Rnordman

People read books for a variety of reasons. Me? I read books for knowledge.

I don’t read for entertainment, and have no interest in fiction or novels. When I read a book, I want to make sure I walk away from it with at least a handful of new ideas, case studies, quotes or inspirations.

I need to have learned something that will help me build my business, or improve my skills as a writer.

Which leads me to one of the biggest challenges I face when reading books: actually retaining the information I’ve just read.

My memory sucks, and always has. My younger brother is constantly telling stories of our childhood that I simply can’t remember, or only recall the details of once he starts telling them.

There’s no point in reading 2-3 books a month only to have the valuable information flow in one ear and out the other.

So, I developed a method of retaining ideas I get from books using Evernote.

Evernote, in it’s simplest form, is a note-taking app. But it’s much more than that.

It’s difficult to describe just how much you can do with Evernote. You can create and manage notes in such a large variety of ways that it really is an app for everyone.

I read how a few business personalities were using Evernote to organize their thoughts and ideas, but I often found them to be far too complicated. For example, Michael Hyatt’s post was insightful, but I’m not nearly as busy as he is and have no desire to be.

I needed a simpler system that I would stick to. My Evernote system comes down to two things:

1. A Notebook Stack that contains all of my books
2. A Tag Matrix that allows me to tag notes for future reference

Here’s how I made both of these:

1) Creating a Notebook Stack

Evernote allows you to organize your notes into digital “Notebooks”. You can think of these as categories, allowing you to separate and organize notes based on their content. For example, you could have Notebooks labeled as Marketing, Travel, Finances, Personal, Ideas, and so on.

Evernote also lets you “stack” these Notebooks into one “pile”. You could compile all of your business-related notebooks into one Stack called Business, for example. Think of Notebook Stacks as folders on your computer.

I like to create a separate Notebook for every book I read. I then combine all of these Notebooks into a single stack called “Book Notes”. Here’s what that looks like:

Pretty straightforward.

Apparently, Evernote has a limit of 250 Notebooks for free users, but allows up to 5,000 for a Business account. I’ll worry about that once I’ve read 250 books.

Now let’s setup that tagging matrix.

2) Building your Tagging Matrix

A Tagging Matrix is an organized list of tags. Tags allow you to easily find your notes later when you’re searching for ideas and inspiration.

Each time I save a note from a book, I insert a tag of both the Topic and Type of note.

Here’s how I organize my tags:

When it comes to Type of notes, they almost always fall under Case Study, Idea, Illustration, Quote, or Story.

I’m sure you can figure out what Topic tags are for. This list continues to grow as I come up with new note topics to save.

And that’s it! I’m now ready to start saving notes from awesome books I’m reading.

Here’s how that process works:

Step 1) I come across something in a book that’s super-duper cool that I want to save for later

Like, for example, this quote from David Bowie on creativity that I found in Auston Kleon’s “Steal Like an Artist“:

“The only art that I’ll ever study is stuff that I can steal from.” – David Bowie

Step 2) Use Evernote’s camera/scan feature to snap a pic of the quote with my phone

Evernote allows you to snap a pic, or even scan and convert that pic into a document, right within their mobile app:

Step 3) Add the appropriate tags

Tags are the most important part! You want to be able to find this note later, after all.

Step 4) Save the note to that specific book’s Notebook

Step 5) Bask in your wonderfully organized glory! (and try out the search feature

Now the note is saved, cataloged, and easily searchable for future reference.

So, next time I’m searching for a quote on creativity, I can search my library of notes with “quote creativity“.

This process has been vital in improving my writings. Being able to retain all of the valuable information you consume on a daily basis is priceless.

I have Notebooks setup for stuff I read on the internet as well. If I come across a great blog post, or a small nugget of gold I want to save for later, I can use Evernote’s Web Clipper Chrome extension to save it directly from my browser.

Have you used Evernote to organize some aspect of your life? Or all of it? Let me know below! I’m always looking for new Evernote hacks.

With a collaborative approach, sellers gain more information allowing them to satisfy the customer’s needs without “thinning the deal.” These 4 guiding principles of consultative sales negotiations will lead to better outcomes for your team and your client’s.

1. Build Trusted Relationships

Earning the sale starts by earning the customer’s trust. Doing so requires the seller to remain consultative by engaging in a dialogue rather than a competition. Trust emerges when a seller views a customer need as an opportunity to move the sale forward rather than a hurdle.

2. Use Persuasiveness as a Process of Promoting Value

Create a compelling connection between the value of the seller’s solution to the customer’s priorities. This process begins by converting demand to needs. Take the time to understand what basic goals reside beneath blunt statements like “I need a lower price.” Use this information to underscore how the solution addresses the issue. This is a critical step that should be exhausted before trading in which the seller gains an agreement through changing terms.

3. Maintain Control and Confidence

Manage reflexes. Sellers too frequently succumb to an impulse to trade before first fully exploring the customer’s needs. Take the time to consider a response to a demand before relinquishing a term. Sellers will be surprised to find that when they handle trading as a last resort, they can preserve their optimal outcome.

4. Focus on Arriving at Mutually Successful Outcomes

Negotiating a deal means negotiating future deals. Make the goal of a strong relationship part of your optimal outcome. Consultative negotiations occur when the seller gets what they want—even if it’s not all they wanted—while maintaining and strengthening the relationship. This approach builds the foundation necessary to future opportunities.

Effective negotiating pays dividends. By placing equal focus on deal outcomes, relationships and trust a seller can close the deal they want to close while forming a foundation for future business. Mutually beneficial outcomes can only be reached when both sides take the time to understand needs rather than simply issue demand. The path to the sale is in the customer’s words. Keep listening.

Click here to download Richardson’s White Paper: Winning the Sale Without Thinning the Sale: Negotiating With The Modern Buyer. For more information about our Consultative Negotiation’s Training Program contact us at info@richardson.com or 800.526.1650.

The post 4 Guiding Principles of Consultative Negotiations appeared first on Welcome to the Richardson Sales Blog.

Sony and IBM keep tape storage running apace, with these key developments

Positive thinking can be a powerful thing for anyone in business. But a sunny, optimistic point of view can slip away during the day-to-day grind, under the combination of stress, packed schedules and a constant flow of incoming messages.

Making smart use of time and energy can translate into a positive and productive outlook on personal and professional matters. Here’s a look at some habits that can help CEOs.

Wake up early

For every early bird CEO, there may be another that works deep into the night, making a crack-of-dawn wakeup call a challenging prospect. It could be worthwhile for night owls to experiment with early morning hours, however. Before the noise of the work day starts, those hours can be spent in productive ways, including exercise and preparing for the day. In a story for Business Insider, JT Ripton notes that “rising early is a nearly universal trait among successful CEOs,” including Disney CEO Robert Iger and former Virgin America CEO David Cush.

“If you want to rise through the ranks and join these big players in the business world, you won’t do it by staying in bed,” Ripton writes. “If you don’t even know what 4 a.m. looks like, you’re missing out on a big opportunity to add more productivity to your day. Rise early and get the work day started right.”

Work-life balance

For many — perhaps even most — professionals, this is easier said than done. It’s hard to find time for everything, and the drive to be a success may cause some to ignore their personal lives. But it’s not impossible. Learning how to unplug can serve a CEO well, as Melissa Thompson writes for Forbes.

“Almost all employees have to work late occasionally, but if you continually work late every night and answer emails when you get home, you could easily burn out,” she says. “Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has spoken out on the value of work-life balance multiple times. By spending time with friends and family, your brain can relax and appreciate the positive stimulation of social interaction.”

Meditation

There are people that scoff at the idea of meditating. It may not be for everyone. But for others, meditation is a key element of personal balance, something that would benefit a stressed-out CEO. As Ripton explains, “Meditation is a wildly popular strategy for clearing the mind and focusing.”

“Oprah Winfrey is so devoted to the practice of transcendental meditation (TM) that she has TM teachers instruct everyone in her company who wants to learn the art of meditation,” Ripton writes. “She fits at least 20 minutes of meditation into every day and aims for two 20-minute sessions. In an article on her website, Winfrey cites many benefits from the practice, saying that ‘the results have been awesome. Better sleep. Improved relationships with spouses, children, coworkers. Some people who once suffered migraines don’t anymore. Greater productivity and creativity all around.’”

Step away from social media

It wasn’t that long ago when social media wasn’t a constant part of our lives. It may seem harmless to mindlessly check the various outlets for personal updates or news stories to pass the time. As Deep Patel points out in a story for Forbes, using that time for more productive things is a better option.

“You would be amazed how quickly the minutes add up in a day,” he writes. “If you can start to make a few small shifts in your schedule, you can take in so much more of the right information. Scrolling through Instagram and Facebook tends to do nothing but clutter the mind. As a leader, what you’re going for is the opposite. … Instead of looking for ways to waste time, see how many little moments you can make productive instead. These might seem like nominally small shifts, but small shifts add up.”

Be around positive people

The role our friends play in our overall outlook can be significant. From longtime pals to new acquaintances, the people we spend time with outside of the office can influence our attitude. In Patel’s story for Forbes, he writes that part of the “art of leadership” is “knowing how to surround yourself with the right kinds of people, forcing you to grow in ways you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.”

“Your friends are the best point of reference for how your time is being spent,” he explains. “And if you have friends that are constantly pushing themselves to become better individuals, you’re spending time with the right people. If they’re not, it’s time to change your friend group. Becoming a great leader isn’t about being mentored by a billionaire. Just start with the people you see on an everyday basis, and make sure they’re having a positive impact on your life.”

Ease the meeting load

When a CEO is stuck in meetings all day, there are many other matters that get neglected. Catching up on those tasks can then push the workday into personal hours, disrupting the aforementioned work-life balance. Though some meetings may be essential, there are other ways to address topics without a lengthy in-person discussion, as Ripton describes.

“Meetings are a huge drain on time and resources that some CEOs have deemed completely unnecessary,” he writes. “Instead of building more bagels and muffins into the budget for frequent get-togethers, consider the alternatives and see if you can reduce or eliminate these meetings altogether.”

He shares a quote from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as an example: “Meetings are a waste of time unless you are closing a deal. There are so many ways to communicate in real time or asynchronously that any meeting you actually sit for should have a duration and set outcome before you agree to go.”

Reading

It may sound trivial in the grand scheme of things, but reading can help executives get a good start on the day, or help to wind down at the end of it. In a story for CNBC, Marguerite Ward uses two of the country’s best-known success stories as examples: Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. Buffett reads multiple newspapers in the morning and through the day. And, Ward points out, Gates wrote this on his blog: “Reading books is my favorite way to learn about a new topic. I’ve been reading about a book a week on average since I was a kid. Even when my schedule is out of control, I carve out a lot of time for reading.”

“Reading has several scientific benefits,” Ward explains. “Research published in the Journal of American Academy of Neurology finds that people who engage in mentally stimulating activities like reading experience slower memory decline than those who do not. It also boosts creative thinking. Brain scans taken of college students who had read a thriller showed increased activity in the areas of the brain related to language comprehension and sensation.”

Millennials, love us or hate us, are here to stay. Over our relatively short but impressive lifespans, we have added a variety of unofficial terms and sayings to our everyday lingo. For marketers to target today’s millennials in a broader scope, they need to develop a fluency in our language cues, culture and overall uniqueness that sets us apart from the world.

I am a clear product of that overall uniqueness, and I know most would say that I live up to the definition of being a part of Generation Y. Here are five key traits about today’s millennial consumers along with correlations to my life:

• Mobile technology is their first language – Mobile technology makes marketing easier. I don’t have to sit behind a desk all day to get my job done. I have the ability to do it 24/7 from anywhere I want.
• We are social butterflies – I have the need to know everything about everything. This makes my professional life easier because I am always on top of the latest social media strategies and marketing trends.
• Collaboration and cooperation are key – Have you ever heard of the phrase “teamwork makes the dream work”? That’s a lifestyle nowadays. Why I am clearly more than capable of being independent, everything seems to run much more smoothly when everyone works towards the same goal.
• There is a desire for adventure and discovery – Today’s world is much more accessible than it’s ever been before. We can seemingly get everything done from anywhere we need to. I can sit on the beach in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, turn on a Wi-Fi hotspot from my iPhone, and get all of the work I need done from my computer or tablet.
• We are passionate and value-driven in everything we do – I get invested in anything I put my mind to, work or play. I like to make it a point that I can get everything done in life, and I am never scared to show it.

These traits are engrained into me and are part of my everyday life, personally and professionally. With that said, here are some popular words and phrases that my generation uses, along with an accompanying “PG-13” definition.

Words:

Savage – an act that is considered cool and extreme, with a touch of being unhinged and untamed.

Woke – an adjective describing someone who is alert and is always plugged into trends and issues.

Salty – an adjective describing someone who is giving off a negative vibe.

Shade – to throw “shade” at someone is to negatively critique or talk down to them.

Fleek – an adjective describing someone as cool, trendy or on-point; usually phrased as “on fleek”.

Trolling – a more common term, but not what you think. It means you are just having “fun” with someone; leading them on.

Squad – a group of people; specifically friends.

Fam – a shortened term for a family or a close friend group.

Swol – to describe someone who has exercised or worked out.

Basic – describing someone who likes stereotypical things that others like. Someone who is lacking character and personality.

Turnt – to be in or “turn up” to full party mode; to take to the next level.

YAAAS – It’s yes, but with more excitement. The number of A’s determine how excited you are.

Phrases:

“I Can’t Even” – being overwhelmed with any emotion to the point of not handling something.

“It’s Lit” – used to describe a place or action that is extremely fun; often used to describe a party.

“The Struggle is Real” – an ironic phrase used when involved in a semi-difficult situation, but the situation is in-fact very tolerable.

These are just a handful of words and phrases I use or hear every day. Text message abbreviations, hashtags, memes and emoticons (emojis) should be treated as one in the same, but that’s another topic for another day. (YAAAAAAAS!).

When reaching out to millennials, learn what each word and phrase mean. For me, it can be hilarious or very weird when words and their meanings are mixed up in advertisements. However, it could be embarrassing for your business. For example, you wouldn’t (or shouldn’t) use the word savage or turnt when targeting young teenagers or children. Once a parent reads into it and researches the potential meaning, your business might receive a negative complaint or review, and it could go downhill from there.

