LinkedIn‘s advice to its membership base on what to do, and what not to do, while they’re on the platform is generally pretty good. One area where it offers guidance, though, could not be more wrong… if you’re in sales.

For example. Whenever I look at my own LinkedIn profile, I always see this particular box:

This is good advice for most people. And yes, LinkedIn has a good handle on what the typical user should do while using their platform. If you’re in sales (and especially if you’re in social selling), though, you are not the “typical” LinkedIn member. Thus, your headline should absolutely NOT be your current position.

Why?

It’s All About Value

Simply put, the headline is a great space or area to really talk about the value you bring to those people with whom you interact in the normal course of your business. If your headline does not speak to the needs of people viewing your profile (or those mousing over your name in their newsfeed) and doesn’t spell out the value you bring to them, you’ve lost a potential social engagement, connection, or even prospect.

Instead of promoting yourself or re-hashing your corporate title, treat your headline as a great opportunity to build your value in their minds. Make them want to contact you or connect with you because you’ll be a great help to them. Why? You are a true professional who will bring them value… even if she or he doesn’t eventually buy your product or service. (You may even be able to gain referrals from that latter person!) Demonstrate all of that in your headline.

These are what I would consider “typical” headlines that you don’t want to use:

• Account Executive at (Company)
• Salesperson at (Company)
• Service and Marketing Manager at (Company)
• Realtor | Home Sales | Home Rentals | Foreclosures | Condo Sales
• Personal Lines Account Manager at (Company)

Instead, try writing a headline that piques curiosity, creates immediate engagement, and truly shows your value proposition. Here are some examples:

• Helping Manufacturers and Distributors Leverage “The Cloud” for Effective and Efficient Operations
• Driving Down Cost & Increasing Efficiencies in Healthcare Starts with Logistics
• Transforming the Way Businesses Address AML Compliance and Fraud Monitoring
• Making Sales People Wildly Successful By Providing the Most Effective Way to Engage Their B2B Buyers (This is one we use at my company.)
• Giving LinkedIn Marketers and Trainers an Easier Life!

(I should look into that last one!)

Which group of headlines would entice you more to click through to her or his profile? Moreover, which group demonstrates true value? If you think the latter list answers those questions, I’d suggest you get crackin’ on writing a new headline.

The Stigma of Sales

If you’re in sales, there’s another very real reason why your headline should not mention your current position. Unfortunately, there’s still a dishonorable view out there about the sales profession. Many people are turned off when they receive a connection request, an InMail or some other form of communication within the platform from a business professional who is in sales. Alternatively, they may see a post or comment from someone in their feed, but they shy away from clicking through to that person’s profile when they hover over her or his name and see any connotation of the word “sales” in it (salesperson, account executive, etc.).

Not having any form of the word “sales” in your headline isn’t being dishonest, either. You’re not trying to “put one past” the people visiting your profile; in fact, you are actually being very honest about what it is you do and the value you will bring to someone who either contacts you or who decides to engage with you.

On the flip side of that, you should most definitely include your title in the Experience section. You should have complete transparency in the fact that you are in sales, but the best place for that is in your Experience section.

So don’t follow LinkedIn’s advice on headlines if you are in sales. Instead, use those 120 characters to show the true value you bring to your connections, prospects, clients, and audience in general. After all, you bring a lot of value that others can use. Adopt and embrace that value in your headline.

This article originally appeared on LinkedIn.

Up and to the right.

This is the vision CEOs go to sleep with at night. We pour our lives into our business, hoping that our efforts — and the efforts of our thoughtfully chosen and loyal teams — will put our business on a steady path to success. You probably think that if you survived starting a business, it should be smooth sailing from here on, but it isn’t. Unfortunately, scaling a business is not always an “up and to the right” journey. In fact, most of the time it’s far from it.

I won’t beat around the bush; scaling is hard. It challenges every system, process and person that you have in place, forcing you to act fast or fall behind. At Lifesize, we are intimately familiar with these pain points, having reinvented our business less than three years ago and now growing our customer base at a very rapid rate.

Looking back at our experience — and ahead at the challenges we face — we recognize four areas to consider when scaling a business.

Set the right goals

Scaling a business isn’t an exact science, but you should know why you want to grow and make sure your executive team and employees are on board with the vision. It may be challenging to pinpoint exact growth figures, so in the early stages it may make most sense to set operational goals first (i.e., creating a new go-to-market model). Once you have your operational boxes checked, then you can set specific goals regarding revenue growth, customer acquisitions or expansion of existing accounts.

Explore all growth strategies

Take a critical eye to new customer acquisitions. Attracting new customers is not just one department’s job — it’s a collective effort. Evaluate your marketing and sales strategies to see how you can better capture and address new potential customers’ needs. Additionally, look for opportunity within existing customer accounts. Are your customers’ businesses growing or are they seeing great value in your offering in every day usage? If so, there’s a good chance your solution or services can grow with them.

Another way to expand is geographically, but you need to make sure your infrastructure and resources are in place so you can service your customers in all areas. For young or small companies, this is a very big step. Hiring sales managers outside of your native country can be challenging. Cultural norms, language, labor laws are all different in every country you wish to enter. Additionally, regional or country specific laws regarding data privacy or regulatory approval (as in the case of hardware) can be challenging to navigate and expensive and time consuming to implement. That does not even include finding the proper way of marketing, distributing and brand building for your product and services appropriate for each market. Expanding geographically can substantially increase your available market, but be sure it does not dilute your resources more than the uplift in sales it provides.

Be creative

One of the biggest hindrances to growth is resistance to change and being “stuck” in your processes, particularly for a company like Lifesize only recently emerging from a total body makeover. Growth can happen quickly, and it’s important to be creative and resourceful to accommodate customer needs. At Lifesize, for example, we started a program to reach out to our tens of thousands of happy Lifesize customers we had acquired over the past decade that had not yet experienced our new cloud-based solution. We wanted to do this quickly, but we soon realized that our financial and order management systems weren’t set up to take orders the way we wanted and at the pace we wanted. So, we had to get creative.

For a period of time, we modified our quoting and order-taking process to operate outside of the normal flow in order to facilitate the new faster pace. There was some manual effort on our back-end, but customers appreciated the streamlined process and sales teams were seeing shorter deal cycles and higher close rates. It is a simple but important example of the need to think quickly on your feet and accommodate change.

Make sure your team can scale, but beware your expenses

One of the unsettling things about scaling a business is the unrelenting pressure to hire. When you think about addressing growth challenges, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “We just need more headcount.” Unfortunately, operational expenses can quickly get out of control. The truth is that it’s not about hiring more – it’s about hiring right. Scaling requires a unique skill set, so make sure your hires — especially at the management level — have the right experience and knowledge to take your company to the next level. Nothing kills the enthusiasm of a spurt of new-found growth than having to unexpectedly slash expenses (or headcount) because you got ahead of the revenue growth with a cost structure that you cannot afford.

At the end of the day, success in scaling will depend on finding the right balance between growth and expenses. This is a marathon, not a sprint — so keep yourself grounded while following your vision. I can confidently say from experience that there are plenty of mistakes to be made along the way, but there are also plenty of opportunities for creativity and innovation, and of course ways to surprise and delight your customers. Scaling a business will not take you only up and to the right in a straight line — it will take you on a much more exciting ride.

Before the digital age, the key to keeping customers happy was “service with a smile.” Nowadays, customers are more likely to skip the human interaction and opt for self-service, finding solutions from their phones and laptops. When they’re successful, 65% say they feel good about themselves and the company they’re doing business with, according to research from Aspect.

Today, providing seamless self-service is fundamental to a great customer experience. Nearly 3 out of 4 customers actually prefer solving issues themselves. And besides that, self-service can be hugely beneficial to a company. It reduces customers’ reliance on human support, which frees your team up to focus on other priorities. Let’s dig into the benefits.

5 Major Benefits of Self-Service

Giving customers direct access to self-service resources is a smart move for many reasons.

1. Customers enjoy more convenience.

Most self-service resources, like a customer knowledge base, are available 24/7. Customers can access info online, anytime, from wherever they are. If they have a question at 3am on Saturday, they have a place to go. That empowers customers to use your products and services more often, because they know they a route to help is there if they need it.

2. It eases your team’s workload.

Each time a customer solves an issue on their own, it’s one less question your customer support team has to handle. Over time, that adds up. Customers turn to self-service resources more and more and scale back their reliance on email, phone, and chat support.

3. Customer support can pivot to a proactive mentality.

When your support team is freed up from handling basic issues, they have space to focus on delivering major value in other ways. For example, they can feed the case deflection machine by creating new self-service resources or spend more time helping at-risk customers who need extra attention.

4. Customers get more personalized service.

Regardless of how great your self-service resources are, customers will always have questions. But as more customers seek out answers themselves and case volume decreases, those customers in need benefit too. Support can give them high-quality, personalized service that sets them up for success.

5. Customer satisfaction increases, as do your profits.

As self-service resources grow and support quality increases, customers receive better support and get issues solved faster. That ultimately drives customer satisfaction, which positively impacts your bottom line. McKinsey found that companies with above-average customer satisfaction scores see four times as much growth as those with below-average scores.

Wrap-Up

It seems like a no-brainer. Lower support costs + happier customers = better business. But many companies struggle to prioritize self-service because resources are slim or they’re not convinced it’s worth the time and effort. Will customers even use these tools? How will we know they’re working?

What they don’t realize is that a self-service program can grow gradually. And launching one doesn’t have to be a massive project. Offering a basic customer knowledge base is a great start. Next week, we’ll discuss the qualities of an effective knowledge base and share some tips on launching or improving your existing one.

For now, take some time to look at how your customers are engaging with you now. If your agents find themselves continually answering the same basic questions or directing customers to articles that need a refresh, it’s probably time to focus on your self-service strategy. When it’s done well, support can focus on laying the foundation for healthier customer relationships rather than fighting fires.

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a niche subfield of computer science. Tech giants have been using AI for years: Machine learning algorithms power Amazon product recommendations, Google Maps, and the content that Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter display in social media feeds. But William Gibson’s adage applies well to AI adoption: The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.

The average company faces many challenges in getting started with machine learning, including a shortage of data scientists. But just as important is a shortage of executives and nontechnical employees able to spot AI opportunities. And spotting those opportunities doesn’t require a PhD in statistics or even the ability to write code. (It will, spoiler alert, require a brief trip back to high school algebra.)

Having an intuition for how machine learning algorithms work – even in the most general sense – is becoming an important business skill. Machine learning scientists can’t work in a vacuum; business stakeholders should help them identify problems worth solving and allocate subject matter experts to distill their knowledge into labels for data sets, provide feedback on output, and set the objectives for algorithmic success.

As Andrew Ng has written: “Almost all of AI’s recent progress is through one type, in which some input data (A) is used to quickly generate some simple response (B).”

But how does this work? Think back to high school math — I promise this will be brief — when you first learned the equation for a straight line: y = mx + b. Algebraic equations like this represent the relationship between two variables, x and y. In high school algebra, you’d be told what m and b are, be given an input value for x, and then be asked to plug them into the equation to solve for y. In this case, you start with the equation and then calculate particular values.

Supervised learning reverses this process, solving for m and b, given a set of x’s and y’s. In supervised learning, you start with many particulars — the data — and infer the general equation. And the learning part means you can update the equation as you see more x’s and y’s, changing the slope of the line to better fit the data. The equation almost never identifies the relationship between each x and y with 100% accuracy, but the generalization is powerful because later on you can use it to do algebra on new data. Once you’ve found a slope that captures a relationship between x and y reliably, if you are given a new x value, you can make an educated guess about the corresponding value of y.

As you might imagine, many exciting machine learning problems can’t be reduced to a simple equation like y = mx + b. But at their essence, supervised machine learning algorithms are also solving for complex versions of m, based on labeled values for x and y, so they can predict future y’s from future x’s. If you’ve ever taken a statistics course or worked with predictive analytics, this should all sound familiar: It’s the idea behind linear regression, one of the simpler forms of supervised learning.

To return to Ng’s formulation, supervised learning requires you to have examples of both the input data and the response, both the x’s and the y’s. If you have both of those, supervised learning lets you come up with an equation that approximates that relationship, so in the future you can guess y values for any new value of x.

So the question of how to identify AI opportunities starts with asking: What are some outcomes worth guessing? And do we have the data necessary to do supervised learning?

For example, let’s say a data scientist is tasked with predicting real estate prices for a neighborhood. After analyzing the data, she finds that housing price (y) is tightly correlated to size of house (x). So, she’d use many data points containing both houses’ size and price, use statistics to estimate the slope (m), and then use the equation y = mx + b to predict the price for a given house based on its size. This is linear regression, and it remains incredibly powerful.

Organizations use similar techniques to predict future product sales, investment portfolio risk, or customer churn. Again, the statistics behind different algorithms vary in complexity. Some techniques output simple point predictions (We think y will happen!) and others output a range of possible predictions with affiliated confidence rates (There’s a 70% chance y will happen, but if we change one assumption, our confidence falls to 60%).

These are all examples of prediction problems, but supervised learning is also used for classification.

Classification tasks clump data into buckets. Here a data scientist looks for features in data that are reliable proxies for categories she wants to separate: If data has feature x, it goes into bucket one; if not, it goes into bucket two. You can still think of this as using x’s to predict y’s, but in this case y isn’t a number but a type.

Organizations use classification algorithms to filter spam, diagnose abnormalities on X-rays, identify relevant documents for a lawsuit, sort résumés for a job, or segment customers. But classification gains its true power when the number of classes increases. Classification can be extended beyond binary choices like “Is it spam or not?” to include lots of different buckets. Perception tasks, like training a computer to recognize objects in images, are also classification tasks, they just have many output classes (for example, the various animal species names) instead of just Bucket 1 and Bucket 2. This makes supervised learning systems look smarter than they are, as we assume their ability to learn concepts mirrors our own. In fact, they’re just bucketing data into buckets 1, 2, 3…n, according to the “m” learned for the function.

So far, this all feels rather abstract. How can you bring it down to earth and learn how to identify these mathematical structures in your everyday work?

There are a few ways you can determine whether a task presents a good supervised learning opportunity.

First, write down what you do in your job. Break apart your activities into: things you do daily or regularly versus things you do sporadically; things that have become second nature versus things that require patient deliberation or lots of thought; and things that are part of a process versus things you do on your own.

For those tasks that you perform regularly, on your own, and that feel automatic, identify how many others in your organization do similar tasks and how many people have done this historically.

Examine the nature of the task. Does it include predicting something or bucketing something into categories?

Ask yourself: If 10 colleagues in your organization performed the task, would they all agree on the answer? If humans can’t agree something is true or false, computers can’t reliably transform judgment calls into statistical patterns.

How long have people in the organization been doing something similar to this task? If it’s been a long time, has the organization kept a record of successfully completed tasks? If yes, this could be used as a training data set for your supervised learning algorithm. If no, you may need to start collecting this data today, and then you can keep a human in the loop to train the algorithm over time.

Next, sit down with a data science team and tell them about the task. Walk them through your thought process and tell them what aspects of information you focus on when you complete your task. This will help them determine if automation is feasible and tease out the aspects of the data that will be most predictive of the desired output.

Ask yourself, if this were automated, how might that change the products we offer to our customers? Ask, what is the worst thing that could happen to the business if this were to be automated? And finally, ask, what is the worst thing that could happen to the business if the algorithm outputs the wrong answer or an answer with a 65% or 70% accuracy rate? What is the accuracy threshold the business requires to go ahead and automate this task?

Succeeding with supervised learning entails a shift in the perspective on how work gets done. It entails using past work — all that human judgment and subject matter expertise — to create an algorithm that applies that expertise to future work. When used well, this makes employees more productive and creates new value. But it starts with identifying problems worth solving and thinking about them in terms of inputs and outputs, x’s and y’s.

