for anyone who is networking, not just introverts. After all, us extroverts have to keep in mind how to approach people with different comfort levels.

Networking Tips for Introverts (and Shy Folks): Visual Sketchnotes From MarketingProfs

6) Why Follower Count Is Bullshit, Mackenzie Fogelson

When marketers want to measure the success of their social media, where do they start? Is it the number of followers? The number of leads from social media? The amount of traffic coming to your website from social media? This presentation not only explains why follower counts should not be the only thing you are tracking, but gives some ideas into other ways to measure your social media impact.

Why Follower Count Is Bullshit From Mackenzie Fogelson

7) The 3 Secrets of Highly Successful Graduates, Reid Hoffman

Okay, this is a long one. 113 slides to be exact. But Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn, is the author -- so we know it's a good one. For anyone graduating this month, this is a valuable presentation to look over. Hoffman goes through ways that graduates can be successful when they graduate, providing actionable advice and explaining different situations they will encounter in the real world.

The 3 Secrets of Highly Successful Graduates From Reid Hoffman

8) The Other C Word: What Makes Great Content Marketing Great, Velocity Partners

This presentation focuses on ways that marketers can create confident content, and how that content translates into brilliant marketing. For any marketer who creates content (which is probably the majority of us), this presentation is a surefire way to get you inspired.

The Other C Word: What makes great content marketing great From Velocity Partners

9) Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You., Mark O'Toole

It's a tough job market; there's no denying that. In the spirit of graduation season, here is another presentation designed to give graduates some tough love about the reality of finding a job. This SlideShare sets expectations about what graduates should expect while also giving some advice on the best ways for graduates to get hired.

Congratulations Graduate! Eleven Reasons Why I Will Never Hire You. From Mark O'Toole

10) The Evolution of SEO - 2014 and Beyond, Joe Griffin

The fun fact about SEO is that it is constantly changing. And as marketers it's up to us to stay up to date with those changes. Even though we aren't even halfway through the year, there is already new information to learn. This presentation gives an overview of SEO, and provides us with the updates we need to know to be current.

The Evolution of SEO - 2014 and Beyond From Joe Griffin

11) 50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014, Content Marketing Institute

The Content Marketing Institute compiled 50 of it's best quotes from various professionals to bring us this SlideShare presentation. These predictions include actionable advice that is relevant to content marketing in 2014.

50 Content Marketing Predictions for 2014 From Content Marketing Institute

12) The Search for Meaning in B2B Marketing, Velocity Partners

When you think of a glamorous and exciting job, is B2B marketing the first thing that comes to mind? Probably not. But then again, many of us find B2B marketing exhilarating. This SlideShare presentation goes into some of the reasons why B2B marketing is so exciting -- and why others like us feel the same passionate way about the industry.

The Search for Meaning in B2B Marketing From Velocity Partners

13) 52 Presentation Tips (The Best of 2013), soappresentations

An important part of any marketing job is learning how to present your results, accomplishments, and experiments to your peers and superiors. This presentation gives tips on public-speaking as well as general presentation skills. After all, we want our audience to be excited by what we are presenting, not falling asleep in their seats.

52 Presentation Tips (The Best of 2013) from soappresentations

14) Four Public Speaking Tips From Standup Comedians, Ross Simmonds

Speaking of public speaking (see what I did there), who better to give us marketers advice on how to wow an audience than standup comedians? This presentation walks through some of the tips and tricks that comedians use to **wow** an audience. And even though you and I are probably not standup comedians, all of this advice can help us as we present in front of an audience.

Four Public Speaking Tips From Standup Comedians From Ross Simmonds

15) Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling, Gavin McMahon

When you think of powerful and engaging storytelling, Pixar is top of mind. Pixar has mastered the art of taking what may have been an ordinary story and taking it to the next level. This presentation walks through 22 rules that Pixar follows that you can, too, to master the art of storytelling. (And it doesn't hurt that there are images of some of our favorite Pixar characters on each slide, either.)

Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling From Gavin McMahon

16) Storytelling in 2014, Gary Vaynerchuk

Storytelling has drastically changed. In this presentation, Gary Vaynerchuk talks about the ways storytelling has evolved in the last two decades. He then provides advice on how to tell your story in 2014. And if you've ever heard Gary Vaynerchuk present, you know that he knows how to tell a story.

Storytelling in 2014 From Gary Vaynerchuk

17) Why What & How of the Internet of Things, THINK Interactive

What is this Internet of Things you speak of? It's a somewhat new concept, but an important one as the Internet of Things is becoming a core part of marketing and our everyday lives. This presentation goes through what the Internet of Things is and what it really means for our industry.

Why What & How of the Internet of Things From THINK Interactive, inc.

18) Culture Code: Creating a Lovable Company, HubSpot

Culture is an important part of any workplace. Now more than ever, culture is a key part of a person's decision on where they want to work. This document walks through how HubSpot looks at culture -- what we are doing, how we are iterating, and policies we enforce (like "Use good judgment").

Culture Code: Creating A Lovable Company From HubSpot

19) Data-Driven Marketing and Sales Predictions 2014, Lattice Engines

Data is at the heart of everything we do in Marketing and Sales. Understanding how it applies to your daily responsibilities as an employee in these industries is key to learning how to constantly innovate and grow in your role. This presentation provides advice from 25 experienced professionals in Sales and Marketing on how to use data.

Data-Driven Marketing And Sales Predictions 2014 - Lattice Engines From Lattice Engines

20) Best Practice in Sales and Marketing Alignment, B2B Marketing

We constantly talk about the importance of Sales and Marketing alignment. A working environment with Sales and Marketing acting as partners leads to a much healthier business. This presentation covers best practices for Sales and Marketing alignment, and how to achieve this healthy relationship.

Best practice in sales and marketing alignment From B2B Marketing

What other SlideShares have you seen and loved lately? How has it helped you in your job?

06 May 14:21

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas

by Josh Haynam

#1 Quizzes: We all love quizzes, they are surging in popularity, and are a ridiculously effective method for generating leads - but they must be done right to be effective.

There are three things you must get right for a quiz to be effective and not negatively influence your audience.

1. It has to be fluid in it’s UI. (no radio buttons allowed)

2. The topic has to be hyper-relevant to what you do (if you put a superhero quiz on your clothing store, just stop)

3. There has to be a sufficient award at the end to warrant the collection of a lead.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image 51

#2. Expert Interviews: These are great because you can use them in multiple ways to generate leads. First, you can interview an expert and collect leads from the traffic they send your way. Second, if the interview is really in-depth, you can use it as a collateral piece and require an opt-in to view the interview

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image

#3. Weekly Digest: Every industry has thousands of tweets and blog posts each week. Make it your job to find the best content each week and send it out in a newsletter. Then gradually mix in your own content.

CoSchedule did an awesome job of utilizing this strategy to establish themselves as a ‘household name’ in the blogging world. All they did was compile the best posts from each week concerning content marketing and send them out in a newsletter. Then they integrated some of their own content into the email to get their own products promoted.

#4. Contact Form: Does your contact form ask people if they’d like to opt-in? It should. Wufoo makes it really easy to collect leads using your contact form. People who are already contacting you are highly likely to want more information, give them a chance to get it.

#5. A/B Test Every Email Campaign: If you’re not split testing email campaigns, you’re missing out on valuable insights that can lead to even more subscribers. Wishpond put together a comprehensive list of all the things to test.

#6. Thank-You Page: The Thank You page is one of the most under-utilized pieces of web real estate. The user has just finished submitting a form or buying something from you, and usually we just give them a page that says ‘Thanks, Goodbye’

What if they want more? It doesn’t hurt to ask if they’d like to get more updates or check out another offer you have.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image thank you page 600x548

#7. Co-Sponsored Content: Pairing up with another (preferably larger) company in your industry to put together a great piece of content is an awesome way to reach a new audience. If the content is worthy of collecting emails for, do it.