A real-life example of millennial marketing gone awry is something Microsoft attempted while trying to get new recruits. It backfired rather awkwardly, as the recruiters used phrases and words like “dranks”, “hella noms”, “getting lit” and more to invite interns to a party through email. It seemingly meant Microsoft supported partying into the late hours of a work night. They were mocked on social media for being inappropriate.

One of the best ways to reach millennials is to come up with content that’s original and unique to your brand. Your company doesn’t have to force modern lingo or culture down our throats. The best thing you can do is have originality and develop your own sense of coolness.

Social media has become a major player within any marketing strategy. In fact, 90% of marketers say social media is important to their business. And they’re constantly testing channels, content and communication styles to see which tactics and platforms are delivering the best ROI. However, with so many social media platforms and messaging types, tracking your company’s social efforts can quickly become a complex, manual web.

Here’s where dashboards can help. Dashboards are designed to make your life easier, by providing information in such a way that you can absorb it at a glance. They’re also designed to pull together many disparate pieces of data (the ones you may spend hours pulling manually) into summary form. Dashboards offer a simple solution to measuring your social media investment from sites such as Facebook and Twitter, giving you a way to quickly answer questions about effectiveness, audience and engagement.

If you’re just getting started with social media dashboards, we recommend these six dashboards. These give you all the nuts and bolts to jumpstart executive-style conversations about the changing landscape in social.

1. Website Traffic Generated by Social Media Channels: Are people landing on your website due to your social media outreach? This metric is crucial in measuring overall engagement, seeing which social posts are leading to clicks and what bounce rate occurs once they hit your website.
2. Twitter Engagement: A Twitter engagement dashboard will give you a snapshot view of your tweet volume, as well as the number of shares, likes and retweets you’ve received. It will also tell you how many times you’ve been favorited and added to lists.
3. Facebook Engagement: Like Twitter, a Facebook engagement dashboard depicts how many followers you have, and the number of times your posts have been shared, liked and commented on. You may also wish to see post views (overall reach) and ad spend.
4. Overall Top Posts: This one is a biggie. What does your audience respond to? Are your followers more engaged in news-style content, your weekly blogs or fun posts like quizzes and flashbacks? Having an overall view of what resonates on what channel versus the other can inspire you to fine-tune your posts to be more appealing. A top post dashboard would show you the likes, comments, shares and traffic to the website for your best performers.
5. Post Type Mix by Competitor: You may be following your competitors or keeping loose tabs of them online, but dashboards allow you to be disciplined about how you track them on social. This competitor dashboard tracks posts in four categories: (1) thought leadership or value, (2) promotional, (3) internal and (4) cause-based. You can track their mix over time, allowing you to keep pace with the changes they’re making to their social strategy.
6. Engagement by Competitor: This dashboard takes you one step further than just measuring post type by competitor. Here, you can measure the efficacy of the changes they’re making. For example, you may see 20% more thought leadership posts one month, but see that their engagement rates stay flat.

Do You Know Where to Spend Your Time on Social?

As social media channels evolve to become more complex, dashboards give you the ability to laser focus your efforts where they count. Additionally, they offer an avenue for justifying your company’s investment in social, and an argument for where to invest more (or less) time. And, easy access to data makes it all possible.

Get Better Conversions from Your Home Page

Your website’s home page should highlight your products or services in way that captures leads right away. In other words this is prime real estate where the sales ideally flow out of your website.

It’s important that your visitors know right away what you have to offer them. Your content should be well optimized and written in an emotionally compelling way that speaks to their needs and desires.

As you take a look at your current website or are thinking about starting a new one ask yourself exactly what action you would like your audience to take and why?

In order to draw interest there are several important elements of a successful home page that you should include.

1 – Share-worthy Headlines

The titles of your pages and posts are the first point of reference, and are read more than the rest of the copy on your page. You should create headlines that are unique, specific, urgent and useful. The words and position of your headline are important in increasing subscribers and conversions. Use a good headline checker like CoSchedule or Sharethrough to ensure you are capturing the reader’s attention immediately. Emotional words rank the highest according to an article on Kissmetrics, which shows CoSchedule’s study of over one million headlines:

You have merely seconds to grab the reader’s attention so it’s important to start off with a promise that catches their attention and imagination. Don’t be boring, long winded, or give away the farm. You want them to be compelled to read more.

2 – Include Your Brand Story on the Home Page

Your brand story will capture the reader’s interest as they learn more about the human side of your name or company. People are more likely to opt in or buy what you’re selling if they can personally relate to you. Write a story that keeps your prospects interested and tells the reason of why you’re producing products or services. Showcasing what is unique to your business helps you stand out from the rest of the competition and makes your brand memorable.

3 – Build Credibility & Establish Rapport

As you are writing the content for your home page, include words and details that make the reader feel as if you know them personally, and that you understand exactly what they are looking for. With target market research you can discover more about your audience — when you know them well enough, you will be able to include the exact keyword phrases that get you entrance into their world.

Some creative ways to present this are:

• Online quiz or survey
• Free informative webinar or report
• Real testimonials
• An introduction video addressing them personally

4 – Relevant Images

People are visual by nature, so you want to include strong imagery in strategic places. It’s important to not allow visual content to be too cluttered or take over the main page, but rather be used to enhance what you’re trying to convey. Simple is best — especially when it comes to mobile readability and website speed, like this example from one my clients, Bob Livingstone:

5 – Personal Connection

Make is easy for your visitors to get in touch with you either by phone, in a live event or in person. By making yourself available you are more reachable, and trusted. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through Facebook Live webinars for those who subscribe to your website. After you have made a connection your prospects can further connect with you to learn more about what you can offer them. Here’s a great example from marketing expert, Rebekah Radice:

6 – A Great Offer

Remember that you are selling solutions, not features, and you want your offer to convey the benefits of buying to the reader. You also want to make the offer hard for them to refuse. For example, you could include any of these elements:

• Free tips on a particular topic that leads to a full purchase of a book, membership, or product
• Sample chapter of an upcoming book or a product sample
• Coupon or discount for an event, product, or service
• A one-time free consultation

The point here is to provide a high value freebie that your prospects will want to share with their friends, family, and coworkers, and compel to them to make a full purchase.

7 – Reduce the Fear Factor

Many people choose to turn away from a purchase based on fear — they may not know enough about your business or can’t find a lot of reviews or recommendations from others. The more you can reduce their risks the better. Offer a risk-free incentive along with ways to find you online such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter where you are actively engaging with your audience and customers.

8 – A Strong Call to Action

Before leading your visitors to a sales message be sure to remind them about the benefits of your product or service. Let them know that they have a chance to change their lives by subscribing to your website to learn more or download a freebie. You don’t want them to leave your website wondering why they came there in the first place.

9 – Responsive Home Page Design

A good landing page must work well on any platform — both computer and mobile. Nothing can be worse than losing valuable click thrus after presenting an exciting headline yet your readers cannot view it or act now because the page is not responsive for mobile. If you have an older website now is the time to do an upgrade in order to rank higher on search engines and attract more readers.

10 – Take Them to a Sales Page

With software like LeadPages or Instapage you can have a money making page made up in less than hour, assuming you already have your images created, testimonials collected, and story ready to tell. These resources help you create a specific landing page where you can sell directly to your interested subscribers in very little time.

A sales page is designed to lead your prospects through the process of finding out more about what you have to offer them quickly and easily while integrating with many other marketing platforms such as Aweber, Ontraport, Facebook, WordPress and more.

Anyone who wants to increase their opt in rates, sales, and improve conversions should use a sales page separate from their landing page. If you’re running any type of marketing campaign for yourself or a client, you’ll enjoy using these to get the most out of your offers. You won’t have to come up with the design or layout on your own — everything is already included in services like these.

A website that speaks directly to your audience without an upfront sales pitch and includes a modern design can greatly improve your chances of not only capturing leads, but converting them into loyal customers. The best visitor experience is one which is simple, clear, friendly, and informative. Don’t be afraid to showcase who you are, and to include an easy way they can make a direct connection with your or your company.

Social maturity leadership isn’t a destination so much as it is a journey, and today’s forerunners are just as easily tomorrow’s Contenders, Conservatives, and Observers. That’s because enduring leadership requires ongoing social innovation and investment to keep from being overtaken. If all else remains constant and competitors move up the index, your brand falls behind. To maintain leadership, internal social champions must keep the #SocialFirst flame alive.

Let’s explore what sets Leaders apart.

How Leaders benefit from social maturity:

• Win market share from competitors
• Utilize customer care as a profit center and source of growth
• Future-proof customer care, marketing, and sales

Here’s the Social Maturity Index once more:

The 3 characteristics of Leaders:

#SocialFirst and high performing

Leaders in social maturity have instigated the right balance of high investment and high innovation and are now reaping the benefits. Their customer care teams are specialized, staffed based on social volume, and are guided by clearly defined metrics that can be compared one-to-one against legacy channels. Management empowers agents to consistently produce in-channel-resolutions and leadership supports these efforts by battling bureaucracy and prioritizing the customer experience.

Promoting Social as a Care Channel

Fully socially mature brands are alway looking for new ways to drive customer volumes from costly legacy channels to efficient social ones. This leads them to be at the forefront of channel adoption also. By adding social care buttons to company “contact us” pages, and treating Messenger as an in-the-moment communication tool, Leaders drive the industry forward through their need to innovate.

Treat customer support as a profit center

Social maturity leaders have no problem securing additional budget for social care tools because the support organization is clearly able to demonstrate the ROI of efforts. The support team has established metrics and has cultivated teams of high-performing agents. Customers have their expectations consistently met and exceeded in ways that encourage them to buy more, buy again, and feel more loyal.

How Leaders can maintain their edge:

Maintaining social maturity requires constant vigilance. Leadership and champions must keep an eye out for changes in potentially disruptive technology and in shifting consumer tastes and trends.

Fight complacency

According to Chris Zook, author of “The Founder’s Mentality,” companies, business units, and teams of all sizes go through life cycles. Most start out young and scrappy with a clear purpose and drive. As they grow in complexity and size, their founding purpose becomes watered down, and they stop innovating. The great danger for Leaders in social maturity is that they may grow complacent as a result of their success. It’s up to the champions and leadership to ensure that standards continue to be raised, that internal expertise is retained and grown, and that they continue to deliver high-quality social support.

Always be exploring news ways to deliver efficient care at scale

Socially mature Leaders should always have their eye out for new possibilities. Disruption comes when companies least expect it and to stay on the cutting edge of what’s possible in social care, brands should both partner with vendors who are themselves constantly innovating. Customer support leadership should live in a perpetual state of evaluation. What’s next and around the corner? AI and Bots?

Keep the fire alive among executive management

Maintaining leadership in social maturity will often come down to ongoing executive sponsorship. It’s the job of the executives to communicate and prioritize their #SocialFirst mission, and for social champions within the organization to continue to beat the drum and circulate performance metrics, ROI, and success stories that keep it rooted in the growth of the company. Social leadership will stick best when it has strong cross-functional executive support.

In the long social maturity journey, achieving leadership status is no reason to let up. The more companies invest in offering the highest-performing social care possible, the greater rewards they’ll continue to earn in terms of customer satisfaction, revenue, and long-term loyalty. More innovation and more investment are how you’ll make sure that your brand is the leader of today as well as tomorrow.

I recently spoke to the President of a fleet management firm who relayed that they had turned over sales leadership along with the entire sales force. The comment was that although the team was a bunch of great guys, the ‘donuts and pens’ approach just isn’t effective to close business in the modern world. More and more, this is becoming the vision and understanding of sales and executive leadership teams.

There needs to be a new approach as CEB & Gartner research have shown that 90% of decision makers refuse cold approaches through phone and email by default.

Let’s Talk About the 10% That Connect – What Happens?

I think we’re all aware that, especially in business, time is a precious commodity. Sales people understand that once you make the phone call or fire off that email, you have all of two sentences to capture someone’s attention and captivate interest.

Each interaction and every minute we spend with them must be worthwhile to the prospect, otherwise we’ll be quickly re-prioritized down the totem pole of responsibilities. Calling on the C-suite without a pre-identified synergy, value prop, and established trust can come off as offensive. Then, not only do we fail to move the deal forward but we also burn a potential relationship.

The old school thinking is ‘Oh well, onto the next’ and that’s why many B2B sales organizations are still living the 10% rule: 1 in 10 calls gets to a conversation, 1 in 10 conversations gets to a close. Well, I’m here to say that this is donuts and pens thinking.

This is not an isolated problem. In my home industry of supply chain and logistics, many firms have suffered huge sales turnover within the past 3 years including but not limited to UPS, DHL, and R+L Carriers.

When the problem happens so consistently, at some point we must stop to consider whether the issue exists at the employee or at the systemic business level.

Why Some Businesses are Pulling Away in Sales Results and ROI

I believe the major driver of the gap is that sales does not receive the support they need from marketing. A recent study by the Aberdeen Group found:

• Only 35% of organizations are strongly aligned on most marketing and sales efforts
• Only 39% are developing and executing against clear departmental strategies
• Only 24% can measurably connect marketing & sales efforts beyond closed deals

The sales leaders who are pulling away in results and ROI are those who call for marketing support to go beyond the basic brand awareness pre-funnel and top-of-sales-funnel activities. They’re looking for sales and marketing to work together on specific accounts, creating commercial insight and content that can be used throughout the entire sales process instead of ‘just’ the top of the funnel. These leaders are asking for marketing-for-sales support where there is a keen focus on the “why change” and “why you” conversations showing a direct relevance to the employees they want to target.

Sales should be driving marketing toward the right accounts, and marketing should be driving sales toward the right conversations. You see, these organizations that are pulling away in sales results and ROI are engaging in account based sales and marketing programs where both sales and marketing are accountable for driving revenue from select accounts.

Sixty percent of the organizations that have engaged in account based strategies for at least a year are experiencing a minimum of 10% improvement in revenue performance compared to their previous traditional approach.