 

This is the second of a 2-part series that borrows Miller Lite’s super successful Tastes Great, Less Filling campaign theme to make a point about sales lead generation.

Just as the beer pleases two constituencies (those who want their beer full bodied and those who want it light), the outsourced approach to lead generation, qualification and nurturing pleases two kinds of marketing and sales leaders.

Outsourcing teleprospecting offers two, seemingly conflicting advantages: It costs less, and the results are better.

And I have the numbers to show it’s so.

Part 1 of this series covers the Costs Less side of the equation. In that post I walked you through how, if you factor in all the costs, in-house teleprospecting runs about 10% more than outsourcing the same (or superior) services. I also included a link to the data that show you how this is so.

More Effective

This post deals with the counter discussion on how our resources are not only less expensive, but better, completing the Miller Lite analogy.

Just as there are prospects who say they can do sales lead generation for less (and I hope I’ve effectively debunked that argument) there are those who think no one outside could do it as well. Usually that objection has to do with the belief that only their own employees can represent their company.

We’ve done the analysis that shows that PointClear’s outsourced lead generation approach generates 92.35% more revenue. This number is based on compiled, aggregate data from a variety of 3^rd-party sources, and it shows that you not only save when you outsource, but you almost double your sales productivity.

That is such a huge difference it seems almost unbelievable, so how can it be?

• Best practices that make it possible for each member of our team of seasoned sales prospecting associates to make an average of 80 dials a day. (How many do yours make?)
• Our approach to qualification and nurturing that makes sure only 100% sales-qualified leads are sent to sales (because those are the only kind that get followed up consistently).
• The supporting services we provide our team (because teleprospecting is the core competency of our entire company) such as list services, data analysis and segregation that add exponential value.

Download More Effective, Less Expensive—a side-by-side, line-by-line cost analysis of inside and outsourced lead generation approaches. Plus, a by-the-numbers view of the “More Effective” side of the equation, showing you how much more revenue you can count on by using a firm fully focused on teleprospecting on your behalf.

Make sure you don’t miss subsequent posts—subscribe to our blog today.

Your comments, as always, are welcome.

“How do I find my purpose?”

Ever since Daniel Gulati, Oliver Segovia, and I published Passion & Purpose six years ago, I’ve received hundreds of questions — from younger and older people alike — about purpose. We’re all looking for purpose. Most of us feel that we’ve never found it, we’ve lost it, or in some way we’re falling short.

But in the midst of all this angst, I think we’re also suffering from what I see as fundamental misconceptions about purpose — neatly encapsulated by the question I receive most frequently: “How do I find my purpose?” Challenging these misconceptions could help us all develop a more rounded vision of purpose.

Misconception #1: Purpose is only a thing you find.

On social media, I often see an inspiring quotation attributed to Mark Twain: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” It neatly articulates what I’ll call the “Hollywood version” of purpose. Like Neo in The Matrix or Rey in Star Wars, we’re all just moving through life waiting until fate delivers a higher calling to us.

Make no mistake: That can happen, at least in some form. I recently saw Scott Harrison of Charity Water speak, and in many ways his story was about how he found a higher purpose after a period of wandering. But I think it’s rarer than most people think. For the average 20-year-old in college or 40-year-old in an unfulfilling job, searching for the silver bullet to give life meaning is more likely to end in frustration than fulfillment.

You and Your Team Series

Making Work More Meaningful

Are You Selling Your Business?

By Richard F. Libin, President, Automotive Profit Builders and author of just released book “Who Knew?”

APB.cc, rlibin@apb.cc

If you work in sales and believe your only job is to sell the product your company makes, think again. Before you can ever sell a product, you must sell the customer on why they should buy from your business.

Today, there are more competitors in more forms than ever before - brick and mortar stores, online stores, pop-up stores, and more. This gives consumers the power and the ability to decide how and where they wish to do business.

So, why would they pick your business?

Unless a customer has done business with you before, the only thing they’ve decided when they arrive at your business is what kind of product they are considering. Coming to your location has nothing to do with their decision to work with your business. And, at this point, they don’t have a reason to do so.

Customers come to a business for a variety reasons. They may have seen an ad or found the business on the Internet. They may have heard about you from a friend. You may be convenient because you are on the route of their daily commute. They may know that you have a product they are interested in. None of this has anything to do with their decision to work with your business.

It should be clear that salespeople must answer the question, “Why should I buy here?” They must sell the business before they can sell a product. In a way, it is like a job interview.

In a job interview, you do everything you can to make a good impression, from the way you dress, to how you listen, and answer questions honestly, thoroughly, and correctly. You work to sell the interviewer and prove that you are the right choice, that you have the skills, commitment, and passion that will benefit the employer now and in the future.

The same applies when customers interview you. They need to know why they should buy at your business. They look for a professional who is committed to listening and understanding their needs. The key word here is listening. This is the only way to completely understand their needs. It is imperative that you listen before you try to answer questions. They want to feel confident that the business is a solid member of the community that will be here in the long run to meet their future needs.

This is what sells customers on the business. Salespeople must show customers every possible reason to purchase here, from the business and its people to its commitment to the community.

What’s at stake?

Giving customers a reason to buy from your business has immediate and long-time benefits. In the short-term, customers will be delighted with their experience and tell their friends. This has the potential to broaden awareness and generate referrals. In the long-run, it means that customers will be back.

On the other hand, if you don’t develop a relationship built on trust and confidence, you will always end up selling on price, just like everyone else. Even if a customer purchases a product, they may never be back, and, they will warn others to steer clear of your business.

What’s involved?

Businesses must cultivate, train, and educate their people into the best professionals they can be, who embrace work as a profession, not as just another job. These professionals choose to work at the business because of its values, its commitment to leading-edge technology and processes, and to their customers and employees. In these cultures, everyone knows their job is important, regardless of their job. If they don’t, then they are misemployed. Developing relationships is most important.

In this type of culture, management has confidence in the people they hire and trusts them to do their jobs. Simultaneously, they continually provide ongoing training, coaching, education, and mentoring.

Here is what happens in this type of culture:

• Professionals answer questions truthfully and completely. If they don’t know the answer, they find out. They know that nothing can replace honesty and integrity in business.
• Every customer is treated equally and without judgement.
• Everyone in the business is thoroughly trained on every aspect of the business. Salespeople understand how the service department works and the benefits it offers. Service professionals understand financing and sales. Greeters and administrative personnel can clearly communicate the value offered by their business.
• The business is clean, inviting, and professional. Every opportunity is taken to showcase technology and equipment and communicate the investment being made in the business and the community.
• Customers feel that working with you helps them support their community. The business proudly features its involvement and commitment to local schools, youth leagues, and charities. By showcasing its employees, the business demonstrates its contribution to the economic well-being of the community through job creation.

Customer loyalty isn’t what it used to be. People don’t return to a business simply because it’s where they went previously. They return because salespeople took the time to build a relationship. They gave the customer a reason to buy from their business. When you have a relationship with a customer, everything is easier. But remember, even one mistake can cause a loyal customer to leave. It is up to you to sell them on your business and then, to keep them sold through simple, consistent communication.

 

Richard F. Libin has written two acclaimed books that help people of all walks of life improve their sales skills, because as he says, “Everyone is a selling something.” His most recent book, Who Knew?, and his first book, “Who Stopped the Sale?” (www.whostoppedthesale.com), is now in its second edition. As president of APB-Automotive Profit Builders, Inc., a firm with more than 49 years experience working with both sales and service professionals, he helps his clientele, through personnel development and technology, to build customer satisfaction and maximize gross profits in their businesses. Mr. Libin can be reached at rlibin@apb.cc or 508-626-9200 or www.apb.cc.

Read any inbound marketing blog or article and it’ll tell you to start any new initiative with, first, your goal(s) and then, second, your buyer personas.

Why is that? Because buyer personas are at the heart of content. Personas must direct not only what you write about but also the format in which it is presented, the frequency of that content, and where it is promoted. Buyer personas allow you to target and attract the right people to your website like sweet-smelling pheromones.

But you have to do it right. Thus, we bring you the top seven mistakes that we’ve seen in developing personas when working with companies of all shapes and sizes over our 10 years in business:

Mistake #1: Making Assumptions

The first three mistakes that marketers often make go together.

When creating buyer personas for the first time, it’s easy to fall into the trap of making assumptions—our audience is only 13- to 18-year-olds in suburban areas, for example. This may be based on anecdotal information (a salesperson’s opinion), your “gut,” or perhaps a customer survey from five years ago. But how do you know if those assumptions are accurate?

Mistake #2: Confusing Preferences with Personas

Which brings us to mistake #2: mixing up preferences with personas. Just because you prefer to create e-books instead of white papers does not mean that is how your target audience consumes content. Similarly, your sales team may want to talk to the IT Director, but the person with the purse strings is actually the CISO—your content needs to target the latter regardless of preferences.

Mistake #3: Not Doing Interviews

And mistakes #1 and #2 really tie back to the most common issue we see at SmartBug: not doing interviews. The only way to be sure you aren’t making assumptions or just including preferences is to conduct interviews with your ideal customers. If you have an existing client base, this is a great place to start.

If you are moving into a new market (and/or a new audience), it will be more difficult to conduct interviews. First, see if your company has a partner that has access to this new audience and would be willing to assist you in setting up some calls. Second is to tap your network (hello, LinkedIn) and see if you have someone you know (or a friend of a friend) who is willing to chat. Finally, if all else fails, you can base personas on market research; however, this should be a last resort.

Mistake #4: Having Too Few or Too Many Personas

Different companies will need a different number of personas depending on the number of products, marketing maturity, industries served, and other factors. If you’re developing personas for the first time, we often recommend starting with three. More than that will divide your early efforts into too many pieces, and you may be unable to see results.

That being said, after your organization has been on the inbound train for a while, you may discover that you’re ready to branch out into influencer personas and maybe even micro personas to further segment your content. But as you add more personas, don’t make mistake #5.

Mistake #5: Basing Personas on Roles Instead of Pain Points

For maximum effectiveness, buyer personas should be based on pain points, not roles. This is perhaps the second-most common error we see at SmartBug: buyer personas solely segmented by job description.

Now, sometimes different roles do mean different pain points (and thus, buyer personas). However, when conducting your interviews, listen and think about what each person is struggling with and categorize according to that.

Mistake #6: Setting It and Forgetting It

While creating buyer personas is one of the tasks for beginning an inbound marketing program, this activity is not a “set it and forget it” type of initiative.

Here’s why:

• Your buyer personas might be wrong. Yes, you did your interviews and vetted with the team, but you might find after blogging for three or four months that you need to do more research or that you missed the mark slightly.
• You’ve figured out that you need more personas or that you need to collapse some. (See mistake #4.)
• Your business changes over time. You may not be going after the same market next year or targeting the same audience in two years.
• People change over time. Buyer personas should evolve over time as you learn more about your target audience and as their preferences change. For example, social media shifts may mean that your persona is now spending more time on Who’s It instead of What’s That.

Make it a point to review your personas either every six months or yearly to make sure they are accurate, fresh, and on point.

Mistake #7: Creating Personas and Then Not Using Them

Finally, personas are a core part of inbound marketing for a reason. They must be the basis of every piece of content you produce—from e-books and blogs to webinars and podcasts—because they allow you as a marketer to segment your audience and target content to each person’s pain points.

So creating them and then not using them is just silly. If you find yourself in this boat, ask yourself why. Are you getting pushback from your team to produce “x” type of content? Have you communicated to your team the importance of buyer personas and what yours are? Are your buyer personas the wrong ones? Try to dig into the issue so that you can rectify it ASAP.

—

I leave you with a quote from Buyer Personas: How to Gain Insight into Your Customer’s Expectations, Align Your Marketing Strategies, and Win More Business by Adele Revella: “Effective messaging emerges at the intersection of what your buyers want to hear and what you want to say.”

Buyer personas are what gets us there. Buyer personas are absolutely crucial to inbound marketing efforts—be sure to set yours up correctly to prime your content for success.

Quick quiz:

How many times today have you been in the middle of doing something, gotten a notification or an email or a text or just gotten plain ol’ distracted… and forgotten to finish what you started?

I’m guessing it’s happened at least once today. And you’re not alone. Guess who else falls prey to distractions mid-task?

Your customers.

They’re rolling right along inside your store, adding items to their cart — and then their browser crashes. Or their phone rings. Or they remember the documentary on albino micropigs that they were watching in another tab.

If only this documentary existed.

My point is that not all of your customers abandon their carts on purpose. There’s a good chance they’re just getting distracted. And they might only need a tiny bit of help to remember what they left behind.

That’s why I want to show you how to write irresistible Abandoned Cart emails.

This simple, automated follow-up campaign gives you a fighting chance to recover the shockingly high percentage — our data shows nearly 70% — of shoppers who get cold feet at checkout.

The 3 elements of crazy-effective Abandoned Cart emails

First things first. Remember that in order to even send an abandoned cart email, you’ll need to grab your user’s email address as soon as possible in the checkout process.

Some stores require account creation or email address entry up front, while others roll that form field into a single-page checkout. Whatever makes the checkout process feel as easy as possible for your buyers is the right way to go.

What are the 3 elements of effective Abandoned Cart emails?

1. They REMIND the user she’s not done
2. They URGE the user to take action and finish what she started
3. They FOLLOW UP more than just once

1. REMIND the user she’s not done

It’s entirely possible that your user meant to check out, but got distracted by:

• A notification
• A real-life tap on the shoulder
• One of her other six million tabs
• The crushing recollection that she still owes her mom $200

But her intentions were pure. She wanted to buy from your store. She just forgot to finish doing it.

So pop into her inbox and make it very clear that for whatever reason, she left her purchase at that cliffhanger moment — and her items won’t be delivered into her eager hands until she comes back to finish.

Here’s how lingerie maker True&Co puts that reminder in its email copy:

You can also offer alternatives to checkout, like support or related product recommendations. It’s possible your user was just having trouble understanding if your products would work for her.

Along with the urgent language above, True&Co’s abandoned cart email offers “New Recommendations” and ends with an offer of customer support:

2. URGE your user to finish what she started

Most people HATE leaving things unfinished.

It’s why we can’t sleep at night, thinking of that email we really should have sent already… or that passion project we dove into months ago and then quietly stopped working on.

In fact, the act of completing a task or project releases sweet, sweet dopamine in the brain, which leads us to seek out that fabulous Gettin’ It Done feeling (and which leads us to prioritize small achievements like checking email over more meaningful, more complex projects).

So appeal to your user’s intrinsic need for a quick win.

If you’re not comfortable applying the squeeze, because it feels too pushy for you, think of this as “encouraging” your buyer rather than “urging” her.

I love the way Dot&Bo does it, with subject line “Psst… You left something behind!” and the following low-pressure message:

You might even send a small discount code or link inside your Abandoned Cart email (or emails, if you’ll send more than one) to make the decision a no-brainer.

Just be sure not to train your buyers to abandon their carts, wait for a discount, and then come back. That’s no bueno.

If you’re worried about this happening, try offering incentives as a follow-up, after your first abandoned cart email.

Speaking of which…

3. They FOLLOW UP more than once

The golden window of opportunity for abandoned cart recovery varies between brands, so there’s no single perfect time to send your email(s).

A good rule of thumb, though, is to send the first email within a few hours of cart abandonment, once you’re fairly sure the user won’t come back in her own time.

You want to catch your buyers before they lose the excitement that your products gave them. So don’t wait longer than a couple of hours to send your first “Hey, you still want this?” email.

Send up to two more emails before accepting the fact that the cart is well and truly abandoned. Why? Think about a prospective customer who’s on the go. She adds a product to her cart, gets distracted, and abandons it. We’ve been through this part already.

Your first automated abandoned cart email arrives while she’s fixing lunch. She quickly opens it, scans it, and then returns to her turkey sandwich — marking the email “read,” so it won’t be at the top of her inbox anymore.