#8. List.ly: This is one of my favorite tools. List.ly is a way to crowd-source lists on your site that anyone can add to. By making the list more interactive, you’ll create engagement with your audience that a static list just can’t match.

Although they haven’t built in a direct way to generate leads, a properly placed call to action around the list will drive signups as lists demand attention.

#10. (Interpreted) Industry Reports: Companies like Forrester will release massive reports about an industry that cover everything there is to know. These reports are complicated but extremely valuable to your customers (especially in B2B)

Do the work and interpret a report and turn it into something that’s more visually appealing than 50 pages of text. Do it well and you have a lead generating asset.

#11. Live Webinars: Preferably using google hangouts or a similar platform where listeners can interrupt and ask questions when they want. The goal is to create long lasting relationships that go far beyond an initial sale.

#12. Relevant Trust Seals: If I see another startup touting a press article in TechCrunch as a sign that they are trustworthy I might just lose all faith in marketing. Pick symbols that actually make sense, like a leading company that’s a customer or a partnership with Oracle for example.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image trust seals

#13. Content Syndication: I’ll be honest I didn’t know this existed, but a variety of sites will syndicate your content if it’s approved. For those of you like me who didn’t know what syndication was, it means that every post you put up on your blog will also show up on the site you are syndicated with.

#14. Have an Insider’s Club: For people who need a little more personal touch to jump on board with your company. Offer a fair discount (15-20%) in return for being on the inside.

Insiders will have closer access to beta features and new products, and in return will give feedback on new releases.

#15. Slideshare Pro: Slideshare is the largest online community primarily composed of business members. That makes it the perfect place for generating leads if your customers are businesses. With pro plans on slideshare you can input email capture forms right into your presentations.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image slideshare

#16. PR the 2014 Way: Position your product as the solution to a problem that a reporter has personally had. That means you must know who you are reaching out to, what they like to write about, and why your product fits into their calendar. No more cold email blasting reporters.

#17. Error Pages: Like it or not, people will end up on your 404 and 500 pages. Take advantage of this space to collect an email so you can notify the visitor when everything is fixed again.

#18. Display a # for inbound calls: Inbound calls are extremely powerful. The opportunity to have a potential customer on the phone is always needed, and displaying a number on your site is a subtle way to generate more calls.

#19. Kits: Which is more compelling, a list of SEO tips or a complete kit to get started with, implement and get your first 100 visitors using SEO? The only difference is the kit contains the list of tips along with instructional videos, guides, and a checklist all bundled together into one packet.

Sometimes you need more than one piece of content to solve a problem for customers and that’s why kits can be an effective item to trade for a lead.

#20. Content Pillars: “The Beginner’s Guide to SEO” on the MOZ blog is the single piece of content that’s generated the most leads for them all-time. This content pillar is so large that it’s now been divided into several parts.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image beginners guid 600x139

What counts as a content pillar varies, but in general a pillar goes above and beyond every other post. Think about an actual pillar – in architecture there are several pillars that hold up a structure, and maintain the integrity of the entire building.

Things that work as pillars are massive lists (10,000 or more words), In-depth infographics (like this one), and comprehensive slideshares (like this one)

To build effective content pillars, use the skyscraper technique, which is a simple three-step process.

1. Find amazing content

2. Improve it and make it your own

3. Share it.

I’m not advocating stealing content, rather, take some of the difficulty out of content creation by taking what’s already worked and improving it.

#21. Sponsored Content: Sponsored content is the new paradigm in advertising and you can get involved. Be sure to have control over how the content turns out before agreeing to publish it on the partner site. Aim to be just as useful as a normal post with every sponsored post.

#22. Sponsor a charity: While I don’t recommend doing charity just to get new leads, it is an effective way to craft your name in a positive light and generate some new leads. Often charities will list all of their sponsors on a web page or at events to expose your brand.

In a previous business I worked on we sponsored a charity that was feeding children around the world. This charity was great about giving back to sponsors by holding industry events and promoting sponsors. We were able to pull in 100 new leads from them yielding a positive ROI.

#23. Industry Events: This is an oldie but a goodie. Events are a platform like any other where you have to stand out to succeed. Before every event set goals and know when you want to achieve, then reach those goals.

Marketing Sherpa analyzes with precision just how Hubspot was able to generate 2300 new leads at one conference, I’ll let them explain (it’s a long post)

#24. Do reviews: Reviews are an essential part of any great landing page. However, it’s difficult to get good reviews that are comprehensive. That’s why reviewing your favorite products is a genius way to generate leads.

Businesses will attribute the review to you and most likely include a link to your site – on their home page. That’s crazy, no one gets links front and center on the home page of another site.

Don’t just review any site, only do it for products you genuinely like and don’t have a problem being a poster person for.

#25. Automate a process: The marketing grader from Hubspot is their one piece of content that’s produced the most leads of all time. That’s saying something for a company that’s produced over 1000 blog posts.

Creating a tool like the marketing grader is a big investment (expect $20-50,000). However, the big risk can lead to big rewards.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image marketing grader

#26 Build an offline audience at meetups: If you have the resources to host a meetup, it’s worth a shot. They aren’t right for everyone, but if you need an audience to test on, they will get you that.

Random events is an outdoor collective that thrives off of large groups attending its social activites. In just over two years they’ve grown membership to more than 7000, primarily using meetups. Here’s their massive guide to how that was done.

#27. Testimonials with Dollar Signs: Well-placed social reinforcement in the form of testimonials are effective for increasing conversions, but only if they are believable.

Too many sites have abused the testimonial to the point where a testimonial should now contain numbers as well as a link to the site from which it came to be trusted.

#28. Sponsored Pins: It is now possible to promote pins on Pinterest. For best results, pair each pin with a lead generation landing page that is somehow related. Unfortunately, Pinterest is still very limited in its scope, if you aren’t in the fashion or entertainment industries, it’s a tough sell.

33 Incredible Lead Generation Ideas image sponsored pin 600x399

#29. Grouphigh: Bloggers are an enormous network for distributing ads and generating leads. Grouphigh makes it tremendously easy to engage with and reach bloggers who can carry your message and send leads your way.

The Harlem Globetrotters are an icon brand, but they struggle to stay relevant with all the modern sporting attractions that compete for viewers’ attention. They used Grouphigh to get mentions in over 250 blogs and achieved an ROI of 10:1. Full case study on that here

#30 Free Demos: There are lots of reasons to think that demos aren’t right for your product. However, giving away free demos is not only a great way to engage directly with prospects, but it’s also a way to win over the more traditional clients who like to put a face (or at least a voice) to a product.

Grouphigh appears elsewhere on this list as its own way of generating leads, and they stand out from the crowd of blogger outreach software because of their personal touch.

Grouphigh is by far the most expensive blogger outreach platform that exists, but they have gained a lead in the market by offering personalized product demos to anyone who is interested. Despite an annual price tag of $8000, they’ve managed to sign up over 300 businesses.

#31. Create personas: Literally create the person who is your ideal or most lucrative customer. Find a nice stock photo to represent them and add all the attributes they possess.

Post the ideal customer around the office and market to them, it will help streamline and improve lead generation. Then, create separate landing pages for each type of customer your serve (there’s not just one usually)

Hubspot found that having 40 or more landing pages yields a 12x conversion rate over having 1-5 landing pages. This is due in part to targeting these buyer personas with your separate landing pages.

#32. Develop use-cases: Once you’ve put together your customer personas, categorize them into use cases. A use case for Interact is news websites that use quizzes as a content type, another one is software companies that use quizzes on landing pages to generate leads.