Account Based Sales and Marketing Needs to Apply to Each Channel and Every Interaction

Many organizations that have adopted account based sales and marketing, and even have a VP of ABM (like Traackr, who has more than doubled revenue in under two quarters), are failing to apply account based marketing in every channel. On LinkedIn, the profiles of sales professionals are not demonstrating expertise to make the case on why they should be trusted nor communicating any specific value to the accounts they’re targeting.

Content is only being pushed out by marketing through sponsored updates, InMail, and re-targeted ads. Meanwhile, sales is busy pushing out templated messages which have no relevance beyond the industry level. There is no relevance at company, rank and individual levels and there is no effort to build a consensus within the buyers’ team.

It has become a tactical (non-strategic) volume game and we have found that the traditional lead gen approach on LinkedIn is leading to longer sales cycles.

Read this article by Kristina Jaramillo to see the difference between the tactical and strategic approach.

So, What Happens When It All Comes Together?

In short, you win.

UPS, Schneider, and other successful companies have worked towards sales-marketing integration to reduce turnover and generate results that pull ahead of the competition. Schneider has seen 3378% return on investment for their marketing budget and even IBM has stated that a lead developed through effective social selling is 7x more likely to close.

Surveyed B2B sales organizations showed that aligned sales and marketing:

• Increased sales rep productivity (41% reported)
• Increased win rates (41% reported)
• Provides greater higher quality lead volume (39% reported)
• Improved access to high level decision makers (39% reported)
• Expanded market reach (48% reported)
• Improved the customer experience during the buying cycle (45% reported)

Now, sales leadership can continue to turn over and hope for different results or they can begin calling for a new approach which reliably leads to increased revenue performance. As I mentioned previously, account based sales and marketing approaches increase revenue performance by at least 10% more than the traditional methods.

What can a 10% revenue performance increase do for your company?

Inside my LinkedIn community, you’ll learn how an account-based sales & marketing focus through LinkedIn alleviates sales turnover by empowering consistent, sustainable and scalable performance across the sales force. You’ll also see what advancements the 10% revenue performance increase is enabling for businesses in supply chain, technology and professional services.

I want you to list all the reasons your customers like doing business with you.  Yes, all of the reasons. Then compare your list with the lists of the other people on your sales team.  Too often we overlook many of the reasons customers like doing business with us.  Yet these reasons are great sales […]

TORONTO — Amazon.com Inc.’s purchase of Whole Foods Market Inc. last month has pushed an already nervous retail sector into a collective panic not seen since the great recession.

Old-guard retailers are furiously transforming their business models in an attempt to compete against the Seattle-based online giant, while analysts and investors are scouring quarterly sales figures, wondering if any retailers will be immune to Amazon’s corrosive impact on sales and profits.

“Is Anything Safe from Being Amazoned?” asked a BMO Capital Markets cross-sector analysis released in September, one of many exhaustive recent industry outlooks on the topic. Others point ominously to the Death by Amazon index, a list of 54 largely underperforming retail stocks compiled by Bespoke Investment Group that the firm believes will be most hurt by the technology behemoth.

• Toys ‘R’ Us seeks bankruptcy protection, crushed by debt and online rivals
• 'Getting ready for Amazon and their ilk': Empire shares soar as turnaround gains traction
• Iconic Canadian retailer Roots seeks IPO with $700 million valuation

The upshot of these and other expert outlooks? No retailer is decisively insulated from losing sales to Amazon, but it appears that some are far more sheltered than others.

“Amazon isn’t really a retailer in the conventional sense — they are a data innovation and technology company that sells things,” says retail futurist Doug Stephens, president of Toronto-based Retail Prophet. “On the one hand, it makes them tremendously dangerous, but on the other hand, it leaves them vulnerable.”

Though Amazon has begun to penetrate the realm of bricks-and-mortar  through its Whole Foods purchase, there are a number of retailers who don’t seem to be particularly affected by its reach.

For example, retailers such as Costco Wholesale Corp and TJX Cos. Inc., operator of Winners, HomeSense and Marshall’s, have massive outlets and a broad selection that would seem to compete directly with the so-called “endless aisle” of selection online. But both companies have been performing well, significantly outperforming traditional department stores.

Costco’s same-store sales in the first three quarters of its fiscal year were up five per cent in Canada and it doubled the pace of its store opening rate in Canada during the latest fiscal year.

TJX, which has 433 stores in Canada, had a same-store sales increase in this country of nine per cent in the second quarter ended July 29, and it raised its full-year guidance on bullish prospects.

What both have in common is a strong consumer perception of value: Costco charges a membership fee, but keeps its prices low on warehouse goods, while Winners and its corporate siblings offer 20 to 60 per cent off the typical retail prices of similar merchandise found elsewhere.

The TJX banners even lack a sales website. In order to see the deals, you are required to set foot inside a store. Though Costco sells goods through its website, only 20 per cent of what is available online is sold at Costco’s bricks and mortar warehouses. Both retailers also frequently change merchandise.

“TJX and Costco do a brilliant job, both of them, of creating that ‘treasure hunt’ environment: you don’t know what you’re going to find in the store when you go in,” Stephens said. “There’s always a feeling like if you don’t buy it today, it won’t be there later. There isn’t that sense of urgency with Amazon.”

Indigo Books & Music Inc. is another retailer that would have seemed to be obvious roadkill when Amazon began selling books online in Canada 15 years ago. But against all odds, Indigo has thrived and closed very few locations over the years.

Indigo’s decision to up the ante on toys, gifts and merchandise sold under its own name continues to pay off. In its latest fiscal year, Indigo had comparable sales growth of three per cent in its large superstores after growing a robust 13 per cent a year earlier.

Experts say Indigo has been able to create a different sort of treasure hunt from the kind you find at TJX and Costco by designing and redesigning visually inviting stores whose assortment appeals to consumers who love to browse.

Indigo still sells a fair amount of books in addition to general merchandise, and both categories would be seemingly vulnerable, but yet the stores are doing well.

“People go in there to be inspired and get gift ideas,” said Robert Gibson, an analyst at PI Financial Corp. who has been following Indigo for years. “For gift giving, discovery is important, as is store experience. People like to go in and read the books and look at the paper and smell the candles.”

Those two elements — a satisfying or enriching in-store experience and the element of finding good gift ideas — is not easily replicated online.

“Amazon is an unbeatable tool when you know exactly what you are looking for,” Stephens said. “It is not a great tool for discovery.”

Diane Brisebois, president of industry association Retail Council of Canada, elaborated on so-called “experiential retailing” when she attended the opening of a new-model Roots boutique last month at Toronto’s Yorkdale shopping centre. Customers there can for the first time design their own jackets and bags.

“Retailers operating in bricks and mortar now realize that they have to provide an exceptional experience when customers walk into the store,” Brisebois said.

In addition, she noted, those who own, design and control the distribution of their own brands — Roots, Lululemon and Aritzia — appear to be better positioned to fight Amazon than those that don’t.

“Multibrand retailers are facing more competition from online sellers, and that is probably their biggest challenge right now,” Brisebois said. “Vendors are going on Amazon and Alibaba and other platforms, and they are selling directly to consumers.”

Private labels in particular can act as a good hedge to Amazon, analysts say.

If Lululemon’s range of apparel is only offered through its website and stores, customers have no choice but to to buy them there. The same could be said for Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.’s Noma lights and Mastercraft tools, and the retailer’s private-label goods now account for a third of the company’s revenue, up from 20 per cent in 2012.

The 95-year-old merchant that sells everything from shovels to toasters and hockey skates, would also seem especially vulnerable to Amazon, especially since it is a generalist merchant with some overlap in goods and a small but growing online presence.

But its performance in the past three years has continued to surprise analysts.

“Canadian Tire has the best retail locations in Canada among the general merchandisers, due to its long-standing presence in the country,” analyst Peter Sklar said in the recent BMO Capital Markets report on Amazon. “In addition, the company has strong private-label brands that we believe consumers value. Finally, Canadian Tire’s (same-store sales) have remained strong, and when they have weakened, we believe it has been due to weather, not Amazon’s taking share.

Though Sklar believes Amazon will eventually affect Canadian Tire, he noted that investors may have jumped the gun and, as a result, the Canadian retailer’s stock is now undervalued.

Dollarama Inc. is another retailer whose sales and profits have been powering along in a seemingly unstoppable manner.

Selling items at $4 or less and not having a website could be drawing in customers for the good value and the wide range of small items easily fits into Stephen’s “discovery” thesis, leading to a fair amount of impulse buying at the retailer.

By selling a high volume of low-cost items, Dollarama doesn’t really need to compete with Amazon either.

“At these price levels, we do not see e-commerce as a threat,” Sklar said.

Furthermore, Dollarama is actively looking at e-commerce, considering ways to sell goods online to customers who want to buy goods in bulk.

Another surprisingly resilient player whose offerings compete head-on with Amazon in electronics is Best Buy Co. Inc., which reported stronger-than-expected sales of video games, consoles and appliances in its latest quarter and whose shares are up 38.3 per cent in the past year.

Best Buy has likely made gains in some categories from the loss or sliding market share of rival stores, such as HMV and Sears Canada, and Circuit City and H.H. Gregg in the U.S.

Perhaps more critically, Best Buy has also cemented its online reputation by promising to match the prices of e-tailers including Amazon.

“Best Buy kind of went through some of the beating already years ago, cutting staff, cutting overhead, cutting stores, and they have come out the other end leaner and meaner,” said Bruce Winder, a partner at  Toronto-based Retail Advisors Network.

“They do price match, and also offer a range of services and installation and things that, right now, you can’t get from Amazon.”

Over the long haul, though, not everyone can be like Home Depot, heavy on in-store service and carrying high quantities of bulky items such as building materials, Winder said.

“Ultimately, there are not many retailers who will be Amazon proof,” he said. “Those that appeal to niche markets, or where there are specific services required will fare better, because they offer something Amazon doesn’t have.”

As a result, he added, there is suspicion that Amazon will buy another chain in the next couple of years.

Craig Patterson, director of applied research at the University of Alberta’s School of Retailing and president of Retail Insider Media, also has doubts that an Amazon-safe retail niche exists.

“It’s tricky because Amazon has a lot of different categories, and the ‘treasure hunt’ is for those who can afford the time,” he said.

Over time, software enhancements could replicate some of the inspirational store elements and limited-time deals available at stores that have been until now viewed as immune to Amazon’s encroachment.

“TJX and Costco, they could be threatened,” Patterson said. “Amazon could offer a limited run of product online and do promotions in a more extensive or meaningful way than even a TJX store. Amazon has almost unlimited stock, as far as the retail model goes.”

Financial Post

hshaw@nationalpost.com

Twitter.com/HollieKShaw

Don’t you dare! Don’t ask for that.

The voice in our head screams danger when it’s time to ask customers for reviews. You feel afraid. You know you’ve done an amazing job for them. Your product exceeded their expectations, your services offer more value for less money.

You’ve blown them away with your amazing work.

But the fear crops up. Maybe you’re being a pest, an irritation to your customers. Maybe they don’t want to give you a helpful review.

What if it damages the relationship.

When we allow these thoughts to take control, we’re far more likely to take the easy way out. We simply refuse to ask for the reviews we need. Instead of sending customers to 3rd party sites to share their reviews, we refuse to ask.

We take the easy way out and we don’t get what we want.

Asking for reviews is the problem

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When do you ask, how do you ask?

Are there signals a customer sends to let you know that it’s an appropriate time to request a review? Is it wrong to ask?

In my first post I shared 7 email templates you can use to ask customers for reviews. Here are four more email templates you can use.

I’ll also go over the details behind these reviews – when to use these templates, where you use them and how you maximize their effectiveness. Using these templates may feel risky, dangerous or even stupid. That’s a normal part of the process.

Let’s take a look.

Template #1: Priming customers for reviews

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Part of the reason customers aren’t always happy to receive a review request, is simply because they’re unprepared for them. Customers typically have this perception of the sales process – it goes something like this:

“I give you money, you give me a product or service, we’re even.”

Priming customers is a simple and straight forward way to prep clients to give you reviews. You ask at the beginning of your relationship and then at the end of a sale, once your business with your customer is complete.

Here’s how you do it.

Hi Jan,

Thanks for your trust in us with [problem]. I know we’re going to achieve amazing things together! I had a quick question for you:

What can we can say or do to earn a review from you?

We’ve made our 416 customers very, very happy and they’ve decided to share their experience. Are you interested in sharing yours? You can share your thoughts here. [link to review sites or review funnel]

Would you let me know?

Andrew McDermott

Here’s why it’s so effective. You’re getting customers to set the conditions you’ll need to meet to receive a positive review from them. What’s better, you’re getting it ahead of time. You’ll get the specifics you need to ensure your customers are happy and satisfied.

Use questions to nail down any vague answers.

Want to improve your odds of getting an amazing review? Follow these steps:

1. Prime customers with the question: “What can we say or do to earn a review from you?”
2. Get a small list of specifics and metrics to beat.
3. Outperform. Dramatically meet and exceed your customer’s expectations.
4. Remind customers about their metrics, show them how you’ve exceeded their expectations.
5. Ask customers for their feedback immediately.

This works because it tells customers what to expect, it’s a wonderful thing even if customers respond negatively. And, that could happen.

Customers can and will say no. Some customers will simply reject your request, they’ll respond negatively or they’ll refuse. Believe it or not, this is a very good thing.

You know exactly who you’re dealing with.

You’ll be able to segment your customers, to put unresponsive or unwilling customers into a nurturing campaign. You’ll have the opportunity to find the reason behind their rejection.

This is powerful because it enables your customers to self-identify.

Templates #2 and #3: Reviews from confirmation emails

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Repeat customers aren’t always responsive. Sometimes they’re more focused on getting their problem resolved, or a product shipped.

Research shows, confirmation emails are 2x to 5x more effective than bulk email.

Customers are eagerly waiting for their confirmation email. Most people treat these emails like a receipt. But they’re actually an opportunity in disguise.

If you’re dealing with a repeat customer you have another chance to ask for a review.

If your customers are waiting for their confirmation emails they haven’t received their product or service (yet). Which is exactly why this works best with repeat or past customers.

Let’s say your customers haven’t responded to your previous requests for a review. Why bother asking again? Because they’re giving you an opening – within your confirmation emails. They’re obviously interested in your product or service. They trust you enough to repeatedly spend money with you.