At this point, she might still want to buy! You’ve just had the bad luck to catch her at the wrong times. So you can still offer her another chance or two to buy (and experiment with sending Emails #2 and #3 at different times of day, so they might arrive when she’s feeling less rushed).

Here are 2 Abandoned Cart email templates you can swipe and use right away

No time to write your own email copy? No worries.

Swipe this straightforward email copy (which includes a spot for you to paste in a rave review from a past customer) and watch your recovered sales start rolling in:

SUBJECT LINE: Forget something?

Hi [FIRST NAME],

You’ve got good taste.

But it looks like you left [STORE NAME] without completing your purchase!

If you still want your items, click the link below to go right to your cart:

[CHECK OUT NOW]

Here’s what other customers are saying about us:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “I love [STORE NAME] so much. Everything is so well made, and support is fantastic” – Laura C., purchased on 5/15/17

[CHECK OUT NOW]

And just for kicks, here’s another fun version that you can have fo’ free:

SUBJECT LINE: Can you hear that?

Hi [FIRST NAME],

We were enjoying a leisurely nap just now when we woke up to the worst sound in the world.

It was your shopping cart, crying for help.

[IMAGE: Anthropomorphic shopping cart with sad face]

Caption: He misses you.

Now, you seem like a nice person. We’re sure you didn’t mean to leave your poor cart all alone in limbo.

So why not come back and take your stuff home with you?

This button will take you right into your shopping cart’s open and waiting arms:

[COMPLETE MY PURCHASE]

Love,
Your friends at [STORE NAME]

(who also love your cart very much and hate to see him sad)

Simply sending abandoned cart emails gives you a leg up

If you think stressing over copy and content might stop you from setting up your first abandoned cart campaign… don’t let it.

The most important part of your abandoned cart emails is just sending them.

So keep the advice here in mind, but don’t overthink it.

Now go set up your emails!

The number of dials a salesperson makes is easily measured. So is the time they spend speaking with prospects and clients. The hours they work is also easily captured. You can also count the number of emails a salesperson has sent.

The value of a potential opportunity is also easy to measure. Whether the opportunity is measured by revenue, gross profit, or margin, it’s relatively easy to determine the value of a deal.

The days an opportunity has lived in a certain stage is very simple arithmetic. You subtract the date the opportunity entered the stage from today’s date to determine the number of days (or weeks, or months, or years if you allow your pipeline to be stuffed with what are actually leads).

You can also verify that you have the necessary deals to reach your goals by ensuring that you have 300 percent of your goal in your pipeline at all times. This is easily measured and requires the smallest amount of math.

While all of these measurements provide good and useful information, sales effectiveness cannot be collapsed into objective measures alone. The difference between success and struggling to produce results is found in more subjective measures, none of which lend themselves to objective measurement.

Subjective Measurements and Context

How effective is the salesperson making the calls or sending the emails? Is there enough value being created for the client who receives the communication to agree to their request for a meeting? If the results are not forthcoming, then focusing on objective measurements is of no use to you in making an improvement.

The value of an opportunity, as easily measured as it may be, provides little to no information at all about the likelihood of your capturing it. It says nothing about how compelled the client is to change, how well the salesperson is doing helping them, or how susceptible you are to a competitive threat. You can only determine the real value of the opportunity to your organization by looking at more subjective factors.

Why has a deal been in a stage for longer than normal? Why did a deal move through a stage faster than expected? Does more time mean the deal is at greater risk of being lost? Does less time mean that the deal is progressing fast because the client is seriously motivated to change or because they are skipping the commitments they need to make to really change?

Objective measurements provide one small part of a much larger picture. Reducing everything to what can be measured is to ignore the subjective factors that give you a fuller picture of what is true. The subjective is more difficult to assess, but the conversations necessary to surface the subjective factors that can’t be easily quantified is how you improve your results.

Qualitative measurements are what allows you to determine what the objective measurements mean.

The post Collapsing Sales Into Only What Is Objective appeared first on The Sales Blog.

Frustrated by all the work you're doing for a paycheck that barely covers the bills? The most recent report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics divulges the top five most highly paid sales jobs of the year -- along with projected industry growth over the next decade, and qualifications for employment.

Whether you're a veteran salesperson looking to grow your earning potential or a recent college graduate trying to break into the right field, this data will help you choose wisely.

Highest Paying Sales Jobs

1. Sales engineers - $100,000 average salary
2. Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents - $67,310
3. Sales representatives for wholesale, manufacturing, technical, and scientific products - $60,530
4. Advertising sales agents - $50,380
5. Insurance sales agents - $49,990

1) Sales engineers - $100,000

These salespeople sell scientific or technological products/services to businesses. They need to know how to demo and troubleshoot the products they sell, and they must be able to explain the science behind the product.

These jobs generally require a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related field. The bureau also labels these jobs "stressful," because income and job security depend on meeting a number, which often leads to irregular work hours. However, the employment forecast for sales engineers is positive, with expected growth of 7% from 2014 to 2024.

Telecommunications was the highest paid industry for sales engineers, with a median wage of $111,340. Computer systems design and related services was not far behind, with a median salary of $111,090.

2) Securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents - $67,310

In these jobs, salespeople connect buyers and sellers in financial markets. They usually sell securities to individual consumers, advise companies searching for investors, and take part in trades.

A bachelor's degree is required for most entry-level jobs, and an MBA is preferred for career advancement. The job outlook for these sales agents is positive, with 10% expected growth from 2014 to 2024. Intermediation and brokerage of securities and commodity contracts is the highest paying industry within this vertical at $105,630.

3) Sales representatives for wholesale, manufacturing, technical, and scientific products - $60,310

These reps sell wholesale or manufactured goods to businesses and government agencies. Like most jobs on this list, they work in high-pressure environments because their livelihood depends on closing deals.

Education requirements vary, from a high school diploma for non-scientific products to a bachelor's degree for more technical services.

Salespeople who sell scientific or technical products/services made a median of $20,000 more than their non-technical counterparts. They also represented the highest industry earnings, at $78,980 per year.

4) Advertising sales agents - $50,380

Advertising agents sell ad space to businesses and individuals and sometimes maintain client accounts. While a high school diploma is typically adequate, many employers prefer a bachelor's degree.

Unlike the careers above, advertising sales employment is projected to decline 3% from 2014 to 2024. Even an increase in internet and television advertising can't offset the decline of activity in print newspapers and magazines.

If you you're trying to decide which industry to break into, stick with information services, which offers the highest wage at $61,660.

5) Insurance sales agents - $49,990

Insurance salespeople sell -- you guessed it -- one or more types of insurance. They must have a working knowledge of insurance policies, and they work with individuals or businesses to choose plans that are best suited to client needs.

A high school diploma is required, and many agents have a bachelor's degree. They must also be licensed to sell insurance in the states where they work.

The employment outlook for this industry is good, at 9% growth over the next decade. Health and long-term care insurance is an especially fast-growing field, as an aging population and changes in federal regulation are expected to increase demand.

Highest Paying Jobs Overall

Are the salaries above still not cutting it? You may want to consider a more drastic career change. Here are the bureau's top five most highly compensated positions overall:

1. Anesthesiologists - $443,859
2. Surgeons - $395,456
3. Obstetricians and gynecologists - $317,496
4. Psychiatry - $245,673
5. Internal Medicine - $238,227

See a trend? Better start applying to medical school now, folks.

Salespeople are usually the first to arrive at the office and the last to leave. Not only are you extremely dedicated, but the more time you spend working, the more successful you tend to be.

After all, if you’re falling behind on quota, you can make up the gap by identifying potential leads, calling prospects, and sending emails to old opps.

If you’re already at quota and want to overperform, you can get creative and wrangle a larger deal or incite urgency in buyers who aren’t planning on purchasing just yet.

It all comes down to the minutes, hours, and days available.

Imagine if I could snap my fingers and extend the length of your workday. Would you sell more? Hell yeah.

And while I don’t have that power, there is a power each and every salesperson can take advantage of: Artificial intelligence. AI is way, way more than just a buzzword. To see how AI will transform your company, industry, and most importantly, productivity, check out this infographic from our friends at Dropbox Business.

Social Selling: What It Is and How to Do It Well

Social selling is becoming more and more needful in the digital age. But exactly what is social selling in the first place?

Here’s an illustration.

There once was a business owner that built a large grocery store in a nice neighborhood. Things were great for the longest time. He sold lots of cheap bulk produce and goods. Over time, sales were down year over year.

The reason? Farmer’s markets, small specialty retailers (i.e. butchers), and Jeff Bezos (just kidding, congrats on buying Whole Foods).

 

People, when things are easily available, will always go to quality and intimacy. This very analogy is happening right now. People are spending less at discount joints and going for the slightly higher-priced and way better quality.

However, it’s also happening across all industries just about everywhere in the world. Seeing sustainable, forecastable growth takes strategies that both bring leads to you and other where you actively pursue leads yourself.

You have to be aggressive. And one of the ways to do that is going where everyone is already hanging out — social media.

I’m sure there’s a “lions go where the gazelles are grazing” reference, but I’ll digress before I start.

In this post, we’ll cover a few things:

• What Social Selling IS and is NOT
• Actionable Steps to Start Seeing Results
• Who’s Using it Well (and not so good)

What is Social Selling?

Let’s start with a definition we took from the folks at HootSuite (who know a thing or two about social media).

Social Selling: The art of using social networks to find, connect with, understand, and nurture sales prospects. It’s the modern way to develop meaningful relationships with potential customers that keep you—and your brand—front of mind, so you’re the natural first point of contact when a prospect is ready to buy. (Source)

Here are a couple of brief observations from this definition.

1. This is NOT Your Social Media Strategy

Posting on Instagram or LinkedIn is not what we’re talking about here. This is not posting updates, but actively looking for individuals who are ideal buyers of your products and indicators that they are potentially ready to buy.

2. This is NOT Your Digital Marketing Strategy

We’re also not talking about your ad spend, webinars, etc.. Those are all great things, but this is using social to find and nurture leads. These interactions are more akin to your sales funnel, but aren’t necessarily marketing campaigns.

3. I Love That They Call It an Art Form

Funnels, campaigns and the like are beautiful but broad in their reach. Social selling is more about finding individual interactions that are worth your time.

It’s like the difference between fishing with a net or a pole. Location is crucial for both, but the pole requires a lot more details (lures, bait, line). Not to mention timing and patience.

Why is Social Selling Necessary?

You may be thinking, “I like the idea of fishing with a net way better.” More fish, right?

First, this post is in no way suggesting to give up on ads, inbound, or any other methods that bring in leads. Second, ads are not typically how you get the accounts that you’re proud to put in the old “our clients” section of your website.

Keep This in Mind: There are likely way more potential buyers who won’t see your marketing efforts than those that will.

Far fewer leads will come in through social selling. But, when done correctly, the number of good conversations and deals should make this a viable sales strategy for just about any B2B business and any B2C with high-priced goods/services.

---

There are likely way more potential buyers who won’t see your marketing efforts than those that will.

---

Take Action: 4 Steps to Make Social Selling Part of Your Sales Strategy

Step One: Think and Plan

Social media is such a large part of the world, it has to be treated as a major part of your overall sales strategy.

You can’t look to a single element to grow your business consistently. Just using cold email, calls, ads, etc. will work less and less in the months and years ahead. There needs to be a multi-method, multi-touch game plan in place — that includes social selling.

More than that, it all has to fit in together.

In a lot of ways, social is the tip of the iceberg or tip of the spear. It’s where someone really interacts with your brand for the first time. In the very near future, it could be an even more popular method of checking out a business than going to the website.

Having both content and reps ready to interact will warm leads up way faster and give you more control over the funnel process.

Step Two: Curate and Create

Once you understand how social selling is going to fit into the overall plan to move leads downstream and close more deals — it’s time to find and create the things that will do just that.

This has to be a mega mix. But don’t let that intimidate you. You can reuse content and revolve it through your social accounts; as long as you do it the right way. You can’t just put your blogs on your FB and expect to get gobs of leads.

Here are a few examples of the things you’ll need:

• Target Industry Posts. The things your leads will want to read that aren’t directly salesy.
• White Papers. Industry-specific and product-related data laid out in a way that is graphic and beneficial to your leads.
• Fun. Add in a little humor, sports talk, things that make you and your brand more relatable.
• Auto or Manual Responses. People are talking about you or solutions like yours. Finding these conversations and sending a quick message can make a huge impact.
• Live Action. Live videos, Twitter Q&As, contests, pure value webinars are all great ways to gather large groups while finding and impressing prospects.

These are tools that you can schedule to be posted, or use in your interaction with those.

Step Three: Be Consistent

Perhaps the most important step.

It’s not about throwing a month’s worth of effort into this and then seeing if it brought results. It’s about slowly changing your current social game and making adjustments via testing over time and seeing the results increase.

Always moving forward, adding and changing, tweaking and measuring until you are seeing real results that make a bottomline impact.

Step Four: Use a Tool

The great thing about growing business needs are the solutions that inevitably come with them. With social selling, brand mentions, and the veritable jungle that is social media; many tools have been created to help sort out the mess.

Here are a few, particularly for finding targeted leads on your favorite social platforms.

• Socedo: It’s kinda like a fishing line with a bobber. You cast it into the lake and let it sit until you see something tugging on the line. Socedo allows you to input a certain keyword that your target prospects might talk about. Then, it will send them an automated message with your contact info, conversation starter, or resource to become a part of the conversation without being there.
• If This Than That (IFTTT): You can use this beauty to connect a couple of apps. Want to know when someone uses one of your industry keywords on Twitter? Set it up to notify you on your smartphone, or email, or even a CRM. Really handy tool for more than social alerts, too.
• Notify.ly: We’ve recently been using this one and it’s great for knowing (within a few minutes) when someone mentions you specifically. You hook this little beauty up to Slack or HipChat and it’ll let you know when it happens, virtually in real time.

“If you want to use social networking as a sales tool, then you must actively participate in conversations and the exchange of ideas.” — Shannon Belew

Who’s Doing it Well, Right Now

1. Gary Vaynerchuck

There are multiple brands and influencers who are rocking their social prowess to build their platforms and gain sales — GaryVee does both.

I can’t help but feel like his social media accounts test and prove that he can pull off for some of the world’s biggest brands that he does for his own platform.

One thing is for sure, the man is driven. Whether it be small scale or large, he is 100% there all the time — giving his all.

Just take a look at this snippet of a Quora answer he recently gave. It was probably 1000 words or more in total.

And a little more for context.

In this one post (link to the full answer here), he’s managed to make one person a huge fan, build his audience full of people who love this answer, and pitching any marketing execs who come across this answer on the incredibly popular business platform.

It’s one to one, but also one to many. Look at the end of the answer and he posts a video to further answer and build his platform.

Our Biggest Takeaway from GaryVee: He does one to one in a way that is one to many.

2. JetBlue

This airline has been winning over the internet for a while. From their overall cool demeanor to having Casey Neistat do a review of their first class flights — they’re proactive in their digital strategy. And another way they’re winning is via prompt replies.

Air travel is not known for being pleasant. TSA, layovers, and typically slow moving lines. Having an airline that is super friendly and ready to answer is great.

Here are a couple examples of JetBlue’s social selling.

The first is the semi-automated approach. I’m writing this post as Hurricane Harvey has already wrecked Texas and Irma is barreling through as one of the most powerful storms in history.

Point being, there are a lot of travel plans being changed. The same questions are asked over and over again. JetBlue is handling it like it’s their job.

There are hundreds of questions, all answered. Reps are quickly looking up flight data and helping everyone who’s using Twitter to talk to them. This is incredibly smart for an airline company and will equate to sales and loyalty. What’s the famous line?

“We know you have a choice when you fly and we appreciate you choosing to fly with us.”