Know the different use cases for your product or service and speak to them in your call to action text.

To illustrate the importance of use cases, I like to tell a story. There were two software companies competing for the business of a large New York bank. The first software company was massive and used a blanket sales approach. In their presentation, they actually said “if you were a school, you would use this feature”

The smaller software company knew the use case that banks fell into and came in with a presentation full of similar uses in other banks. The smaller software company won the contract and more than $1 million in sales.

By understanding what group your audience falls into and selling to their specific needs, you can generate more leads and close more sales.

#33 Speak to what people really care about. Focus your marketing message to what people really want. There are principles that drive each and every human, and if you can position your value proposition to those principles, you can draw information from people.

06 May 14:20

Content Marketing: Are You Ready for the Long Haul?

by Amanda Clark

Content Marketing: Are You Ready for the Long Haul? image content marketing 01

In working with content marketing clients, the Grammar Chic team occasionally hears questions like this one: How long will I need to do content marketing before I get results? Or: How long will my content marketing campaign have to last?

Questions like these reveal a fundamental misunderstanding about content marketing. It’s not an act, but a process; not something that yields rapid, one-time results, but something that continues to unfold and to prove increasingly advantageous over time.

Understanding the Timeframe

When content marketing first started to catch fire, a lot of businesses thought it would be simple enough to play along. They launched blogs and Facebook pages, updated them infrequently, and failed to devote much time to building an audience or erecting a strong content strategy. Not surprisingly, they failed to convert leads right off the bat, as well, so they ended up throwing in the towel.

The misconception here is that so many business owners think content marketing is designed primarily to convert leads. In truth, it’s all about educating the customer and building trust. This is not something that happens over night, but the results are worthwhile. Even if a reader of your blog doesn’t become an actual, paying customer for months or even a year, he or she will ultimately be well versed in the benefits of your product, and willing to rely on your industry expertise and sound judgment. It takes time to facilitate relationships like these, but in the end it’s totally worth it.

Pulling the Trigger

There is no telling what will trigger a desirable response from a potential client. Maybe he or she will read your blog entry and buy your product on the spot. Just as likely: He or she will spend weeks or months checking out your blog posts and your tweets, but not take any action. Then a blog post from one of your competitors will spark some curiosity—but because the lead already has a relationship with you, a trust dynamic in place, you’re the one who gets that sales call.

Advocates and Ambassadors

Indeed, there are plenty of advantages to the slow-and-steady approach of content marketing. Yes, it takes time and discipline to truly develop trust—but when you invest that kind of time, you get more than positive brand recognition. You get consumers who know what you stand for, are well educated about the benefits your company can offer, and realize that you really know your stuff. In short, you get people who will vouch for your brand, tell their friends about it. You get brand advocates and ambassadors—and that’s something traditional advertising seldom offers.

Content marketing doesn’t offer overnight results, but the results it does offer are well worth the investment of time and patience. By formulating a strategy and then sticking with it, even when the going gets slow, you can ultimately reap incredible benefits from content marketing.

06 May 14:20

Lies Sales Leaders Tell Themselves

by S. Anthony Iannarino

Lies Sales Leaders Tell Themselves is a post from: The Sales Blog | S. Anthony Iannarino

Here are four lies sales leaders sometimes tell themselves.

We have enough opportunities in our pipeline: No you don’t. All you need to do is test those opportunities to discover that many of them are really just leads. If you take out any opportunity that is over the average time in stage for a won deal, your pipeline will likely be dramatically smaller. When you ask for the names of all of the stakeholders on the buying committee, you will likely need to have some one hit you with the paddles to have your heart forcibly convinced to restart.
My people don’t need help with the fundamentals. It will insult them: Wrong. They need help. They need more help prospecting and opening opportunities. They need more help asking for and obtaining commitments. They need more help strategizing on the obstacles that prevent their deals from moving forward. They aren’t going to be insulted when you provide this help; they’re going to be grateful.
We have a sales process: Having a sales process and not using it is the same as not having a sales process. Do a little looking around. Ask questions. Use the process to guide your pipeline reviews and opportunity reviews. You’ll quickly learn that many of the challenges you have making your number are the result of your sales force not following a process, a process that helps them create value and gain commitments at every stage.
Our sales force knows how to differentiate our offering. They know how to sell value: Ask your salespeople how you are different from your competitors. Go ask them. You are going to be shocked, surprised, and disappointed all at once. And if they can’t clearly define what makes you different and how it makes a difference for your clients, then how are your clients supposed to be able to see and understand the differences?

Which of these beliefs are you carrying now?

Questions

How do you know you have enough coverage in the pipeline?

How versed is your team in the fundamentals? What do you believe they need to improve?

Is your sales process being followed?

How does your team differentiate your offering? How do they sell value?

06 May 14:20

Want to Generate More Business? Here’s How a Survey Generated Over $100,000 in Revenue

by Jason Swenk

Over the years I’ve discovered that surveys can be an invaluable tool for getting yourself some immediate clients. In fact, the last survey I sent out had a 30% engagement rate, and 10% converted to sales discovery meetings. This translated into over $100,000 in revenue last year. I promise you – surveys are awesome.

So here are ways that you can leverage surveys to drive leads and increase revenue:

Who to send the survey to?

You’ve been diligently putting together an email list of clients, prospects, and opportunities for your business, and it’s time to put it to work. But don’t worry if you don’t have an email list. You can still survey people within your industry by calling and asking them to participate.

Survey Says.

Let’s talk about the questions. Here are the four I typically include in my surveys:

What are your revenue goals for the next year?
You want to make your prospect thing about what they want, and envision the end goal. It is also great information to learn more about your list, which can help you segment the list later on. For example – you would market and sell differently to a company that is under a million vs. what you would do for one over 20 million. This question helps you know where the prospect stands.
On your current path, how long will it take you to get to that goal?
I love asking this question because it helps the client to start seeing that they do need help. It also gives them a brutally honest look at the timeline, which helps make them feel impatient. Their impatience turns into business for you.
What are the two biggest challenges that you face in your business?
This one is the big money question. You not only learn how you can help them, but you can use the answers as leverage to speed them through the process.

Take a second to think about what happens now when you start calling a prospect:

just checking in to see if you are ready to work together.”

I’ve described it in previous posts, and I’ll say it again here – stop asking like this because it’s hurting you!

4.What would it mean to you if you were able to get answers to these challenges?

This last question is a way for you to make them think about the result of the result. At the end of the day, everyone wants results, and if you can make them focus on theirs, you will win way more business.

With these four questions you will have gained incredibly valuable insights into what your customers and prospects want, as well as where they struggle. By doing the survey, and asking your audience for their feedback, you’re putting yourself in a position to understand and stay in the top of their mind. Plus, you’re discovering the exact phrases and statements to use when you market back to them.

Here’s the key – respond with answers and advice, and you will uncover and win more business.

If you liked this actionable strategy to take your business to the next level, I would love for you to check out the Digital Agency Playbook. It’s the 12 systems every agency needs in order to be profitable and continue to grow to the next level, from increasing sales, scaling your operations, being more profitable, and dominating your market. If you have ever wanted to see what other successful agencies have done, so you can grow faster, make better confident decisions, and get to the next level, this is the program you need to try. Take a FREE test drive now!

06 May 14:20

5 Tips On Creating The Perfect Copywriting Portfolio

by Amy Edwards

When you hear the word ‘portfolio’, graphic design and user experience design are probably the first things that come to mind when it comes to the digital sector – but really, that isn’t always the case. OK, so design portfolios are the most common, but really any job role which calls for examples of previous work to be submitted is essentially asking for a candidate portfolio to be sent in alongside the application.