They just haven’t given you an answer yet.

If a customer said No to your review request and you continued to harass them that’d be gross, right? That’s not what’s happening here. So, what is happening?

You’ve been ignored by your customer.

Your confirmation email is how you get them back. Here’s how you do it:

Hi Jan!

Thanks for shopping with us! Your items are on their way. If you’d like to track your order you can do it [here].

Can we ask a favor?

We want to improve your shopping experience. What’s the one thing we can do to improve your shopping experience? Please be as honest as you want to be (we can take it).

Share your thoughts here. [link to review sites or review funnel]

We love you,

Andrew and the [team]

What if you’re offering a service?

Your clients are still going to be responsive to your confirmation email, only it’ll probably be more like a launch email or message to wrap up your work together. Here’s a template you can use with clients in that scenario.

Hi Jan,

We’ve really enjoyed working with you. We’re excited to see the pay off our work generates for you. Looks like it’s going to be amazing.

Quick question for you.

What could we have done better? Please share your thoughts here. [link to review sites or review funnel] Any feedback you can give would be incredibly helpful.

Thanks again for your trust,

Andrew McDermott

These templates are powerful because you can create unlimited variations. Even better, they can be used in a wide variety of places.

• Order confirmation emails
• Download confirmation (e.g. digital products)
• Email subscriber confirmation
• On social media (Facebook ad campaign targeting existing customers)
• Webinar confirmation
• Client launch emails
• Kickoff emails

If you have a list of engaged customers, you can use this to generate reviews, regardless of where they are in the sales cycle.

Template #4: Reviews from dead/inactive customers

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What if your customers aren’t engaged? What if they’re customers who have simply faded away?

Believe it or not you can ask these dead/inactive customers for reviews, and you can get them. It takes a bit of prep and a lot of patience. These relationships are inactive for a reason.

How do you do it? With triggers.

You need a triggering event that puts you back in touch with your inactive customers. It can be as simple as something that caused you to think of them or something that connects both of you together.

You can use:

• Shared / common interests.
• Changes in their industry, business or profession.
• A recommendation or referral from someone who knows them.
• Sharing a mention from a mutual friend, co-worker, acquaintance or friend.

The possibilities are endless, but it comes with a side of danger. If you’re approaching this from the standpoint that you’re going to reconnect with them to simply extract a positive review, they’ll notice.

Do that and you’ll likely destroy the relationship for good.

And, rightfully so, that’s a pretty sleazy thing to do. The honest thing to do is to pursue these inactive customers genuinely, because you’re interested in them or their business.

How do you do that?

You include a small gift with your angle. The gift should be relevant to the content of your message and here’s the important part:

Your gift and your message should come with no strings attached.

That’s right, no strings attached.

At this point you’re not looking for a review, you’re not looking for a favor. You’re looking for customers who are open to a relationship with you.

That’s it.

If customers ignore your message and your gift, the relationship is still dead / inactive. You’re extending your hand in genuine relationship, no strings attached. If customers respond and/or reciprocate, don’t pounce on them or hit them with a hard sell.

Continue the relationship.

Continue adding value – sharing helpful information, offering limited support. If they reciprocate, you reciprocate, if they invest, you invest.

If they don’t reciprocate, you don’t reciprocate.

Do that until the relationship has progressed and customers are back in touch with you on a regular basis. Once that’s happened, and it’s appropriate to do so, make a request for a review.

Here’s how you do it when that time comes:

Hi Jan,

I’m glad we were able to reconnect again.

I’ve been [impressed] with the way you handled [action, event, conflict]. Can I get your thoughts and feedback on [specific problem].

Would you be willing to share your thoughts on a very short 3 minute call?

It would mean the world to me.

Thanks so much,

Andrew McDermott

This template obviously requires a tremendous amount of finesse. You’ll need to have a specific action or event you can reference when you talk about what they did. It should be somehow relevant to your feedback request as well.

This is very easy to get wrong, but when it works, it works beautifully. Here are the details that make this template so powerful.

1. This strategy focuses on two must-have areas: specificity (I have details) and credibility (I believe you). Lie about anything, lazily offer up broad or vague details and you are done. This will backfire horribly. Remember, this depends almost entirely on you being genuine and honest.

2. Your message respects their time: The foundations of this relationship may still be fragile. This message respects that, minimizing the commitment required. According to this TED talk, the average person talks at 225 words per minute. That’s a 675 word testimonial which is outstanding.

3. The message expresses honor and gratitude: It’s not a selfish request that’s focused entirely on making your business or organization look good. It’s a request that conveys gratitude and honor, it relies on nuance. This is far more likely to attract your wayward customer’s attention.

Here’s the beauty behind this template.

If you originally lost this customer on very bad terms, you’re probably going to get some bad news. A short call gives you the ability to hear them out in a safe environment. Your customers can vent and air their grievances if they’re the bearer of bad news.

If it’s good, you thank them profusely, then you ask them to share their feedback on your review sites of choice.

Template #5: Reviews from references

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Have you ever had a prospect ask for references? You can use these reference requests as an opportunity to ask your clients for reviews.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Give your client a script they can use. Often times clients don’t know what to say when they’re speaking with prospects. Give them six questions they can answer and you’ll give them everything they need to help you.

2. Once your clients share their feedback, ask them if they’d be willing to share their feedback on a single review site. They’re already doing you a huge favor so make your ask simple and easy for them to follow.

3. Send them a link to the review site. Make everything as easy as possible for your client to share their thoughts and feedback. If possible, do it right after they’ve shared their feedback with your prospect.

Here’s how you ask for the review:

Jan,

You’re incredible. Thanks so much for being willing to share your honest feedback with [prospect]. I really appreciate your help on this.

Would you be willing to share the basic idea behind your feedback [here – review site link or review funnel]? This way, there’d be no need to bother you with a reference request in the future.

If not, no worries.

Your # 1 Fan,

Andrew

This works best with highly agreeable clients who are somewhat (or very) eager to please. It also works well with clients who, “owe you a favor.”

But, it’s a lot to ask.

Here’s why it works. You’re asking customers to simply repeat their thoughts and feedback on a review site for the world to see. They repeat it one more time, on a review site. Thanks to your six question script, they know what to say, and how to say it.

You’ve made it easy and far more likely that they’ll respond well.

Your customers won’t respond well…

If you’re dishonest or insincere. These requests for reviews, they all depend on trust, honor and reciprocation. Your customers are far more willing to share their thoughts and feedback if you approach them the right away. It isn’t about manipulation or control, it’s about gratitude.

Make it as easy as possible for customers and clients to give you the reviews you want. Include links to 3rd party review sites, give them a copy of your feedback. If you’d like to to take this further, consider using an automated or semi-automated solution to streamline the process.

Customers see your request for reviews as a favor, and it is. Make the process simple and easy.

Reviews are a dangerous favor

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The voice in our heads screams danger when we ask for a favor. It screams danger when customers receive our request. You feel afraid, they feel afraid. It doesn’t matter that you’ve done an amazing job, what matters is how you ask.

Ask for a review at the wrong time and you risk damaging your relationship with customers.

Wait for the right signals, and you’ll get the positive feedback you need. Asking for a review, using these strategies, may feel risky, dangerous or stupid.

They’re anything but.

You’re amazing and you’ve created something amazing for your customers. Use these 5 templates to request customer reviews, and you’ll find customers are ready and willing to share their review, no daring necessary.

“When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books. You will be reading meanings.” – W. E. B. Du Bois, African-American activist and writer

It’s often good to quote numbers in your presentation. They provide powerful means to support the dialog you’re conducting with your audience. But, beware: figures don’t always speak for themselves. In science, naked numbers are numbers without units. Any scientist or economist will tell you that numbers without labels and charts without legends are meaningless and worthless. How would you feel about being offered a salary of “25”, not knowing if you’ll get 25 euros, 25 cents, or 25 peanuts for your work? per hour, per day, or per week?

Also in my job as a strategist and marketer, I’m frequently confronted with naked numbers, industry analyst reports that contradict each other, and quantitative claims that don’t seem to make any sense at all. As Plato, the Greek philosopher, already said 24 centuries ago: a good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. This is exactly why you shouldn’t present naked figures, but complement them by the sources and the formulas you used to obtain them.

And still, even the most unprovable forecasts and improbable measurements may yield good presentation material. Not because of their objective value, but just because some people may agree and others will disagree with them. And that’s exactly the sort of conflict you need to create for fueling a conversation with or between your audience. You’ll get an opportunity to discuss the why and the how, explain the logic behind your story, clarify the assumptions you made, bring additional facts and figures, talk about use cases and customer references, and prove the value of your products and services.

Finally, also remember what I wrote in my “living by numbers” post on this blog: numbers, particularly very large ones, don’t resonate with people until they are presented in an appropriate format. So, it remains essential to use good visualization methods for giving meaning to your figures, and making your audience remember the data you quote.

The small business blog niche is highly competitive. There are dozens of popular blogs that already have loyal followings and new blogs will have to compete for their attention. But that isn’t to say no opportunity exists. There’s a wide market and you can definitely reach people if you know what you’re doing.

4 Traits Successful Blogs Share

If you want to build a worthwhile small business blog, you have to understand what it takes to be successful. This doesn’t mean you copy everything these blogs do; instead, it provides you with some proven principles that can be strategically leveraged for positive results.

Let’s take a look at four specific traits successful blogs almost always share.

Practical Content

Do you know what the number one thing successful small business blogs have in common is? Practical content. In order for a blog to be influential in today’s crowded online marketplace, the content has to be concrete, digestible, and applicable.

If you take a look at highly-ranked blogs, you’ll notice that they all do a phenomenal job of developing content that moves readers to action. Instead of discussing complicated theories or publishing self-serving case studies, these blogs create content that provides value to the reader.

Perhaps the best example of practical content is the how-to article. How-to articles tell the reader how they can accomplish a specific task or challenge. Not only does this enrich the reader’s life, but it also encourages them to come back for more.

Shareworthy Visuals

How people consume content has changed over the years. In previous decades – before the internet entered the scene – text-heavy content was the norm. All you have to do is look at old newspapers and magazines and you’ll see that most articles were 90 to 95 percent text. There might have been a small image or single pullout quote, but that was typically it.

Today, text-heavy content isn’t effective. The proliferation of social media and digital content has altered the reading habits and expectations of users. If you want to have success in blogging, you must incorporate shareworthy visuals into the content. This includes things like images, graphs, charts, and unique subheadings.

Quality Over Quantity

A decade ago, the belief was that you needed to be publishing content multiple times per week (if not on a daily basis). The more content you could pump out, the better it was for your SEO rankings. Once again, though, things have changed. Today, it’s all about quality over quantity.

Successful blogs might only publish one or two pieces of content per week. However, the content they publish is longer, more detailed, and more relevant to the audience. As a result, it adds more value to the blog.

Magnetic Personality

A successful small business blog acts more like a person than a website. If you read a piece of content from a successful blog like Gary Vaynerchuk or Buffer, you’ll notice that the posts have a personality behind them. There’s a consistency in the voice that makes readers feel connected to the brand – and it’s the personality that allows the blog to continue growing.

Never Stop Optimizing

The challenging thing about blogging – especially in the small business niche – is that factors are always changing. The success you’re experiencing today will be short-lived if you don’t make a commitment to continual optimization. After reading about some of the common factors that successful blogs share, consider how you can optimize your blog and build on this knowledge. You’d be surprised how one small, simple tweak can have such a powerful result.

 

6 Huge Blogging Mistakes Most Ecommerce Sites Make

 

I’m ashamed to admit it, every once in a while I get sucked into mind-numbing discussions on LinkedIn. This one was posed by an individual pretending to want to become a “trusted advisor” to his customers. He posed a scenario, “I can propose A to my customer and this is my commission. If I propose B to my customer, my commission is more. B is a better solution, but I’m afraid my customer will think I’m being deceptive since I’m getting paid more for it….”

The conversation devolved, for the most part, from there with people discussing various alternatives, primarily focused on maximizing commission.

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

There is so much wrong with the premise and the resulting conversation (I don’t want to embarrass people by giving you the link, but search through my activity history for a few days, you’ll find it.

Starting the conversation with, “How do I do the right thing for my customer,” combining it with “How do I maximize my commissions,” is simply the wrong starting point. The mindset this comes from is not one that focuses on building a long-term trusted relationship with the customer.

It’s a transaction-oriented mindset. It looks at customer relationships transaction by transaction, trying to determine what’s best—for the salesperson, while in some twisted way trying to think, “am I doing the right thing for the customer?” This will never get you the “trusted advisor” status you want, and over the long term, it actually minimizes the revenue and earnings you get from customers.

Great salespeople always play the long game. They realize building relationships with customers requires consistent focus on creating value with the customer in every interaction over the course of the relationship.

They are always driven by doing the right thing for the customer. Sometimes that may mean backing away from a deal or doing something that doesn’t maximize their commission.

They aren’t naive or “charitable” in these decisions, they recognize the way they maximize the return on their investment in the customer is to focus on the long-term relationship.

Some of you may be a little confused at this point, thinking, “We’re in business to make money–for our companies and for ourselves.”

Top performers are ruthlessly focused on this. They don’t waste time on customers they can’t create value with. They won’t waste time on customers who don’t value what the salesperson can do in helping them achieve their goals.

They invest in customers and deals that enable them to grow the business relationship.

They are business-focused, they know that optimizing their performance transaction by transaction never enables them to maximize the lifetime customer value.

Becoming a trusted advisor, maximizing your ability to create value with the customer you choose to work with is simply smart business!

From time to time, your dream client will answer your cold call and ask you to tell them a little about your company and what you do. You will be tempted to respond to that question by answering it, responding to the prompts you were given. You will talk about who you are, your role, and how long you’ve been with the company. And then, having provided that information, you share what your company does. Asked and answered.

As soon as you finish speaking, your dream client says something like, “You know, we’re happy with our current partner right now.” The politely thank for the call, and you hang up without an appointment. By taking the bait and answering these questions, you have ensured that you sound just like every other salesperson in your space, confirming that there is no real reason to meet with you.