Seems like JetBlue believes it.

Our second example is similar. JetBlue puts their ear to the ground of the internet and listens for people having trouble. The cool thing is that it’s easy. Either people tag you like you’re not listening or they use keywords that are easily searched.

Key Takeaway from JetBlue: They are reactive and proactive. Their example could be just as easily applied to searching for people using target keywords in your target industry and joining in the conversation.

3. (Bad Example) HostGator

You know what’s worse than no response at all? A canned response that anyone can see right through. If you’re going to enter into a conversation on social media, you at least have to make it seem like a real person is on the other end.

There are ways to automate the process, but be careful not to spam.

Our bad example happens to be a web host (HostGator). It’s an industry that is steeped in shadiness and distrust. I cannot figure out how a foundational element of the internet is often the sleaziest. It makes no sense to me.

There are plenty of good hosts out there. If you’re using WordPress as a content management system, we recommend Pagely.

Now, onto the bad.

HostGator has a lot of buzz going on about them via social media, and most of it is not good. Now, everyone has times where people are unhappy. It happens. However, dealing with it well can mean keeping a customer and gaining others.

Let’s take a look at how HostGator does it.

The request is to cancel the account. The response? “Nuh uh, we’re really good at security.” That’s terrible and doesn’t do anything but stir the pot. As you can see in the next screenshot.

If you scout through their Twitter support account, you’ll find many long threads of disgruntled customers. And yes, it is due mainly to the overall service level (seemingly) and I do feel bad for their reps.

That said, a little bit of genuineness and beneficial responses would cut the bad rap down by half.

Application to Your Business

It’s easy to say, oh so and so’s doing it right. Or, Gary Vee is killing it. But what isn’t as easy is you actually using these tips to further your business objectives. So, here are three ways to apply social selling today.

1. Get Proactive: Go to Twitter, or Quora, or LinkedIn and start searching for conversations to add value. Look for the online mentions of your brand or keywords and phrases that could have potential revenue.
2. Get Reactive: Set up the notifications that alert you when things that you want to know are said and start getting involved in the online party.
3. Get Automated: After you are actively seeking those opportunities and being alerted to the ones you can’t be around for, it’s time to get things automated. Send a resource, offer to schedule a call with them — try to add value.

The only thing left to do now is get to work.

• Initial jobless claims fell to a 44-year low last week. 
• Initial claims are an advance indicator of the pace of layoffs and the overall strength of the labor market, since some people need government benefits to sustain themselves right after they lose a job. 
• The recent hurricanes continue to impact data collection in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. 

---

 

Initial jobless claims fell last week to their lowest level since 1973. 

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits for the first time totaled 222,000, the lowest since March 31, 1973, according to the Department of Labor. 

First-time jobless claims are a leading indicator of the labor market's strength, since people file for benefits not long after they lose their jobs.

"It probably won't last," said Ian Shepherdson, the chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, in a note. "The trend before the hurricanes was steady, in the high 230s — but it does serve as a very forceful reminder that the labor market is in very good shape."

Claims recently spiked to nearly 300,000 following the hurricanes that slammed into the Southeastern US. The report noted that hurricane-related disruptions continue to affect data collection in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

SEE ALSO: A Wall Streeter who started his career on Black Monday recalls the biggest one-day crash in stock market history

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Tesla's value is surging 'because the vision is so intoxicating'

You’ve just hung up the phone after a productive call with your prospect. But what are your next steps? Do you log the meeting notes in your CRM and move on to the next task for the day?

If that’s your go-to, post-call routine, you might be missing a valuable step: sending a recap email.

A recap email after a connect, discovery, or demo call keeps the conversation at the top of your prospect’s mind and reinforces next steps in three important ways:

1. Emails crystallize the highlights of your meeting. Even the most engaged prospects occasionally forget details -- and distracted or impatient buyers will retain even less. The email reinforces key takeaways from the meeting and increases the likelihood the prospect will remember main points from the discussion.
2. Sales email templates (like the ones below) give you the chance to confirm next steps. Referencing the specific date and time of your next meeting serves as a reminder for the prospect, motivates them to add the meeting to their calendar, and decreases the chances they’ll ghost (though we’ve got email templates for that too).
3. Recap messages add value. As you dive deeper into your prospect’s situation, goals, and pain points, you’ll get a better sense of how you can help them. Every recap message is an opportunity to provide a tip or offer a relevant resource. Not only does this demonstrate the value you can provide, it solidifies your role as a trusted advisor.

5 Recap Email Templates to Use After Your Sales Call

1. Call recap

Connect calls are typically used to establish a relationship with the buyer. Most are relatively brief.

In your follow-up email, reiterate the main challenge or objective you identified and some relevant advice. Attach a useful piece of content if you have one.

To deepen the rapport you built on the call, mention a commonality or talking point.

Template:

Example:

2. Touch base recap

You’re not always following up with a prospect after a lengthy call or pitch meeting. It’s equally important to send a follow-up email after a quick call to answer questions or see how they’re progressing in the process.

Don’t skimp on these emails. Offer just as much content and value as you would after a demo, and reinforce that you’re always happy to answer more questions.

Template:

Example:

3. Meeting recap

Your post-discovery email should tell the buyer you’re on the same page so they feel confident moving forward. Summarize the most important things you learned from the conversation: Their high-level challenges, the tactical suggestions you provided, and the mutually agreed-upon next steps.

Template:

Example:

4. Demo recap

At this point, the buyer should understand how your product will improve their life. Reemphasize this vision of a better future by quickly summarizing two to four features they’ll get the most value from.

If they need to get buy-in from another member of their team, consider attaching some resources that’ll strengthen their case.

Lastly, confirm any action items along with your next scheduled meeting.

Template:

Example:

5. Objection handling recap

Sometimes, you have one of those calls where you can sense your prospect getting cold feet. Maybe they’re letting another colleague talk them out of your solution or perhaps they’re just having an off day. It’s your job to soothe their fears on the phone, and then follow up with an expertly crafted email immediately after.

Template:

Example:

A concise, well-written recap email helps the buyer keep track of the main points of your call. It also makes you look more organized, methodical, and in control, which can boost their confidence in you.

Even better, with these templates, sending one off shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.

Do your company’s pre- and post-sales content teams coordinate their efforts, reaping all the benefits that can come of doing so? Or do the teams work on their own without much communication, maybe without even knowing each other’s names?

I’d guess that you’re nodding at the second question. It’s rare that I hear of these teams working together. When I do, as happened at the Intelligent Content Conference, my technical writer’s heart goes pitter-pat.

At ICC, Andrea Ames gave a talk ­– Closing the Gap Without Falling Into It – on IBM’s efforts to close the gap. In her case, the gap takes the form of marketing on one side and tech communication on the other. In other companies, the sides (aka silos) go by different names.

Whatever names your company uses, the idea is generally the same: Presales teams sell. Post-sales teams explain. Rarely the twain shall meet.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

This post sums up Andrea’s main points, including her insights and images.

Get out of your content silo

In theory, when content teams work together, everybody wins.

---

In theory, when #content teams work together, everybody wins, says @aames. #intelcontent
Click To Tweet

---

• Internally, team members share ideas and expertise. They coordinate their deliverables. They reuse each other’s content. They use words the same way and view audiences the same way. Efficiency and cross-fertilization rule.
• Externally, prospective customers and customers get exactly the content they need, in the forms they need it, at all touchpoints – and they go out and bring you new customers.

In practice, no company ever realizes all those benefits perfectly. The more you want to realize them, the more committed you must be to extraordinary cross-silo communication. That’s what it takes to close your gap.

Don’t be afraid of product info

While content marketers typically avoid product-specific information, Andrea encourages you to remember the mandate to keep customers satisfied – enthusiastic, even – after the sale:

I see one nice, continuous journey. We’re just not implementing content that way.

In other words, marketers do their companies a disservice when they consider only the presales stages of the customer journey, which Andrea labels discover, learn, try, and buy.

(Instead of snaking through the customer journey, as Andrea sketches it, you could envision these stages progressing down a marketing funnel. Different metaphors, same logic.)

Savvy marketers don’t stop at the buy stage. They create content for all stages, including adopt and advocate.

---

Savvy marketers create #content for all stages, including adopt & advocate, says @aames.
Click To Tweet

---

To go beyond attracting buyers – all the way to transforming customers into advocates – follow Andrea’s lead. Reach out to a friendly post-sales content team. Look together for opportunities to solve business problems that your customers want guidance on.

You may find, sometimes, that you can’t help but mention what your company sells, especially when you’re talking to those who already have it.

Even prospective customers welcome product mentions when that information helps them, as Michele Linn writes in a recent article:

How can this product be used in my specific application – and how does it truly differ from other products out there? If you can frame your product pitches to answer specific questions, this can be a huge benefit to your customers.

---

Frame your product pitches to answer specific questions so it’s a huge benefit to your customers. @michelelinn
Click To Tweet

---

Call it all ‘content’

Language can perpetuate division. For example, at IBM, as at many companies, post-sales teams have traditionally been seen as producing not “content” but “documentation.” That terminology resonates with my experience. During my decades of working as a technical writer (ahem, technical communicator), I was almost always part of a documentation team.

We explained. Marketing writers sold. Us. Them.

In an email following up on her conference talk, Andrea told me something fascinating: Some IBMers are moving away from the term “documentation.” They’re now using “content” to describe information that the company provides across the customer journey. That shift in language reflects an attempt to change the company’s culture.

That shift basically says, “Gap? What gap?”

If you’re looking to close the gap between presales and post-sales content teams in your company, consider the language you use. Do you talk about “content” as something that only marketers create, or is that the term for what everyone creates?

---

Use the term “content” across the whole customer journey, says @aames. #contentstrategy
Click To Tweet

---

Aim below (or low on) the marketing funnel

IBM marketers are not alone in discovering the value of content that converts customers to advocates. This final stage in the customer journey – also referred to as retention or loyalty – is the stage where the fewest marketers focus, according to CMI founder Joe Pulizzi.

Some marketing funnels include these stages; others stop short of them. Either way, the point is to think about content that serves people beyond the sale as part of your marketing strategy.

Several speakers hit on this theme at Content Marketing World 2017.

• Todd Wheatland, in a talk called Marketing Below the Funnel, argued the best way to fill the top of the funnel is to cater to the content needs of people who already bought from you; happy customers bring in new customers.

---

Cater to the #content needs of current customers to fill the top of the funnel. @ToddWheatland #intelcontent
Click To Tweet

---

• Marcus Sheridan noted too many marketers start at the top of the funnel rather than answering the questions the sales team gets asked every day, questions that appeal to serious prospects and customers alike: How do I solve problem X? How does X compare with Y? What does X cost? What’s the best way to do X or Y?

---

Answer the questions the sales team gets asked every day, says @thesaleslion. #intelcontent
Click To Tweet

---

• Eric Hess gave examples of how REI content teams build loyalty and stay relevant between purchases by producing what he calls utility content: checklists, how-to-use guides, care and repair instructions, DIY hacks and tips, location guides, product reviews, buying guides, and videos that pass on skills and knowledge – for example, a video on how to replace a bike chain (as shown here).

---

Build loyalty & stay relevant between purchases by producing utility #content. @HessInSeattle #intelcontent
Click To Tweet

---

Too often, Noz Urbina says, content marketers underestimate the potential of task-related information, which “helps audiences get things done and advance their objectives, creating real value in their lives.”

---

Content marketers underestimate the potential of task-related information, says @nozurbina. #intelcontent
Click To Tweet

---

Andrea shared proof that when you focus on customers’ content needs, you attract prospects. Almost a decade ago, IBM spent several years surveying its customers to determine to what extent prospective buyers value a company’s high-quality technical content – primarily product documentation, the post-sales content.

IBM’s findings: Most customers consider high-quality technical content “important” or “very important” in shaping four things (bolding is mine):

• Perception of the company (84.9%)
• Satisfaction with the product/solution (92%)
• Perception of product/solution quality (96.3%)
• Initial purchase decision (87.3%)

“The survey results opened our eyes,” Andrea says.  The data – especially the percentage of customers who said high-quality technical content had influenced buying decisions – left no doubt in IBMers’ minds: Content that helps people get value from what they’ve bought is content that attracts new customers.

---

Content that solves customers’ problems pulls in prospects, too, says @aames. #contentstrategy
Click To Tweet

---

Nurture mutual interest between the teams

What does it take for marketers and technical communicators to get talking and keep talking? For starters, both sides must be willing to reach out. Here’s how Andrea describes the tech-communicators’ perspective:

The documentation folks need to understand all the touchpoints marketers have with events, white papers, case studies, and whatever other magical things you do. They need to understand how you’re positioning the products. They need all the message information that’s in your heads and your metrics. Then they can say, ‘Ooh, we’re going to create a product tour. What could we do to make it useful for you?’

At the same time, marketers must take an interest in the documentation teams.

These people are a little geeky. You may have to change the way you talk to them. It will be worth the effort. You will be the hero of the technical content area.

Align the teams’ incentives

In addition to mutual interest, something else needs to happen for both sides to keep a conversation going. The company must create what Andrea calls “the right ecosystem,” which includes aligned incentives. If the departments are being measured in incompatible ways, efforts to coordinate will fail.

For example, if people on the documentation team are evaluated on how much documentation they can cut, they have little reason to brainstorm with marketers on new kinds of content their company’s customers and prospective customers might love.

Appoint a strategy-minded leader

To close the gap between departments, you need a leader. “It takes a lot of work to get two teams talking,” Andrea says. “Someone has to be put in charge. Someone with deep content expertise. Someone who thinks strategically about content. Someone who understands how to have that conversation across the teams.”

That leader must write down the unified strategy, share it with all who need to know about it, and keep it updated. And the leader must communicate, communicate, communicate within the teams and with stakeholders. “Don’t ever let them not hear from you,” she says.

Conclusion

Are your content teams in marketing and product documentation separated by a presales and post-sales gap? If so, it’s time to make like IBM and other like-minded companies and take steps to close the gap.

Start the conversation. See where it leads.

If you’re already closing this gap at your company, how are you doing it? How is it going? Let us know in a comment below.

Here’s an excerpt from Andrea’s talk: 

Ready to close the gap on your content strategy expertise? Plan to attend the Intelligent Content Conference March 20-22. Register before Dec. 15 for the lowest rate possible!

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Why Savvy Marketers Close the Pre- and Post-Sale Content Gap appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

By Jesse Lund, vice president of blockchain market development, IBM Industry Platforms

Making payments seems deceptively simple — just tap an app, press your thumb on a button, and it’s done. It's less work than pulling paper money out of your wallet. But this simple interaction masks a web of communication among dozens of parties — banks, credit card issuers, merchants, and more — that work behind the scenes to ensure that each transfer of funds can occur within seconds.

With generational shifts in expectations, banks and the payments industry are racing to match the ease and convenience that digital payments have introduced to consumers. Now it’s time to make the back end just as convenient. And, despite our increasingly global society, cross-border payments and transfers in some parts of the world are an area that is still trapped in a process that takes multiple intermediaries and days to finalize.

This is an area that is ripe for disruption. It has the potential to enhance payment processing in the same way that Stripe enhanced online payments. Less than 10 years ago, online merchants were forced to use complicated and proprietary software to support online transactions, racking up costly fees and an awkward experience that often forced their customers to leave the merchant’s website to confirm a purchase. It also added another party to the already crowded payment process.

With a few lines of code cut-and-pasted into any website, Stripe made it possible for merchants to process credit cards seamlessly, creating the digital payment process and online experience we know and expect today, which is radically simple and virtually invisible. On the consumer front, Zelle and Venmo are delivering a similar peer-to-peer payment experience while banks are moving quickly to support new immediate inter-bank payments initiatives.