When it comes to the digital sector, there are loads of roles that call for examples of work to be sent in alongside the application to demonstrate the candidate’s skills and talents – and copywriting in particular is one area where employers like to see a sample of the candidate’s work before they invite them in for an interview.

Now, while we covered UX portfolios on this blog a few weeks ago, we’ve never actually looked at copywriting portfolios and the type of work you should be sending in to demonstrate your range, tone and style… so today I thought I’d change that.

When an employer asks for examples of your copywriting work, they’re essentially asking you to send in a portfolio of your work which they can judge and assess when reviewing your application. That said; it’s pretty important to get your portfolio right (and right the first time!) because as we all know, you only really get one chance to make a good first impression.

Interestingly when I was researching this blog, I realised there were lots of blogs out there which were full of tips on how to build up your portfolio eg. how to get the experience – but not many blogs on what you should actually include in your portfolio once you’d got the experience – so that’s something I’ve tried to address in this post.

Without further ado then; here are my top tips for putting together the perfect copywriting portfolio.

1. Be Brutal

When it comes to copy, we all have some pieces that are close to our hearts for personal reasons but when it comes to putting together your portfolio, you really need to push nostalgia to one side. Try and consider which are your strongest pieces of terms of performance, the skills needed to write them and how well your copy fit the brief. If you’re torn between two pieces, consider who the end client was (who you wrote the content for), how big the audience for your copy was and how you can assess the copy’s performance.

When it comes to copywriting portfolios that you’re sending in with a job application, I’d always advise you to stick to a maximum of five – this way you’ll give the employer enough to get a feel for who you are as a writer – but not too much that it’ll overface them. When it comes to online portfolios (which you should definitely have if you’re a copywriter), I’d say you can take this number up to 20 – but again, be selective about what you put in – and don’t be afraid to take pieces out as you write more.

2. Keep It Diverse:

In terms of the copy you include, I’d always advise you to try and choose a diverse selection which shows off your skills, talents and diversity. By this, I mean try and include copy on not just a range of subjects but in a range of styles too eg. blogs, articles, on-site copy, press releases, white papers, ebooks etc. The more diverse your portfolio, the stronger it will be and the more appealing it should be to the end employer.

That said; if you’re applying for a copywriting vacancy with an employer in a particular industry and you already have copywriting experience in that sector, be sure to include a few examples which will directly relate to the job and industry in question – that way you’ll show the employer that you’re already a step ahead of the competition because you’ve got that specific knowledge and experience that they’re looking for.

3. Have Answers:

When it comes to your copywriting portfolio, you need to be clued up on all your pieces and ready to answer any questions which might get fired in your direction. Before the interview, be sure to familiarise yourself with each piece – why you wrote it, why you chose a particular style or specific keywords, who the audience was and how successful it was.

In terms of success, when it comes to online copywriting these days it’s all about social shares and links – so if you can, try and get an accurate figure of how many times the piece was shared on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter (this should be easy if the site in question has a social sharing bar and counter in place), how many backlinks it attracted – and what, if any, direct benefits the company received from your copy – eg. increase in leads/sales etc.

4. Be Sure You Can Share:

As Lauren mentioned in her UX blog, when it comes to your copywriting portfolio, you need to be sure you have permission to share the content in public- something which isn’t always the case. For example, if you’ve produced copy for a private organisation which has never been made public and which had a non-disclosure agreement attached to it, I’d definitely urge you to keep it off your portfolio, both online and on paper.

That said; if you’re fairly new to copywriting and your portfolio is a bit thin, you might not have an option but to include this type of content. If this is the case, be sure to block out any names/important details and be sure to keep it short and sweet – the less you share, the less likely you are to get in trouble further down the line!

5. Consider The Presentation:

It might sound silly but when it comes to your copywriting portfolio, design matters too. Rather than printing your pieces out on a scruffy piece of A4 and stapling the pieces together, buy a nice shiny presentation wallet – and slot each piece in – as you’ll know being a copywriter, the easier you make something to read, the more likely it is to be read.

Similarly when it comes to your online portfolio, choose the design of your template carefully (if you’re using WordPress I wrote a blog on choosing a WordPress theme a few weeks ago) – make sure the font is easy to read and make sure the design really emphasises the copy, rather than the images – remember, you’re being judged on your words, not the images you’ve chosen to use!

Lastly make sure your online portfolio is easy to navigate, is easy on the eye and is easy to access – you should always have a link to your portfolio on your copywriting CV, regardless of whether the role asks for examples of your written work!

Think I’ve missed anything out? Have any other copywriting portfolio tips? Leave me a comment below.

06 May 14:20

3 Twitter Best Practices That Unlock Business Success

by Mark Schaefer

3 Twitter Best Practices That Unlock Business Success image lock

Here is one of the most common business inquiries I receive: “I am about to launch a (business/book/seminar) and want to use Twitter to do it. Can you help me?”

My answer is usually “yes … I can help,” but my advice is rather unsettling. Twitter probably won’t work to help your business unless you follow three best practices first, and this is enough to stop most people in their tracks.

Although it is certainly possible to have a short-term business success on Twitter, it is not probable without months — or even years — of work first. Behind every case study there are three factors at work and these stepping stones are climbed only through a lot of preparation and effort.

Before we get into the details, I want to emphasize that there are many business benefits to Twitter that DON’T require a lot of preparation, You can use it for market research, education, and customer service, for example, without the steps I am about to explain. But if you want to generate leads and SELL something some day, pay attention to the advice below.

1. The network strategy

I have nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter and I go to great lengths to assure that they are real people, not spammers of inactive accounts.

If I sent out a tweet right now promoting my new book, how many people would actually buy it? Not very many. Why? Your Twitter audience is generally made up of “weak links.” These are people who are aware of you but probably won’t take a strong action like donate to a cause or buy something just because you ask.

Think of this like sales. You have to have a lot of contacts for any of them to turn into leads. You have to have a lot of leads before they turn into a sales call. You have to make a lot of sales calls before you find people who will actually buy from you.

Twitter is much the same way. If you have 2,000 followers, you are not going to sell 2,000 books, You might sell one!

You have to consistently and methodically build a relevant audience of “contacts” before you find those relatively few who will actually buy something. There are many ways to find these wonderful people including mining Twitter lists, Advanced Twitter Search, Twitter chats, and even through Twitter’s advertising programs.

The single-best place to go for resources to build your network is Chapter 5 of the book The Tao of Twitter, which has more than 20 ideas. You need to continually find these relevant people, even if you only spend 20 minutes a day on this activity.

2. The content strategy

So the idea behind sales and Twitter is to turn these weak links into stronger links that will lead to real business opportunities. Now that you have built up a list of people who will have some disposition to be interested in you, you have to get on their radar screen and usually it is your CONTENT that leads to that awareness.

Content can come in many forms. Here are a few ideas about the types of content that can get people’s attention:

Rich content — The most powerful content is original, “rich content” that provides depth and voice of authority. Generally speaking, rich content comes in the form of a blog, podcast or video series. It’s hard work providing this content on a consistent basis but this is the type of value that makes you stand out and create a deeper connections with these weak relationships. Linking tweets to your original and helpful content can spur people to learn more about you.

Content from others — If you do a good job surrounding yourself with a relevant audience, they will also be sending you links to wonderful content through their tweets each day. Re-tweeting others takes the burden of finding content off your shoulders and also compliments others when you acknowledge their good work. Re-tweeting is a superb way to get on somebody’s radar screen!

Contests and games — People love the opportunity to win prizes. Promoting a contest is a great way to create awareness, especially when combined with Twitter advertising.