This same thing can happen when you secure an appointment. Your prospective client greets you, invites you into a conference room, and says, “Tell me about your company.” If there is something more interesting than your company, I am not sure what it might be. Even if you have a line that describes how you help your clients, you’re still talking about you, your solution, and your company. A better approach, and one that lets you make a much better pivot to a more meaningful conversation, but still taking the bait.

Sales is all about choices, and one choice you might make is to make an effort to control the process.

You could recommend that you first spend a little time sharing ideas about the challenges everyone in your dream client’s space is going to need to solve in the next 18 to 24 months. You could ask them to give you feedback on some of the questions that you believe they are going to have to answer with their own management team. You could simply ask to have a conversation about some of the things they find most interesting or pressing now, as a way to frame up what you share with them when you do talk about yourself, your company, and your solutions.

Within the first few minutes of a call or meeting, you can give your prospective client an impression of who you are and what level of value you may be able to create for and with them. If you sound like a salesperson from 1997, you are going to be perceived differently than someone who sounds like they’re from 2017. You want to enter conversations as a value creator, a trusted advisor, and a consultative salesperson. Refuse to engage with clients in any way that makes you less than that.

The post Taking the Bait appeared first on The Sales Blog.

It’s vital to every business that they have a clear idea of who they are and what they’re all about. Few owners have taken the time to distill it down or made the effort to weave it into the fabric of the company. What do the mission, vision and values for your business look like?

Many people confuse mission and vision. Here’s how we define them.

Mission — what you do best every day

Vision – what the future is like because you do what you do best every day

And the values that your company are built on is what influences your mission and vision. Each of these is critical. If you believe you’ve already sorted these out for your organization– revisit them to make sure they’re still on target and meet the following criteria:

• Are your mission and vision statements a single sentence?
• Are your values short enough that everyone on your team could memorize and recite them?
• Are all three components written in common, easy to understand language?
• Are they unique to you? Could any other business claim the exact same set?
• Are they all from the client’s/an outside perspective? Remember this is how you want others to see you.

This kind of work looks simple enough, but the truth is, it’s incredibly difficult to dig deep enough to get to answers that fit all of the criteria.

If you’ve never developed a mission, vision or defined your company’s values, it’s long overdue. Let’s start with your values.

Go someplace that inspires you to clear your head and really do some deeper thinking. For some, this will be a quiet place like sitting by a lake or in an art gallery. For others, it will be putting on some headphones in a coffee shop and immersing yourself in the energy. Hopefully you know what kind of an environment triggers your best thinking.

Most people find it’s easiest to tackle the values first. Make a list of all of the values that you want your company to have. At this stage, don’t edit or censor. Just brainstorm the list and capture every thought.

Now, pick the 5-6 that are most important to you. These are the values you are not willing to compromise on, for love or money. These should not be aspirational. These need to be foundational to your business – you should already be using them as a guide, whether you’ve articulated them before or not.

The finalists should get a yes answer to the following questions (borrowed from Jim Collins in Good to Great):

• If you were to start a new business, would you build it around this core value regardless of the industry?
• Would you want your company to continue to stand for this core value 100 years into the future?
• Would you want your business to hold this core value, even if at some point in time it became a competitive disadvantage?
• Do you believe that those who do not share this core value—those who breach it consistently – do not belong in your organization?
• Would you change jobs before giving up this core value?
• If you awoke tomorrow with more than enough money to retire comfortably for the rest of your life, would you continue to apply this core value to your productive activities?

Rank them in terms of importance. Why does this matter? Because sometimes values are in conflict with one another and you need to know which ones trump the others.

Now, that you have the values defined, are you happy with the words you’ve chosen to communicate each one? This is your opportunity to wordsmith them. After you’ve done that – you’re done with step one. Next week we’ll dig into your mission.

 

The post Mission, vision and values appeared first on Drew's Marketing Minute.

There’s never been a better time to think globally.

Cross-border e-commerce is expected to top $1 trillion by 2021, according to BI Intelligence, as consumers increasingly turn to international marketplaces to purchase products they can’t get at home.

In fact, a recent PayPal study discovered that a lack of access to goods domestically is one of the biggest factors driving cross-border shopping. For instance, Chinese consumers buy everything from infant formula to health supplements to cosmetics online from overseas manufacturers. Better prices and more affordable shipping are big drivers of cross-border e-commerce, too.

In response, more merchants are taking their businesses global, eager to extend their reach overseas and capture a wealth of new customers.

Whether you’re thinking about growing your e-commerce business internationally for the first time, or exploring a new cross-border market, you must develop a strategy before you drop anchor in new waters. Here are four key areas to contemplate.

1. Select markets that make the most sense for your business

First thing’s first, do your homework and determine who your international customers are.

PayPal research found that Portugal, Ireland and Peru are the countries where cross-border shopping is most prevalent, while China is the most popular destination for global online shoppers. It’s also worth noting that clothing is the most popular category for cross-border purchases globally, followed by electronics.

Consider the following: Where is there a demand for what you’re selling and why? Who’s your competition in that market? Are there any seasonal purchasing patterns? Will you have to adjust your pricing?

2. Think about payment options

More than two-thirds of online shopping carts are abandoned, as per research by the Baymard Institute, which also found that offering too few payment options on the checkout page was the reason for a large portion of those missed opportunities.

To successfully scale internationally, you will need to accept payment in the method that your target market prefers. Again, it’s important to do your research as there are hundreds of payment types in e-commerce and preferences vary depending on the country.

For instance, almost all e-commerce payments in Spain are by Visa, MasterCard and American Express, according to Pitney Bowes, while India and other Asian countries have a strong preference for cash on delivery.

You also need to take local currencies into account when expanding overseas. If you can’t offer customers the option to pay in their local currency, make sure to show the conversion so they can see what they’re paying.

3. Get to grips with tax rules and regulations

Selling internationally isn’t as straightforward as simply selecting a new market to expand into. You also need to be aware of that country’s regulations regarding cross-border e-commerce and how they apply to your products.

Find out if duties and taxes will impact the landed cost (the total amount you pay to deliver an item) of any products you plan to sell internationally and let customers know about any additional fees up front.

On the bright side, if your country has a free-trade agreement in place with any of the markets you intend to sell into and your product category is covered, tariffs could be reduced or eliminated entirely.

Customs regulations are another reality of cross-border e-commerce. All international shipments must have a customs form attached to the outside of the package to help officials understand its content, value and purpose.

4. Establish your international returns policy

With a cross-border sale comes the possibility of an international return and legislation on how these are handled will vary depending on the market.

Be sure your returns policy complies with all applicable local laws and be clear about any restocking or return fees you’ll charge, as well as whether you’ll offer a full refund or store credit.

To manage cross-border returns cost-efficiently, consider setting up a local returns center or partnering with a logistics service that can offer a variety of returns options to customers, refund them faster and simplify how you manage the process.

Familiarize yourself with Amazon’s rules around international returns if you’re planning to go down that route: when listing on an international marketplace and fulfilling items on your own, you must provide customers with an in-country return address or offer free return shipping. Alternatively, signing up to the company’s Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program means you will automatically have the required local returns address.

A clear returns policy gives global shoppers a feeling of security, particularly if they’re purchasing something from an unfamiliar brand. But having a well-thought-out returns policy is only part of the equation. Another crucial aspect to consider is customer support. Since you’ll be managing queries from customers in another time zone, you’ll need to consider how to handle issues that come up outside office hours.

By investing in a support solution such as xSellco’s help desk software, you can fulfill customer expectations for timely communication, no matter the hour, with an automated, human-like response. In addition, an auto-translate feature helps you communicate with international customers without the need for multilingual agents.

That said, to make your international expansion a success you need to identify which marketplace will be most profitable for your business—and there’s more to cross-border e-commerce than eBay and Amazon.

Everyone likes a good joke. Everyone wants to be entertained. But when it comes to using humor in content marketing, people still hesitate. We are, after all, not here purely to entertain. Our content needs to serve a business purpose, inspire action, and rack up the sweet, sweet conversions.

Can potential buyers really take your brand seriously if you make them laugh?

I call this the Roger Rabbit/Goodfellas conundrum, best expressed by these two quotes:

How do you get the Roger Rabbit benefits of making people laugh, without becoming a Joe Pesci-esque laughingstock?

It can be done. You can still be funny and do serious business. The question is not whether to use humor in your content, but how you use it.

I believe humor serves a different purpose throughout the three loosely-defined stages of a buyer’s journey. Call them top, middle, and bottom of funnel. Or call them Attract, Engage, and Convert, as our team does. The idea is the same: How you use humor should change depending on your context.

Top of Funnel: Pure Comedy Gold

Top of Funnel content can be mostly comedy – designed exclusively to entertain people. This is what we call a “chocolate cake” or “dessert” post. The key difference between, say, a Buzzfeed post about funny tweets and your top-of-funnel content is that yours will be focused on a very specific audience.

Use humor as a way of showing your audience that you understand them. That you’re one of them. Make jokes only they will get, and you will invite them into your tribe.

That’s what I did with my “20 Jokes Only a B2B Marketer Will Get.” I called out the audience in the title, and made sure each joke used vocabulary and common experiences that only the intended audience would share. The result: One of the most-shared posts on the TopRank Marketing Blog this year.

Middle of Funnel: Humor + Value

In the middle of the funnel—what we call the “Engage” stage—comedy is still a welcome component of your content. But unlike, top of funnel, the comedy can’t be the main attraction. You’ve already brought your audience in. Now you have to provide value beyond a chuckle or two.

Start with a legitimately useful premise, and use humor to demonstrate personality and keep your content readable.  For example, the introduction to this post on video content marketing on a budget starts with a funny intro and a truly hilarious image. Images are a great way to introduce a little humor, by the way—especially if you’re on a WordPress blog and the image can show up in the excerpt.

You don’t have to confine humor to the introduction; just don’t forget the value. This post from Jason Miller at LinkedIn is a good example of a funny post that still has plenty to offer the audience. It uses the silly names and weird visuals of a BBC kids show to teach some solid content marketing lessons. And it gave Jason the excuse to make a personalized kid’s book cover:

Bottom of Funnel: Keep It Consistent

By the time your customer is almost ready to make a purchase decision, you don’t need to keep throwing out the punchlines. They’re already sold on your brand’s personality; now they need to make sure your solution is the perfect fit.

Bottom-of-funnel content is by necessity more utilitarian, more focused on your offering. But you shouldn’t suddenly become all business all the time. Aim for a consistent brand voice throughout the buyer’s journey. You can still be lighthearted and informal on a landing page or a contact form.

This “Content Marketing Kitchen” post, for example, is an announcement post that serves chiefly to drive traffic to a landing page. I dialed back the jokes but kept the tone light and personal. The result: A bottom-of-funnel piece that still kept people entertained, as the comments show:

Good Humor Isn’t Just an Ice Cream Brand

The same comedic approach won’t work for every brand or every audience. People who love zany one-liners from a fast-food company likely don’t want the same from their bank. It’s important to find the degree of comedy that puts you firmly on the Roger Rabbit side of the equation.

That said, if you keep your level of humor appropriate for the stage of the buyer’s journey, you can attract your audience, engage them with entertaining but valuable content, then convert with the same sense of personality and fun that attracted them to begin with.

Learn more about humor in content marketing from a master of the form in this interview with Tim Washer.

LinkedIn Marketing is a TopRank Marketing client.

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2017. | Funny Content, Serious Business: How to Use Humor in Content Marketing | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post Funny Content, Serious Business: How to Use Humor in Content Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Last month, a longstanding client brought me in after reviewing some recent customer research. The company provides a relatively complex service, and one of their most common and unprompted customer complaints was that the company’s various service areas “worked in silos.”

Some staff leaders agreed that the organization was siloed and others did not, but they all recognized that the tone and consistency of the complaints meant that their customer experience needs work. The staff leaders also acknowledged that they often had trouble understanding what happened in other departments, or how other departments’ work and business lines affected “their” customers.

Silos Are Protective

In our initial facilitation, the leadership team was surprised — and possibly relieved — when I said you can’t just take silos down. Silos — whether for animal feed, missiles, or work processes — are protective devices. Busting them open and letting all the process steps spill out is like playing 52 Pickup with workplace procedures. Not only do silos provide safety; they’re sustained by organizational history, workflows, and cultural norms.

But when silo walls are completely impervious, employees can’t see how to help each other. When an organization is accused of siloing by customers or staff, it’s usually because its processes are highly controlled and inflexible; there are too many workarounds, bottlenecks, and pain points where work moves from one silo to another. Sometimes one silo’s guardians don’t even know what’s going on next door.

What can be done to maintain the necessary structure while reducing the “friction at the borders” that your customers or employees experience? How can you work smoothly across functional borders while maintaining necessary procedural integrity?

Examine External Factors

Whether you use a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) approach or plain old questions and answers, it’s crucial to evaluate what your customers want, and what their experience with your products and services is like. Customers expect one-stop shopping and one-touch service, and legacy processes may not deliver satisfactory experiences. You can’t afford friction in the customer experience, particularly if you’re providing purely discretionary services or if there are other providers in your marketplace.

Be aware of competitive offerings in your space, and try to assess whether the customers buying them differ from yours. Some companies use customer journey mapping or personas to talk about customer needs and satisfaction. Others take a more transactional approach, as if they’re providing a menu of choices, and whichever ones customers take are the ones that continue.

If you have multilayered customers, such as corporate entities with different individual buyers internally, you’ll need to develop deep knowledge of how the corporate entities function, where purchasing authority truly lies, and whether the internal purchasers are buying from one or more of your business units.

Examine Internal Factors

Once you know what your customers want, try a zero-based budgeting approach to assess operations and marketing effectiveness: If we weren’t already doing these processes, would we start them? Could there be better ways to do them? Do a gap analysis: How different is what we’re doing from what would be optimal? Where could we reduce redundancies and other friction in the system? Where could we add new, desirable features?

Try to remain agnostic about which groups or individuals in your organization are the “right” ones. Instead, match your functional needs to staff’s skills and capabilities, and identify which ones are missing.

One area that benefits significantly from this kind of review is the handling and processing of customer data, and who has access to it. If all organizational groups don’t have access to shared data — including situational and anecdotal data about customer dissatisfaction and process breakdown — then opportunities for innovation are reduced significantly.