Blockchain is poised to usher in the next major shift in payments. IBM, KlickEx Group, and the Stellar Foundation have designed a universal, cross-border blockchain payments solution that reduces the time it takes for a payment to clear from days to seconds by completing the process all on one network.

The process of initiating and settling an international payment involves multiple steps, multiple currencies, and often many intermediaries. The process can take days to finalize with little visibility of transaction status in the process and is often error-prone and subject to high fees. This is especially true in emerging economies where the banking system is still developing.

This led IBM to create a new universal payments solution running on the IBM Blockchain Platform, an integrated network for recording payment instructions and facilitating transaction settlement in near real time. By introducing this single, transparent record of transaction, the network provides a low-cost, yet highly efficient method for payments to efficiently transfer across borders.

What makes this unique is that it combines the distinct processes of payment instruction messaging (commonly called clearing) and the physical transfer of funds (commonly called settlement) onto a single network that can process transactions in seconds with complete finality. There are no follow-up steps or secondary processes required to finalize a transaction. Even the foreign exchange between counterparties is provided as an integrated step in every individual transaction. It essentially provides a universally new approach to clearing and settling payments of all different types — corporate, consumer, remittances, large value, micropayments, whatever — a payment is a payment is a payment, and the network that services them need not be complicated or expensive.

In the future, this same universal payment solution could make it possible for a farmer in Samoa to enter into a trade contract with a buyer in Indonesia. The blockchain would then be used to record the terms of the contract, manage trade documentation, allow the farmer to put up collateral, secure letters of credit, and finalize transaction terms with immediate payment, conducting global trade with transparency and ease.

IBM hopes this initiative will pave the way for entirely new global financial services, working with banks and central banks around the world to create new, real-time global payment solutions, allowing large and small businesses alike to finally reach a higher level of efficiency and affordability in cross-border transactions. The use of blockchain can ultimately help eliminate today’s high costs of manual processes and reconciliations, and easily ensure that all transactions are transparent and compliant with regulations in all jurisdictions.

In time, we expect to see more blockchain-powered systems go far beyond payments to support the exchange of digital currencies, securities, bonds, and structured financial assets. All will have the ability to conduct immediate transfers and conversions of currencies, as well as complete transparency throughout the processing of every transaction.

This post is sponsor content from IBM and was created by IBM and BI Studios.

Join the conversation about this story »

Today’s SaaS market is brimming with new sales technology. In sales, there’s now over 700+ SaaS providers. In the marketing technology space, we’ve gone from 150 tools in 2011 to more than 3,000 in 2016. You can no longer rely on a unique product feature to be the key driver of your sales demo because competitors will copy it in six months or less.

There’s a scene in The Wolf of Wall Street where Leonardo DiCaprio’s character bangs a microphone against his head and yells to his employees:

“Pick up the phone and start dialing!”

Don’t be that guy.

Instead, make sure every sales rep on your team knows how to deliver a winning sales demo.

The formula for a highly effective sales demo is the cumulative result of research, process, and most importantly, an effective discovery.

Delivering a top quality sales demo requires you to understand your prospect’s challenges and tie relevant product features to their job. It’s the quickest path to becoming a trusted advisor, which means you’re less likely to get caught up in unnecessary feature wars or doling out quarter-end specials.

Your sales demo allows you to clearly differentiate your offering and make your prospect give a damn.

Your offering is not just the product you’re selling. It’s your expertise. It’s your dedication to ensuring your prospect becomes a successful customer and gets a promotion from implementing your technology.

A killer sales demo will win you the deal even if you don’t meet all of your prospect’s requirements. Your product features become less important when the prospect believes they’re buying into a true partnership. That belief stems from the seed that’s planted when the prospect experiences a humanized, and well crafted sales demo.

The Worst Mistake Reps Are Making On Their Sales Demo Calls

Have you ever been on a demo call that goes something like:

Sales Rep:

So a really cool feature is our auto responder. You can go in the settings and pick the color of the responder and change the font. You can also change the font size and import your own fonts…

Just stop.

I’m shocked by the amount of sales reps that still do this. It’s downright lazy.

Major Key: Customers only care about the features of your product that are relevant to their challenges. Most customers will never use every single feature so why waste time going over each one?

Putting your prospects to sleep with product details isn’t how you give a proper sales demo, it’s how you miss your quota.

Additionally, even the features that are relevant should be framed with the right context. You can do this by conducting a flawless discovery process—the information you collect will help you frame every customer interaction the right way as you drive the deal to the finish line.

The Proper Way To Deliver A Top Quality Sales Demo

If the rep in my previous example had taken the time to do a thorough discovery, here’s how the demo would have started:

Sales Rep:

Today our focus will be on taking the pain out of your onboarding process and consolidating your tech stack. Is that a good place to start?

From this point forth every feature the sales rep reveals should be accompanied by a specific example that relates to the customer’s business.

Sales Rep:

When customers get frustrated during the onboarding process, they’ll exit your app. Here’s how to encourage them to jump back in.

It’s that simple.

But how do you know which features to highlight in your demo? And, how do you weave them into a compelling narrative that resonates with your prospect?

Follow these three tips and you’ll be on your way:

What Worries Them?

Gain your prospect’s trust by showing you understand their industry.

Highlight trends that will impact their business and the opportunities and threats associated with them.

For example, if I was selling a new sales intelligence platform, I would highlight how prospects are revealing information about themselves on more networks than ever before: Linkedin, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, AngelList, Medium.

This presents a real challenge for sellers trying to get a holistic view of their prospects.

The solution? A sales intelligence platform that taps into these networks and aggregates the information that’s relevant to the seller in a central hub.

Clarify everything with “Why?” 

If you ask “why?” too many times during a demo, you may come across as slightly annoying.

But if you don’t ask “why?” enough, you’ll walk away without the slightest clue about your prospect’s true motivations or intentions.

The best account executives do this even when a customer makes a positive statement during the demo.

It might seem counterintuitive at first, but if a prospect reacts with “that’s awesome” after you’ve unveiled a feature, they’re giving you a golden opportunity to dig deeper.

Here are some examples:

• Why now?
• Why is this an important problem to fix?
• Why do you think our pricing is too high?
• Why are you still evaluating other competitors? (Good option if you’re deep into the sales cycle)
• Why is this a top priority?

Navigating to the why can mean the difference between a nice commission check or a deal that stays in your pipeline for nine months only to be relegated to “no decision.”  

Make it Personal 

People buy from people. Connecting with your prospect is easier if you understand how they think. Research the following platforms:

• Quora
• Medium
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Youtube (for talks or interviews they’ve given)
• Google (find their personal blog by searching for their name)

If you’re selling to existing customers, review your previous interactions. At Intercom, our account managers do this by scanning their conversation history before jumping on a call with a client.

What you end up with is valuable intel you can weave into your narrative:

• Instead of saying, “this is hands-down my favorite feature,” say “I know HubSpot plays in your market, here’s how they doubled their lead-conversion.”
• Instead of saying “we help marketers generate leads,” say “here’s how we help Marketo users complement their nurture campaigns.”

Facts are useless without personalization.

I’ve included a handy checklist you can actively refer to during your next demo. Some of these tips apply to your discovery calls as well.

Prospects will learn something new and mint a relationship with a trusted advisor. Sales reps can determine if there’s a real opportunity, and set the right tone for the remainder of the sales cycle.

This could very well make the difference in deals where you and your competitor are neck-and-neck in terms of product. In deals where you’re ahead in product as well? Those become lay-ups.

If you choose to compete solely on product features in today’s SaaS market, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

A killer sales demo is the perfect complement to a killer product. It enables you to cut through the noise and establish genuine relationships with prospects. It creates a win-win environment.

Want to learn more about communicating with leads and customers effectively and personally? Check out Intercom’s award-winning blog for more tips and resources.  

The post How To WOW Your Prospects With An Undeniably Compelling Sales Demo appeared first on Sales Hacker.

It’s a fact of the world we live in that, more often than not, your products will get a “no”. Sales rejection is just a part of the selling process.

Sure, if you’re a closer with only qualified prospects heading your way, you may have a close rate greater than 50%. But never let that fool you into thinking that the sales development folks aren’t getting hammered with a constant stream of negative responses. Because they are.

And you know what? That’s perfectly fine.

Moreover, what’s not fine is keeping leads on the line because they are too nice to tell you how they really feel. Getting these contacts out of your pipeline (or into an email cadence) quickly makes all the difference.

This post is all about:

1. Understanding why “maybe’s” are bad.
2. How to identify them properly.
3. Knowing when and how to “dump” them.

Oh, and we’ll be using lessons I learned from Lloyd Christmas in Dumb and Dumber. The first one, not the sequel.

Take it away Lloyd.

What’s Worse than Sales Rejection? A “Maybe”

If you’ve been in sales for any chunk of time, you’ve been told “maybe”. Probably a lot. Somebody (like Mary Swanson) acts nice to you in your first meeting and you start thinking it could be the real thing—Another sale.

You spend so much time, effort, and maybe even money finding out more about the lead and wooing them until you’re ready to go in for the hard close.

When you ask, the lead gives you an awkward, yet slightly affirming answer. You hear what you want to hear and think that it’s just a matter of time before the deal is done.

The problem is, you keep trying. Sending follow-ups, creating resources, or even trying to buy a lead that isn’t ready to be (or never will be) a client.

A few days, weeks, or months down the road and you find out the “hot prospect” you had either re-upped with their current solution or went with someone else entirely. And that leaves you, sitting there all like Lloyd:

Well, that’s how you act in front of this person that you thought was going to help you make your sales goals for the month. Then, when the reality hits and you realized the time, effort and money wasted— you may react differently.

“If I know Mary as well as I think I do, she’ll invite us right in for tea and strumpets.” — Lloyd Christmas

Why “Maybe” is Bad for Sales

Getting told “yes” as many times as possible is always the goal, but getting told “no” is always going to be part of the sales equation. It’s the time that a lead spends in the maybe-zone that creates a vacuum in the funnel.

Here’s the thing. You can’t just write off every maybe as soon as you hear it and write off that prospect, putting them in the “dead to me” pile.

Three reasons for this.

1. It could be a genuine maybe.
2. Or, it could mean “not right now”
3. Most think it’s a polite way to say “no” and just a sales rejection.

More than likely the “maybe” you get fits into the third definition, but that’s still not a reason to go all Lloyd on them.

Now, let’s sharpen those discernment skills and help identify what exactly your lead is trying to tell you when they say “maybe”.

3 Ways to Discern the Maybe

Sales Rejection Tip 1: Pick Up Signals

There’s a lot to be said for the tone and indicators that are put off by prospects. We recommend sending an offer that entices leads to jump into a conversation with you. For instance, asking for feedback for a report, inviting them on a podcast, or giving a great resource.

Something that isn’t a direct sell, but gets them talking.

However, doing this compels people to give you something in return. It’s the power of reciprocation, but it’s also a maybe-magnet. The same people who will hem and haw, hoping you get the point will feel the need to give you a courtesy response.

How To: Ask qualifying questions. Try to get details about budget, the buying process, and their current solution. If they’re not interested, or the decision maker — they will squirm in their seat. Eventually, you’ll be able to put 2 and 2 together.

“I saw your luggage. Then when I noticed the airline ticket, I put 2 and 2 together.” — Lloyd Christmas

Sales Rejection Tip 2: Give Them Permission

Too many reps are afraid of this one. If they are on the phone or in the email sequence for the wrong reasons, you need to set them free.

Let’s do a quick outline of a call:

• You pitch, they say maybe.
• Next, you ask what’s hindering them and tackle those objections.
• You pitch again, they say maybe (again).
• Say, “If we’re not the right fit [name], you can say so. I’d rather get told no now than drag out a conversation that wouldn’t benefit you.”

Doing this will set most of your maybe’s free. And, more importantly, set your pipeline free from suspects.

Sales Rejection Tip 3: Add a Call

If someone has shown interest in your product(s), but has shown a bit of reluctance on the phone, you could end the call attempting to schedule a sales call.

Let’s do a scripted example. A marketing agency owner, starting from the point when they realize that they are in the maybe-zone.

Agency Owner: “[Name], what if I could put together a full paid ad marketing plan that would increase the revenue for [business name]. One that includes being able to track where leads are coming from and that won’t spend more than your current budget? Would you be interested in hopping on a consultation call to hear that plan?”

Lead: “Yea, that sound doable.”

Agency Owner: “Ok [name], here’s the fine print. Once the consultation is over, you have to give me a yes or no answer. Either is fine, but for the amount of effort I’ll put into this marketing plan, I have to get a firm answer out of it.”

If someone is interested in your abilities, they’ll agree to those terms (but may still tell you maybe after the call). But this tactic is a way to separate the suspects from the prospects. Not only can it help you draw out the maybes, it can help you close more deals.

Using one or more of these methods will clear up a lot of the murk surrounding the lead and help you identify where they stand in the sales process.

Now, it’s a matter of figuring out what to do with them.

When and How to “Dump” the Maybes

Congratulations, you’ve either prompted a maybe into a deal, or you know that they have no real intent to buy your products.

Both of these scenarios are cause for celebration. One gets you business and the other gives you time saved. Both are great for busy executives, owners and sales reps. However, you may not want to write off the maybes entirely.

Just because you shouldn’t be directly, actively trying to sell them doesn’t mean you can’t indirectly influence them. Or even revisit them in the future.

All maybe’s as a rule (with exceptions) fall into two “types” of sales rejection.

Maybe Type One: They’ve Got Potential

These are the maybe’s that said things like, “It’s a little close to the end of the fiscal year, and the budget’s not there” or “I see the benefit, but [insert valid concern that could change in the future].”

You know they’re not going to close in the next 30 days, but 6 months down the line they are a legitimate lead to retarget.

What to Do: Take detailed notes in your CRM and schedule a reminder to re-engage the conversation at the best time. If there were no indicators of a good time, just set a reminder for 6 months later and give it a go.

Maybe Type Two: The Heavy Researcher

There are decision makers that will take their sweet time deciding whether or not to change their current solution, or buy a new product/service. No matter how well your pitch goes, they’ll have to “figure things out for themselves”.

They may come back and buy, but you don’t know when. This lead doesn’t fall into your average buying cycle.

What to Do: Put them in an email cadence. Shower them with a few emails a month, full of resources and all the info they could ever want to make an informed decision. Make sure your sequence has clear calls to action and let them work it out.

Sale Rejection Wanted: Recap

When leads hit your funnel, either via inbound or outbound methods, your first job is to qualify—not to sell. Finding the best fitting leads and then pitch those (or schedule a sales qualified appointment).

No’s are a win, as long as you’re not losing people who fit into your ideal customer profile. Yes’s are obviously a win. It’s the maybe’s that we’ve spent our time, trying to figure out how to draw out the no (or yes) and then what to do with the hard maybe folks.

Are you wasting time with a bunch of maybe’s? What sales rejection strategies do you use to keep your pipeline flowing?

I’m in the planning cycle for my fifth year of a 100% account-based marketing program at Plex.

Since 2014, we’ve realized tremendous value by focusing our collective efforts on a discrete list of prospect accounts that we all agree are most likely to become Plex customers. Our company’s account-based revenue (ABR) approach has been wildly successful, and as a team we’ve created awareness, engagement, pipeline and a ton of new customers through our collaborative efforts. We’ve also made a few missteps along the way, as happens when you’re moving at the pace of business.

Through it all, we’ve kept moving forward and adjusting, measuring and discussing. We consider both our account list and our team’s account-based marketing (ABM) strategy to be living things, which get better as we learn about our market and how our solution drives value for our customers.

That said, every year, we go through a budgeting and planning exercise to set ourselves up for success in the year to come. We’re knee-deep in that planning process today, and I thought I’d spend a minute discussing how I look at my budget for the year and determine where to place investments for maximum impact.