Personal engagement — Show people your human side whenever possible, If you are tweeting as an individual, mention things going on in your life or tweet a photo now and then. If you are tweeting under a corporate account, think about adding initials to the end of every tweet so people can know there is a real person behind the content.

3. Consistent Engagement

Social media is SOCIAL. It’s not very effective creating an audience without engaging with them or simply shipping content out there like an advertisement.

When I was starting out in business, I used to attend a lot of live, monthly networking meetings. It would take 4-5 months before people started to recognize me and get to know me. It might take six months before those connections led to a cup of coffee and a real business discussion.

In real life, we build meaningful relationships — strong links — through a series of engagements over a period of time, maybe even years. Networking on the web is the same way. It takes time, patience, and consistent engagement.

Look for opportunities to say hello to people online, to compliment them, to re-tweet something they provide that is exceptional. And always look for ways to actually MEET people in real life. That is the best way to convert those weak social media connections to strong relationships who can help you.

Managing expectations

I can’t tell you how many people come to me thinking Twitter (or social media in general) is some miracle cure. It’s not. It CAN work, but you need to have realistic expectations about HOW it works and what it takes to get there.

There is no quick or easy way to create business benefits through Twitter, but I can also tell that if you do the hard work, it’s worth it. Twitter — combined with rich content, a relevant audience and consistent engagement — has helped many people build careers, find jobs, promote causes, discover new markets, hire valuable employees, and yes … even find new customers!

I hope this perspective helps and that you’ll take a moment to share it across your networks as your own helpful content that connects with your relevant audience. After all, nothing says I love you like a re-tweet now and then!

Illustration courtesy of Flickr CC and Grace Smith.

Mark Schaefer is an educator and marketing consultant specializing in social media workshops. He blogs at {grow} and is the author of several best-selling marketing books including Return On Influence.

06 May 14:20

Content Marketing Tactical Plan

by Dayna Rothman

Author: Dayna Rothman

There are a lot of moving parts involved in creating the perfect content marketing plan. You have to consider staffing, persona development, content themes, and so much more. But how do you put it all together? When it comes to content, the most common question I get asked is: “How do you get started?” What are the elements of a well-run content marketing machine?

That’s why we’ve created a handy (and interactive) template, our Content Marketing Tactical Plan—to help you put some structure behind your content plan. To lay the groundwork, here’s what you’ll need to map out:

Ownership and Staffing

To start creating your content plan, the first thing you’ll need to do is assign ownership. You need to ensure that you have an assigned staff member who can uphold quality standards and consistency. You also need to assign someone to manage the responsibility of strategy, project management, writing, copyediting, and cross-functional coordination.

Buyer Persona and Buyer Journey Development

You want to know who your customers are and what their buyer journeys look like. A buyer persona can be defined as a representation of your ideal customer. You need to create personas in order to determine who you are marketing to and the best way to speak to them through your content. And a buyer journey maps your buyer’s decision making process during a purchase. This gives you a solid foundation to map content to each persona and each step in the buyer journey.

Content Arcs and Themes

Once you have a good sense of your personas and buying journey, it’s time to decide what to write about! Consider breaking your content planning into quarterly or bi-yearly themes or arcs, and then make sure your content is executing against them. Note that you may also have yearly initiatives to focus on, so include those in your planning as well.

Editorial Calendar

Your editorial calendar should outline what is going to be produced—and when. This can be done in Google Calendar or any other calendaring tool. The key is to provide content visibility cross-functionally throughout the marketing organization. Additionally, you can line up content creation with business initiatives and demand generation campaigns.

Content Type Planning

Now that you have a plan, you need to ask yourself: what are you going to create and in what form? How many assets will you create each month for each stage of your sales funnel? Which of your team members will take ownership of each content type? We encourage you to try out different types of content to learn what your audience likes. Do they read ebooks, or do they prefer videos or slide decks? Creating and testing a variety of content will help you make informed content type planning decisions.

Content Promotion

Your content should be the fuel for all of your marketing programs. Whether the program is an email sent out to your database, a pay-per-click ad, or a social campaign, your content can be the associated offer that drives conversion. Think about all of the various channels—email marketing, social media, your website, and more. These can all be leveraged to promote your assets, drive lead generation, and nurture leads throughout your sales funnel.

Content Metrics

Now it’s time to measure your results. There are many things that marketers can measure when it comes to content marketing, depending on your business priorities. We suggest you map your content metrics to the stages in your sales funnel. You will have different content metrics at each stage—for early stage content, you might measure traffic and shares, but for mid stage content, you might look at multi-touch pipeline attribution.

Now you have a framework to follow to create your content strategy. Ready to put more color around each item? Download our brand new Content Marketing Tactical Plan to take your content planning to the next level.

Content Marketing Tactical Plan was posted at Marketo Marketing Blog - Best Practices and Thought Leadership. | http://blog.marketo.com

06 May 14:20

3 Ways to Target Prospective Clients

by Valerie Levin

3 Ways to Target Prospective Clients image Target Clients1 Photo: Flickr @Nina Matthews

In an ideal world, all businesses would like to believe that “If you build it, they will come.” In reality, we know prospective clients don’t always discover our awesome product on their own, and sometimes may need a push in the right direction. Apart from creating and distributing content to ensure your company is easily found online, there are several more proactive strategies you can implement to connect with future customers.

Whether you search for keywords or mentions in social media, set up daily news alerts on specific topics, or browse Q&A sites, targeting relevant prospects is a great way to increase brand awareness and generate potential sales. The recommendations below can be put into practice by either marketers or salespeople on a daily basis, or conversely, one team can do the “social listening” while the other actually reaches out to contact the prospects.

Use News Alerts: E-Mail Your Way to the Next Customer

There are dozens of tools out there that scour the digital landscape for mentions, keywords, and terms. Just to name a few: Google Alerts and Talkwalker Alerts (both are free), or Mention (this is a more advanced freemium tool). It’s crucial to sign up for a number of alerts (start out with 10) for competitors, trending topics, influencers, and buzzwords. Also, make sure to create separate alerts for similar topics in order to cover all of your bases. For example, at Oktopost,we track both “social media marketing,” which is more general,and “B2B social media” for more niche-specific news items.

When you start receiving e-mail alerts, go through the reports daily and open any article you feel might be relevant to your service offering. In addition to curating the article (only if you feel it provides value), search for the author’s name and biographical blurb, which is usually at the top or the bottom of the article. After you’ve read more about their position and the company they work for, if you think it might be a relevant match, use Rapportive to figure out their e-mail address. Try their first name followed by the company’s website domain, and if that doesn’t work, test out a few combinations with their first and last name. Once you find their contact details, reach out with a personalized e-mail. Write about the points you liked in the article, the information you found most helpful, or the opinions you related to most. Then, provide a short explanation of how and why you think your product can help the person’s company, and offer to schedule a call in the near future.

Go Social: Pinpoint Clients on Twitter and LinkedIn Groups

When it comes to B2B lead generation, the top two channels are LinkedIn – especially Discussion Groups, and Twitter. With Twitter, the easiest solution for monitoring is TweetDeck, a tool that lets you track customized streams in real-time. Set up a stream to monitor mentions of your brand and add a few more based on: 1) handles (mentions of competitors 2) hashtags (industry trends or buzzwords) 3) keywords (tracking any other subject) or 4) lists (influencers and thought-leaders). For lists, you can either subscribe to a public one by first logging into Twitter and then adding it in TweetDeck, or create a unique one directly inside TweetDeck. For example, if you monitor mentions of competitors, and you see Tweets about service problems they’re experiencing or complaints from dissatisfied customers, you can quickly reach out to them to offer your product, and then schedule a call or e-mail them to continue the conversion.