Let the People Be a Different Kind of Protection

The leadership team may have high-level conceptual agreement that siloing is negative, but that agreement can fly out the window if individual leaders feel that changes will cause encroachments on their turf. Note if anyone throughout your chain of command expresses impatience with new ideas.

Encourage employees at all levels to check their work assignments and communications against the big-picture goals identified in the external review. Some people prefer security to openness, so make sure that what people are protecting is the integrity of work process and the quality of the customer experience — not their own preferences for things to continue the way they’ve always been.

And use customer comments as a form of early warning. Customers often bump into silo walls before staff begins thinking of them as a barrier, so keep listening and keep asking customers about their experience.

Your team is smart. They're resourceful. Put in a bind with two days left in the month, they find their way out. Again and again and again. This is why many of them got into sales to begin with. And it is why  --  long after other sales teams have given up, given in, and gotten out  -- yours will still be there, connecting, closing, and getting sharper every day.

Your team is smart. But the truth is smart’s not enough anymore.

We are at a breaking point in sales strategy. You may not see it all at once, but years from now, we’re going to look back at this time as when technology and artificial intelligence made sales reps bionic and took the sales industry to a whole new level. It’s been important to HubSpot to be at the forefront of these changes, and today, I’m happy to provide some more detail into our overall product direction for sales.

First, I’m going to need a sports metaphor. Cliche, I know, but it works.

In 2008, something happened to swimming. For the longest time in Olympic history, swimmers improved incrementally. Broke a record here and there. Between 1996 and 2000, there was an average of two, maybe three, world records set each year. But then out of nowhere between February 2008 and July 2009, a combined 140 world records fell in swimming. It was enough to make the world stop and ask: What the hell just happened?

Turns out, what happened was technology. More precisely, a NASA-tested Speedo LZR Racer suit designed to radically diminish friction and allow the swimmer to cut through water at a previously unseen pace.

It wasn’t that the swimmers weren’t good on their own, but these suits made them bionic. They made them superhuman -- so advanced the International Swimming Federation banned the tech-suits from future use in 2010.

Source: EngineeringSport.co.uk

Times in the men's 100m freestyle

Sales teams, we are entering LZR Racer suit time.

Machine Learning and Automation Are Sharpening Our Focus

Technology is driving two major shifts in the sales process today. Actually, let’s take a step back, because technology doesn’t drive anything on its own. Consumer expectations and changing consumer behavior are what’s driving the shift. Technology is enabling it to happen.

Customers today expect more immediacy, flexibility, and personalization than ever before. They want to be able to reach out to companies on their terms, through whatever channel they choose, at any time that works for them. Providing tailored one-to-one attention is hard enough when you’re small, but it gets nearly impossible as you scale -- unless you tap technology.

Freeing Up Cognitive Space

There's a lot of grunt work that comes with being a salesperson today. So much so we’ve come to accept it as part of the job. But researching, summarizing, scheduling -- these aren’t sales skills. They’re administrative skills. Connecting is a sales skill. Helping is a sales skill. Developing relationships and earning trust -- those are sales skills. We’ve just been steadily shrinking the time available for them. In fact research shows only ⅓ of a sales rep’s time is spent selling. We’ve overrun the rest with administration. 

Today machine learning and automation are starting to help sales teams reclaim that lost time so reps can place all their focus on helping buyers. That’s why we’re introducing Sales Professional, HubSpot’s answer in the fight against unruly administration. Sales Professional, which we plan to roll out in November, will add team management and advanced CRM functionality -- including workflow automation and predictive lead scoring -- to help teams minimize the amount of time they spend keeping their operations going.

Preview of HubSpot Sales Professional  - Final product screens may look different.

So yes, salespeople, we’re going to finally get over that whole can’t clone myself limitation.

Accelerating Familiarity

Sales is and has always been about connection. Purchase decisions have as much to do with trust and connection as practical requirements. But that’s the great irony. Because good relationships take time, and time is the main pressure-cooker of sales. Who can develop the greatest number of trusting relationships in a month?

Earlier this year, HubSpot acquired Kemvi, a company using machine learning, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence to help software better understand the world. Kemvi’s primary product, DeepGraph, uses machine reading to help salespeople stay updated on what is happening with their prospects and craft personalized messages that reflect each prospect’s individual context. HubSpot is now setting our sights on building DeepGraph-like functionality into the HubSpot CRM and Sales Hub so that no matter how many conversations sales reps have, relevant context will always be at the heart of them.

Making Your Business Always Available

According to a study commissioned by Inside Sales, the odds of successfully contacting a lead decrease by over 10 times in the first hour after the lead submits a request. And after 20 hours every additional dial your salespeople make actually hurts your ability to make contact to qualify a lead. This is not news. But historically, we’ve been limited by our oh-so-annoying inability to be in two places at once. So inquiries that come in while we’re busy, sleeping, or talking to other opportunities suffer a delay. 

In the last few years, companies -- including HubSpot -- have addressed the need for immediacy with onsite live chat. But live chat that is tied to the website doesn’t quite go far enough. 

Today, consumers communicate across platforms. They kick off a conversation in person or over the phone, they follow up with a text message and then take it online to Facebook, email, or Slack. These conversations are fluid and portable. They move across channels and mediums and we never miss a beat.

So how can we manage to have these kinds of natural, fluid conversations with prospects and customers at scale?

Today HubSpot introduced Conversations -- the next evolution of one-to-one conversations that go where the customer goes and scale with demand. Conversations allows you to talk with prospective buyers anywhere -- on your site, through Facebook messenger, social, or any other messaging channel -- and organize your responses in a shared multi-channel inbox. You will be able to respond yourself in the moment, tap in colleagues where needed, and leverage bots to help you scale when you’re not available. HubSpot will be rolling Conversations out for free over the coming year in the free CRM.

Preview of HubSpot Conversations  - Final product may look different.

AI, conversational UI, machine learning, and automation -- these are not small changes or rinky-dink sales enablement tools. They are the growing business’s equivalent of NASA-tested swimsuits. I’ve laid out our vision of how we’re going to start leveraging them inside the HubSpot Growth Stack. The truth is, as an industry, we’ve only just begun to tap the potential here. 

For one reason or another, sales has always felt like a power struggle. Who controls the conversation? Who is being led by whom? Nobody wants that  --  not the salesperson, not the buyer  -- but it has been efficient. At last, through the amplification of technology, it seems like we’re entering a stage in which both the sales rep and the buyer can be aligned. We know more and can react faster than we ever could before, and as our capacity to adapt improves, so does the customer experience. We couldn’t be more excited.

Optimizing your marketing funnel starts with mapping content.

STEP 1 – Understand your buyer persona’s decision process. Who’s involved and what role do they play?

Get to really know your buyer persona. Interview customers who fit that particular persona, talk to the sales reps who closed the deals. Figure out what information the customer was looking for initially and how and why her information needs changed over time. Assuming you have the proper analytics in place that have tracked your customer’s actions on your website from day 1, and how she responded to your lead nurturing efforts, you should be able to easily glean the details of her quest for information, the timing — all the different steps she went through and why.

STEP 2 – Create content that satisfies those information needs

Often the buyer persona isn’t the ultimate decision maker, but is leading a team charged with finding the solution. Regardless, she’s going to be looking for a wide variety of information that answers lots of different kinds of questions and concerns whether for her, her team members, or people in authority she needs to influence.

In fact, depending on the size of the organization and the problem, you may discover 5 or 10 different people from the same company on your site and/or in your database searching for different information on the same topics, but who have a different perspective on the problem e.g. purchasing, finance, IT, manufacturing, engineering, legal, etc.

This means you need to create content that addresses all those different questions, concerns, needs of all those different people. And that content needs to match those needs based on where they are in their decision process.

What years of research have told us, is that most buyers’ information needs start off simply and grow in complexity the further along in their decision process they travel. Seems like common sense right? Yet we so often forget this in our haste to try and sell, sell, sell our solution.

Most of the time, your buyer doesn’t yet know what she doesn’t know. She may not even be sure exactly what her problem is! So before you try to engage her with the technical fine points of your product, she’s probably just looking for something easy to understand that helps her better frame and define what her problem really is. Satisfying this need makes her feel more confident that she’s on the right track for finding the best answer.

As she begins to learn more and explore, her information needs will become more complex, both in depth and detail, as well as in variety. And don’t forget, the higher the price of your product, the more justification she’s going to need to buy it (i.e. with more people or people with greater authority).

Now that you’ve figured out what your buyer persona’s decision process looks like, the information she and her troupe of influencers needs to have, and when,

STEP 3 – Publish the content in the most useful (and attractive) formats for your buyer persona

The type of information, her buying decision stage and who will use the information will help you determine that.

For instance, let’s say this team is supposed to make a buying recommendation to the general manager of the division of a large corporation. He’s the one signing off. Along the way, your buyer persona, who’s been carrying the torch for this project/team, is keeping this GM in the loop. At strategic points, she wants to feed him information that both educates him and (hopefully) leads him to agree with her team’s final recommendation.

Having figured this out from your in-depth investigation of your buyer persona, you further learn that GMs in this market will watch 3-minute videos that are concise, objective and solution-language based. [Or, as they would say, “No sizzle, just give me the steak.”] You know there are certain key points attached to the decision criteria that are essential for this GM to “get” so when decision time arrives, he’s primed to say “yes” to your solution.

Armed with that info, you create a series of videos. You decide to put each one behind a different landing page with a form, which when coupled with compelling Calls-to-Action, continues to emotionally commit your buyer persona and pull them through the funnel at appropriate moments. Now she can forward your link to her CEO so he can watch each succeeding video, confident the info is in a format he’ll digest and has what he needs to make a good decision when the time comes.

Step 4 – Publish the information where your buyer persona (and her influencers) are likely to find it

On your web pages, your social media sites, in your blog, so that search engines pick it up. You also want to include content and CTAs throughout your lead nurturing efforts. But don’t stop there!

You need to discover where your buyer persona and the people involved in this decision process hang out online. Presumably, you’ve learned much of that from your investigation into your buyer persona. And there are all kinds of different tools, both paid and free (e.g. HubSpot, Nimble, LittleBird, Google, etc.), which you can use to uncover likely places. Here’s a great article from SEO Moz on the topic that’s filled with great resources that can also help.

Be sure you’re publishing compelling CTAs with strong landing pages and forms that lead them to the valuable content they need. You want them to keep saying “yes” to your great content so they keep renewing their relationship with your brand!

And when it comes to social media, depending on what you learned in your investigation, you may discover that Google Plus, LinkedIn and Twitter could be a better fit for your audience than Facebook + Twitter. It really depends on where your folks are hanging out and what they find most useful.

To take it a step further, you may discover that using Pay-Per-Click advertising to encourage downloading/listening/watching your content could help jumpstart your marketing efforts until your inbound strategies take the lead.

Let’s Review

This entire process is called “content mapping.” You examine each buyer persona and determine:

• Her information needs
• Who in her influence circle requires what information
• When she [and they] need that information
• What format is most useful to each information “consumer”
• Where to publish calls-to-action so your buyer persona and her troupe are likely to find it

In my next blog post, we’ll cover the part 2 of optimizing your marketing funnel.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in the 1700s, was a critical turning point for mankind because it allowed businesses to manufacture and produce items faster, cheaper and more efficiently by use of machines.

After reading this, you should find yourself seeking out automation technologies for an “Industrial Revolution” within your own business.

However, instead of helping you find technologies that will increase production of your merchandise, I’m going to educate you on one type of modern computer technology that will improve sales and efficiency while reducing costs and human error.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to the rescue

A CRM is a particular type of software that collects, stores and provides data about leads, customers and sales that can be used to manage, track, analyze and improve interactions with leads and customers.

CRM software uses automation to increase efficiency for a business’s sales team, ultimately with the goal to improve sales, marketing and customer support.

The keyword here is automation. CRM software allows users to setup automated processes that replace tedious tasks that an employee would otherwise have to do. This frees up time for your staff to focus on other important tasks to help boost sales.

No automation means more errors

A recent study by Wakefield Research and Concur surprisingly revealed that 69 percent of small businesses still use Microsoft Excel to track their financials and 60 percent still use filling cabinets for filing needs. These outdated systems are not preferable, because they leave room for human error while also taking up a lot of the staff’s time.

The study also showed that companies that do not use automated processes have more errors. For example, the study found that 42 percent of businesses relying on paper trails had invoice errors and 41 percent of businesses without automation received late fees due to missed payments.

Those problems would be easily avoided if those companies used automated processes.

Work smarter and more efficiently by utilizing core CRM automation functions. Here are five amazing automation features of CRMs you need to be using:

1) Lead generation:

Your website probably and hopefully has a lead capture form on its Contact page, a pivotal part of any business website.

However, for too many small businesses, when a lead fills out that contact form, the information gets emailed to an employee who then has to manually add that information to the business’s CRM or pass along the information to the appropriate sales person.

Those are antiquated examples of lead generation, and if your company conducts business like that, you must keep reading and then take advantage of automated processes as quickly as possible.

Using CRM software, your business can create automated processes where information from lead capture forms (contact forms) gets automatically put into the CRM.

Even better, this automated process can automatically assign each new lead with a sales representative, so that sales person will be notified immediately of new leads and begin the sales process as quickly as possible.

2) Opportunity management:

Your business misses out on striking while the iron’s hot if you fail to monitor and track leads (and sales stages) properly. Sophisticated CRM software can be used to generate reports or lists of hot leads who are regularly vising your website or clicking in marketing emails.

In the same sense, automated processes can be set up to nurture cold leads into hot leads (for example, drip campaigns).

3) Adding contacts to email lists:

A lead capture form or an email sign-up form should be connected with your CRM to automatically add email addresses to your email marketing list(s), as well as any physical mail lists.

Sophisticated email marketing software that lives inside CRMs can also be used to automatically put certain leads into certain marketing lists based on the information the person provides.

4) Automated sales reports:

No need to hire another employee or take up a current employee’s time to create various sales and financial reports.

A CRM can help your team easily access and analyze reports for long-time leads who have yet to purchase, customers who still need to pay, summaries of sales activities, total sales earnings for particular sales representatives, monthly revenue summaries and profit forecasting. These reports can be created to generate as often as you need them.