Determining Departmental Go-To-Market Goals

I approach my own departmental budget using the same framework that my very wise CMO uses to allocate her top-level budget. I start with goal setting and focus, and from there, determine investment strategies by first asking general questions such as:

• What big bets will we place for the year?
• Are they aligned to those of our sales brethren and to those of the company at large?
• What will we do more of than we did last year?
• And what will we do LESS of?

I can’t yet speak intelligently about these goals or framework for 2018, as we’re just beginning to articulate top-line goals and foci. I can, however, talk about what we did this year with the budget for 2017.

In 2017, we knew that we had a huge job ahead of us. We had contracted our target-account list based on our learnings about where we could be the most successful. The target list got smaller, and our growth targets got larger (as they do in a growth-stage company).

From here, we determined our aligned go-to-market goals for the year. This was a collaboration between the strategy, sales, services, product and marketing teams here at Plex. We asked questions such as:

• What are the sales bookings targets?
• What are the targets for the new logo business versus the customer-focused sales teams?
• And then even more granularly, how will individual sales team targets be set to get to our bookings targets?
• Which products and services would be delivered during the year and how would this impact our ability to serve our target accounts?
• What were our expectations for pipeline creation from marketing? Sales? Partners?

Analyzing Target Accounts To Allocate Budget

After aligning our goals and determining our joint go-to-market strategy, we looked at the target-account list itself. We focused our strategy by again asking very specific questions:

• Where did we have adequate engagement from our target accounts?
• Which parts of our addressable market knew about us?
• Which accounts had engaged on plex.com or with our other marketing efforts?
• Which parts of the target audience should we focus on more than others?
• Where were the big bets for new logo and customer teams?

Then we looked at the pipeline coverage for each sales territory. Where did we have adequate pipeline? Where were we seriously deficient in terms of being able to achieve the bookings goals? I’m well aware that there’s NEVER enough pipeline, but what did our coverage look like for each area? We looked at the engagement from our whole marketing database by segment. Did we need early stage engagement? Sales ready appointments? Programs meant to shorten sales cycles for deals already in pipe?

After considering these questions and deriving a coordinated strategy for areas of focus and our big bets for the year, I decided to allocate 80% of my budget toward new logo acquisition and 20% toward customer-focused programs. (This was inclusive of our annual user conference, which is largely, but not entirely, focused on the customer.)

Breaking Down The New Logo Acquisition Budget

For the 80% of the budget that would be focused on new logo acquisition, I allocated half to what we call top-of-funnel (TOFU) marketing programs, and half to middle-of-funnel (MIFU) programs.

TOFU programs bring Plex into the consideration set of our target accounts and eventually bring them to Plex.com. They focus on offsite tactics all the way through inquiry, which in our language is a form submit from a contact at a target account.

MIFU programs are focused on contacts and accounts that are meaningfully engaged and drive them through to closed business. This means that they tightly partner with our lead gen team for outbound calling efforts, run traditional field and partner marketing programs and work on a velocity program (to accelerate pipeline velocity).

Since we measure everything in the world (we’re data geeks), we divided up all the new logo spend by its specific goal for the year. 16% of our resources went to creating engagement with accounts and contacts who had never visited Plex.com before. This is to accomplish the stated goal of creating deeper awareness within our target-account list.

20% of our spend went to converting inquiries to MQLs. This is the segment in which field events and direct mail pieces and partner programs play a large role. We only spent 8% of our budget on deals in play; we ran a blog series and an email campaign that would help keep our pipeline accounts engaged. You can see the complete breakdown of allocations in the chart below.

Once we allocated spend, we set targets by quarter for each stage of the waterfall, designed programs, worked with sales on execution, ran our programs and measured impact. We adjusted as we went based on learnings and shifts in the market.

We ended up increasing velocity program investment through the year as we launched a field event series targeted at mid-and late-funnel targets. (See, live and learn!)

Continually Measuring and Realigning Programs Against Goals

We’ve been successful in some areas and less in others. The key is to measure and collaborate. When we struggle, we make sure we realign against the goals and reconsider our strategies with sales as our key partner.

I measure success against targets weekly. We check in with some sales leaders every two weeks and others monthly to make sure we’re transparent and listening to new challenges. We report out our measurements monthly within the marketing team, and quarterly at the executive level. So far, so good. We’re not always crushing it, but we are NEVER surprising our partners and are always open to change.

High-Level Learnings From 2017 Marketing Program Performance

So, what will 2018 have in store for us in terms of how we invest? It feels like a deeper focus into the funnel. We’ll need to strike a careful balance between:

1. The need to create and maintain engagement in our addressable market (so that we’ll be in their consideration set when they need us); and
2. The need to provide more value to the folks who are already talking to Plex and considering a major technological change to their business.

I know the place to start is with alignment again. We have our annual GTM meetup planned in the next few weeks. I’m excited to talk about where we will focus and how we plan to get to our even more aggressive targets in 2018. For now, I only know we will do it together.

It might go without saying, but your sales org can't function effectively if you don't track performance metrics. You need to have a detailed pulse on what kind of results you're seeing if you're going to diagnose whyyour org is over- or under-achieving.

Don't know where to start? Don't worry — HubSpot recently surveyed over 1,000 sales professionals to give you some perspective. Here's an in-depth look at the seven metrics respondents cited as being important to track. Let's dive in.

A business uses performance metrics to determine if its outcomes align with the goals it sets. If a performance metric falls below its target, the organization is likely underperforming. But if an outcome falls within or above its ideal range, the business is either meeting or exceeding its goals.

Why are performance metrics important?

Tracking and analyzing performance metrics help businesses evaluate the soundness of their operations and make better-informed decisions. What the "right" metrics are for you depends on factors like your sales organization's structure and priorities, the nature of your industry, and your broader company objectives.

Here are the seven most important sales performance metrics your sales team should be measuring — according to over 1,000 sales professionals.

1. Average Profit Margin — 55% of Respondents

What is it?

Average profit margin is a metric, typically expressed as a percentage, that measures the proportion of a company's net margin that comes from sales over an extended period — usually multiple years. It also factors in business expenses, making it an effective measure of how a company can manage costs relative to sales.

How to Calculate It

To calculate average profit margin, you divide net income from a given period by the net sales over that same timeframe.

Why is it important?

Tracking your average profit margin is one of the better ways to understand your sales org's efficiency — it's one of the purest metrics for gauging how much of the revenue you generate is making it to your bottom line.

It tells you how well your team's input is translating to productive output. While tracking revenue is important, it doesn't give you a full picture of how effectively your sales org is leveraging the resources at its disposal.

You can generate impressive revenue figures in a quarter — but if you're investing more into supporting those efforts than you're reaping, those figures might paint a misleading picture of how your company is performing.

2. YoY Growth — 53% of Respondents

What is it?

Year over year (YoY) growth — in the context of sales — is a metric that shows how an organization's sales figures have improved from one year to another. It's typically expressed as a percentage.

How to Calculate It

To calculate YoY growth, take your revenue figure for an initial 12-month period, subtract that number from the previous 12 months' revenue, divide the difference by the latter, and multiply the result by 100.

So if you saw $100,000 in revenue in 2021 and $90,000 in 2020, you would divide the difference of $10,000 by $90,000 and multiply that figure by 100 — resulting in a YoY growth figure of 11.11%.

Why is it important?

YoY growth gives sales leaders a picture of how their sales orgs are performing from a wider lens. Monthly and quarterly figures are relatively limited and more vulnerable to shifts that might not reflect the company's real health.

Annual growth figures help sales orgs gauge elements like the soundness of their sales processes and efficacy of their sales efforts — beyond the influence of factors like seasonality or monthly volatility.

3. Conversion Rate — 52% of Respondents

What is it?

Your conversion rate measures how the percentage of leads that ultimately become customers.

How to Calculate It

To calculate conversion rate, divide the number of your leads who ultimately become customers by the number of leads you generate in a given period. So if you get approximately 500 leads per month, and on average 50 buy your product, your conversion rate is 10%.

Why is it important?

This metric can help you calculate how many leads you need to make your revenue targets. Historical conversion rates also show whether your reps are becoming more effective. If your average conversion rate is climbing — and you’re closing the same or greater quantity of deals — then sales performance is improving.

If your conversion rate is dropping — and your quantity of deals is flat or decreasing — something is probably wrong with your process, team, and/or lead generation efforts.

4. Sales Productivity Metrics — 50% of Respondents

What are they?

The term "sales productivity metrics" is essentially a catch-all term that covers how actively, consistently, and productively sales reps engage in the activities relevant to their roles. It can cover metrics like CRM usage, calls made, emails sent, conversations, or use of sales tools.

How to Calculate Them

Again, "sales productivity metrics" covers a range of figures. "Calculating" them is a matter of tracking reps' individual activity through resources like CRMs or call tracking software.

Why are they important?

Ultimately, an entire sales org can only be as productive as the reps who support it. As a sales leader, you need to know that everyone in the org is staying engaged and pulling their weight. Tracking sales productivity metrics offers a way to hold reps accountable and ensure they're staying active and motivated.

The value of these metrics is twofold. For one, they give leaders a picture of how the broader org performs. Secondly, they offer managers insight into how individual reps are contributing — showing whether they might need extra attention, coaching, or support.

5. Quota Attainment — 42% of Respondents

What is it?

Quota attainment is a relatively straightforward metric. Simply put, it shows whether a rep has hit their quota for a given period — more specifically, the metric represents the proportion of a rep's actual sales to their quota.

How to Calculate It

To calculate quota attainment, divide a rep's actual sales in a given period by their quota for that same timeframe and multiply that figure by 100.

Why is it important?

Like sales productivity metrics, quota attainment offers sales leaders a more thorough picture of how individual salespeople are performing. It might be the purest measure of the results reps are delivering.

As I mentioned, a sales org can only be as strong as the reps that support it. Tracking quota attainment is another metric that lets managers know which of their salespeople need extra attention, coaching, or support.

But quota attainment's value isn't specific to how individual reps are performing. Tracking quota attainment on an org-wide scale can show how sound that org's sales process, messaging, leadership, and goal-setting are.

6. Win Rate — 42% of Respondents

What is it?

Win rate refers to the percentage of final stage prospects who closed and became customers divided by the total number of deals in your pipeline.

How to Calculate It

To calculate win rate, you divide your number of closed-won deals by the sum of your closed-won deals and non-closed-won deals.

Why is it important?

Win rate gives sales leaders a picture of the timeframes, specific reps, or other factors that maximize their orgs' potential to turn prospects into customers. That kind of perspective can inform better-structured sales strategies, lead to more tactful personnel decisions, and help expose flaws in sales processes — among several other elements that dictate a sales org's performance.

7. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) — 41% of Respondents

What is it?

Customer acquisition cost (CAC) refers to the average sum of sales and marketing spend an organization exhausts to convert a lead to a new customer.

How to Calculate It

To calculate customer acquisition cost, you start by determining a timeframe for your calculation — typically a month, quarter, or year. Once you've landed on a designated frame of reference, add your total marketing and sales expenses from that stretch and divide that figure by the total number of customers you acquired over the period.

Why is it important?

Like so many other metrics listed here, customer acquisition cost is a measure of your organization's efficiency — it's a reflection of the soundness of your sales and marketing strategies as well as how effectively both departments are leveraging the resources at their disposal.

A less-than-ideal customer acquisition cost can tell you that your sales process might have some glaring hitches, reveal that sales and marketing aren't properly aligned, show that your reps might not be putting in enough effort, or shed light on other elements of your efforts that prospects aren't receptive to.

One way or another, a poor CAC is one of the better indicators that your organization has work to do — tracking it provides a starting point for determining what you're doing well and where you stand to improve.

It's worth noting that this list is far from exhaustive and won't necessarily cover all the bases you're looking for. The performance metrics you choose to track will rest on the needs, interests, and structure of your sales org.

Still, the metrics listed here represent a solid starting point to give you some valuable perspective on what you're doing well and where you might have room for improvement.

Hiring successful BDR managers is no easy feat, but it’s crucial to the long-term success of your sales team – BDR managers own the top of your lead funnel, and often the talent pipeline for your company as well. You task them with hiring junior team members and ramping those new hires quickly on your product, market and sales process. They must handle all of that while facing an extremely high turnover rate, competitive market/comp while likely building training, processes and operations on their own.

In my experience, few individuals stay in the front line BDR Manager role for more than a few years. The BDR Manager job is a stepping stone to the next thing – maybe a BDR Director, an AE role, or even managing a full cycles sales team. So you have a choice to make in recruiting: Do you take a risk on a first-time manager (we all have to do it for the first time once!), hire from another industry, or pay a little more than you are comfortable with to lure someone away from a competitor?

How do you know you’re hiring the right person?

During my years working with BDRs, Talent Managers, and sales/marketing leadership, I’ve heard many of the same worries and hiccups that come out of the hiring process. So to make sure you can avoid some of the pains I’ve had to go through building teams, we’ve compiled three scenario-based assessments that you can utilize in your interview process in order to determine the potential success of a BDR Manager candidate. Our hope is that you’re able to identify concerns early on and assess the candidate’s skills in real-world scenarios.

Inheriting and Adding Value to an Existing Team

When you have a BDR team in place, you have to consider how this new manager hire will have impact from day one. Where can they add value during his/her own ramp? This first assessment makes the candidate think about how to gain the respect of the team and executive leadership, think critically about the business to address performance gaps and move to the execution phase.

Assessment 1: 30-60-90 Plan

You are inheriting an existing team and need to quickly gain credibility and have impact. We would like you to propose a 30-60-90 day plan highlighting how you would approach this challenge. We have provided a quick overview of the team’s metrics to aid in this effort. [NOTE: Replace the bold numbers with your own stats]

Inbound:

• 1 BDR handles~600 inbound leads per quarter
• 12% of inbound leads convert to demos and are passed to AEs
• 15-20% of demos passed to AEs convert to customers

Outbound:

• 8 BDRs are tasked with scheduling 15 new demos each per month
• We are averaging 12 completed demos per outbound BDR per month
• 2% of all new cold contacts convert to demos and are passed to AEs
• 5% of demos passed to AEs convert to customers

Let us know if there is any additional information you need/questions you have to propose your plan:

• What are your goals for each period?
• What tactical steps will you take to accomplish these goals?
• What will you need from the team to support you in these efforts?
• What challenges do you anticipate?

Critical Thinking and Cross-functional Alignment

The second assessment addresses a common concern; your candidate doesn’t have experience working cross-functionally to solve a problem. This is a great assignment for a first-time manager or someone just stepping into a leadership role.

Assessment 2: Retargeting Strategy

Company A has a database of [insert number] contacts. Of these contacts approximately 25% have been disqualified. The remaining 75% are a mix of leads that have interacted with the website (and potentially a rep) and have since gone silent, or are using a free version of the product. Contacts vary in age, quality and amount of information collected.

The exec team has asked you to come up with a win-back plan to target your existing database and re-engage these cold prospects. Please put together a plan to systematically prospect into this database:

• How would you prioritize the contacts?
• What goals would you set for the team?
• How would you align marketing, BDR and sales resources around this effort?

If, halfway through your plan, you find you are generating fewer than 50% of the meetings expected, how would you adjust your plan?

Coaching vs. Management vs. Leadership

Finally, if you’re hiring on the other end of the spectrum and considering a senior candidate, you may be concerned he or she is too far removed from the day to day role of a frontline manager. Maybe they’ve worked in a bigger company, managed managers or just seems a little too “hands off”. This assessment will enable you to evaluate if the candidate has what it takes to coach and develop a team.

Assessment 3: Coaching an underperformer

Matt is a BDR at [insert company]. He’s worked for the company for a few months and is highly motivated to take on more responsibility and grow into a full cycle sales rep. While he’s picked up the content quickly during onboarding, we’ve noticed that his appointments are converting to opportunities below the team average and want to dig into his qualification skills.