Social listening on LinkedIn is a bit more difficult, given that there’s no similar monitoring tool or simple way to track keywords in Groups. However, there are two slightly more tedious ways that enable you to follow conversations and connect with prospects. The first step is to search for Groups that are relevant to your industry and join those that have at least a few hundred members and an active community. Once you’ve joined, you can either monitor the Group by manually viewing its page on LinkedIn or signing up for e-mail digests. By going to the Privacy & Settings tab, you can choose to receive the digests either daily or weekly. The important thing is to look out for members who ask for recommendations on a certain type of solution, ask questions tied to your industry, or need advice or best practices on your field of expertise.

Join a Q&A Site: Answer Prospects with Genuine Interest

Q&A communities such as Quora are growing in popularity, and they offer a great opportunity to answer questions from prospects who express direct interest in your industry or solution. Search for topics related to your sector, and then answer the questions in the most detailed, relevant and helpful manner. Be aware– Quora is not a fan of promotional posts, so be careful when composing your response. If you overtly recommend your product or service, make sure to openly state your affiliation to the company by citing your position or mentioning you’re part of the team. Also, instead of directly promoting your offering, you can answer the question asked and include a link to content from your brand (with a brief summary of it) which provides a more detailed explanation.

No matter which method you use, the point is that you shouldn’t always wait for the customers to come to you. There are hundreds if not thousands of potential clients who can benefit from what you’re offering, and bringing their attention to it is a great place to start the conversation. A mix of using content marketing to generate leads, as well as proactively targeting them across the social landscape and the blogosphere, is a helpful approach and ensures you leverage all opportunities. Just makes sure that whenever you reach out, you do it in a personalized manner.

05 May 14:07

Insight Selling: A Q&A with Author Mike Schultz

by Charles H. Green

Insight Selling It’s no secret that I’ve been a contributing author at RainToday for many years. In that time, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate and connect with many thought-provoking professionals.

Last year, I had the privilege to sit down with Mike Schultz, the founder and publisher of Rain Group, and talk about their 2013 report, “What Sales Winners Do Differently.”

Recently, Mike and I sat down again and discussed his new book, Insight Selling: What Sales Winners Do Differently, that delves into this same topic in further depth. After reading the book cover to cover in a matter of hours, I was thrilled to get further insight and chat about his findings.

—-

CG: The sales world has changed dramatically over the past several years. There’s a lot of conflicting advice out there on what works and what doesn’t. In doing research for Insight Selling, what strategies or tactics did you uncover that work today?

MS: Since articles like “The End of Solution Sales” and “Selling is Not About Relationships” were published in by the Harvard Business Review, there’s been a lot of disagreement in the sales world about what’s working and what’s not. We decided to study what was actually happening.

We wanted to find out what the winners of sales opportunities do differently than sellers who came close but ultimately came in second place. So we studied over 700 B2B purchases made by buyers who represent $3.1 billion in annual purchasing power. We found that winners sell radically differently than second-place finishers and that winners exhibit a specific combination of behaviors to achieve better outcomes than second-place finishers. We found that sales winners:

1. Connect with buyers personally and connect buyer needs with their solutions.
2. Convince buyers they are the best choice, that the risks are worth taking, and that they can achieve strong ROI.
3. Collaborate with buyers by bringing new ideas to the table, delivering new insights, and working with buyers as a team.

And we found that solution sales is not dead and that relationships are still important. Sorry, HBR. Solution sales and relationships need to evolve and they are just a piece of the whole, but they’re far from dead and sellers who dismiss these concepts outright put their sales results in grave danger.

CG: What surprised you most about your research findings?

MS: We studied 42 factors that were common pieces of advice given to sellers in order to determine what sales winners do differently.

In our training programs, we poll our audiences asking them to guess what they think sales winners do most differently than second-place finishers. They usually pick things like, ‘was trustworthy,’ or ‘listened to me,’ or ‘understood my needs,’ and so on.

They rarely pick ‘educated me with new ideas or perspectives,’ which, according to buyers, was the number one factor separating winners from the rest. And they rarely pick ‘collaborated with me,’ which was the number two factor most separating winners from second-place finishers.

With this last point, there’s been a lot of buzz that the new trend in selling is to challenge buyers. Our training participants often say to us, “Isn’t the word ‘collaborate’ more of an antonym than a synonym of the word ‘challenging’?” Perhaps. So it’s not only surprising to our training participants but also to us, because these two factors are not what we would have guessed to be what most separates the winners from the rest.

Now, this doesn’t mean sellers who win don’t say what they need to say in order to help the buyer. But they don’t do it standoffishly. So, what sellers think buyers want and what buyers actually want are two surprisingly different things.

CG: In the book, you introduce a three level model that I love – Connect, Convince, Collaborate. How does this change the way people need to sell?

MS: With connect, even though prevailing thinking in sales has been focused on uncovering needs and crafting compelling solutions to solve those needs, sellers still fall into the pattern of not listening, not investigating, and not tailoring what they sell to the needs of the buyer.

With convince, it’s been drilled into the minds of so many sellers not to pitch or sell anything too strongly that they are unwilling to take a point-of-view or advocate for a particular idea or strategy.

With collaborate, too many sellers have been trained to think of sales as me-versus-them. Or to just try to find ways of selling what they offer. Or simply don’t engage deeply enough. What’s important is that these are the things that buyers value, so they’re the things sellers need to do.

CG: You break down insight selling into two applications – interaction insight and opportunity insight. Can you explain the differences between the two?

MS: When sellers introduce buyers to ideas they need to know about we call it opportunity insight. This is when the seller knows a buyer should be doing something and the buyer has little or no idea about it until the seller brings it up.

Now, I’m not saying go straight to the pitch—there’s a rhythm to getting there—but fundamentally, sellers need to get the passionate beliefs they have in their heads about certain ideas into the buyers’ heads.

The second application is interaction insight. This is when sellers ask disruptive questions, push buyers out of their comfort zones and encourage them to think differently. In this case, buyers often come to new insights by working collaboratively with the seller guiding them.

Sellers bring ideas (opportunity insight), and spark ideas through how they lead their conversations (interaction insight).

CG: But the buyer has to trust you if they’re going to accept your insight. Don’t you agree? They can get information anywhere, but when they trust the person it’s coming from it makes a big difference.

MS: Absolutely. You can’t succeed with insight selling without trust. When buyers trust sellers they:

1. Depend on them
2. Listen to them
3. Give them access
4. Spend time with them

The more a buyer trusts you the more willing they are to listen to your ideas and to implement them. Without trust, insight selling is very difficult to do.

CG: Increasingly we hear how buyers don’t trust information from corporations and sellers – that they trust information from third parties, their peers, or even strangers. How can a salesperson get around this?

MS: Well, Charlie, I’d say they should all listen to you.

There’s not much an individual seller can do to restore someone’s faith in corporations, but they can certainly build faith in them as people and can influence strongly whether a buyer perceives their company to be trustworthy.

When a buyer meets a seller, on the one hand they bring with them a modicum of skepticism about the seller’s competence and motives. On the other hand, when a buyer meets a seller for the first time, that seller has a blank trust slate.

It’s up to the seller to bring their “A” game and demonstrate competence and behave overall in ways that the buyer forms the impression that the seller is trustworthy. Every seller is essentially playing on the same playing field of trust. It’s what they do on that playing field that matters.

CG: What’s the biggest misconception sellers have about trust and where do sellers often fall short when it comes to establishing and maintaining trust with buyers?

MS: Everyone thinks they, themselves, are competent. Amazing, even. But they’re not. The concept is called, in academic circles, “Illusory Superiority.”