And another great feature of CRM software is you can trust that the information and calculations are accurate.

5) Auto-thank you emails:

This may seem like a small and unimportant gesture but it provides a lasting impression.

After someone fills out a lead capture form on your website or any type of form (email sign-up, employment opportunities, download a pdf or even just a standard email), you should have an automated process created in you CRM that will immediately send that person a simple Thank You email.

This email helps establish professionalism and reassurance that your business got the inquiry or submission. (It can also serve as a small reminder about your company and provide additional links to take the person somewhere you want them to go, for example, social media sites, an event sign-up page or a landing page on your website.)

Speaking as a B2B buyer, I don’t answer my phone anymore. I don’t read cold emails – in fact, thanks to overcoming “inbox zero” tendencies, I don’t even take the time to open/delete them anymore. I used to, but with the insane influx of new technologies geared toward marketing, too many people were trying to reach me pushing their “life-changing” solutions. It was too much noise, and it wasn’t sustainable if I wanted to get my job done.

So how can you reach me or one of my peer B2B buyer executives who have been forced to completely ignore the noise?

Well, let’s consider the various go-to-market approaches that sales and marketing organizations are using . . . (hint, they are organized from least effective to most effective)

The channels that will and won’t reach your B2B buyer

Traditional interrupts sales and marketing – This would be a big no. Beyond not answering cold calls and emails, I also use ad blocker. I do attend some tradeshows, but I won’t stop by your booth unless I’ve heard of you and have identified that you meet a need or solve a problem I have. Which means, tradeshows don’t work for top of the funnel lead generation. And let’s face it, TOFU leads are way better than BOFU leads because you can shape the deal without competitors.

 

Content marketing – There is no question that good content that addresses a problem I or other b2b buyers have will be eye catching. But it has to be really good. No fluff. No product pushing. Give me real data I can use or specific action items I can take to solve my problems. But even if you create the perfect piece of content, you are still just crossing your fingers that it reaches me. For content marketing to work, it has to be combined with influencer marketing to have a hope of getting in front of the intended audience.

 

Account Based Marketing/Selling – I’ve been a big fan for over a decade of identifying target accounts and developing campaigns to go after them. Now there are software solutions that make this a bit less manual to do so it feels new again. Fundamentally, this targeting helps the efficacy of the above sales and marketing efforts. If you can create content that is more targeted to your buying personas or better yet account-specific content, this has a much better chance of getting my attention. And if a seller is researching me, engaging with me in social media, learning about my business and personalizing their approach there is a much greater chance they’ll get my attention. But remember, I don’t read emails nor answer my phone so direct mail and social media are the only options here and unfortunately many companies are “adopting” ABM/ABS playbooks and skipping these more resource intensive steps.

 

Referral Marketing/Selling – Salespeople (particularly those who are good “farmers”) inherently understand that an introduction is the best way to get business into their pipeline. As a buyer, there is no question that this is the most effective way to get my attention. If I’m approached by a former colleague or a trusted adviser (like a salesperson from a vendor I have a good relationship with), I pay attention. If they tell me there is a solution out there that could solve my problems, I’m clearing my calendar to take a meeting. The good news for sales and marketing is that the process for referrals can be done at scale thanks to business-focused referral software. Marketers can establish referral programs to leverage partners, influencers or even customers to make peer-to-peer introductions of your solution to their network.

 

While not a separate go-to-market approach, it is worth mentioning that a combination of ABS and Referral Selling is highly effective. When your sellers are armed with their target accounts, they can have a conversation with a customer or partner to specifically ask for an introduction into a particular contact at a particular account. The more specific the ask, the higher the rate of success.

The buyer has changed and sales and marketing have to change their approach if they want to drive revenue growth.

I’m sure I’ll still get 20+ calls and emails tomorrow that I’ll immediately delete, but here’s hoping that next week it decreases. To see research on the B2B buyer journey and how to adapt to it try reading the blog, How to adapt to a more complex B2B buyer journey.

By Brooke B. Sellas, {grow} Contributing Columnist

Why are marketers so intent on killing email marketing? (Or everything, for that matter?)

Email marketing is NOT dead. In fact, if you aren’t using it you’re probably not the brightest light in the chandelier.

There. I said it.

You know what’s dead? Bad email marketing.

So, stop throwing the word “dead” around and read this post for better email marketing insights.

B2B Email Marketing Is Alive (And Well)

B2B email marketing is alive and well says the research.

According to Emma’s 2017 Email Marketing Industry Report,

• 47% of marketers report that email generates the most ROI for their organization
• 58% of marketers plan to increase spending on email marketing in 2018

CMI and Marketing Profs showed that 77% of B2B marketers are using email marketing as a tactic for content marketing.

GetResponse, which provides email marketing automation, released their Email Marketing & Marketing Automation Excellence 2017 report which says,

• Less than 20% of marketers rated email marketing as “very poor” or “poor” as an effective digital marketing channel (over 50% said it was “excellent” or “good”)
• 23% of marketers said email marketing helped them generate more leads
• 19% noted an increase in sales due to email

And it’s not just B2B marketers who are continuing to see good results with email marketing …

B2C Email Marketing Is Gold (Especially With Millennials)

Sure, some B2C email habits, like how much time we spend consuming email, has decreased.

But even though Adobe reported that the number of hours consumers spend on email each day decreased 27% from last year, in their Adobe Consumer Email Survey Report 2017 they also showed that consumers also still love email.

• More than 50% of 18-24-year-olds still check their email while in bed in the morning
• 43% of millennials aged 25-34 admit to doing the same
• I’m old (37) and I’m totally guilty checking email first thing, too!

And when it comes to social selling? Adobe says 61% of people now prefer to be contacted by businesses via email.

In fact, Bambu by Sprout Social released a similar report saying that 46.4% of consumers want to be contacted about products and services by brand on email, followed closely by social media and direct mail.

[Image Source]

Stop Treating Email as an Afterthought

Email is one of the only mediums where people have said, “sure, market to me.” And yet, marketers continue blasting emails out sporadically to push their product/service/event.

It’s no wonder so many of you think it’s “dead.”

Email marketing – when done correctly – is one of the best ways to:

• Interact with both customers and prospects
• Build relationships
• Utilize storytelling
• Upsell customers or drive repeat business

Additionally, marketers need to aim to keep it simple.

Matthew Montoya of Constant Contact says to remain uncomplicated, emails need to contain:

• 25 lines of text or less
• Key content on top (above the scroll)
• 3 links or less
• One column only

And it goes without saying that emails should always be mobile friendly since email open rates from mobile devices have grown by 180% in three years.

Still not getting results from your email marketing?

Let’s figure out why bad email marketing is so bad, and probably making you feel like email is a “dead” marketing tactic.

What Goes Wrong

Here’s a general scenario I think many marketers are facing.

A prospect shows interest in your lead magnet, gives you their email address (and permission to market to them), and then you start sending them emails.

If that prospect opens your email and,

• Isn’t wowed by the content, or
• Is overwhelmed by the design, or
• Finds that your information isn’t all that helpful or relevant …

… you’re going to be deemed as irrelevant.

These people will continue to ignore your future emails and even though you have the “right” to market to them, you’ve lost them.

Check your email open and click-through rates. If they’re below industry standards and benchmarks this is probably what’s going wrong.

One of the easiest ways to fix crappy email content is to segment your email list(s).

50% of marketers still aren’t doing this (and I want to bang my head against the wall).

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Since nearly all email providers have an option for segmentation, my only guess is that businesses and marketers just don’t have the desire or will to segment their lists properly.

My Take On Email Marketing

While it’s more than obvious that email marketing isn’t dead, there’s a bigger problem at play here.

Marketers are always complaining about not having enough people to market to, and yet, they have these lists (some with thousands or tens of thousands of emails!) that are being wasted by poor planning, lack of segmentation, design overwhelm, etc.

Do me a BIG favor. Take the number of people on your email list(s) and multiply that number by your average [service/product] cost.

For example, let’s say my average social media package is $2500 and my list is 1,000 people strong.

That means my email list has the potential to generate $2,500,000 in business. 2.5M!

Now, we can’t serve the perfect message 100% of the time. Nor can we expect 100% of our list to convert.

But with those kinds of dollars sitting in a 1,000-person list, do you think I ought to pay a little more respect to my email marketing efforts?

We need to stop thinking of email campaigns as broadcasts to our entire list and figure out a way to build a connection, segment by segment.

No, email marketing is certainly not dead. But bad email marketing can kill your business.

What’s your take on email marketing as a tactic for business? Let me know in the comments below!

Brooke B. Sellas is an in-the-trenches digital marketer & CEO at B Squared Media, blossoming blogger, and a purveyor of psychographics. Her mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on Twitter.

 

The post Research Backs Email Marketing as The Biggest, Baddest Medium on the Block appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

When it comes to lead generation for your business, LinkedIn is the place to be.

It’s where the top executives go to find high-quality content. In fact, 91% of marketing executives list LinkedIn as the top place to find relevant content, and it’s the most-used social media platform by Fortune 500 decision-makers. That means the people you’re trying to reach are actively looking for the content you’re trying to reach them with.

Factor in that LinkedIn converts visitors to leads at three times the rate of both Facebook and Twitter, and that 80% of all B2B leads come from LinkedIn (compared to 13% from Twitter and only 7% from Facebook), and LinkedIn clearly stands alone as the go-to spot for business development and deal closure. You already see that potential though—that’s why you’re here!

In this post, we’ll talk you through what’s new in the world of LinkedIn and how to use the tools they offer to build better relationships with leads, increase your sales, and drive more results for your business.

What’s new with LinkedIn?

Since Microsoft purchased LinkedIn last June, the networking site has released plenty of exciting new tools for marketers and sales reps to play with, and updated existing tools to make them even more effective.

Updated user interface

The first and most obvious is the new user interface LinkedIn started rolling out late last year. They swapped out the previous (outdated) design for a more modern, Facebook-esque look. Simply put, they’ve upped the user experience and made it easier to access all the features they offer.

As you can see in the screenshot above, it’s easier than ever to publish an article. And, as on Facebook, the righthand side of your feed showcases trending business topics tailored to you.

Support for native video content

With the rising popularity of video content on social media, LinkedIn has finally started giving users the ability to share native video content. Initially only certain influencers could post video, but the site is now slowly releasing the functionality to all users.

The best salespeople are using video content to establish themselves as experts in their respective spaces. Video is the perfect tool to provide valuable and insightful content on whatever your business specializes in, helping to establish you as an authority figure. If you can create a reputation for yourself or your company, your chances of closing a deal will be much higher.

Clickable hashtags

Hashtag functionality has arrived on LinkedIn. You can now include clickable hashtags when you share an update, article, or comment to increase the reach of your content.

Hashtags are searchable as well, which presents a few additional opportunities: First, if you include a specialities section at the bottom of your personal or company bio, anyone searching for those hashtags will see your page in the search results. Also, if you include a keywords section with a handful of hashtags at the end of an article you publish, that article will appear in the search results for each hashtag.

Advanced sales tools

Already established as the go-to for B2B marketers, LinkedIn has started rolling out some new and improved tools that sales reps can use to generate new business. For example, Sales Navigator and InMail have been around for some time, but they’ve both recently been given some TLC to make them even more effective for sales professionals looking to drive results.

Tools aside, when it comes to generating qualified leads and closing sales on LinkedIn, there’s one tactic that stands alone as the most important: Personalization.

Personalization is key

Back in 2015, technology market research company Gartner estimated that by 2018, organizations that have fully invested in personalization will outsell companies that haven’t by 20%. A study done by Demand Metric also found that 80% of marketers and sales professionals say personalized content outperforms generic content.

To put it simply, personalization leads to an increase in sales.

Studies have shown that 90% of business decision-makers won’t respond to generic cold calls. The same can be said for generic cold emails and messages on LinkedIn. Executives can usually guess when a message in their inbox has been sent to dozens of other executives with nothing but a name change.

If you want to cut through the noise, you need to take the time to personalize the outreach messages you’re sending on LinkedIn. That said, you don’t necessarily have to sit down and write every single message from scratch. You just need to understand how to personalize effectively and efficiently.

The Content Marketing Institute defines personalization as “a strategy that exploits visitor or prospect data to deliver relevant content based on the interests and preferences of the target audience.”

If you can show that you did your homework on your prospect’s interests, and then create some common ground between the two of you, you’ll instantly jump ahead of the standard “I see you work for company ABC that does XYZ. I provide XYZ service. Let’s do some business!” message and put yourself in a great spot to get a reply.

You can still use a message template that’s proven successful in converting cold prospects into warm leads—like these five email templates.

For example, if you’ve seen a lead sharing content about the importance of having a CRM to manage sales efforts, and you notice you’re both in a CRM-focused LinkedIn group, you can tailor your standard message to include a conversation starter about your common interest in CRM.

How do you find that info? LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator platform is a great place to start.

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator

With Sales Navigator, you can monitor all your leads on a separate LinkedIn dashboard and get in-depth information on what they're interested in, how to connect with them, what kind of content they’re sharing, and more.

It’s a sales professional’s best friend when it comes to building a relationship with a lead.

When setting up your Sales Navigator account, you’ll be able to upload any existing leads you have and use the platform’s advanced search filters to find other prospects to follow. You can look for users that follow your company or a competitor, have shared an article or update within a certain timeframe, have a group or skill in common with you, and more.

Once you’ve built a list of potential leads and prospects, you can start engaging with the content they're sharing in order to get on their radar and set yourself up for a warmer outreach in the future.

Sales Navigator even gives you the option to filter your feed based on who’s been in the news recently, started a new job, received a promotion and more.

PRO TIP: Social Media Examiner has published a great step-by-step guide on how to get started with Sales Navigator, from importing existing leads to reaching out to your most qualified prospects.

So you’ve started engaging potential leads to warm them up—now how do you actually reach out to start the conversation? Use LinkedIn’s InMail tool.

How to use InMail to increase sales

When it comes to email marketing, the numbers don’t lie.

On average, for every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI. While we believe that traditional email outreach is still a VERY important part of the communications mix, we also see InMail as an opportunity for establishing and nurturing new relationships.