Matt has come to you asking for suggestions on ways he can set clearer expectations and push for the right information in his calls. You’ve set up a 1:1 with him to go over this and to review his most recent call recording [insert link].

Please put together a plan for the 1:1:

• How would you set up the 1:1?
• What would you discuss and what questions would you ask?
• What is your feedback on the call and how would you deliver it?

We’d love to know how you put these assessment into practice. Let us know in the comments!

The post Use These Real-world Assessments to Hire Your Next BDR Manager appeared first on OpenView Labs.

For many B2B marketing professionals, your job isn’t done once a lead is generated or captured via a website form or inbound phone call. There is no ceremonial handing off of leads to sales. In the B2B space, many marketing professionals are also required to wear a sales hat and tasked with nurturing leads from a qualified prospect to a sales-ready opportunity to a closed deal. After all, a lead isn’t necessarily a closed deal.

At Bop Design, we see lead generation as only part of the revenue generating puzzle. We’ve seen a lot of success, both internally and in our clients’ organizations, for nurturing leads along to customer acquisition. As such, we are sharing our top tips for nurturing marketing leads, especially with the help of content marketing pieces.

Follow Up After First Contact

Once you have a lead in your hand (figuratively) or in your email inbox (literally), the nurturing process begins. The prospect has taken the first step to reach out to your company and has shown interest. Don’t drop the ball now. Your first step should be to follow up with the lead within 1 business day. Responding to an email within 1 day is critical to closing the deal.

Essentially, you just want to get in front of them and give them a human point of contact. While many firms are moving towards automating this first point of contact, in the B2B marketing space, it’s important to have a human make this connection. Remember this can also be a good point to disqualify a lead and save yourself and the prospect time.

Share Helpful Blogs

After the first follow-up email to the prospect, it’s time to send helpful content (once a reasonable amount of time has passed, of course). Blog posts are a great way to easily share tips with prospects, build up your credibility, and show that you understand their needs and can anticipate their questions. Be sure that any blog posts you send are educational in nature and are not merely sales brochures in blog format.

Send White papers, Guides, Case Studies

Content marketing pieces aren’t simply lead generation tools. They are also great lead nurturing tools. When it comes to designing a B2B marketing strategy, content pieces that address every stage of the sales process are essential to create a smoother sales process for prospects. For example, white papers, guides, and case studies should be created to help answer a prospect’s questions about the results your products or services provide, how best to utilize your products or services, or how your firm helps clients solve problems or streamline processes. Sending these content pieces along to a prospect builds value and lays the groundwork for a successful partnership.

Discuss a Proposal

Anyone can create a proposal and email it to a prospect. However, successful sales and marketing folks take the time to explain a proposal either in person or via a virtual presentation. If you send a proposal over email without an in-person explanation, it is almost a guarantee that your firm’s products and services will be evaluated on price alone. If you aren’t the low-price leader, you will lose out to competitors every time.

A critical step in the lead nurturing process is hand-holding. Scheduling a call or meeting to discuss a service or product proposal takes the pressure off the prospect, gives them the opportunity to see the value of your offerings, and ask any follow-up questions.

Reach Out with References

After you’ve sent your best content marketing pieces and discussed a proposal with a prospect, the lead nurturing doesn’t stop. Offer to send references. Many prospects are not familiar with the products or services your firm is offering and would like to get a chance to ask candid questions of your current clients about what it’s like to work with your company. Don’t make them ask. Understand their perspective and alleviate any uncertainty by providing contact information for trusted, happy clients (with their permission, of course).

Last Ditch Emails

Sometimes great leads seem to go cold. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Don’t automatically assume that a prospect went with your closest competitor. Instead, send what we call “last ditch effort” emails to try to get them to respond. This does not mean you should pester them or leave a bunch of messages. Rather, craft a personalized, brief email letting them know you understand they may have gone with a competitor, may have had a change in budget, or have redirected their attention to a different project or objective. Nine times out of ten, they will respond and either confirm one of these reasons or let you know where they are in the sales process. If they are a lost lead, at least you know and can remove them from your funnel and apply any feedback into your future B2B marketing efforts.

Looking to generate inbound leads for your B2B firm? Content marketing can help with generating and nurturing leads for your organization today.

Pricing for ecommerce is a tricky beast. You need to account for competition with other sellers, but you don’t want to de-value your products in a race-to-the-bottom. Purely competitive pricing can lead to disappointing results: you might not sell enough to compensate for offering the lowest prices.

A profitable pricing strategy involves considering not only your competitions’ prices, but also your customers’ motivations. Sellers use their understanding of potential buyers’ decision-making processes to create pricing that encourages purchases.

Different types of companies have been experimenting with psychological pricing for years, but it’s important to understand how it applies in ecommerce where competition among online sellers is rampant. When sellers set prices in a way that motivates buyers to purchase, without devaluing their products, they are able to win more sales than competitors.

To help sellers gain this competitive edge, we’ll take a look at the most effective psychological pricing principles and tactics, organized by four categories:

• branding
• user wants
• social proof
• numbers.

Sellers who employ these psychological pricing strategies can maintain their brand’s reputation and target their ideal buyers without engaging in race-to-the-bottom pricing.

Pricing around your brand

The amount a customer is willing to pay boils down to their perception of your brand. If you want to charge higher prices than your competitors, you have to clearly convey why your product is more useful and valuable to buyers through your unique value proposition.

A unique value proposition indicates how a product is different from its competitors and why it’s the best choice for solving a buyer’s problem. This promise of what a product offers signals to buyers how much they should pay for their product.

To make sales at their desired price point, sellers should focus on messaging that conveys why their product is high-quality and worth more than their competitors’. When sellers instill positive perceptions of their brand, they gain their customers’ trust and are able to charge profitable prices to buyers who are willing to pay for the promised value.

Tactical tips for stronger branding and more profitable pricing

To get started, here are a few tips for aligning your pricing with your brand.

• Define your unique value proposition. If you haven’t already, you need to identify what sets your brand apart from competitors so that buyers feel justified in paying your set price. Apple’s branding, for example, positions the iPhone as a one-of-a-kind product, so consumers feel comfortable paying premium prices for it.

[Source]

People are more willing to pay for unique value that they can’t get anywhere else, so sellers need to clearly show what their brand offers through their messaging. Sellers who are unsure of whether they’re effectively communicating their value proposition should send a survey to buyers and gauge how customers perceive their brand.

• Price to reflect your product’s quality. Studies have shown that consumers infer quality from price. When buyers encounter high prices, they often assume that the product must be a premium item without any other information. In the example below, one of Tumi’s best selling suitcases is also one of their most expensive ones. Why? Because their buyers assume that it’s one of their highest-quality products.

Sellers should aim to offer pricing that reflects the level of quality they’ve promised and be wary of devaluing their product by offering the lowest price.

Pricing around your buyers’ wants

When customers shop online, they have an idea of how much they want to pay and how badly they need certain products. Sellers have to price according to these desires to ensure that customers will complete their purchases.

Sellers who don’t pay attention to what their customers care about won’t have a sense of their buyers’ willingness to pay. Without this knowledge, you can’t ensure that your buyers will find your price acceptable and purchase your product. You also won’t know how to tap into consumers’ concerns on your pricing page and push them to make their purchases.

Tactical tips for understanding what customers want to pay

Your understanding of what your buyers want should inform not only your price amount, but also how you present the price with text. Here are a few strategies to get started:

• Develop and consistently update your buyer personas. Create profiles for your customer types that identify their buying concerns, what motivates them to buy your product, their income, and other insights that will help you understand their willingness to pay. With this knowledge, you’ll feel secure in what you are charging for your product and more confident that you will make sales.

[Source]

For more guidance on collecting persona info, check out our guide to creating buyer profiles here.

• Invoke urgency on the pricing page to encourage purchases. Feelings of FOMO can prompt consumers to buy products more if the items seem scarce. Look for opportunities to highlight urgency on your pricing page to encourage buyers to make a purchase. For example, you might include the number of items left in stock right next to your price. Another urgency tactic that eBay uses is to show the number of people watching the product by the price.

Because buyers care so much about not missing out, creating a sense of urgency on your pricing page will convince consumers to make a purchase.

Pricing around social proof

Online shopping requires a leap of faith since you can’t interact with your merchant. With less reason to trust online companies, buyers look to the experiences of others before making a purchase. Considering the opinions of other buyers, consumers decide whether they’ll pay a seller’s price through the phenomenon of social proof.

Social proof is the psychological tendency of assuming that others’ actions reflect correct behavior. The phenomenon can cause a dramatic boost in sales when consumers see evidence of product satisfaction, such as positive product reviews.

While the price of a product itself can’t tap into social proof, there are plenty of opportunities on the pricing page to show how consumers positively perceive your brand and encourage purchases.

Tactical tips for justifying your price with social proof

Here are a few ideas of what to include near your price to tap into social proof:

• Indicate whether many people have bought your product. If you have a best-selling product, highlight how popular it is near its price. Consumers who see that many people have bought the item will feel more validated in paying the price you’ve set. B&H uses this tactic in the example below by placing a “top seller” badge close to the price.

With this proximity, consumers are positioned to positively evaluate the price after seeing that so many people have bought the product.

• Place customer ratings and reviews close to pricing. Consumers are more encouraged to buy an item when they see that the product has high ratings. Most product pages take this motivation into account by placing the item’s rating right next to its prices. Sellers who want to encourage buyers even further to make a purchase should also consider placing the reviews close to the price as well, like in the example below.

[Source]

By seeing others positively receive your product, consumers have more context to understand a price and feel more comfortable making the purchase.

Pricing around numbers

Consumers don’t consider pricing on purely practical terms. The arrangement of numbers in a price, regardless of the amount, has a huge impact on buyers’ willingness to pay due to some basic human psychology about how we judge things quantitively.

The framing of prices — how many digits they contain, which numbers they end on — will often make amounts seem more or less expensive to buyers. Prices that seem more expensive are less appealing to consumers, thrifty or not, because humans are naturally loss-averse. If two prices are almost equal in amounts but one is framed to seem much greater, consumers are geared to choose the one that seems cheaper.

Considering buyers’ loss-averse nature, sellers want to make sure they are framing their prices to seem as painless as possible.

Tactical tips for painless pricing

Here are a few tips for framing your price to seem less costly:

• Take advantage of the “left-digit” effect. In a 2005 study, researchers found that a price ending in nine is perceived to be much cheaper than a price one cent higher ending in zero. This effect, however, only works if the left digit of the price decreases. Western countries read from left to right, so their perception of the price is affected by the left number seen first. $4.69 won’t seem cheaper than $4.60, but $29.99 will seem cheaper than $30.00, like in the example below.

Using the left-digit effect, sellers should opt to end their prices with a nine so that buyers perceive the price to be a good deal and feel encouraged to purchase their product.

• Use fewer syllables in your price. Researchers found in a study that prices with more syllables seem much higher than those with fewer. For instance, $42.77 in the example below is going to seem much more expensive to buyers than $42 would.

With long prices, consumers perceive a product to be too costly and, avoiding loss, won’t buy it. Instead, sellers should aim to keep their pricing simple with as few syllables as possible to encourage purchases.

Consider your buyers, not just your competitors

Sustainable, successful pricing involves taking more than your competitors’ rates into account — you also have to consider what drives your buyers to make a purchase. Psychological pricing allows sellers to stay ahead of competitors without needing to resort to low, unprofitable prices.

When you price your products in a way that you know will be attractive to your customers, you’ll encourage purchases while strengthening your brand, your understanding of your customers, and your product positioning.

By Tibor Shanto – tibor.shanto@sellbetter.ca

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to speak with Michele Price, but I recently found this segment we did.  I am sharing it today as we head into the last week of October, and are looking to se how we can maintain momentum to finish off the year right, and carry that momentum into next year.

Take a listen, give us you feedback, and go forth and execute.

Become one of the thousands of sales professionals receiving my latest updates on sales execution, tools, tips and more.

Join Now!

The post Gaining and Maintaining Momentum appeared first on Renbor Sales Solutions Inc..

“How do you find the time to do all of that?”

This is one of the most common questions I receive from readers, followers, friends and colleagues. And, as it turns out, the answer is really simple.

In fact, that answer is contained within the question itself.

Do you see it?

One word:

“find”

I find the time.

I am not a time guru. I haven’t attempted a single “productivity hack” in my entire life. In fact, I despise those things. Optimizing your life to the millisecond is not an enjoyable way to live.

I simply have my priorities clearly in focus, and center my day-to-day decisions around those priorities.

How to mine for your most valuable resource

Time is a finite resource, one that we treat far too casually.

Do you look at spending time the way you think about spending money? Time is a currency, and each day we pull chunks of minutes out of our time wallets, handbags and purses and buy things with our time.

What’s the last purchase you made?

You make a budget for your financial resources (if you don’t, you have failed at adulting), so why shouldn’t you do the same with your time?

When’s the last time you performed an audit on how you’re spending your most valuable resource; your time?

Just as we make sacrifices to fit within our financial budget, we need to do the same with our time budget. And, when it comes to spending time, it all comes down to priorities.

The biggest and worst excuse we make is “I just don’t have the time“.

You do have the time to start writing that book you’ve been thinking about for years, you’ve just chosen to spend it elsewhere.

Here are some of the things you’ve chosen to spend your time on:

1: Watching too much TV

via Recode

I’m sorry, but this is an easy one. We’re simply watching too much TV these days. Even more than that, there’s just too much TV to watch.

Watching TV does nothing for you. It’s purely mind-numbing entertainment. This is 100% OK in moderation. It’s a great way to shut off your brain and relax.

The problem occurs when you’re watching multiple hours of TV every single day. The average American now watches over 5 hours of TV daily. That is obscene. People are literally watching TV to death.

Remember, just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you have to watch it. Turn off the Netflix, and do something more valuable with your time.

2: Analysis Paralysis

Researching is great. Until it starts to keep you from actually doing things.

There is a vast sea of information and free knowledge at your fingertips at all times. It’s amazing. You can have all of your deepest, darkest and weirdest questions answered in just seconds.

But the tides of this vast sea can quickly turn on you, and swamp your vessel before you even allow yourself to leave shore.

I deliberately chose the words “allow yourself” because you always have the option to get started on that project you’ve been researching for months. But, for whatever reason, you’re holding back.

Maybe you’re worried about making the wrong choice, or you’re afraid you’ll fail, or you think people are going to judge you for doing something radically different.

But that all comes down to fear. Don’t allow fear to paralyze you.

Do the research. Then do. You’ll learn as you go, trust me.

3: Endlessly scrolling through social media

Social media is such a ridiculously powerful tool that previous generations of business owners would have killed to have at their disposal.

It’s an amazing (and often free) way of building your brand, finding new customers, and making more money.

It’s also your worst enemy.

Social media is time-suck. Even worse, it’s an addictive time-suck. These social media companies have precisely and carefully designed them to be addictive. They have spent millions researching human psychology and implemented casino tactics to keep you coming back for your next quick hit.

They monitor your actions across the internet, get you to buy products you don’t want, and make you yearn for the instant validation of complete strangers.

As an online marketer, I use social media quite often. What has helped me maintain a proper balance towards these networks?

I’ve deleted nearly all social media apps from my phone. The only one I’ve kept is Instagram, because it doesn’t have much of a desktop functionality. This has helped me put social media in its proper place.

When I login on my computer, I’m in work mode. I’m using these tools to benefit my business, rather than aimlessly scrolling on my phone or receiving constant notifications about crap I don’t care about.

4: Keeping “busy”

In the Western world, being busy is a badge of honor. Nothing gets “productivity hackers” more aroused than rattling off all the tasks they checked off their to-do list at the end of the day.

There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with finding ways to boost your productivity. Some people have written about them on this very site, in fact. Again, the theme here is balance.

Optimizing your entire life to cram as much work into the day as possible is not what these are meant for. These hacks should be used to make more time for yourself, not for “busy”.

Busy is the enemy of productivity. Busy is inefficient. Busy means you’re doing too much for too little in return. We should be working to live, not living to work.

Let me put it this way…

If money were no longer a factor in your life, what would you be doing with your time?

The answer to that question is where your priorities lie, and your work should conform around those priorities, not the other way around.

Don’t be busy. Be efficient.

5: Hanging out with the wrong people

Do the people you spend time with align with your values?

Will they help or deter you from accomplishing your goals?

If you decide to try something new to improve yourself as a person, will they encourage or mock you?

These are important questions to ask yourself, as too many of us are friends with people out of nothing more than convenience or trivial commonalities.

Surrounding yourself with the right people is crucial.

6: Failing to look at the big picture

It’s easy to have short-term aspirations, but what about your long-term goals? Do you give them any thought?

More importantly, are you willing to sacrifice short-term benefits in pursuit of long-term rewards? Here’s a few for thought:

• Your friends are going out for drinks, but you know you haven’t written anything new on your blog in weeks. What do you do?
• That sexy new iPhone has all of the features you’re craving, but that other phone no one has heard of is half the price and still has 80% of the features you want. Which will you choose?
• An amazing new loft downtown just became available for rent, but the place you live in now with 2 roommates is a third of the price. What now?

No, you don’t have to close yourself off from all your friends and search the sidewalk for pennies, but I’m sure you get my point.

7: Endlessly complaining

Pretty sure we can thank the internet for its role in this one. People have always complained about trivial things, but never have we been able to shout our frustrations from the rooftops to a massive adoring crowd of mutual haters.

This is a big, scary world. And there’s a lot to dislike about it.

And yes, it feels good to complain about things. Particularly to your close friends.

But, at some point, enough is enough. You then have a choice to make:

1. Keep complaining about it, do nothing about it. (or worse, expect someone else to do something about it)
2. Stop complaining, do something about it.
3. There’s nothing that can be done about it, complain about it for a bit, then move on.

No one likes to be around a constant complainer.

I know this because I’m constantly battling my negative tendencies. I have extreme positivity for specific things, whereas other situations bring out a cynical side of me that even I can’t stand to be around.

8: Playing with your phone

Put down the phone and lookup.

Try it. It doesn’t hurt, I promise. You may even be surprised at the things you discover all around you.

Phones are great when used properly. (are you sick of me preaching balance yet?) But man, they make us miss so much of the little things that make life enjoyable.

Nothing makes me sadder than seeing a beautiful girl at a restaurant sitting across from some dude who can’t put the Twitter feed away. Dude, seriously?

Have you ever tried riding a subway without reading or listening to anything? People look at you like you’re nuts.

There’s a whole section of Craigslist devoted to missed connections, people who see or briefly interact with someone attractive and don’t do anything about it.

Why? Because people don’t develop their social skills anymore. They don’t know how to talk to each other. Go read it, it’s depressing.

Our digital lives have consumed our “real” ones. Remember the days when two people would meet on a bus, get married, and live together for 70 years until death?

I don’t… because I’m far too young for that.

But I have many friends from that generation that tell me stories like that, and it sounds lovely.

Make some rules for yourself and your family. Try some of these:

• No phones at the dinner table
• Keep your phone stored across the room, instead of right beside your bed on your nightstand
• Delete all the useless apps from your phone
• Turn off all non-essential notifications (this is a big one, and will change your life)

Hey, it’s OK to be alone with your thoughts every now and then. It feels great, even.

9: Forgetting to take notes

How are you going to remember all of that useful information you’re consuming?

It took me awhile, but I finally developed a simple way to catalog all the great ideas I get from reading and watching things. (spoiler alert: Evernote is amazing)

When developing your own note taking system, here’s a few things that you need to ensure:

• It’s easily accessible from any device you own
• Saving notes is so dead simple that you want to save notes every chance you get
• Your notes database needs to be easily searchable for future reference.

Like I said, Evernote did all of this for me. Wonderful app.

10: Emailing into oblivion

This one is for my fellow business owners out there.

You can spend your entire day responding to emails. Don’t.

Pull a Tim Ferriss:

• Automate as much of your email processes as possible
• Set a window of the day (or week, if you’re really bold!) to respond to emails
• Get in the habit of ignoring emails that aren’t urgent

I know you can do it. Inbox Zero isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.

11: Waiting

For real, though. What are you waiting for?

“I just need to do this” or “I’m just waiting for that, then I’ll be all set” or “It’s just not a great time right now”.

There will never be an ideal time to get started.

Whatever it is: a new project, business idea, goal, passion… whatever. Just start it.

Break it down into little pieces. Learn as you go. Accomplish one at a time, building slowly to that end goal. Every single day, no matter how small the task is, make progress.

One thing is for sure, you will never learn anything by sitting around and waiting for the perfect circumstances. Because they don’t exist.

How are you spending your time?

Maybe you don’t have any big goals to work towards. Maybe you’re completely content working your 9-5, five days a week, then going home to eat a microwave dinner and binge-watching Suits.

You know what? That’s perfectly fine.

I mean, I don’t agree with that of course. I think there’s way more to life than that.

But, if that’s what makes you happy, then go for it. You’ve already set your priorities and guide your path to satisfy those. You’ve made that choice.

The point is that you need to have those priorities clear in mind. You must have something to work towards. You can’t aimlessly wander through life, allowing others to dictate your terms, then constantly make excuses for why you’re not happy.

And, above all else, never tell me that you don’t have time for something.

Because we both know that’s not true.

Netflix hit the industry with some bombshell moves this month. First, it announced that it plans to spend $8 billion on original content next year (including on 80 new movies). This is far more than any other online player. Obviously, this is great news for its 100 million-odd customers worldwide.

What isn’t so great for customers is the other news. Netflix will raise the price of its standard plan by a dollar a month and its premium plan by two dollars a month. With these increases it is slowly edging toward the $15-a-month plan offered by its competitor HBO.

This means Netflix isn’t just your Blockbuster replacement anymore. Makers of original content — including the likes of Disney — are moving away from Netflix. Instead, Netflix looks like an old-school TV network; if one had to predict what the industry will look like in five years, one might say there will be a set of online channels with the expectation that consumers will subscribe to all or most of them. At $15 a month each, that suggests consumers will take four or five of them instead of a normal monthly cable bill. Netflix is investing to be the “must subscribe” channel in that world.

There are obvious differences between the new TV industry and the old. On-demand is one, as is the “born global” approach of Netflix. This makes it easier to do what Netflix was built for: experiment with the long tail rather than go for mass-market hits. While it might be inconceivable for an old-style network to green-light a series that appeals to 0.5% of its viewers, for Netflix, if that series is the reason that 0.5% choose to subscribe, that is enough to justify it.

One great feature of subscriber revenue is that it makes life very comfortable. As Netflix contemplated its $1-a-month rise, I would guess board members had an easy time calculating in their heads the extra $100 million a month, or $1.2 billion a year, that would bring in. And they had every reason to believe that growth would continue, as subscribers are quite sticky. Netflix looks a lot less significant on people’s credit card statements than the traditional cable bill. Small amounts like that can go unnoticed for years. A little while ago, a professor colleague of mine recounted that in finally reviewing a credit card statement, he noticed a recurring AOL charge. He must have signed up for it a decade or more ago and forgotten to cancel!

Subscriber revenue is nice, but it has a flip side. When your business has reached its peak, letting it go can be hard. This is precisely the challenge that old networks and cable TV are facing. To be sure, every person and their dog can see where the industry is going. But if networks and cable were to jump to online and on-demand right now, they would accelerate the numbers cutting the cord. The drive to hang on another year or two and wring more from those sticky customers is just too tempting.

Netflix is banking on that. And if Netflix is right, it won’t end well for the old guard. When the traditional players really start to struggle, Netflix and others will be able to scoop up all that old content for a song.

That said, the same flip side will come for Netflix. It is already happening. I have a kid in college who still uses my Netflix account. There is certainly no economic reason for me to cut the parental cord now, but looking forward, I don’t see when it will ever happen. I have vague hopes that at some point they might be embarrassed to still be on their parent’s account. (Although my 30-something editor informs me that he still uses his parents’ account, too.)

You can see the issue for Netflix. It doesn’t have the luxury that internet providers have, that as soon as a kid leaves home they need their own subscription. So its subscription business does not grow with population. That is perhaps why it raised the price of its top plan by $2, which allows more simultaneous streams — but that increase hardly offsets the loss of a new paying customer.

Without new customers being born that Netflix has to compete for, there may come a time when the company runs of out of subscriber growth. Then the circle will come back around for it and, like today’s TV incumbents, it won’t be able to take advantage of new channels without cannibalizing its hard-won legacy customers.

 Cisco announced today that it intends to acquire Perspica, a machine learning-driven operations analytics firm that has raised $8.5 million. Cisco intends to fold Perspica’s team into AppDynamics, the company it purchased earlier this year for $3.7 billion. Cisco did not share the Perspica purchase price. All of these machinations have a purpose. Cisco is of course at its heart a… Read More

There’s no doubt that science is inundating sales, driving managers and reps alike to pay closer attention to KPIs than ever before. But while being metric-driven may be top of mind, there are so many different measures that knowing which sales metrics to use and when can be nothing short of confusing.

Here are ten of our favorite sales metrics, what they mean and when exactly you should bust them out and put them to work for your business.

BDR Capacity

If you’re curious whether your business development team is reaching its full potential, or are worried that they might be overwhelmed with leads, it’s time to determine their capacity. Understanding BDR capacity also helps inform headcount planning and whether to invest in certain sales tools or training.

Monthly BDR Capacity Formula: Max. Leads Worked per Day x Working Days per Month x # of BDRs

Once you have this number, compare it to the number of leads provided by marketing each month. If it exceeds monthly lead volume, your team is not reaching its full potential, and you should work with marketing to generate more leads.

In contrast, if monthly marketing leads exceed your Sales BDR Capacity, you might want to invest in tools like auto dialers or email templates to improve efficiencies and increase the maximum number of leads per day your team can handle. Or, it might be time to hire more BDRs.

AE Capacity

A similar calculation should be done to determine the maximum number of deals that your account executives can manage and optimize their workload accordingly.

Monthly AE Capacity Formula: Max. Deals Worked per Day x Working Days per Month x # of AEs

If your AE capacity is higher than the number of deals flowing through your funnel each month, you’ll want to think of ways to fill the pipe, like increasing outbound prospecting efforts or loosening BDR qualification criteria. If capacity is lower than the actual volume of deals, you might want to consider hiring additional AE’s or having the BDR team conduct additional qualification before passing leads to AEs.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

CAC is invaluable to getting a clear picture of how your spend stacks up against your sales. Calculating and comparing CAC across different marketing channels helps determine whether certain marketing sources are performing better than others. It can also be used to inform how much should be invested in reducing customer churn or servicing different cohorts of customers.

Customer Acquisition Cost: Total Sales & Marketing Expenses / # of New Customers

Filtering this sales metric by another variable such as sales team and/or customer type can help further inform customer acquisition and segmentation strategy.

Lifetime Value (LTV)

Determining your customer lifetime value is tricky, so we recommend partnering with your finance team to fully understand how budget is allocated at your organization before diving in. Having said that, LTV is one of the most valuable and impactful sales metrics you can use.

If you’re wondering which customer segments to focus on to provide the greatest long term value for your business, look no further than LTV. Segment customers by sales dimensions such as industry and company size and measure them by the following formula:

Lifetime Value: Average Total Revenue Generated Over Customer Lifetime – Average Associated Costs per Customer

Understanding your LTV helps you answer important strategic questions like:
– Which customer segments should we focus on?
– How should we allocate sales headcount?
– What channels should customers purchase through?
– What is my sales territory strategy?

Magic Number

If you are a SaaS, subscription-based business, wherein total spend occurs upfront yet total revenue is spread out over future months, determining spending efficiencies can be a bit tricky. That’s where the Magic Number comes into play.

Magic Number: (Difference in Total Recurring Revenue between 2 Quarters) x 4 / Total Sales & Marketing Expenses for the Earlier of the Two Quarters

Magic Number should be used in annual business planning and quarterly reviews to provide guidance around:
– Whether your go-to-market approach is targeted enough
– How much investment should be made in sales and marketing
– Whether you need to explore lower cost growth strategies

You should aim for a Magic Number of .75 or higher. This means that your current sales and marketing mix is working. If your Magic Number is below .75, give some more thought to what can be done to minimize your customer acquisition costs. If your magic number is above 1, you may want to consider investing more in sales and marketing.

Keep in mind that, similar to LTV, Magic Number can be difficult to calculate accurately and may require assistance from your finance team – but it’s worth it!

Win Rate

In addition to helping generate more accurate sales forecasts, knowing your win rate is a fast and easy way to decide whether your reps need additional training, guage deal quality, compare the effectiveness of coaching between teams and determine whether you’re focusing on the right types of customers and deals.

Win Rate: # of Deals Won / # of Deals Created

Bucketing deals by industry, channel, size, region and other key deal dimensions and measuring and comparing the win rates of these various segments provides deeper and more granular insight. The same goes for examining the win rates of individual reps, teams and the company as a whole.

Stage Conversion Rates

These sales metrics are intended to explore your sales pipeline on a stage-by-stage basis to help you quickly spot and correct issues like process roadblocks, ineffective BDR/AE handoffs and poor lead quality.

For example, if the percentage of Leads that turn into Opportunities is low, then it’s time to realign sales and marketing efforts. One way to do this is to develop a lead scoring strategy that prioritizes leads that have certain qualities in common with deals that have closed, like contact title, company size, etc.

Stage Conversion Rate: # of Opportunities That Ever Existed in the Later Stage / # of Opportunities That Ever Existed in the Earlier Stage

While acceptable conversion rates vary by company, spend some time researching what the average conversion rate is for companies of your size and vertical. Stack your stage conversion rates against these averages, and make adjustments to your sales strategy and process as needed.

In addition, stage conversion rates should be measured at the rep, team and company level, as well as segmented by key customer, rep and sales process dimensions, such as lead source, price, industry and so much more. For instance, knowing that leads from particular industries convert at a much lower rate than others tells you which segments to focus on and which your segments your reps may require additional training in to convert.

Average Deal Size

While average deal size may seem like an extremely basic measurement, when spliced by dimensions like contact title or sales team, it can help shed light on important issues like product market fit, what types of deals to focus on and more. Be sure to leverage this metric regularly in weekly meetings and analysis, as well as for quarterly business planning and review.

Average Deal Size: Sum of the Value of Won Deals / # of Won Deals

Average Sales Cycle

Your average sales cycle length refers to the amount of time a deal must spend going through all the stages of your sales pipeline before being won. This sales metric should be used if you have questions around the effectiveness of varying sales processes, or whether certain segments are a better product market fit than others.

Average Sales Cycle: Average of Close Date – Created Date for All Deals

When spliced by dimension and rep, this metric can also provide valuable insight into which salespeople may need additional training and which market segments to focus on for the fastest time to value for your business.

Lead Yield

If you’re curious how to calculate the value of a lead in your pipe, or want to understand how to compare a lead from one source to another, for example, lead yield is for you. The same formula can be used to determine the value of opportunities by simply replacing “Leads” in the below formula with “Opportunities.”

Lead Yield: Sales Revenue for Deals Generated from Leads / Total # of Leads Generated

Understanding your yield measures enables you to more accurately score, prioritize and manage leads and opportunities based on those that ultimately generate the most value for your business. When segmented by dimension, it also gives you deeper insight into the qualities you should be looking for when it comes to prospecting – i.e. contact title, company size, industry, other technologies in use, etc.

How Do You Measure Up?

The desire to be a metric-driven sales leader simply isn’t enough. To become one, you must have a firm understanding of which sales metrics to use and when. To learn more about how to make this happen, download this free guide: Understanding the New Metrics of Sales.