What does it mean for trust? Sellers overestimate their competence and buyers don’t. Proving they are competent and have integrity – that they are worthy of trust – is a steeper hill than many sellers think.

Insight selling plays in here. You need to get people to trust your ideas, your advice, and your ability to get things done for and with them. Until they have experience with you, the well of trust you build won’t be very deep. This is why collaboration is so powerful, because it creates shared experience where buyers can be exposed deeply to your competence while spending time with you. At the same time, spending time builds intimacy. All of it leads to trust.

—

If you want to learn how to sell like winners do, pick up your copy of Insight Selling today. If you order by May 10, RAIN Group has some great bonuses for you. You’ll receive the exclusive expert interview series What it Takes to Succeed in Sales Today with myself, John Jantsch, Jill Konrath, Andrew Sobel, and more along with 5 lessons from Insight Selling and RAIN Selling Online training programs. You’ll also be invited to join Insight Selling author, John Doerr for an exclusive webinar, What It Takes to Become an Insight Seller. Plus, RAIN Group is donating their portion of book sales during the launch to the American Heart Association to support congenital heart defect research (learn why here). So go order your copy today. Mike and John are the real deal.

05 May 14:07

Winning With Insight: Harnessing the Power of Ideas in Selling

What does it take to capture the attention of today's crazy-busy, well educated prospects? They certainly don't want to take time learning about your products/services.

That's why I thought you'd be interested in my recent interview with Mike Schultz, author of the new book, Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently. I hope you enjoy it.

JILL: So what exactly is "Insight Selling?

Mike Schultz: Essentially, it is harnessing the power of ideas in selling. When you can give the buyer an “aha” moment—when they learn something important—they make better decisions. We’ve defined it as follows:

Insight Selling is the process of creating and winning sales opportunities, and driving change, with ideas that matter.

Inside the definition are several important points:

You can use ideas to create sales conversations and fill the pipeline.
Ideas make a huge difference in winning sales and beating competitors.
Sellers who leverage ideas drive change—they’re not just middlemen.
And when the ideas matter to the buyers, the seller increases value.

JILL: Can you give us a brief overview of the research behind your book?

Mike Schultz: Since “The End of Solution Sales” was published in 2012 by the Harvard Business Review, there’s been a lot of disagreement in the sales world about what’s working and what’s not. We decided to study what was actually happening.

We wanted to know the answer to this question: “What are the winners of actual sales opportunities doing differently than sellers who come in second place?” To find the answer, we studied over 700 B2B purchases made by buyers responsible for $3.1 billion. We found that winners sell radically differently than second-place finishers, and that winners exhibit a specific combination of behaviors to achieve better outcomes that second-place finishers don’t.

And, in case you were wondering, solution sales is not dead. Sorry HBR, I disagree. It needs to evolve, and it’s just a piece of the whole now, but it’s not dead.

JILL: You talk about "winning with insight." I love that phrase. How did winners leverage it in the sales process?

Mike Schultz: Fundamentally in two ways:

1. Winners introduce buyers to ideas they need to know about. We call this opportunity insight. This is when the seller knows a buyer should be doing something and the buyer has little or no idea about it until the seller brings it up.

2. They ask disruptive questions, pushing buyers out of their comfort zones, encouraging them to think differently. We call this interaction insight. In this sense, buyers often come to new insights on their own with the seller guiding them. The seller doesn’t just bring ideas (opportunity insight), they also spark ideas through how they lead their conversations.

JILL: One of the things you highlight is that winners are better at connecting the dots. Can you explain what you mean?

Mike Schultz: This is the whole “solution sales is not dead” thing. In our research, sellers who won did a much better job understanding buyer needs and crafting compelling solutions. I don’t care which solution or consultative sales method you subscribe to, this is the essence of the concept of selling a solution…an outcome.

We found that when sellers didn’t connect the dots, they lost! Connecting the dots, however, didn’t get them the win. It is necessary, but not sufficient. Sellers need to do more to find themselves in the winners circle.

JILL: In my experience, the majority of sellers lose to “no decision” more than all their competitors combined. How are winners getting people to change from the status quo.

Mike Schultz: Imagine for a minute a buyer wants to do something they should do, but don’t have to do. In this case, a buyer must justify a new course of action, and justify their investment in this action.

Imagine the buyer justifying this to their board of directors. They have to make an impassioned case that hits the following points:

Why we need this. Winners are much better at both connecting the dots and communicating the ROI case.
Why we should buy it from them. Winners are much more likely to convince buyers they are the best choice.
Why it will work. Winners do a better job building buyer belief and mitigating risk.

When the buyers themselves can make this case to their board…their colleagues…themselves…whoever, they take action.

Winners help buyers make this case, and thus lose fewer sales to no decision.

JILL: Mike, in your book you state: "Sales winners make strong personal relationships at more than double the rate of second place finishers." How are they doing that?

Mike Schultz: This is interesting because another Harvard Business Review article came out recently titled “Selling is Not About Relationships.” Again, I disagree. I’d say it’s not all about relationships, but relationships are certainly critical for selling success.

You can look at relationships in two ways: 1) the business relationship steeped in the mutual exchange of value, and 2) the personal relationship. Both are critical. With the business relationship, the more value you provide, the more essential you become to the buyer’s success, but sellers don’t get to this point unless the buyer likes them first. A few thoughts on personal relationships:

Don’t fear the personal relationship. Get to know people. Let them get to know you.
Don’t confuse being “liked” with seeking harmony. You can be liked and still be an assertive and forceful agent of change for a buyer.
Find ways to spend time with buyers. Relationships deepen when you spend time with people.

JILL: I love your focus on collaboration. Not a lot of people are talking about that subject, yet I think it’s crucial. How are winners collaborating differently from others?

Mike Schultz: The sellers that won were almost three times as likely to be perceived by buyers as collaborative. When we talked to buyers and asked them what collaboration meant to them, by and large what we heard boiled down to this: they believed sellers worked with them to achieve mutual goals.

When sellers practice interaction insight (described earlier), the buyers really feel the collaboration.

We also included “educated me with new ideas and perspectives,” the number one factor separating winners from second-place finishers, under the heading of collaboration. When ideas are worthwhile, they can inspire buyers to pursue new opportunities. That’s opportunity insight.

This is why we titled the book Insight Selling. The number one and number two factors separating winners from second-place finishers were “educated me with new ideas and perspectives” and “collaborated with me” in the sense of working together to achieve mutual goals.

Indeed, harnessing the power of ideas is what winners do differently than second-place finishers.

JILL: Thanks so much, Mike. Great stuff. Click here to get your copy of Insight Selling. If you order by May 10th you'll get access to exclusive high value sales resources (including an interview with me about What it Takes to Succeed in Sales Today).

The research behind it is rock-solid. And, the insights you gain from reading it will transform how you sell.

Mike Schultz is President of RAIN Group, an industry-leading sales training and consulting company. He's also the bestselling author of Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade and Sell in Any Situation, Insight Selling: Surprising Research on What Sales Winners Do Differently, and writes for the RAIN Selling Blog. Follow Mike on Twitter at @mike_schultz.

05 May 14:06

Why Ad Agencies aren’t adjusting to a real-time social media world

by Mark

draper

Usually when I hear a sentiment three times in week it is a signal for a blog post. Here are the signals coming at me in the last few days:

“Our advertising agency is staggeringly out of touch with the demands of a digital world. I caught them giving us the same cookie-cutter plan they tried to lay on me when I was with another company three years ago! ” — Brand Manager, Fortune 500 company
“We are losing a lot of digital business to smaller agencies. We have too much bureaucracy, too many contracts, too many approvals to go through to be responsive and real-time.” — Creative Lead, Large New York Agency
“Our ad agency set up a separate division for social but they still try to manage it like it is purely advertising. I’m not happy with that. I don’t think they know the difference.” — CMO, Hospitality Industry

So what’s going on here? Social media is a relatively mature channel by now. Why the ad agency angst?

I think I know the reason.

The dynamics of social versus advertising

I am about to make some generalizations. These statements are not universal but I do believe they paint a broad view of the problem.

Here is how Advertising typically works: A client gets money approved for an ad campaign. The Ad Agency pitches a concept for the campaign and if they win, they plan, create and execute. As the money is spent, awareness for your product goes up. When the money goes away, the awareness goes away.

There are MANY uses for social media but GENERALLY, it is a channel to deliver a drip of useful/interesting/vital content that leads to awareness, trust, and eventually loyalty. It rarely results in a short-term bump in sales like an ad campaign (although it can). It is more of a long-term play to reach new and existing audiences where and when they need you.

Although this is an evolution in how we may think about marketing, it’s not really rocket science. Why are agencies having trouble adjusting to the digital world?

It’s all about money

For decades, ad agencies have been organized and funded by this campaign model. Bid. Win. Execute. Repeat.

But succeeding in social media marketing and social influence marketing requires an organization and budgetary process geared toward the long-term. Agencies are not built to handle that. Every internal process is optimized for “campaigns,” not “relationships.”

I believe the main reason agencies seems to be flailing around is not for a lack of wisdom or ability, it is a matter of organizational design, company culture, and internal accounting processes.

The fact is, most company marketing departments are built this way too. Their budgets are constructed based on some percentage increase or decrease of what was done with the agency last year. Making a budget overhaul more aligned with today’s realities is going to take some time.

So in a way, these outdated agency models are reinforced by their customers who take lazy approaches to budgeting based on past performance and some quarterly sales goal.

The challenge

In summary, ad agencies are slow to shift due to:

1) An accounting/organizational model built on campaigns.

2) Customer budgets historically aimed at quarterly spends and results (that reinforces this agency model)

3) Unrealistic expectations for social. When a customer approves a budget for social, it typically has the same quarterly budget and performance requirements, which may not be realistic, contributing to a cycle of unfulfilled expectations.

Some critics may add here that if social can’t be held up to the same economic standard as advertising, why do it? An example:

I was consulting with a large company that is spending $70,000 a month on full-page newspaper advertising. They called me in for advice because they felt their ads were not working as well as they used to. Well duh … newspaper circulation in this city was down by 30% in five years.

Why were they still spending that amount each month on a sinking ship? Because that is what they had always spent, so it was easy to create that budget and get it approved.

Meanwhile, I was able to show them how competitors were building a vital, useful social media presence integrated with both TV advertising and digital ads. I tried to convince them to take a percentage of their traditional ad budget and build a social media presence.

This was two years ago. They still haven’t done anything on the social media scene (other than a token Facebook page and Twitter account) because they can’t move their organization and budget process away from the quarterly advertising metrics and budgeting cycle.

I want to emphasize once more that this is a generalization, not a gospel. Certainly there are exceptions and the best-managed companies are moving forward. What has your experience been? Is the ad industry stuck or is it moving ahead?

The post Why Ad Agencies aren’t adjusting to a real-time social media world appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Comments

LOL! Thanks Mark! ; ) by Robin Martin
Gini's model is certainly something very different, not least ... by Paul Sutton
Hi Becky, Interesting case – in – point . May I ask… ... by rohan goel
You made my day : ) by Mark W. Schaefer
Great question. There are boutique agencies popping up all over ... by Mark W. Schaefer
Plus 5 more...

Is it a sales plan or a state of mind that feels support?

All salespeople are given a plan, a quota, or some kind of “numbers” to achieve as a major part of their job requirement.

The key word is “part.” The plan or the quota is a SMALL part of the achievement process.

How the company and leader supports the salesperson and his or her sales effort is another part – the MAJOR part.

The tools, the training, and the encouragement to achieve will determine the salesperson’s ultimate belief, effort, and outcome. (AKA: Results)

Sales leaders will always make value judgments on their salespeople’s ability to produce numbers, but rarely will they step up to bat and self-evaluate their own effort to support and encourage their salespeople.

Sales leaders are quick to judge the capability of their salespeople strictly by the numbers. They get reports to keep accountability high. They get reports to check on activity. They get reports to check the numbers.

CLASSIC EXAMPLE: If the number each salesperson is to achieve requires cold calling as a major part of the sales function, more than 50% will NOT make the grade. They will become discouraged by a 95% or more failure (rejection) rate, be unhappy, feel pressure, most likely lie on their sales report, and ultimately quit (or be fired).

SALES REALITY: Most salespeople resent the fact that they are held accountable for certain numbers that don’t have anything to do with actually making sales. In addition, most salespeople resent the fact that their sales training is focused on the product rather than selling skills.

BIGGER SALES REALITY. Sales is not numbers, it’s a rhythm. Any kind of sales requires you to get into a rhythm, and that rhythm be consistent. It’s not the song, it’s the backbeat. Backbeat provides the glue to music. Bass and drums, not lead guitar or vocals. Consistent beat, not a one-minute solo.

BIGGEST SALES REALITY. In order for salespeople to feel “in the groove,” and get the sales rhythm, there has to be leadership support, and there has to be leadership encouragement.

Leadership has to change the word accountability to the word responsibility. The salesperson is responsible for himself or herself, responsible for their outcomes, and responsible to their boss and their company for productivity.

Once the salesperson becomes a responsible salesperson they are automatically accountable to everyone without ever saying the word “accountable.”

But the boss and the company also have their own responsibility to support that salesperson 150%.

Here are the 7.5 responsibilities sales leadership has to salespeople in order for them to make their numbers happen without ever saying the word “accountability”:

1. Impeccable company, product, and service reputation. This is foundational and fundamental to a salesperson’s belief system, and a prospective customer’s belief system. Belief fuels enthusiasm. NOTE WELL: Reputation arrives way before salespeople arrive.

2. Social media attraction. Active participation in social media is no longer an option; it’s an imperative. And active participation, including one-on-one communications with customers, creates attraction. Attraction is also known as leads.

3. On-demand, web based sales and personal development training. Salespeople need information and answers in order to make sales. The right training will both help the salesperson and encourage the salesperson. If they can access sales information on their mobile device while they’re waiting in the lobby for a sales appointment, salespeople will gain a new self-confidence that will help them make the sale. (Go to www.gitomerVT.com to see an example.)

4. An easy-to-implement philosophical approach to the sale. There must be an approach and a strategy to the sale that salespeople are comfortable with, and will employ during the selling process. One that takes the emotion of the selling process and converts it to a customer buying process.

5. The ability to differentiate FROM the competition. Salespeople need a value proposition, value-based statements, and value-based questions to genuinely engage any customer or prospect. And that value must be perceived as value by the customer.

6. Genuine, real-world, hands-on leadership encouragement. Salespeople want to feel the love and the support of leadership, not the pressure. Senior-level executives, and sales leaders, must be out on sales calls as often as possible. This way they discover the real world – the real world of making sales that will help them when they make the next sales plan.

7. A generous comp plan. When the comp plan changes, make sure the compensation goes up. Salespeople need a monetary carrot in order to perform at their highest level.

7.5 Internal harmony. Whatever your internal process is, there must be a harmony between sales, accounting, shipping, and any internal administration that deals directly with salespeople and/or customers.

I’ve just given you the tip of the sales performance iceberg. Most of the iceberg is not visible if the salesperson is fighting market conditions, customers, and competition to gain a competitive and profitable edge.

NON-SECRET FORMULA FOR SALES SUCCESS: Give salespeople encouragement and support and they will give you sales.