Why?

Because InMail is LinkedIn’s in-app version of email marketing.

You can use InMail to send a sponsored message to another LinkedIn user’s direct message inbox. By hosting the conversation on LinkedIn, you move away from the noise—and competition—that crowds your prospect’s email inbox. Since LinkedIn also restricts the number of sponsored messages a user can receive over a certain period of time, the chances of your InMail messages being opened are much higher.

Once you’ve identified a potential lead, send them an InMail message to start your sales process. When you’re constructing the message, follow the same ideas that apply to getting more cold email opens and crafting the perfect initial outreach email.

Here are a few things that you can do to send the perfect sales message on LinkedIn:

• Start with personalization: As we said earlier, personalization is key. Why are you reaching out? What’s your connection? Can you get an introduction first and foremost? Use their first name!

• Start with value: What value do you bring to the table? Can you offer value to the prospect with a simple tip or an insightful report? Give before you take.

• End with a single question: Don’t leave them with 30 questions to answer. Be specific with your request and ask them to do one thing. Not three. Not four. Just one!

Always provide value first, and offer something you think they’ll be interested in based on the research you’ve done. Don’t just send everyone the same ebook and call it a day—do your homework and understand what this individual would find valuable in their career.

PRO TIP: Since InMail uses a credit-based system where you can only send so many messages before you run out, try to engage with prospects organically first. Keep an eye on the content they’re sharing and jump in when you can. Even if your goal is connecting with them to send them a free direct message, putting yourself on their radar will help get your message read.

If you can warm them up to you beforehand, you can save an InMail credit for a lead that’s tougher to engage with.

Now over to you…

LinkedIn can help you increase sales exponentially if you properly utilize all the tools they offer.

If you’re not already using Close.io, you’ll be glad to have this one-two combo. Our inside sales CRM with integrated calling and emailing plus LinkedIn Sales Navigator can create great results for inside sales reps. Together, they provide the perfect tools for identifying leads, making connections, nurturing relationships, and closing deals.

Want to double down on lead generation? Pair these LinkedIn tactics with a strong cold email campaign. Get 8 CRM-ready cold email templates right now.

Download your free cold email templates

Few things light a fire under a sales development rep more than a new inbound lead. When a lead fills out a form, downloads some content, or takes any other type of inbound action, an experienced SDR knows that time is of the essence.

Luckily, the right technology can help you respond to leads lickity-split. Tools like Slack can instantly notify you of interactions people have with your website on your desktop or from your phone. With platforms like SalesLoft, automation rules allow you to add inbound leads directly to Salesforce. Automation can even important leads into SalesLoft cadences that automatically send emails. This immediate action lets you strike while your potential lead is still hot.

Blake Edwards, Inbound SDR extraordinaire here at SalesLoft, joins us for this edition of Sales Tips to discuss the technology that helps him swiftly respond to all of his inbound leads.

Hey everyone, Blake here with SalesLoft. Today, I want to talk about using technology to maximize your response time. First, let’s take a step back and realize why inbound response time is so important. So when someone reaches out to you on your website, they probably have a certain topic in mind, which is why follow-up response time is so important. So with response time being such a crucial factor, I’m always looking for ways to get in touch with prospects more quickly. Here are a few ways you can use technology to do just that. My first tip revolves around the popular communication platform, Slack. Slack is one of our sales team’s favorite tools, and we can configure it to actually notify us whenever somebody interacts on our website. So when someone takes an action, we can use an automation rule to automatically put that person into Salesforce and then into SalesLoft once they take an action. So the benefit here is two-fold. First time notify so I
can respond to a lead as fast as possible. Secondly, I won’t have to create a lead in Salesforce or SalesLoft, that way I can focus more on personalizing and actually connecting with the prospect.
Slack also has mobile and desktop applications so that no matter where I’m at, anytime, any place, I can get a notification and respond quickly. My second tip revolves around automating as much as possible so I can focus on responding quickly. We can use triggers to transfer leads from marking automation to Salesforce and then to SalesLoft. The best part is that it can automatically be configured to put leads into SalesLoft based on vertical or that type of lead. This can automatically start a cadence based on the type of lead or their persona. While it automatically sends out the email to cut down on the rep’s response time, it gives the rep the appropriate power to follow-up afterwards. It’s specifically useful when you’re running multiple inbound cadences. That way, leads can be automatically sorted into the specific cadences they need to be. Thanks again for tuning in to see how we use technology to maximize response time. Feel free to leave a comment below and thanks again.

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Want to learn more about effective sales strategy? Download your free copy of our latest eBook and start landing larger clients, earning more revenue, and enjoying more sales success.

The post The Tech Inbound SDRs Need to Maximize Response Time appeared first on SalesLoft.

Yesterday, a sales manager I was coaching asked me to explain the difference between a great question and a tough question.  I gave him the one-minute version but this article has the expanded version of that answer.

I'll use my world as an example and ask you to translate accordingly.  

In my world, while I might occassionally be on a first call with a Senior Sales Leader, I am most frequently speaking with the CEO.  With CEO's, the most common issue they articulate is, "I'm not sure we have the right sales leader."

We have 3 levels of questions and it's important to understand that you must be patient enough to ask them in the proper sequence, and not one right after another.  The proper sequence is:

Ascend2, which offers research-based marketing services, and Vidyard, a video marketing platform, recently released a survey of content marketers to find out how the best of the best run their content marketing campaigns.

Over half of the respondents worked at companies with over 500 employees. 40 percent had 50 to 500 employees, and eight percent had fewer than 50. More than half dealt primarily with business-to-business (B2B) channels, about a quarter worked mostly with business-to-consumer (B2C) channels, and 20 percent worked with both equally.

35 percent of respondents ranked their content marketing and distribution strategy as very successful compared to their competitors. 46 percent described their strategies as somewhat successful, and 19 percent ranked them as unsuccessful.

“I was a little surprised to read the results of the survey,” says Jacqueline Gay, Digital Marketing & Communications Manager for international company Quincy Compressor. “Historically, industrial companies seem to struggle to create content, yet we’ve been able to generate a bunch of creative content ideas for our marketing campaigns taking a more aggressive approach to connect with our audiences.”

It’s true—Quincy Compressor has created some genuinely shareable (if not downright surprising) infographics, and its blog seems to have no shortage of recently published posts.

“We know as well as any company that content marketing isn’t the easiest thing to jump right into,” says Gay, “but if we can do it, surely other industries can find success with it, too.”

Ascend2 and Vidyard’s survey just might shed some additional insights into exactly what challenges other industries and companies are perceiving. We’ve highlighted some of the most notable below.

Strategic Objectives

Half of the best-in-class respondents said that increasing sales revenue was the most important objective of their strategy. This was followed by improving search rankings with 42 percent and increasing brand awareness with 41 percent.

When it comes to for-profit businesses, the other responses in the survey are likely, for the most part, sub-goals on the way toward the ultimate goal of increasing sales revenue.

Types of Content

When asked to rank the most effective types of content marketing, 63 percent said video and motion graphics. Other studies have found that to be true. Visual content tends to perform exceptionally well on social media.

The rest of the top spots went to, in this order, research reports, webinars/webcasts, social media content, infographics, website articles, blogs, and case studies/white papers. The last option received only nine percent, while the others got higher scores.

Metrics

You can’t tell how successful a campaign was unless you have something you can use to measure it. 64 percent of respondents said that brand awareness was the most useful metric. Lead generation and nurturing and customer engagement were other popular selections. Brand awareness is also difficult to measure, but various analytic tools can help with that.

The report also compared the most useful metrics to the most important objectives, as identified by the survey’s respondents. Objectives are much more useful when they can be effectively measured. The survey found that the most important objectives and the most useful ones didn’t always align.

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64% of marketers say that brand awareness is the most useful marketing metric.
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Resources Used

The study indicated that outsourcing your content marketing distribution leads to more success. This may be because outside marketing companies have more specialized skills and more access to marketing-related resources.

94 percent of best-in-class respondents outsourced at least part of their content marketing. 53 percent outsourced all of it, 41 percent used a combination of outsourcing and in-house resources, and only six percent used only in-house resources.

Paid Distribution

More than three-quarters of the top content marketers said paid distribution channels are becoming significantly more effective. 19 percent reported that their effectiveness was increasing marginally, while just four percent said it was decreasing either marginally or significantly.

Of those paid channels, search engine rankings took the top spot with 69 percent, followed by online banner ads and promoted posts or tweets. The survey also asked about print and offline promotions, which seven percent of best-in-class marketers said was the most effective channel.

Sales Cycle

The type of sales cycle your business typically encounters is important for choosing the right content marketing strategy. Most of the marketers surveyed (71 percent) said they deal mostly with complex cycles, which are longer and have many influencers. Twenty percent work mostly with direct sales, while nine percent encounter both types equally.

This survey tells us that most content marketers value increased sales the most but find brand awareness to be the most useful metric. They often use video and motion graphics to reach their goals and believe paid channels are becoming more effective. Most companies didn’t do their content marketing themselves, though—outsourcing was overwhelmingly popular.

Perhaps businesses will find the results of this survey useful, and maybe the next time a survey like this is conducted, more of them will be able to describe their strategies as “very successful.”

Get a weekly dose of the trends and insights you need to keep you ON top, from Jay Baer at Convince & Convert. Sign up for the Convince & Convert ON email newsletter.

The post Only 35% of Companies Think Content Marketing Is Truly Successful appeared first on Convince and Convert: Social Media Consulting and Content Marketing Consulting.

As a Millennial who actively works to buck the lazy and entitled stereotype (specifically at my job in marketing at SnapApp), I was nervous when I heard our new research with Heinz Marketing was focused on Millennials, assuming it would be added to the growing stack of content on the internet blaming us for the ills of the world.

(Seriously, people are keeping lists of things we’ve killed).

As it turns out, our research unearthed big changes in the old B2B buying journey – and the blame can’t be placed exclusively at the feet of Millennials. Rather, what we learned makes a convincing argument for the importance of the routinely overlooked role Millennials play in B2B buying.

Millennial B2B Buyers: Who Are They?

When you think “Millennial buyer,” you might conjure up an image of someone purchasing a new sweater they saw carefully placed on an influencer’s Instagram, or immediately making plans to check out a new restaurant they saw on SnapChat. But the Millennial buyer is not just a B2C force to be reckoned with – we’re having real impact on B2B buying too. Just check out some of the stats:

• 13% of Millennials surveyed indicated they are the final decision-maker on B2B buying decisions
• Another 28% are influencing purchase decisions

That’s over 40% of Millennials having pull in B2B buying!

Millennials’ typical role on buying committees is the researcher, working on the front lines to find and compile possible solutions. This means that if you’re not getting in front of the Millennials buyer, you’re probably never making it in front of the rest of buying committee.

In their research Millennials are more likely than other generations to rely on their personal networks for recommendations than the expert advice of a company representative like other generations.

Millennial buyers also deeply value authenticity in a company they will purchase a solution from. We found that Millennials prioritize company values and community engagement over specific product details or features.

“Millennials are far more likely to give voice to a problem rather than simply making do and “going a long to get along” as previous generations did, especially when the problem is one they are personally experiencing” noted VP of Marketing at SnapApp Aaron Dun. “This motivation to resolve their problems means millennials will be a powerful motivator for new B2B marketing and sales tactics as more move into the key decision-maker seats – marketers simply don’t have an option but to take notice and adapt – now.”

The defining characteristic of Millennial buyers that emerged from our research is their clear sales aversion. Millennials hate being engaged by sales teams, especially early in their buying process.

After growing up inundated by internet and television advertising, just 9% of Millennials want to be contacted by sales early in their buying process, which is in direct contrast with other generations who prefer to engage with sales at the start.

So the Millennials are here.
How do you create a marketing and sales plan that works for these new B2B buyers?

Well here’s the good news: what works best for Millennials largely fits the changing preferences of all the generations we surveyed.

Stop cold calling the top of your funnel.

Our research was clear: Millennial sales avoiders are off-put by the kind of early sales action that traditionally follows the first engagement action a prospect takes – they really want you to stop cold calling them after they download a whitepaper.

In fact, calling every lead that comes across your sales team’s radar doesn’t work for any generation of buyer. As a part of our research, we asked respondents what they hate about marketing and sales, and responses were all along the lines of this frustrated respondent: “Just because I download something doesn’t mean I want a call. I will reach out if I need a solution from you.”

Marketing teams need to qualify better leads to send to sales, and sales teams need to better understand the buyers that they are calling. The bottom line here is that successful marketing and sales teams need to provide lots of content for folks to do the early stages of their research without you, and then engage with them on their terms.

Social media can’t be an afterthought.

Across all generations, B2B buyers reported starting their research for a possible solution on social media. In fact, if you thought social media was more popular among youngsters you’d be wrong – social media ranked particularly high for Baby Boomers who overwhelmingly begin their search for solutions on the provider’s social media.

Fostering a personal tone and sharing engaging content are important first steps in building a relationship with prospects of all generations. Social media is also a great way to highlight the company values and personality that is appealing to Millennial buyers.

Rethink your white papers.

Across the board, white papers were not a fan favorite of buyers across all generations, with 30% ranking them as the least useful type of content early in the buying journey. The classic model of a gated white paper download followed immediately by a sales call or email is off-putting for all generations – especially Millennials.

Opt instead for more engaging, interactive content (why not try making all of your static white papers interactive?) that allows buyers to get the personalized information they need regardless of where they are in the buying journey – and the people love it: 45% ranked interactive content as within the top three most useful types of content.

Allow buyers to engage with you on their terms.

Within and between generations, buyers have different preferences for the buying process. Expecting one buying journey to work well for all of your prospects is simply unrealistic. Create tons of ungated content to allow Millennial buyers to research to their heart’s content before getting in touch with them.

Serve product demos and recorded webinars with company experts to Generation X and Baby Boomers, focusing on the impact your solution can have for their whole team. By making it possible for buyers to follow their own path in navigating your funnel you will retain more of them.

Start Rewriting Your B2B Marketing and Sales Playbook

Get first-hand insight from the report’s authors, SnapApp’s VP of Marketing Aaron Dun and Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing.