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In an ideal world, high-powered people would be dying to talk to you.

In reality, however, it can be hard to get busy, successful people on the phone, much less sitting across from you in a cafe.

In a post on his website, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, GrowthLab CEO Ramit Sethi says that your initial email is crucial to getting a meeting — and he'll tell you exactly what to write.

"This is a simple thing that signals to your expert that you are competent, won't waste their time, and you're capable of actually USING the advice they give," he writes. 

"One of the best things about this email is its brevity," writes Sethi. "There's zero fat in the message and it just tells the recipient what she needs to know."

Here's the exact template you can use (delete the bold type!):

To: Jane

From: Samantha

Subject: Michigan State grad — would love to chat about your work at Deloitte

Hi Jane,

My name is Samantha Kerritt. I'm an '04 grad from Michigan State and I came across your name on our alumni site. [TELL THEM HOW YOU CAME ACROSS THEIR NAME SO YOU DON'T SEEM LIKE A CREEP.]

I'd love to get your career advice for 15-20 minutes. I'm currently working at Acme Tech Company, but many of my friends work in consulting and each time they tell me how much they love their job, I get more interested. [THE FIRST SENTENCE SAYS WHAT SHE WANTS. MOST PEOPLE ARE FLATTERED THAT PEOPLE WANT/VALUE THEIR ADVICE.]

Most of them have told me that if I'm interested in consulting, I have to talk to someone at Deloitte. Do you think I could ask you about your job and what motivated you to choose Deloitte? I'd especially love to know how you made your choices after graduating from Michigan State. [“MICHIGAN STATE” REINFORCES SHARED BOND.]

I can meet you for coffee or at your office…or wherever it's convenient. I can work around you! [THE BUSY PERSON IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU. TREAT THEM ACCORDINGLY.]

Would it be possible for us to meet? [A BUSY PERSON CAN SIMPLY REPLY TO THIS WITH A “YES” — PERFECT. NOTE THAT I DIDN'T ASK FOR THE TIME/LOCATION AS THAT'S TOO MUCH INFORMATION IN THE FIRST EMAIL.]

Thanks,

-Samantha

Read more of Sethi's steps to get expert advice in the full post »

SEE ALSO: Forget tools and apps — 'The 3 Tiers of Productivity' are all you need to get more done

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to remember people's names

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – mostly credited to Mark Twain

Robert Rose and I will launch our combined sixth book, Killing Marketing: How Innovative Businesses Are Turning Marketing Cost into Profit, at Content Marketing World this September. The book’s key idea makes a case that the majority of businesses approach marketing entirely the wrong way … and that we need to kill the marketing we know and replace it with a new approach: marketing as a profit center.

Below is an excerpt from the introduction of the book. Robert and I truly believe that tomorrow’s businesses are in the process of transforming marketing into something completely new and different, and that building audiences and monetizing those audiences are the future of our practice. Enjoy!

Reprinted with the permission of Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose in association with McGraw-Hill Education.

In the 1970s, Israeli psychologists Danny Kahneman and Amos Tversky wrote a research paper titled “Belief in the Law of Small Numbers”. The findings were that even professional academics mistook a very small part for the whole when making decisions. For example, even though flipping a coin is always a 50/50 proposition, if a subject was to flip it 100 times, but the first two times turned up heads, the subject would believe that the majority of flips would turn up heads – at least higher than the true probability. This is also known as the “gambler’s fallacy” where in Roulette we see red or black running hot, and we begin to think that red or black is more likely to occur, when statistically, it’s not.

As human beings, the more we see something, the more this becomes our reality, regardless of whether our sample size is too small to draw any real conclusions.

In the mid-1980s, Don Redelmeier was assigned to Sunnybrook Hospital just outside Toronto to serve as a check against certain hospital decisions. Specifically, Redelmeier was brought in to question each doctor’s diagnosis and provide feedback as to the probability the doctor was correct.

Obviously, this was something that the Sunnybrook doctors were not fans of … at first. Where did a generalist from the trauma center (Redelmeier) get the right to question a qualified physician?

But Redelmeier, and others like him, found that doctors “… had exaggerated confidence based on their expert experience.” Simply put, doctors would see problems and solutions around their core expertise, and would often times ignore other signals where they were not as familiar.

The problem was not what doctors didn’t know, it’s what they knew that would get them into trouble.

In November of last year, I took my son Adam to a high school open house. While he was taking a few of the sample classes during the morning sessions, I was doing the same with a group of parents. My first class of the day was called the “Theory of Knowledge”.

The assignment was simple: view a painting of a building and discuss what you “know” about the painting. Our group tried to discern when it was created, whether it was real or fictitious, and, if it was real, was it a famous place?

Once the discussion was completed, the instructor told us that the painter was Adolf Hitler. From that moment on, everything about the conversation was immediately altered. A few people even became emotional upon hearing this information. The truth was, once the majority of the class found out this one piece of information, they could no longer view it as a piece of art.

What the class “knew” could never be undone and would affect their perception of that piece of art, and perhaps others like it, forever.

Does What We Know Hold Us Back in Marketing?

No, this is not a psychology, medical, or art history book, but the previous examples are definitely applicable. For the past 20 years, Robert and I have worked with CEOs, chief marketing officers, VPs of sales and marketing, and marketing practitioners from brands around the world. In each case, some part of their marketing and/or sales process was broken.

We go in, we analyze, we advise and (hopefully) compel these marketers and sales professionals to fix what they can with the resources they have. But what we’ve realized in the past few years has become, to say the least, disturbing.

Combined, this book, Killing Marketing, is our sixth such effort. Normally when creating the work-product such as a book, we start with the answer to a question. For example, in my 2013 book Epic Content Marketing, I talk about how marketers can build loyal and profitable relationships with customers by delivering consistently valuable content in order to drive sales. In 2015, Robert (with Carla Johnson) wrote the book Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing, which outlines an approach on how content-driven experiences can be created, managed, scaled, promoted, and measured in today’s business environment.

This book, however, does not start with an answer … it begins with questions … questions that Robert and I are desperate to find the answers to.

What if what we’ve been taught or experienced in marketing doesn’t show us the full picture?

What if we’ve limited our view of marketing to one area (what we know), and that is not allowing us to see the full potential of what can be accomplished (what we do not know yet)?

What if placing marketing solely in the marketing department is killing the approach of marketing as a strategic business process?

In other words, what if everything we KNOW to be true about marketing is actually what’s holding back our business?

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What if everything we know about #marketing is actually what’s holding back our business, asks @joepulizzi.
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The Day Hollywood Changed

Let’s try to make this more tangible with a popular movie example.

American Graffiti, still today, is one of the most profitable movies of all time. The film grossed over $140 million USD at the box office; it was made on a budget of less than $1 million. After the success of Graffiti, director George Lucas was in demand, and he started pitching his next venture, a science fiction movie called “Star Wars,” to Hollywood studios.

At the time, Hollywood was seeing a number of science fiction flops, and the industry did not see Star Wars as a bankable concept. Ultimately, 20th Century Fox decided to take a chance on the film. Still, the executives at Fox were sure the movie was going to be a flop and decided to let Lucas pass on an additional $500,000 directing fee in exchange for full licensing and merchandising rights. The studio believed they just saved a half-million dollars with no downside.

From 1977 to 2015 (before the Disney release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Star Wars movies pulled in just over $5 billion in ticket sales. During that same period, merchandising sales were $12 billion.

That’s right … 20th Century Fox sold off merchandising rights to George Lucas for pennies and lost out on a vast majority of the franchise revenue. They believed, as most of Hollywood insiders did at the time, that you make money from movies on ticket sales. Period.

George Lucas looked at the business in an entirely different way, and changed the industry forever.

Is it possible that the majority of CEOs and chief marketing officers are looking at marketing based on their own limited references (what they believe to be true about marketing), and not seeing the full potential (what they may not know), like the Hollywood insiders did? Are they killing their marketing from the inside without being aware of it?

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Do CMOs see #marketing based on their limited references & fail to see the potential, asks @joepulizzi.
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The Purpose of Marketing

In one of his 70 books on marketing, famed marketing professor Philip Kotler explained that the “mantra of marketing was CCDVTP.” It was an acronym that suggested that the core function of marketing should be to:

C: CREATE. C: COMMUNICATE AND D: DELIVER. V: THE VALUE. T: TO THE TARGET MARKET. P: AT A PROFIT.

Now, of course, the “profit” that Kotler speaks about is the idea that marketing should ultimately drive more sales of product than it should create costs in order to facilitate those sales. This is what marketers call return on investment (ROI) of marketing.

Most of our marketing in the past 50 years has revolved around advertising, or renting space in channels to garner attention and, hopefully, change consumer behavior. But over the past decade, innovative enterprises have found a “new” way to deliver value to their target markets, by creating relevant and compelling content, gearing it toward specific audience groups, and then, over time, seeing positive behavior changes in the audience which, ultimately, are profitable to the business (this approach is called content marketing). Although the approach is relatively new to most organizations, the goals have remained the same.

In general, enterprises create and distribute non-product-related content to impact the business in three ways:

• Increase revenue (sales goal or winning customers)
• Save costs (savings goal or creating customers at a lower cost)
• Create more loyal customers (retention goal or keeping customers)

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Non-product #content can increase revenue, save costs, create more loyal customers, says @joepulizzi.
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But, recently, there’s a new approach that has businesses re-evaluating the entire function of marketing.

A Fourth Model: Marketing as Profit Center

I had an opportunity to hear Robert Sperl, editorial director of Red Bull’s magazine Red Bulletin, explain the origin of Red Bull Media House. In 2005, the beverage giant was a major sponsor of Formula 1 racing. They had a simple goal for one of the races: to deliver a printed guide to exiting fans with the race results immediately following the race.

Prior to each race, the Red Bull editorial team gathered insider stories about the drivers and fun facts about the history of each race, and then assembled and printed the bulk of each magazine before the race began. To complete the magazine and add the race results, they lugged a 1-ton Heidelberg press to each track. As soon as the race was over, they quickly printed the results on the Heidelberg and distributed the magazines to attendees as they were leaving the race — an astounding feat done in almost record time.

Two years later, Red Bull decided to evolve the race publication into a men’s lifestyle magazine. It launched what became Red Bulletin in five countries, with 70% international and 30% localized content. Today, Red Bulletin magazine is published in five languages and is distributed in 10 countries. It prints and distributes over two million copies each month, including 550,000 mailed to paid subscribers.

Image source

The Red Bulletin is not measured by the number of Red Bull cans it sells, or how it persuades Red Bull customers to buy and drink more. It is measured just like a media company — Red Bull Media House enters into initiatives that are profitable on their own merit, just like The Washington Post, CNN, or the Financial Times.

Today, Red Bull Media House is one of the world’s most successful media companies. What started as a simple magazine has evolved into TV series, documentaries, world-class events, a music studio, merchandising, and they even license their content to traditional media companies like The New York Times.

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.@RedBull mag evolved into TV series, events, music studio, merchandising & licensed content @JoePulizzi.
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While other enterprises were dabbling in media as, at best, a side project, how did Red Bull see this opportunity? Simple … Robert Sperl, and the majority of the other members of the Red Bull media staff, came from the publishing and media industry. Like George Lucas, the Red Bull content team saw the business model in front of them as a natural progression, instead of looking past it as so many marketers did before them.

Today, the Red Bull Model is being replicated in varying degrees across the business spectrum. Business-to-business (B2B) companies, business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, and even not-for-profits are starting to realize that as they focus on creating valuable and engaging content – a new model appears: marketing as a profit center.

Can we actually move marketing from the cost line of the financials to the revenue line? Can marketing actually serve multiple business models?

Our book – Killing Marketing – presents an entirely new business model for marketing, one that both leverages the disruptive forces facing marketing and advertising as it also fundamentally changes the purpose of marketing in the business. Like the Hollywood insiders falling down on Star Wars’ merchandising revenue, we believe marketers are, in most cases, blind to this new opportunity.

A few are starting to see that, to be successful, we need to kill our old marketing beliefs to discover a new model.

Cloud CRM giant Salesforce holds an event in San Francisco every year called Dreamforce. It is one of the most valuable physical events in the world, drawing in over 150,000 people and hundreds of sponsors each year.

Johnson & Johnson operates BabyCenter.com as a completely separate division of the company. BabyCenter reaches more than 45 million parents a month from every corner of the globe through its 11 owned and operated properties in nine different languages. Eight of every 10 U.S. mothers use BabyCenter.

LEGO’s The LEGO Movie was created as a for-profit initiative. On a $60 million budget, worldwide grosses of the movie totaled nearly a half-billion dollars.

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg, often barely noticeable to marketers or even dismissed as irregularities or luck. But in the near future, this model will be the rule, not the exception, for every innovative company on the planet.

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#Marketing as a profit center will be rule, not exception, for every innovative company, says @joepulizzi.
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Driving Value Outside of Products

According to SiriusDecisions, there is a 1-in-25 chance to reach a C-level executive through outbound marketing. There must be a better way.

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There is a 1-in-25 chance to reach a C-level executive through outbound marketing via @siriusdecisions.
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We’re beginning to see the signs of that better way.

In 2016, both Pepsi and Mondelez announced the launch of media divisions. In both cases, the marketing leaders at these organizations talked openly about a portion of their media being self-sustaining or even profitable.

A few months later, electronics manufacturing powerhouse and Fortune 500 enterprise Arrow Electronics acquired a number of B2B media brands from UBM, one of the largest media and event companies in the world (and parent company of CMI). Not only has Arrow purchased amazingly valuable subscriber lists and editorial talent, but it also purchased standalone marketing that is profitable unto itself.

Red Bull, Johnson & Johnson, and Arrow Electronics still market their products like other organizations, including advertising and traditional public relations. But these enterprises, through their content-driven and audience-building initiatives, drive value outside the day-to-day products they sell, and are monetizing it directly. They are, in every sense of the word, “media” companies.

Of course these initiatives sell more cans, more baby formula, and more electrical components. The delivery of amazingly helpful content keeps customers longer, keeps them buying more, and even helps new customers close faster. The engagement in the content reveals deep insight about customer behavior, and leads to the development of new products and services. All that, and the marketing pays for itself, and even generates a profit for the business.

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Delivery of helpful content keeps customers longer, buying more, & new customers close faster. @joepulizzi
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This is the future of IBM, of General Motors, of Cisco Systems … creating owned media that can not only generate more leads and opportunities, but is so good that the marketing pays for itself.

Killing Marketing will be released in September at Content Marketing World, and will be available at bookstores everywhere. We hope you can join Joe and Robert at CMWorld this year for their launch party at the event. Register today for the Sept. 5-8 event. Use code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post What If What We Know About Marketing Is What’s Holding Us Back? appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

Every irrelevant email is a missed opportunity that costs you engagement and conversion Whether you’re cross-selling, up-selling, fighting cart abandonment, or a content site working to keep your visitors returning and engaging, the key to effective email marketing is that …..

The post Powerful formulas to maximize email engagement appeared first on Smart Insights.

As a salesperson, you're bound to be confronted with it at some point — what HubSpot SMB Growth Specialist Vajra refers to as "the most dangerous question." By his account, it's the statement that shows "a prospect is qualifying you instead of you qualifying them."

I'm referring to the most quintessential down-to-brass-tacks statement a prospect can offer: "Just tell me the price."

It's a frank, no-nonsense concern that can put some of the best sales reps on their heels. So for the sake of any stumped sales reps, we've reached out to some of our internal experts here at HubSpot for their takes on how they answer when a prospect asks, "How much does it cost?"

Let's take a look at some of the tricks they came up with.

The Best Answers to "How Much Does It Cost"

Be totally upfront.

According to HubSpot Senior Account Executive Nicole Bhatia, honesty is the best policy when confronted with this question.

She says, "It's simple — when someone says, 'Just tell me the price,' I just tell them the price. Someone who says that clearly has their guard up. This person likely doesn't want to be sold. You won't get anywhere trying to dissuade them from jumping right into pricing. They'll likely dig their heels in even further and feel like you're hiding something."

She points out that you can't force a prospect into being a good fit for your product or service — particularly when it comes to price. She says, "After six years in sales, I know that no matter how good of a salesperson I am, I can't work magic. I can't magically make them have more money. If my product is far outside of their budget it's better not to waste either of our time."

Try to get a better feel for a prospect's circumstances.

When discussing pricing, it helps to have a holistic picture of where your prospect is coming from. You need to understand their situation as best as you can before you can have a meaningful conversation on the subject.

As HubSpot Account Executive Stefanie Ibarguen puts it, "It's usually not a one-size-fits-all discussion. Each business has different requirements when it comes to contract terms that align with how they operate. I would need to know more about their requirements, what packaging best fits their needs, and other relevant terms to give them a more specific estimate"

Principal Account Executive Anna Rofsky suggests that salespeople take more time to understand the nature of a prospect's business operations, perspective, and broader circumstances.

According to her, "If a sales rep is really in sales for the right reasons, then they're encouraged and excited — they're there to help you figure out what solution is best for you. It's like walking into Urban Outfitters looking for jeans and asking a sales rep 'for the price.' What then? It's very unlikely they'll select a random pair and tell you they're $89.

"No, it's much more likely they will ask questions around color, style, and any applicable sales. That way, they can point you in the direction toward what you actually want. That's the role of a salesperson — strategic guidance on what is best for you — not a dollar amount to throw around."

Push for a more thorough conversation.

As an extension of the point above, the experts we reached out to generally agreed that a prospect's concerns about price warrant a thorough conversation.

Inbound Sales and Digital Marketing Expert Michael Grinberg says, "Typically when a prospect asks you to just tell them the price, they are asking this question to simply gauge if they should even take another call. With a freemium or a free trial model, an easy way to navigate this objection is to say, '[Prospect], as a fellow consumer I understand that you need to know the price to understand if our product is even viable for your company.

"We offer ways to get started with our products for free, and some of our customers are paying us as much as $50,000/monthly. The last thing either of us wants is for you to get an inaccurate quote, so would you be open to scheduling another call where we nail down the use case, and then I can give you an accurate price that most closely resembles your current needs?'"

One way or another, it serves you to further discuss both the nature of their needs and how you can best accommodate them. Both sides of that conversation will be helpful and telling in terms of the kind of pricing structure you can present to them.

If you don't have enough information to offer them a meaningful estimate, don't just throw out some arbitrary, potentially misleading figure. Push for some more context via a more concentrated conversation — one that can inform a legitimate, accurate "how much does it cost" answer.

A prospect being blunt and hitting you with, "Just tell me the price," can be imposing, but it doesn't have to throw you off your game. If there's anything to take away from this article, it's that honesty and pushing for more context are the best policies.

Be upfront with them immediately if you can, but if you need more information to present a fair, accurate estimate, ask for it. Try to have a more thorough conversation to understand your prospect's business operations and the needs that come with them.

The devil is in the detail, so goes the age-old saying. It suggests that there is some hidden catch, or a potential problem if you do not read all the information presented. It would appear that business people spend much of their time with this idiom in the back of their mind. They concentrate on detail – a lot..!

That is demonstrated in a new study which investigates what makes business people buy things online. This research showed that what business people want is lots of written, detailed information to help them make purchasing decisions.

In stark contrast to what many Internet Marketing “gurus” might tell you, here’s what the 1,200 business buyers in the study revealed.

• 76% DO NOT really care about the presentation of the website; only 24% said a professional website was one of their top 3 priorities;
• 88% ARE NOT bothered about pictures; only 12% said pictures were essential;
• 89% DO NOT rate testimonials as important; only 11% wanted them as a priority.

Yet, advice to businesses is that your website must look professional, you need it crammed with pictures and if you want to get people to buy from you, then you need testimonials. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here’s what the top priorities of business buyers are, according to this study.

• The web page “speaks to my specific needs” (in other words it provides exactly what the visitor wants, nothing more, nothing less);
• The information is detailed with full product or service specifications;
• The content is educational, not promotional.

Yet the advice to businesses is often to provide short, promotional material because business people are busy and don’t want to dig into the details, wasting their time. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

This confirms a further recent study which showed that executives want lengthy material; forget videos and blogs for business people. And it’s not the first time that the lengthy content notion has won. Studies from four years ago found the same thing. Business people prefer long form content.

What is interesting about this new study is that it showed that business buyers are really seeking information which helps them make a decision. They want educational material, which is in-depth and analytical. The study showed that for most buyers the source of that information is not relevant; what matters is that it is detailed and highly relevant to the buyer.

This is not news, of course. Study after study for decades shows consistently that the number-one way of getting a business sale is to provide the potential customer with piles of information and to avoid any attempt at promotion. That’s not what Sales Directors want to hear of course, nor marketers. But it is the common factor in studies of buyer behaviour.

The psychology behind this issue

There is a good reason why this focus on the detail is so important. Business people are generally not spending their own money when they buy something. As a result, they feel they need to justify their purchasing decision. Indeed, in many businesses employees have to provide a written justification for what they buy.

Ultimately, the business buyer is seeking to reduce the risk of their decision to buy something. They don’t want to look stupid or get told off. So, they seek as much information as possible to provide the justification they need and thereby minimise the risk they are taking. The more detail a seller provides, the less risky the buying decision becomes.

This is why this new study showed that one of the most influential aspects of the detailed information a business provides is “original research”. In other words, someone selling to a business has a greater chance of success if there is research to support their product or service.

Plus, the new study revealed that the main way business colleagues discuss their considerations in buying something is through email. That means if you want to sell something to a business you need shareable material that can easily be emailed. That cuts out videos for instance but makes white papers and PDF documents much more valuable.

Stick to long pieces of text and your business will sell more to other businesses.

Use these steps to maximize your email outreach

It is difficult to argue against the benefits of automated email outreach when it comes to online marketing, be it for promoting your blog posts, software or conducting general sales pitches. However, the biggest challenge is to make them look personal. Sending emails is the easy part. The challenge is to get responses from the people we send the emails to. With the sheer number of emails that reach a person’s inbox, you really have to find a unique way of standing out in your recipients’ inbox.

To give you an idea how small tweaks can change the way your campaigns perform, here are some stats:

• Research conducted by MailChimp indicates that adding both, the first and the last name of the recipient in the subject of the email can double the open rate when compared to adding just the first or last name.

• Research by HubSpot shows that businesses that send 16 - 30 emails a month see double the open rate than those that send 2 or fewer emails. It is worth noting that open rates plummet when the number of emails exceeds 31 per month.

• Even a slight change in a word count can determine the effectiveness of your email campaign. For instance, research carried out by Retention Science illustrates that emails with subject lines that contain 6-10 words enjoy an open rate of more than 20%.

Now that we know that even the smallest aspects can impact the effectiveness of your email campaign dramatically, how do you achieve the ultimate result when it comes to influencer outreach and people who have no idea who you are?

It goes without saying that it is absolutely vital that meaningful relationships are built with as many influencers as possible. Getting responses from those influencers is always a tough task. They are busy people who have a lot on their plate, let alone a large number of individuals knocking on their doors. Thus, your emails have to be as unique as possible in order to capture their attention.

Here are some of the ways you can give your outreach emails a personal touch

1. Use your email account when sending emails

Instead of using third-party email marketing services, use your own corporate email address to send campaigns. When you use third-party marketing services, the email almost always ends up in the Updates or Promotions tab of the recipient’s email account and are very unlikely to be read.

2. Send to the correct address

Although this sounds so obvious, pre-made email lists and databases have become so widely used that people barely take the time to find their target audience’s correct email address. In many cases, the emails obtained using these tools are incorrect or even non-existent. If you have not verified the emails, you may be engaging in a futile effort sending to emails that may not be correct in the first place.

The best advice is always to avoid purchasing pre-made lists.

Make use of tools like Email Hunter or Voila Norbert to find email addresses by simply searching for a person’s name and website address.

3. Make your email unique and valuable

If you are utilizing email outreach to reach influencers, it is highly likely that you are not the only one trying to reach them. If your email tells them something new that they needed to know, they will surely appreciate the heads up. Take time to research your topic before sending the emails to anyone, be it an influencer or your subscriber. After all, what may be outstanding to you may not be very impressive to them. Make sure your email is properly articulated in order to show your real value to the audience.

If you’re conducting blogger outreach, ensure to familiarize yourself with their blog’s content and topics and show that you’re aware of their work.

 4. Create a connection

When trying to connect with someone new, you would want them to care about you and contribute positively to your initiative. In order for them to show interest in you and your work, they need to see that you appreciate, and more importantly, are familiar with their work. Your research should help in the process of finding the talking points that will assist you in your course to build a genuine connection.

5. Use an appropriate tone

In order to capture the mind of your outreach target, you have to use a tone that resonates with them. Although it is quite challenging to determine the ultimate tone without an established relationship, their writings and social platforms should give you some decent pointers as to the best approach to take. Avoid extreme language as this will almost certainly lead to negativity.

6. Keep your email brief and personal

Your email should be brief and only contain the most relevant information. An example of a precise introduction would be to tell the prospect how you found their information and what you have in common. Then go to your reason for reaching out to them. A call-to-action or a simple question is a great way to end the email. This way, the prospect will almost feel compelled to reply to your email or click a link that you may have provided.

7. Express your appreciation

It is important to make sure that your recipients know that you don’t take the fact that they took the time to open your email and read it for granted. Expressing your appreciation for someone’s time can make a huge difference in how they perceive you and subsequently respond to you. Avoid using phrases like “Looking forward to your swift reply”. You don’t want to come across like you are coercing the person to respond.

8. Make sure you get your point across

If you a reaching out to a brand or an influencer, you must be very precise in making sure that they understand exactly what you are asking for. Remember, no one has the time to sit back and try to determine what your email is all about - especially if you haven’t had any prior communication with the person. It is always good to take a “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook” approach when asking someone to do something for you. Try to give first and then ask for something in return.

Reasons why your automated email outreach campaign might fail:

Automated email campaigns can be very tricky. A conservative person would think that automated emails are almost identical to spam and should not be sent. But an individual who likes to test things will look at all the software at their disposal and see a great opportunity to expand their reach.

1. Lack of quality leads

Having a list of high-quality leads will go a long way in determining the success of your campaign. At the same time, you should double-check your list to make sure that the leads are valid and up-to-date. The most profitable leads tend to be the ones collected directly on your website. Hence, invest enough time into researching the audience that you want to reach and avoid buying leads that have no connection to you or your business. This way, you will keep your ‘bounce-back’ rate at a minimum.

2. Copying other people’s emails

The best emails are the ones that are specifically tailored for specific audiences. In other words, they should be written by you. This does not mean that you shouldn’t research some successful examples and explore various templates that work. But these should only be used for inspiration.

3. Using the wrong context or no context

A good email should resonate with its reader in a significant way. The body of your email should be in the proper context. Avoid reaching out to a big number of contacts using the same message as this only makes it sound too generic.

4. Complacency

Even if your campaign is working at any given moment, there is always a way that you can make it even better. Always test your subject lines to see whether there are any tweaks that can make them more effective. An automated email campaign is a continuous process of improvement.

5. Poorly crafted subject lines

The subject line is what determines whether your audience will give you an extra second or discard you in a flash. This is why it is so important to invest enough time into crafting the best subject line. The subject line is just as important as the email itself.

 

Although email open rates are not as high as they used to be, email outreach remains extremely robust (when done carefully). The best advice is to avoid sending the types of emails that you don’t like receiving yourself.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of bad emails from salespeople. I am sick and tired of receiving unsolicited, uncustomized, long-winded, self-promotional emails from lazy salespeople. While I could write a complete book series with a slew of bad examples, I received a particularly irritating one the other day that sent me over the edge. I responded to the salesperson just to tell him how bad it was.

This brand new sales development rep defended himself in a back-and-forth email exchange, giving me even more reasons to be mad.

Realizing I was getting nowhere with this rep, I ended the conversation telling him I’d write an article on why I found his approach so annoying and ineffective.

Without further ado, here’s the prospecting email I received. (I changed the names and value props on the email to protect the guilty. But I left as much of the badness as possible.)

Peter, before the weekend

Hi Peter,

I'll be reaching out to you on the phone in the next couple of days/next week but I wanted to follow up with an email as well before the weekend.

We haven't had the pleasure of meeting but I'm reaching out to introduce myself and see if we can schedule a 15-minute conversation sometime next week.

I work for a company called BoogerPickers -- we help businesses better manage their digital booger picking technologies, and when I came across your website and assessed the tools you're using, I realized this is a great opportunity for us to help you.

To be brief -- we are a booger indexing solution that:

• Eliminates the chaotic burden of hand picking boogers from your nose
• Enables access to smaller, difficult to reach boogers in order to increase successful booger extraction
• Optimizes the ROI from your existing booger pickers (reducing time and maximizing ROI)

Companies similar to yours in the industry rely on us to be the foundation for their entire booger picking stack and I think HubSpot Inc. could definitely see the value in BoogerPickers as well.

I'd love the opportunity to share this in a bit more detail and hear your feedback.

Are you available for 15 minutes sometime next week?

Can't imagine a quick chat about increasing booger picking and optimizing your booger pile would be a waste.

Cheers,
Clueless Chad

PS -- Check out this recent TechCrunch article about BoogerPickers’ recent round of funding and future plans!

As you read that, you probably saw many of the mistakes. But just in case you’re as dense as the guy who sent it, I’ll walk you through the mistakes I saw one by one.

Don’t Trick Your Prospects into Opening Your Email

I was pissed off before I even read past the first line of the email body. After reading the subject line, “Peter, before the weekend,” I opened this thinking that it was urgent or maybe even from someone who knew me. But then realized it was from a salesperson who didn’t know me at all.

This salesperson successfully tricked me into opening his email. In the subsequent email exchange, he defended his subject line by saying that it got a 78% open rate and a 12% response rate. He failed to realize that he probably irritated at least 66% of his prospects by tricking us into opening his email.

Don’t obscure who you are or what you want. Instead, use a subject line that’s obvious. You might even be better off having no subject line compared to one like this.

If You’re Going to Call, Just Call

“I'll be reaching out to you on the phone in the next couple of days / next week but I wanted to follow up with an email as well before the weekend.”

At this point, I’m already pissed off because this salesperson tricked me into opening his email. This line increased my anger. Not full-Hulk. But getting there.

If you’re going to call a prospect first, just call them. If you’re going to email before you call, send an email. Either of these avenues is acceptable. What’s not is sending an email to warn your prospect that you’re going to call them. Just do it.

The worst part about this line is that it leaves me with no idea why this salesperson is writing (or going to call) me. He didn’t personalize the email to me in any way. He did not do any research on me. He made no attempt to build any type of personal connection.

When sending an email, your first line should mention something about the prospect, not you or your cold calling plans. Something like, “Congratulations on your new product launch” or “I saw that a few of your team members recently read about topic X on our website," or in his case, “I noticed you’re using 12 different booger-picking technologies.”

The first line of a prospecting email should always be about the prospect, and never about the salesperson. 

Don’t Insert Your Call to Action Before You’ve Established Value

“We haven't had the pleasure of meeting but I'm reaching out to introduce myself and see if we can schedule a 15-minute conversation sometime next week.”

My thought bubble after I read this line: “Really? Pleasure? Who the hell are you?” I especially love how this salesperson asked for 15 minutes well before he introduced any potential value to me. Does he think his prospects sit around all day hoping random strangers will call them? Or maybe he thinks his excitement about his product compensates for his lack of genuine interest in me or my challenges?

I don’t have any suggestions for changing this sentence to make it better. Statements like this should not be written in sales emails -- plain and simple. They’re simply extra words, which can only hinder your efforts considering that most experts recommend three to seven sentence sales emails.

Assuming he correctly punctuated his sentences, this email is 13 sentences. If I were to try to cut this email down to the ideal length, this sentence would be the first to go, especially since doing away with it would help him get to the point faster …

Suggest Only One Benefit in Your First Email (If Any)

“I work for a company called BoogerPickers -- we help businesses better manage their digital booger picking technologies, and when I came across your website and assessed the tools you're using, I realized this is a great opportunity for us to help you.

"To be brief -- we're a booger indexing solution that, to name a few things ...”

At this point, the salesperson started to explain the problems he solves. While I’m not a fan of spitting out value propositions in the first email to a prospect who has never heard of you, I’ll give him credit for getting to the point (finally).

However, the problem is that he threw a bunch of benefits at me like spaghetti at a wall. As sales prospecting expert Heather R. Morgan says, “Keep things short and sweet … by keep[ing] your email focused on one core idea or benefit.”

And as best-selling sales and marketing author David Meerman Scott would say, this guy needs a gobbledygook meter. Why? This salesperson includes a lot of vague words that are overused by marketers and salespeople. At best, most prospects read phrases like “optimize ROI” and “reduce time” and ignore them. At worst, they think, “bullsh*t,” and lump you into the bucket of over-sellers.

Lastly, if you’re going to say “to be brief,” be brief. But, maybe, just maybe, don’t say it at all. Just be brief.

Realize That Your Prospects Don’t Care What You’d Love to Do

“I'd love the opportunity to share this in a bit more detail and hear your feedback.”

The last thing I care about is what this salesperson would love to do. In general, I don’t care much about what strangers who spam, deceive, oversell, and waste my time would love to do.

This line should also be cut from the email. Any statement starting with “I’d love to ... ” should be transformed into a question like “Would you be interested in … ?”  

Don’t Ask for a Phone Call in Your First Email

“Are you available for 15 minutes sometime next week?

"Can't imagine a quick chat about increasing booger picking and optimizing your booger pile would be a waste.”

The rep might not be able to imagine himself wasting my time, but I can. After all, he’s already wasted my time and pissed me off with this email. Something tells me he wouldn’t “totally redeem himself” on the phone.  

Lately, I’ve been advising salespeople to stop asking to schedule a call in their first email, especially if they don’t know whether the prospect is in the market for a product or service like theirs. I realize this bucks traditional sales prospecting wisdom. However, I’m seeing that buyers are reaching a frustration point with these types of cold emails. It seems (not so surprisingly) that the last thing a busy executive wants to do these days is to get on the phone and hear a pitch. They can go to a website and read the pitch much more quickly -- anytime, anywhere, and in their underwear if they want.

But because salespeople are sometimes getting high single and low double digit response rates (in this case, 12%, according to “Chad”), most companies are okay with the collateral damage that results from a cold email campaign. Missing the mark 90% of the time -- even though it pisses prospects off and tarnishes the company’s reputation -- seems to be an acceptable prospecting casualty rate. But I don’t get it. While those types of numbers might be the status quo in prospecting, they would indicate failure in any other game. Why do we accept this collateral damage?

These low response rates indicate that it’s probably too forward to ask for time on the phone. Instead, focus on simply getting a response. Do this by asking a conversation-starting question to determine their priorities. Something like, “Do you ever get frustrated by X?” or “Is this a problem for you?”

That said, I do think it makes sense for salespeople to offer to do a phone call at some point, but I’d recommend offering it as a follow up to an email response. After all, communicating via phone could be the prospect’s preference. But, the offer should sound something like, “I am available to get on a call with you at [day and time] if you believe it makes sense to explore how I can help” instead of “Do you have 15 minutes to get on the phone?”

Resist Tooting Your Own Horn

"Cheers,
Clueless Chad

"PS -- Check out this recent TechCrunch article about BoogerPickers’ recent round of funding and future plans!”

Interesting choice of horn-tooting PR. Any good salesperson should know that their company’s funding does not do anything to validate that a prospect needs what they have.

In general, salespeople should avoid talking about themselves or their companies in the first email. Don’t toot your own horn. To get responses to your sales emails, demonstrate your expertise by doing your research, customizing your approach, making a very educated guess about one way (and only one way) you could provide value, and ask a question to see if this benefit syncs with their priorities.

Reach Out to the Right Contact

This email is unquestionably bad, but I haven’t even gotten to the worst part yet. The worst part is that I’m not the person managing “booger picking” for HubSpot. If this guy did a very small amount of research by looking at the size of the company and my title on LinkedIn, he would have realized that I probably don’t even know the guy that manages booger picking at HubSpot.

In the subsequent email exchange, the salesperson admitted to sending the same exact email to a bunch of people at HubSpot, since he didn’t take the time to determine who the correct contact was. Don’t be this lazy. 

If you are going to knowingly email people who aren’t the right contact, at least take Aaron Ross’s decade-old advice and use his “Are you the right contact?” email templates. Just be careful -- while there is a time and a place for this approach, don’t use it if you can find the right contact on LinkedIn. In the last 10 years, LinkedIn has come a long way, baby.

A Better Prospecting Email Template For This Scenario

Taking into account all of the advice above, here’s an email template that this salesperson could have used to successfully get a response from me. (Since I don’t really understand exactly what his company does -- despite his efforts to fill me in -- I’m taking some liberties by assuming that the wrong booger picking technology negatively impacts lead generation.)

Losing website leads because of inefficient booger picking?

Hey Pete,

I read your impressive article on lead generation and shared it with our VP of Sales. I wish our marketing team generated leads for us at that volume.

I know your team is world-class in this area, but I’m wondering whether you’ve ever looked at the negative impact too many booger picking technologies have on your lead generation funnel? From looking at the way your booger picking technologies are deployed on HubSpot.com, we estimate you’re losing 3% of your leads.

Could this be a problem for you and your team?

Regards,
Clued-In Chad

Tired of getting bad sales emails? Forward them to slimysales@hubspot.com and HubSpot Academy will invite them to sales training.

More than half of leads given to sales teams are never contacted by a representative or they're contacted only once, according to recent research from InsideSales.com. Read the full article at MarketingProfs

“Don’t wait for mama bird to feed you.”

An account executive used this phrase with me recently as we were discussing pipeline sourcing, and I thought it was telling of the strategy being employed by many of the companies we speak with each day.

While many companies have a team of SDRs that focus on prospecting new leads to feed their AE’s pipeline, many companies are starting to encourage AEs to do some of their own development as well. While keeping prospecting apart from your closers may keep your sales reps focussed and productive, what happens when leads begin to dwindle?

Low pipeline is the villain in an otherwise successful sales story. Without it, AEs simply can’t do their job, they risk losing momentum and not hitting their quotas.

In order to avoid those risks, your AEs should source at least some of their own pipeline. But it doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Here are tips to help your AEs self-source pipeline efficiently.

Calls, Calls, Calls

AEs sourcing their own pipeline need to go back to some basic sales practices and call potential prospects. Sure, it may seem simpler to send an email, but emails can be easily ignored. Taking the time to search for the correct contact information, pick up the phone, and call new prospects to have open conversations is the most effective way for AEs to qualify prospects.

Some reps may think that finding the right phone number and reaching out to prospects could take a huge portion of their day. But calling prospects doesn’t have to take a ton of your reps time as long as they have the right technology. SalesLoft’s dialer allows AEs to complete calls in a fraction of the time. Your reps can easily power through a call list or click-to-dial on a number anywhere in their browser (from LinkedIn, a company website, Salesforce, you name it!) Then they can simply drop in voicemails and log any call notes with ease. When all of your rep’s call activity is taken care of effortlessly they can quickly qualify new prospects directly into their pipeline.

Work Those Referrals

When sourcing pipeline your reps could have an ample source of new leads from former prospects who have become satisfied customers. According to McKinsey, word of mouth is a factor behind 20 to 50% of purchasing decisions. And why wouldn’t it? If a prospect learns about your product from a trusted source, they will already be aware of the benefits your product can provide. This knowledge is like a jump start to the sales cycle with that prospect and is overall more effective for your rep’s sales pipeline.

Requesting a referral can be as simple as creating a cadence to periodically follow up with newly acquired customers. One best practice for referral cadence emails is to have your reps offer value or additional services for your product. Continually providing value with best practice tips, helpful articles, or ebooks after the sale gives the customer even more reason to trust your reps and willingly offer referrals.

Automate Whenever Possible

Some reps may be concerned that sourcing pipeline takes too much of their time. You can easily put your reps minds’ at ease by automating their repeatable sales process whenever possible.

Platforms like SalesLoft allow you to automate particular actions like adding people to a cadence or executing steps like sending emails.

The referral cadence previously mentioned is a perfect example of a cadence that can be automated. Once an account has signed a deal, the people in that account may be marked as “Success.” Marking someone as “Success” could be the trigger that places people from that account into the referral cadence. Then the customers will work through the cadence steps over the course of the next few weeks and hopefully reply with a company referral. While these tasks are taking place, your reps can go about their day-to-day, steadily increasing their pipeline as they go.

Attend Conferences

While door-to-door sales is definitely a thing of the past, there is still a lot to be gained from meeting someone in person. Your reps may pack their calls and emails with personalization, but actually being face-to-face with a prospect increases the quality of their interactions.

AEs working to increase their pipeline can connect with a large number of potential deals in a short amount of time by attending conferences. At conferences you are surrounded by hundreds of people with a similar interest. If current customers are attending the conference, it’s likely that potential customers will be amid the masses.

If your company has a booth at a conference, your AEs can take the time to shine and show your product’s value to passerbys. Alternatively, you can even get your AEs to attend conferences where you know potential customers will be.

Successful closers should know that sourcing their own pipeline is an invaluable sales skill. By providing them with pipeline goals and the right technology your AEs can keep their pipeline steady and efficient.

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Download a copy of the ebook today and take your account executive team into the modern sales era.

The post 4 Ways For Your AEs to Self-Source Their Pipeline appeared first on SalesLoft.

Making pizzas seems like a simple business. After all its been happening for centuries and it seems like almost anyone can do it. But to make a sustainable business out of it and maintain an appealing brand in today’s competitive world requires a customer centric leadership mindset.

A starting point for Domino’s change from an ailing pizza maker in 2010 to a growing food business was a leadership change. Patrick Doyle became CEO in 2010 after Domino’s had experienced several years of stagnating business and declining share price. Doyle realized that he could only revamp the business if he could lead and create a mindset change in staff – a change from an “omission bias” where people worry more about doing something different than no change and “loss aversion” where the focus is on not losing rather than winning. I remember the great American motivational writer and speaker Zig Ziglar saying “.. the fear of loss is greater than the desire for gain”. Doyle realized that playing it safe was the riskiest course of all and he needed to create a mindset in the business that change is a necessity and a learning mentality in which for staff “failure is an option”.

A Customer-Centric Leadership Mindset was Needed to Transform Domino’s Pizzas

The change in Domino’s strategy came with a big picture view and a realization that they were not only in the pizza-making business but also in the pizza-delivery business and how this fundamentally affected the experience of their customers. This meant becoming just as much a tech company as a pizza company to transform the way customers could order and monitor the status of their order using a Domino’s app. Other apps were created to enable customers to provide feedback and become involved in games making ‘virtual’ pizzas.

Staff needed to be open to customer criticism to help them make better pizzas that customers would love eating as well as keeping them warm enough by the time of delivery. So Domino’s took on board customer views of how bad the pizzas were and suggestions on what to do to improve them.

Customers’ frank views were aired in advertising and social media and created a transparency and honesty that enhanced brand trust. Domino’s used staff in ads to describe how they had changed recipes and ingredients to make better tasting products. The company created a delivery car with one seat and a warming oven for up to 80 pizzas. It modernized its image to create more of a sense of style and a sense of humor. All of these things were needed for success. Here is 4 minute video describing what they did:

But the foundation for creating this change to a more agile, customer-responsive business came from the customer mindset brought by the new leader and embedded in the business in a way that enabled them to change and transform. As one senior leader told me recently it is the focus on the customer and their changing needs that is the motivator for leaders and staff to change!

Domino’s business results prove the point. Today, it is the second-largest pizza chain in the world, with more than 12,500 locations in more than 80 countries, and up from a share price of around $8 in 2010 to one of $215 in June 2017.

You already know by now that high email open rates are useless if click-through rates (CTRs) are low. You need people to click the links in your email to end up on your website. Click-through rates are a much better indicator of email engagement and success than only open rates for that reason.

But the average email CTR is 4.19% — across all industries.

Which means around 4 recipients click your links for every 100 opened emails.

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Always test these on your own and analyze the results, because tactics tend to be situational. But these should give your email click-through rates a healthy boost…

Click-through Rate Strategy #1: Increase The Number of Links

In each of your own emails, exactly how many links should you be using?

To answer that question, Elizabeth Yin of Launch Bit once ran a test on 2 email types: 1- and 2-link emails.

From her findings, 2-link emails generate almost twice as many clicks than 1-link emails:

• 1-link campaigns generated 131,914 clicks in total.
• 2-link emails did a total of 235,422 clicks — 72,003 clicks on link #1 and 163,419 clicks on link #2.

And get this: most of the recipients of her 2-link emails clicked link #2.

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Most email recipients need more time to study your offer when they encounter your 1st link or CTA. They keep reading before deciding to click through your second link, therefore, you should try to increase the number of links you’re using if you’re still only using one.

This, however, isn’t a one size fits all rule. Many marketers find that emails with more than two links get even higher clickthrough rates (CTRs).

In fact, Yin’s research further reveals that newsletters with 5+ links produce higher CTRs than those with <5 links.

“Less is more” works for website design and fewer pictures keep your emails out of the SPAM box, but it seems like “more is more” for links in email newsletters.

Click-through Rate Strategy #2: Leverage Your Pre-headers

A pre-header lets recipients know a little more about what’s inside your email.

Here’s an example of an enticing pre-header:

The best marketers make their pre-headers about the #1 benefit that clicking your link will provide.

This benefit isn’t a 50% off something, new products updates, etc. No, I’m talking about the actual value that people will get from clicking your links and responding to your offers (Life-changing values like 500% increase in sales, getting the girl of your dreams, getting your first 3,000 customers, etc.)

Since we all go around looking for ‘what’s in it for us’, this ‘#1 benefit’ will catch your subscriber’s attention — of course, after they see your eye-catching subject line — and will open your email with the intention of getting that ‘#1 benefit.

If you tie this #1 benefit to your link(s), chances are pretty high subscribers will get clicking.

Take this preheader from one of CoSchedule’s recent newsletters:

The email is targeted at agencies — companies who typically manage hundreds of clients per time.

So the preheader talks about the #1 benefit of the link (for agencies) in the email: “Managing a hundred different clients… With a million different platforms”

If any agency on their list wants to get the resource on managing hundreds of clients, they have to click the link in the email:

After fleshing out how most agencies struggle with managing 100s of clients, CoSchedule presented a link to their new resource that helps agencies to manage all their client work on one platform.

“…We’ve implemented preheaders on a number of campaigns and it’s raised open rates, click thrus and reduced spam complaints…,” says Elliot Ross, Managing Director of Action Rocket.

But, what if your emails are sent to people who have no need for them? Whether your pre-headers are enticing or not, your CTRs will be low.

One effective way to ensure you’re sending the right email to the right people on your list is to leverage list segmentation…

Click-through Rate Strategy #3: Segmentation

Ever read an email and wondered why on earth the sender sent it to you?

You become suspicious and wonder how they got your email in the first place. You start to ask yourself:

• Are they trying to scam me?

• Did they buy my email from a publication I subscribed to?

• Is it even safe to click the links in this email?

You never want your emails to be viewed negatively. This is where the conversion principle of relevance rings true and becomes super important.

You need to send your communiques in segments to ensure they are reaching the right people. This will boost your open rates and your conversions. (Stay tuned for a bonus resource on what happens after conversions in the last section of this guide.)

Copyhackers, for example, is a publication read by growth hackers and writers. But I can tell they’re segmenting their emails because they almost always send me resources that are relevant to writers.

Here’s a recent email I got from them:

They know I’m a writer, and so when they send out growth hacking emails, segmentation ensures I don’t get those. I only get their newsletters that are meant for writers like me.

Click-through Rate Strategy #4: Tidy Up Your Copy

Writing that is not concise is too stressful to read.

People won’t always wade through your email waffling long enough to read or click anything. They’re not always that patient. So you need to always keep your wording tidy.

Here’s a recent newsletter I got from American Writers Artists Inc. (AWAI) — a perfect example of nice and tidy wording in emails:

See how easy it is to read through this email?

There aren’t extraneous words, the tenses match, the writer is aware of how to post a question to draw you in, and she doesn’t talk about herself for long before she gets to the point.

Another good example is this recent email from Pamela Wilson of Big Brand System:

When your writing flows, subscribers find it pleasant to spend time reading — which increases the likelihood that they’ll be clicking through links.

Click-through Rate Strategy #5: Take Advantage Of The P.S. Area

As I’ve mentioned earlier, clickthrough rates tend to improve when you include at least two links in your email.

But here’s something else you should know: your P.S. section can do a great job attracting clicks when you put your links there.

Utilize the P.S. section as well to boost CTRs.

See how Heather Doyle at iPEC Coaching does it:

Another great example comes from Expert Business Coach MaryEllen Tribby.

After explaining how she’s coached her students into enjoying a good life while making great incomes, she presented a link for subscribers to join these students.

Then, she did something great with her P.S. section: she added a few testimonials from 3 of her students and presented her link again:

Links in P.S. sections attract clicks because it’s backed by a factor called the Serial Position Effect — a psychological trait that essentially states that the last element placed on a list draws the same amount of attention as the first element therein.

So, an element (a link) in your P.S. section attracts a special level of attention.

Click-through Rate Strategy #6. Ensure Your Subject Lines Are A Match With Your Calls To Action

Here’s a great example of what not to do from a recent email I got:

The writer puts Remember me? in the subject line, but in the email she admits we’d never met or even interacted before. She only used that ‘subject line trickery’ to entice me to open her email.

Don’t play games with your subscribers. Your emails get opened for the value in your subject line.

On the same note, if you’re the type of marketer who uses cheap trickery like RE: and FWD: to start your subject lines, stop right now. You’re a jerk, and you’re ruining marketing for everyone.

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You might get high open rates, but CTRs will be low if the reader feels tampered with.

No one likes to be fooled. Make a promise in your headline and ensure your offer (click through URLs) delivers on that promise.

Click-through Rate Strategy #7: One Topic Per Email

This sounds like a no brainer, but I still get lots of newsletters with different topics per email these days.

Multiple topics in one email newsletter divides your contacts’ attention and deters them from picking any of your links.

A study reveals that people now generally lose concentration after about eight seconds. Don’t send your subscribers emails that tax their attention spans.

Make sure each of your newsletters covers only one topic. Here’s an example of how that looks in this email from Sumo:

One email. One topic. One focus. One result.

Unbounce Cofounder Oli Gardner puts it this way: “One Page. One Purpose. Period.”

Click-through Rate Strategy #8: Brevity

One study says an office worker gets an average of 121 emails per day.

Irrespective of your writing quality, subscribers can’t spend much time with your email—they have a bazillion others to deal with.

Sujan Patel puts it this way: “Few people want to read 500-word emails regardless of the writing quality. That means you must hone your ability to summarize information and write persuasive calls to action that entice readers to click and find out more.”

Want to get good at brevity?

Delete every redundant word, expression, and anything that isn’t performing a specific function in your email. Learn to use active voice. Study writers you admire.

This recent email from Pepperstone (a forex broker) is a perfect example of how “short and sweet” works:

It is short and to-the-point.

No unnecessary pictures, links, etc.

Just the message they wanted to pass across, with their CTA down there — visible and clear enough for readers to click.

Click-through Rate Strategy #9: Use Active Voices On CTA Buttons

Don’t assume subscribers will understand where a CTA button (or image) will lead to when clicked.

How can you improve your CTAs?

Always use an active voice on your CTA buttons and clearly state what it will do. “You know you want it” doesn’t work as well as “Get Your Book Here”.

Here’s a recent email from Template Monster that demonstrates how active voices should be used on CTAs:

(Note: Active voice describes a sentence where the subject performs the action stated by the verb)

The CTAs have phrases that tend to evoke actions. That’s what works.

Marketo puts it this way: “…link key phrases that identify what a click of the link is going to render. Example: Read the new ‘Marketo Lead Nurturing White Paper’.”

Bonus Tip: Don’t Forget About Your Thank You Page

After subscribers click through your links and eventually convert, send them to a special thank you page where you ask them to do something more to impact your bottom line.

In this way, they take more actions that will impact your bottom line. I recently shared a piece about 9 ways to use thank you pages to drive more conversions (with examples); feel free to check the piece out.

Conclusion

Click-through rates are arguably the highest indicators of email engagement levels.

A high click-through rate (which varies per industry) indicates subscribers are highly engaged. A low click-through rate means you have some serious work to do.

Test out the strategies above and strive for continuous improvement. It won’t come overnight, but if you continue to experiment, you’ll improve your engagement and results.

Email continues to be a strong marketing channel. Nearly 72 percent of consumers say emails are their number one choice in brand communication. Businesses are paying attention. Research predicts that 225.3 billion emails will be sent every day this year – which is a five percent increase from previous years. To cut through the clutter, marketers need to continually evolve their strategies to stay relevant among changing audiences.

New research by Yes Lifestyle Marketing digs into email marketing trends and statistics and strategies marketers should be implementing to find success. According to the report:

• New subscribers make up a greater portion of marketers’ email audience: New subscribers made up 6 percent of marketers’ subscriber base, up 8 percent year over year (YoY) and up 30 percent over the last three years.
• Open rates increased: The average open rate is now 16.1 percent, a 9 percent YoY increase and a 3 percent increase over the last two years.
• Click-to-Open rates are on the decline: The average click-to-open rate (CTO) is 8.9 percent, a 13 percent decrease YoY and a 22 percent drop over the last two years.
• Unique click rates dropped: The average unique click rate declined by 6 percent YoY and 20 percent over the last two years.
• Triggers lead to significant ROI: Triggers made up just under 7 percent of total campaigns, yet they generated almost 5 times the click rate, almost double the open rate, and almost triple the CTO rate of business-as-usual (BAU) emails.
• Day of the week matters: Saturdays garnered the highest conversion rates with 2.4 percent of all email clicks turning into a purchase, and this number jumps to 8 percent for triggered campaigns. Fridays saw the highest unique click and click-to-open rates.

The Value of Triggered Emails

Clearly, triggered emails bring significant value and ROI as they generate almost 5 times the click rate. Many marketers are using welcome emails as a standard practice (72%), but other types of triggered emails are also on the rise such as abandoned shopping cart and transactional emails in response to a purchase.

Personalized Communications Increases Open Rates and Reduces Unsubscribes

According to the research, open rates are also increasing, with the average open rate now at 16.1 percent, a 9 percent YoY increase and a 3 percent increase over the last two years. Personalized one-to-one marketing is key to increasing open rates and engagement.

This year, personalization is evolving even further into marketing to a “segment of one”. According to eMarketer, 70percent of people already expect a personalized experience.

Email personalization reduces unsubscribe rates and has a major impact on boosting revenue. A report by Silverpop found that 50 percent of consumers unsubscribe from an email list due to irrelevant emails. This impact of unsubscribes adds up to a loss of 60 percent in future lifetime value (LTV) (AgilOne). However, when emails are personalized, the average click-through rate is 2.5 times higher with an average increase of 5.7 in revenue.

Marketers who realize the full impact personalization can bring to the table are now experimenting with numerous data points to add value to their emails.

Brands have huge opportunities this year to engage with their customers and prospects through highly personalized, one-to-one email communications. Learn how to boost your cross-channel engagement with V12 Email, the largest repository of high-quality email addresses in the industry. The V12 Email database is a high quality, permission-based national file with over 200 million unique email addresses and input records at over 1.5 billion.

PR measurement has been a bugaboo of the PR industry for years. Of course it mattered, but it was easier to fugeddaboudit, leaving it to fester with all those other items no one wanted to deal with. Because so much of PR is intangible, and offers long-term results, it does not fit into a common financial mold when it comes to metrics.

Why do PR professionals need to show measurable results now?

It’s estimated that companies spend about $11 billion on PR per year, and many C-suite executives are asking to see a return on that investment. But when surveyed, 82% of marketers report that they have no way to evaluate the return they receive on PR.

Does this mean that PR is impossible to measure? Not at all.

After all, public relations has had an incredibly positive impact for both small and large businesses. The ROI is out there; we just have to use the right metrics to show it.

Sure, PR metrics can seem super duper complicated — but that doesn’t mean they have to be! Businesses have data at their fingertips. You just need to know what to use and hone in on the data that’s important to your business.

Numerous benefits accrue from active PR measurement. For starters, PR metrics…

• Give you a better understanding of the effect of a PR campaign
• Show the impact of your efforts across all your platforms
• Allow you to compare the effectiveness of PR campaigns
• Demonstrate investment value for your PR strategy
• Allow PR professionals to prove value to the organization
• Provide future direction

In the words of PR expert, author, and entrepreneur Gini Dietrich, “We finally have the opportunity to prove we’re an investment.”

How to Measure PR

Before you begin to think about measurement, it’s important to outline your key goals. As measurement expert Katie Paine advises, “Be very clear about your goals. Goals drive the type of measurements you are going to use.” For example, if your goal is to save money, your metrics will be very different from a company who wants to enhance their brand’s image.

Choose tools that will make measurement easier. These tools could be a free program like Google Analytics, or a premium subscription tool such as Moz, AirPR or Trendkite. Such tools are key to measuring the value of your content and campaigns.

In PR, it is important to measure both short-term and long-term results. Often, you’ll need to prove quick boosts from specific PR campaigns. Other times, you’ll be more focused on steady growth over a long period of time.

PR metrics can get super duper complicated – but that doesn’t mean they have to be.

The following metrics are generally the most important to measure success in PR. You can use these as a general guide to your personal measurement goals. The specific ones you choose to measure will depend largely on your own company’s public relations goals.

10 Important Metrics to Include Within Your PR Measurement

1. Website Visitors

Website visitors are always top of my metrics list. After all, the more that people are exposed to your brand, the more likely they are to trust you with a purchase. We can break down website visitors into three groups, depending on where they originate. This could be…

Owned content from other areas on your website.

Earned content from outside sites where you guest blog or post your original content.

Social content from posts to your social media networks.

Owned content is pretty straightforward — consisting of blogs, ebooks, video and any other content you’ve created and own. But metrics from earned and social content can pinpoint what sites and social media networks are most effective for your brand. In time, you’ll discover the sites and networks that work for your brand, and focus your energies and resources on those.

Any basic metrics program, such as Google Analytics, can show you how many unique visitors you have on your website. Many programs also show where your traffic hails from.

In PR, it’s important to measure both short-term and long-term results.

2. SEO

Your rank on Google is crucial to getting more leads and earning the trust of website visitors. Every company with a solid PR strategy strives for the golden SEO status of Google’s first page. Measure your rank in Google regularly.

Take your top 10 keywords, and measure your position quarterly. Are you further down than you would like to be? Then tweak your SEO strategy in order to rank higher up toward that coveted #1 spot.

A basic way you can monitor this is by using the incognito tab in your browser to search for your keywords. The incognito tab ensures results that aren’t tainted by your personal preferences and web history. You’ll see a clear picture of how you rank for your chosen keywords.

3. Domain Authority

Your website’s domain authority is a major part of your SEO ranking. We consider it separately though because it’s a valuable metric itself to reveal how your site ranks compared to others.

This metric is ranked on a scale of 1 to 100 (100 being the highest authority). This ranking is one of the factors that Google takes into account — the higher your domain authority ranks, the higher you will land in Google searches. This free tool from Moz can help you to check on your website’s domain authority.

Domain authority is ranked according to a number of factors. These factors include:

• Links to your site
• Links from your site to other authority sites
• Your site’s age

4. Email List

View your email list as the backbone of your business. If your content strategy is successful, then it will lead to a steady influx of email addresses, which are your potential clients.

Use special links to your landing pages and email sign-up forms to see where your email addresses are coming from. Is it a particular gated offer you have, such as an eBook or white paper? Is it a simple sign-up form at the bottom of your content or in your sidebar?

If you don’t see the results you want in your email list, then it’s time to analyze what offers or calls to action aren’t performing up to standard. Take that information and use it to modify certain elements of your website until you find a combination that works.

You can also use email marketing software, such as MailChimp, to measure email addresses and their sources.

5. Mentions

Find out what people are saying about you, including the good, bad, and the ugly. Keep track of specific mentions and link them to your PR campaigns. This will show the effectiveness of your campaigns, what conversations are sparked, and the resulting positive (or negative) impact on your brand.

Set up an alert tool such Google Alerts to ping you every time your brand, organization, product, or an important individual within your organization is mentioned. Set up one for competitors as well, in order to see the big picture.

6. Qualified Leads

Valuable leads are qualified, prospective clients — those who are serious and may eventually make a purchase. Realistically, only a small percentage of your email addresses will actually end up purchasing your product or service.

Learn where your qualified leads are coming from. Use special links to track the trail your clients left behind — did they find your site via a specific media outlet, or social media post? This can help you narrow down where serious decision makers look for information.

7. Sales Conversions

In general, even for successful businesses, sales conversion rates tend to be in the single digits. Even though you may have hundreds of leads, you may only convert about 3% of those. Don’t let this discourage you — it’s completely normal!

But it makes it imperative that you track these. Learn all you can from these individuals, and the metrics you gather from them. What was the final piece of content or offer that turned them from a simple lead into a buyer?

To get an accurate picture of this metric, you must track your clients from lead to sales. Find out what campaigns were involved in converting a lead into buyer.

8. Engagement

Social media is an effective place to boost brand awareness and credibility. It can also help you to reach new audiences.

Because social media is so powerful for your brand, you need to measure engagement to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. Engagement measures such factors as likes, comments, views, shares, and more. With this information, you can see what are the best times to post, what kinds of content work best, and more specific data about your audience.

For instance, metrics guru Katie Paine notes, “When we factor in the engagement, it tells us what people are REALLY paying attention to rather than just what people are talking to themselves about.”

Many social media networks have their own analytics programs, such as Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics. Other programs, such as Kissmetrics, offer a more comprehensive view of social media engagement.

9. Bounce Rate

You may get people to visit your site — but how long do they stay there? This is where bounce rate comes into play. It measures not only how many people come to your site, but how long they remain — and whether they click your links to see your other content.

From this metric, you can find ways to keep your audience on your site longer. Test out various changes to your content, and see how it affects your bounce rate.

10. Referrals

Although overall website visitors is a good metric in itself, the number of referrals you get is even more important. Referrals show you how many new eyes are viewing your site and learning about your brand. You can easily monitor this in Google Analytics.

With referrals, you can see what site people come from, and get an idea for what piques their interest. Then you can hone in on what outlets and campaigns work.

Key Points to Remember…

• Metrics give you a better understanding of the effectiveness of your campaigns, and shows you where you can improve.
• Follow your SEO ranking regularly to improve your SEO strategy and rank higher within Google search results.
• Your email list is a great tools to show you what content is converting, and what is not.
• Mentions help you to gauge your brand’s reputation, and the effect of your campaigns on that reputation.

There are many aspects to public relations measurement.But these metrics are a good starting point. Use these metrics to stay on track, show your value, and help you adjust your strategy as needed.

Serving the B2B sector is not easy.

Today, competition is ripe and ready to take your customers. To have a competitive edge, you need to find creative ways to insert your brand into a client’s research phase.

One person that knows the importance of B2B marketing is Bernie Borges. Bernie, the CEO of Find and Convert, and a content marketing guru sits down to share his insights regarding social media.

Bernie produces the weekly podcast for Social Business Engine and is the author of Marketing 2.0. Bernie’s book was one of the first 50 books ever written on developing a social media strategy, and he is a pioneer in B2B social media operations.

During his interview, he discusses the presence of B2B salespeople and social media engagement.

WHY INSERT B2B SALES TEAMS INTO SOCIAL MEDIA PLANS?

Social media initially was made for the online marketers and hashtag pros. However, Bernie highly recommends that sales team members also be inserted into the social media phase.

There are three main reasons he suggests using salespeople as part of the social media strategy.

1. PREVENTING A LATE ENTRY TO THE SALES FUNNEL

The buyer’s journey is critical. The customer starts by doing his or her research on a prospective company. Then, they may reach out to that company later. However, the timing between the research and when a buyer talks with a sales professional is significantly longer than it should be.

Bernie highlights how sales professionals talk to customers at the 70 to 90 percent mark through the buyer’s journey. Therefore, the buyer is already decided on working with that company. However, how many customers did not make it that far in the trip?

Bernie says that if you introduce a sales professional earlier in the buyer’s journey phase, such as ten to 20 percent progress, it is not only easier for them to convert a prospect into a customer, but then they can turn a “maybe” into an interested party.

2. PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS ARE ESTABLISHED EARLY

During the research phase is when a customer determines their predispositions. Therefore, it is imperative that a sales team member is in the buyer’s journey soon enough to help build trust, authority, and credibility. If they come in later, they are combating preconceived notions, and it can be hard to convert a customer at that point.

3. GIVES ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT TO POTENTIAL AND CURRENT CUSTOMERS

Sales professionals who actively engage on social media with clients, such as being proactive with articles, posting, marketing, and even commenting, build a relationship with the buyer. Bernie points out that employees are the driving force of trust. People establish trust by using the best resource they have about a company: employees.

The more engaged sales teams are in social media groups with current and potential customers, the more trust that company can establish.

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES

There are a few challenges to getting sales professionals involved in social media. First, Bernie points out that sales staffers need to understand why they are engaging on social media and the impact it will have on their target market.

Bernie compares this to a charity. A person will not donate to a charity they do not believe in, so obviously, a professional sales staff member needs to believe in motivation through social media if they are going to engage on social media successfully.

INVEST IN SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGY

To successfully engage on social media, Bernie highlights that companies must be willing to invest in social media training and technology. Their employees need training on how to properly use social media and market on social media. However, too many brands are unwilling to invest in it.

IDENTIFY A STARTING POINT AND GET MOVING

Bernie highly recommends that all companies identify which social media channel they want to start with, and develop a strategy for that channel. They can create goals, identify sales staff who will work on that channel, and then regroup a few weeks later to see how they are doing. Furthermore, they can dive deeper, add extra social media channels, and build a stronger plan.

FINDING THE TIME FOR SALES STAFF TO SELL AND ENGAGE

Many companies find it is too hard to get sales team members on social media. However, he feels that is the wrong aspect to worry about. The goal and the strategy are to meet with the customer earlier in the buyer’s journey. While it takes the time to engage on social media, it saves time in the end. The sales team is not influencing a consumer who is uninterested, and they will have an easier time of selling the brand to that customer when they engage sooner.

Bernie recommends setting a specific amount of time per day and ensuring the person spends 100 percent of that time on social media. If that is just ten minutes, then ten minutes is what they start with.

FOLLOWING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

To start seeing what customers are looking for, sales professionals should follow people on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Even if they do not accept the invitation on LinkedIn, Bernie highlights how their posts will still show up in the company’s feed. That allows them to see what competitors are using, but also what potential customers are posting and following on social media as well.

BOTTOM LINE: GET INVOLVED AND GET SOCIAL

Companies need to put more emphasis on getting their sales professionals into the buyer’s journey much faster than they have in the past. By involving them at the ten to 20 percent mark, they are saving time, money, and boosting revenue.

Bernie has given several great starting points, including tips for overcoming the biggest challenges for sales team members. Now, it is up to the business to deploy a social media strategy that includes a handful or all of their team members from sales into the strategy.

Learn more insights from guru Bernie by following the blog posted at Find and Convert or reviewing their solutions.

ABOUT BERNIE BORGES

Bernie is founder and CEO of Find and Convert and leads the agency’s strategy. Bernie is an IBM Futurist, a Dell Social Influencer, a speaker, trainer and social business evangelist. He is the producer of the Social Business Engine media property and hosts the Social Business Engine podcast where he showcases brands succeeding in social business.

To View The Original Post on Inserting B2B Salespeople Into Social Media, Please Click Here.

Most of us are familiar with wartime propaganda art–those WWII-era posters with brightly colored slogans like, “I want YOU for the US Army” and “Smack ’em down! Fly with the US Marines!” But if you’re writing sales emails on a regular basis, these should be much more to you than just pieces of art history or kitschy decor. They’re examples of “calls to action” that can help you write more persuasive copy and compel buyers to respond.

All those simple slogans inspired countless men and women to join the war effort. But imagine if, instead of “Smack ’em down,” the poster said, “By joining the Marines, you’d be doing your country a great service. Come discuss it with us sometime or check out one of our lectures in the town square, if that’s easier or more convenient for you!”

No one would have paid attention or even finished reading the message.

Sales deals may not be the equivalent of a war (most of the time), but you’re still aiming for a victory (closing a deal), and you still have to inspire the people you’re trying to attract. That’s why it’s crucial that the last sentence of a sales email (the call to action) is crisp, concise, and catchy enough to convince buyers they have a strong reason to respond. Otherwise, no one will listen to what you have to say.

Here are three of the most common mistakes that people make in their email calls to action:

1. Making Yourself the Center of the Action

Cold emails should be about the buyer, not the seller. That applies to the call to action as much as it does to the body text. Something like, “I think you will appreciate my product’s amazing features. I’m free on Friday if you have 15 minutes so I can share them” just tells potential customers that your agenda is the priority here—your schedule, your opinion about the product.

Focus instead on providing an incentive for them to act. Replace the features you think are cool with benefits your potential customer actually needs. Count up the number of times “I” or “me” shows up in the text, then obliterate most, if not all, of them. And if your action is time-specific, like a call or a meeting, frame it around their schedule, not yours. “When do you have 15 minutes to learn how {!Product} can save you time by automating HR tasks?”

2. Confusing People With Too Many Options

I sometimes see calls to action that are almost as long as the body of the email:

Our service would really benefit your company and I’d like to personally walk you through it. Let’s talk soon. In the meantime, you can preview our services with this video.

Giving people multiple options only confuses them and leads to inaction. What, exactly, is the sender asking them to do in the above text? Book a meeting? Watch the video? Both? No one will pause long enough to find out.

To avoid being the digital equivalent of the poster no one notices, limit yourself to one clear and persuasive call to action per email. Make sure your ask is as simple and straightforward as possible.

For example: “When are you free to discuss improving your response rate by 20%?”

See how much clearer and easier it is to act on that than on the former request?

3. Boring People With Vague Requests

Cold emails need to be as specific as possible, right down to the call to action. Make sure your messages include actual questions, not just bland statements like, “Let me know what you think.” Also, avoid questions that can be answered with “yes” or “no”—recipients will feel more motivated to write back when they have to think about an answer.

If you’ve done your research, you’ll have tailored your emails for a specific buyer or type of buyer. So don’t use the call to action to ask them to direct you to the right person, or to tell them to talk to someone else within your company.

A final note: Never skip the call to action. Your potential customers are undoubtedly busy decision-makers weighted down by hectic schedules. The value of doing business with your company might be career-changing, but that won’t matter if your ask is too ambiguous. Keep it short and simple and A/B test different types of calls to action to assess what works and improve what doesn’t. If you’re in doubt, peruse through some old wartime posters for a little extra inspiration.

More doesn’t always equal more – the infamous Jam Study first taught us this lesson over a decade ago.

Via Sandglaz

Choice invariably leads to more choice, decisions to indecision. Overthinking leads to worse productivity, less creativity, and exhausted willpower. And when it comes to ad campaigns and landing pages, an exhausted customer is the last thing you want.

Sometimes, the key to maximizing your landing page conversions is streamlining: less is more. Other times, a simple change to your CTA or a more personalized targeting strategy is what’s required.

Looking to squeeze more conversions out of your landing pages? Let’s take a look at six landing page tests you can try to get better results.

1. Set the right expectations with your button copy

“You can have a very beautiful thing to say, but say it in the wrong words and it’s gone,” says public speaking champion Mohammed Qahtani. Here’s how applying this knowledge to a landing page can impact a campaign:

Culligan, a water filtration company, wanted to find out which phrase would perform better in a landing page: “Get A Quote” or “Get Pricing.” What could possibly be the difference? Well, three weeks of testing declared “Get A Quote” the clear winner, with a whopping 104% increase in form submissions.

(image source)

Here’s the rationale:

While both CTAs ultimately mean the same thing – obtain pricing details – the words “quote” and “pricing” make people expect different things.

Anyone who’s ever been on a first date knows expectations can be a tricky deal. The “Get A Quote” CTA sets the right expectations early. People knew what they were getting into before clicking—that they were going to fill out a form, speak to a sales rep, and obtain a personalized pricing list.

The people who clicked the “Get Pricing” button, on the other hand, expected to be redirected to a pricing page, period. These people didn’t realize there was a lot more work involved. And “more work” isn’t exactly at the top of anyone’s priority list.

Are you sure your CTA button text sets prospect expectations? If you’re not sure, test!

2. Cater to timely, local interests

Boxing fans know that May 2, 2015 was the day Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines got into the ring with American boxer Floyd Mayweather. The “Beat the May weather!” campaign from McDonald’s was a hit in Pacquiao’s home country. It even won advertising awards for brand awareness.

Here’s a look at one of the ads:

(image source)

If you’re not aware of the climate pattern in the Philippines, you might scratch your head and think the guys at McDonald’s messed up Floyd’s surname. But the months of April and May are the height of summer in the Philippines, when the temperature can go as high as 43 degrees Celsius (about 109 Fahrenheit). McDonald’s piggybacked on the Pacquiao-Mayweather narrative to build better brand awareness for its McFlurry product.

Clever, right?

Trying out a new market? The next time you write copy for your landing page or your CTA buttons, think of the impact your word choice will have on your target consumer. Test creative that might resonate with that particular audience.

3. Switch out your slider for a static page

Sean Bestor has a funny depiction of how sliders work. Initially, he says, it’s like seeing the bat signal calling on Batman. But before you have a chance to register what you’ve seen, the beacon turns into the Superman logo, spews out instructions on where to go, changes into something else before you finish reading, then turns into the bat signal once again.

Slider carousels are just as confusing. They’re like merry-go-rounds—round and round they go, until every adult who got sucked into riding with their kids has motion sickness. The only difference is that people who ride merry-go-rounds actually pay for the experience. People browsing websites don’t have a choice. Sure, sliders can be pretty to look at, but they’re notoriously bad for conversions. And SEO. And speed. And usability.

In an A/B test by international shoe retailer Clarks, a static banner with basic navigation-focused links saw a 17.5% increase in conversionsand a 16% decline in bounce rate next to a test variant that used a slider with five images. The test also showed that while the slider page contained fewer links below the fold, site users made a beeline for those links—a direct effect of what the Nielsen Norman Group calls “a switch from cognitive ease to cognitive strain.”

This means that when people exert more effort to find information or use a website feature, their tendency is to look for other options. In the case of the slider page, the below-the-fold links.

(image source)

If sliders are out, what’s your best bet? Simple static pages. With just one point of focus—instead of, say, 10—and with no sliding movement to distract your already perennially distracted site users, static pages hand back control to your visitors.

If you have slider pages live on your site, try a test to see if a static page outperforms.

4. Build targeted landing pages for different industries

You can’t be everything to everyone. You may wear a lot of hats and juggle a lot of roles, but you’re primarily the supervisor to your staff; the guy with a noisy motorcycle to your grouchy neighbor; the parent to your child; the sibling to your brother or sister. If you’re a software company serving multiple industries, you’re the financial software provider to an insurer; or the talent management tool vendor to a recruiter.

That means you need to speak a different language to different audiences.

Software provider SAP put this concept to the test on their German homepage and landing page. They asked themselves:

1. Should we use generic messaging that caters to several industries?
2. Or should we provide a dynamically changing homepage with images and copy based on the visitor’s industry?

Not surprisingly, the dynamically changing page with targeted messaging prevailed:

(Image Source)

You don’t optimize landing pages for page views. You optimize for conversions, with messaging that matches the intent of the advertisement your target audience clicked.

The easiest way to do this? Help people self-select. Get them to tell you exactly who they are.

You can do this on your pricing page, like John Doherty does on Credo. John segments plans by company size, so he knows who’s dealing with what problems and how much each can pay.

You can also do this on service pages. Say someone is shopping for a new eCommerce store, views BigCommerce’s examples, then drills down into a specific vertical to see a preview of what their site could look like:

Gotcha!

Now you know which visitors hit each page on your site. If they don’t convert on the first visit, you can retarget them based on their on-site behavior, knowing the exact customer segment into which they fall.

5. Test long-form vs. short-form (because you never know)

Nobody will buy from you unless you’re credible. However, there is such a thing as too much credibility. Visual Website Optimizer, for instance, once used long-form copy to communicate the many benefits of their website optimizer tool. The copy was divided into several sections, including a customer testimonial category.

So this thing was long. Real long.

To change things up, they decided to defy best practices by radically redesigning the page to only focus on the signup form.

The result was a 16.34% increase in signups.

Tests like this can be tricky, though. They lead you to think, “Oh, WordStream says testimonials sink conversions.” But that’s not what’s happening here. In this case, it was likely just too much visual clutter. Too much information to process.

One 2012 Google study found that visually complex pages, as well as those not conforming to website prototypicality, ranked low in the “aesthetically pleasing” scale. Simply stated: Complex pages confuse us. We don’t know where to look or what to click.

Remember: Easy = True. Things that are easier to pronounce or understand can perform better. Minimalism isn’t just a design trend. It focuses attention on what’s most important. Which may just happen to coincide with how you eventually make money.

But! Don’t assume a shorter, simpler page is going to be your winner. WordStream did a similar test for their AdWords Grader landing page and found the opposite to be true – the long-form version won! So always test to statistical significance.

6. Remove the “conversion friction” derailing your visitors

MarketingExperiments.com found that simplifying both the length and complexity of a conversion or checkout process can increase results across the board. Removing complexity reduces “conversion friction”—the questions and issues that pop up which prevent us from sealing the deal.

“Difficulty-oriented friction” applies broadly to the number of decisions to make on a page, like multiple equally weighted CTAs. And “length-oriented friction” applies to both the number and layout of form fields, and to the number of steps in an entire checkout process.

(image source)

Then there are “user flows,” which dictate how someone gets from one page to another—these are about the transitions that can derail a visitor’s intended action. An eCommerce site will have a checkout flow, beginning from an ad or email, that ends with money in your pocket. Apps follow a similar structure to activate and then onboard new visitors.

(image source)

Lead gen sites have something similar. There’s the initial visit, the opt-in, the confirmation page, and the follow-up email or phone call. But each website often has several different user flows, too. TOFU (top of funnel) visitors, for instance, might go from organic search, to a blog post, to an eBook landing page; while BOFU (bottom of funnel) visitors might go from a branded search, to a services page, to a thank you page.

(Image Source)

In another landing page test, MarketingExperiments.com redesigned a vacation rental checkout process, focusing on minimizing friction (i.e. distractions, form fields). They wanted to see how changes to the steps in each process or flow affected the bottom line.

Here’s the control version:

And here’s the test:

This version eliminated the step where users had to click a first button to fill in their payment info, before clicking the second button.

The results? A not-too-shabby 36.1% improvement.

They didn’t necessarily make huge modifications to what information was being requested. They didn’t mess with how people paid them. They just simplified the steps to remove any extra decisions or effort. In short, they didn’t make people think.

Marketing is both art and science. But ultimately, it always comes back to people. Catering to user intent (and psychology) often trumps fancy tactics. Try these landing page test ideas out and see if they can work for you!

With more than 500 million members worldwide, 138 million of which are in the U.S., LinkedIn is the social network for business. In fact, it was created specifically to “make professionals more productive and successful.” It appears to be working, since 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content – more than any other platform. Given its objective, business people and small business owners should be leveraging LinkedIn’s many features to find and connect with prospects and clients.

Here are some key tips for how to use LinkedIn most effectively to build your business:

Create a company profile

You probably already have a personal LinkedIn profile, but you’ll also want to set up a separate page for your business. Even if you’re a solo practitioner, it’s smart to have a LinkedIn profile solely for your business, where you can share content specific to your industry and venture. Make sure your profile includes keywords your prospects and clients typically search for when looking for products and services your business sells. Link to your company website and include your contact information.

Connect with people

Send out connection requests from your company profile to clients, prospects, friends, influencers, and advisors. If there are specific people or organizations you want to know about your business, use the LinkedIn search bar to find them and then invite them to connect.

Ask for recommendations

The best way to convince a prospect to work with you is to let them hear from satisfied customers how great you are to work with. These endorsements help encourage prospects to choose your business over others. So ask satisfied clients if they would consider writing a few sentences about what they liked about working with you, and post it on LinkedIn. It gets shared on your company page if they tag the business.

Network within LinkedIn groups

With more than 2 million LinkedIn groups already formed, it should be easy for you to find a handful to join and participate in. Sign up to receive notifications of questions asked, so you can head over and respond to share your expertise. And ask questions of others to start conversations about your products and services. Post regularly to quickly gain visibility. Whatever you do, don’t start to try and sell people. Your goal here is information sharing to demonstrate your level of knowledge.

Start your own LinkedIn group

If you believe there is a need for an industry group devoted to a particular subject, consider starting your own and inviting your tribe to come hang out there. Forming the group puts you in a position of power and raises your credibility.

Share content daily

Post regular updates on your LinkedIn profile telling your prospects and customers what they want to know about your industry or business. But don’t go overboard. Research conducted by several organizations reports that one post a day on LinkedIn, in the morning, is the optimal amount. So write original posts with your advice and observations and share other articles and reports you’ve found that you think are interesting and useful, including blog posts on your company website, videos, and podcasts. Use social media marketing tools to schedule them, to automate the whole process and save yourself time.

Consider joining LinkedIn ProFinder

LinkedIn ProFinder helps connect organizations in need of business services with qualified professionals. LinkedIn delivers bid opportunities to your inbox when potential clients in your area use keywords matching your service. The cost is $59.99/month for LinkedIn Premium, which is required to participate.

Advertise

If you know that your best prospects are on LinkedIn, it makes sense to invest some money in advertising on the platform. Push ads relevant to their needs using a targeted search of LinkedIn members, to improve the odds of your ads getting clicked on.

Marketers report that LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform to use to connect with business prospects – more effective than Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, Instagram, and any other social site. So make sure you’re investing even a little time here to raise your company’s visibility.

Now that you know how to use LinkedIn for business, get more social marketing basics in our Digital Marketing Guides section of this blog.

The post 6 Winning Ways to Motivate Your Sales Team appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Whether it’s for business or for pleasure, following up via email is a timeless to-do for anyone wanting to stay top-of-mind with colleagues and friends. For small business owners, email follow ups are key to perpetuate business, especially with the reliance on referrals.With the busyness of our professional and personal lives, keeping in touch – especially with those you don’t see on a daily basis – can be difficult, and sometimes we can lose business (and relationships!) because of that.

You genuinely care about your clients; but even if you do send an email now and again, it can feel like they blend in with the rest of the emails piling up in their inboxes. However, there are a few easy things you can do to maximize your gain from email follow-ups and to make sure they don’t go unnoticed.

Everything you need to know on how to follow up:

What to send

Determine an objective. In short, cut to the chase – What is the purpose of your follow up? Want another meeting? A referral? Just want to catch up? Be concise, precise, and informative – with clear calls-to-action (CTAs). Give your client all they need within the email to complete whatever you’re asking them to do – present some value! For example leave links, contact information, etc.

Share an interest. According to Marketing Charts, more than half (58%) of people surveyed said they would not open an email if it doesn’t look relevant to them. Follow up on your client’s’ interests, and be specific. Bring up an old event where you guys met. Share a link to a book signing you think your client might like. Even if you don’t share a mutual interest, you can include something that you know your client will take interest in – they will appreciate that you took the time to indulge in their own hobbies.

Additionally, if you haven’t see them in a while, pick up the phone and give them a call instead. Sometimes, just a broad “how are you?” can be too vague to reply via email and thus may be pushed to the back of your client’s mind. If you only have time for an email, just check up on them on social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and see what they’re up to; ask them about something specific. If they just got promoted, send a congratulatory email on the new job!

Know thy audience. Remember that you are not speaking to this person in person; speak to them in a language – formal or not – that they will easily be able to understand and consequently appreciate. Cater to the reader: nothing’s worse than the receiver of your follow-up being left confused by your email and subsequently push back responding altogether. Going out of your way to formulate a personalized email will show your client that you were thoughtful about them when crafting it, instead of just blasting off a generic mass email.

Nail the subject line. Remember to craft the perfect subject line! It’s the first thing people see when they receive your email, so this is your chance to grab their attention! Believe it or not, but 35% of email recipients open emails based solely on the subject line. Keep it short and sweet – an extremely long subject line immediately loses the attention of the reader. Craft a subject that evokes an emotional response: make them laugh, make them awe, etc_____.

Either way, they will be more likely to open your email if they are emotionally moved by it. For instance, give them some incentive – if you’re offering a 10% discount, say it in the subject line! They will (be happy) and open your email with excitement.

Set an appointment. If you set or request a time/date for some sort of meeting or event, your clients will be more likely to engage with you, even if their response is “no.” Because you took the time to request in-person time with them, they will be more likely to respond…

What not to send

No impersonal mass email. We all have busy lives, and it’s much easier and quicker just to mass email clients to invite them to an event or just asking to catch up. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the mass email, just the impersonal ones. Emails blasted out to all contacts are often criticized for being too generic/impersonal – but this doesn’t have to be the case!

Make your emails genuine by mentioning a few points specific to that individual. Inauthentic emails can undercut credibility – an average buyer gets somewhere around +100 emails a day, but only opens 23 percent of them – and an impersonal email will quickly be diverted to the Spam inbox.

Don’t link dump. Just from a glance, an email with an overload of links can be a bit overwhelming to the reader. If you include a link, customize it with a Bitly link so the link not only looks better than a bunch of smashed random keys and you’ll be able to track how many people opened it, where (geographically), and from what site.

When to send

Be polite and respectful of your client’s time. Give your contacts a day or two as a chance to respond and possibly even think on the context of your original email and then shoot off your follow-up. Don’t be pushy or passive aggressive – it will repel your clients from responding, and they will be more likely to not engage or unsubscribe.

Increase your email IQ. There are certain times of the day within each week for each type of lead that maximizes email open and/or response rate.

Timing for specific events. According to Hubspot, there are certain ranges of time after specific occasions that are prime-time for email follow up:

• 24 hours after a meeting, interview, or conference
• 48 hours after submitting a job app
• 1-2 weeks follow up on a meeting request/no job offer response
• Every 3 months – catch up with a connection

Important/Miscellaneous Tips

The Break-Up Email. After a few follow ups with no responses, you might want to send the breakup email. Like an “Unsubscribe” button, this email will have you personally ask your client if you should stop sending these emails. This will be more of an incentive to respond (if you think your emails have been lost in their inbox) and will serve as a reminder that they should respond or they could lose you.

Remember to proofread! Nothing says “unprofessional” like a misspelled word or grammar mistake. If you’re unsure about your email, ask a friend to proofread it to you before you send it out. A third party will be able to catch the mistakes that you miss – you don’t want to realize a grammar mistake or misspelling after you already sent the email.

Leave your contact information. Address, phone number, email, etc – you want to make it as easy as possible for them to reach you (give them all the tools!)

Automated follow-up tools

Contactually. Yes, that’s us! The Contactually dashboard acts as a home base, organizing all your contacts, messages, and appointments. With Contactually, you can send out dozens of emails out at one time while still picking individual ones and personalizing them for certain contacts in a matter of minutes (#ScaleMail). Bucket your contacts into certain groups to send relevant emails, as well as review past interactions and sync your calls and texts you make on your phone.

Boomerang. Just like Contactually, you can schedule an email to be automatically sent out at a later date and/or time. Boomerang also reminds you to follow up with someone if a certain number have days have passed since you sent out an email to a client and they still haven’t responded.

Hubspot Sales. This platform has the ability to notify you when a specific lead opens your email, clicks a link within the email, or downloads something from it.

Newton. One special feature of this app is its ability to Undo Send – this means that if you send out an email with a mistake, that’s missing an attachment, you can rescind the sent email and pull it out of the receivers inbox before it’s too late! Additionally, you also can snooze certain contacts and email – only deal with your inbox when you’re ready!

Key Follow Up Takeaways:

• Keep it brief
• Keep it relevant
• Be informative and precise
• Make it personal!

Happy emailing!

You are not checking in.

• You are calling your prospective client to schedule a meeting to get the opportunity you were working on back on track after they missed a commitment and went dark.
• You are calling to schedule a meeting to have another conversation about an opportunity you believe is available to them, and one that you failed to convince them of the last time you spoke.
• You are on their phone line because you want to ask them for a do over when you realize that you didn’t accomplish what you needed to when you were with them an hour and a half ago.
• You are calling your dream client to make sure that they have no concerns that would prevent them from moving forward with you and your proposal.
• Maybe you are calling because you haven’t spoken in two months and you want to make sure that they are doing well and to share a new idea with them that you believe will allow them to gain some competitive advantage.

You are not touching base.

• You are calling to ask your dream client to meet with you so you can provide them with an insight that will help them grow their business, maybe, if it makes sense.
• You are calling because you are concerned that too many stakeholders have been left out of the process, and you want to make sure everyone on her team will support the initiative you are working on.
• You are calling to ask your prospective client to become an actual client and buy what you sell from you instead of someone else.

When you say you are calling to check in or touch base, you are being dishonest, even if not the worst kind of dishonesty. You have some intention when you call, and you have something that you want. You’ve tried being so soft and beating around the bush long enough to know that it isn’t effective, it doesn’t make you a peer, and you are wasting everyone’s time.

Instead, get to the point. Ask for what you want, and trade your client the value they get from agreeing to it. Communicate your real intentions.

The post Communicate Your Real Intentions Instead of Checking In appeared first on The Sales Blog.

I spoke to George Anders, who is the author of You Can Do Anything: The Surprising Power of a “Useless” Liberal Arts Education, about why companies haven’t been hiring liberal arts majors, what the future holds for these majors, how they can compete with other majors, the qualities that they have that make them valuable and his best career advice.

Anders writing exploring issues related to careers, education and innovation. He is the author of five books, including Merchants of Debt, Health Against Wealth, the New York Times bestseller Perfect Enough, and The Rare Find. Earlier in his career, George served as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company magazine and Bloomberg View. In 1997, he shared in a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.

Dan Schawbel: My firm conducted two U.S. studies of employers and found that only 2% were open to hiring liberal arts majors. What are your thoughts on this discovery?

George Anders: Campus hiring is like the proverbial elephant – we all behold something different, depending on what part of it we touch. Your surveys did a great job of capturing the hiring preferences of HR managers that come to campus with targeted job needs. If Ernst & Young sets up a booth at a campus job fair, it’s probably looking for accounting or finance majors, not philosophy students. But such targeted hiring programs may account for as little as 10% of college graduates’ first jobs.

Most college graduates make their own luck. They network. They email, Skype and cold-call. They make good use of allies – such as profs, recent alumni, family ties, church and summer-job connections, etc. – who can help open doors that bypass formal HR channels. Liberal arts graduates are good at this. There’s an entire chapter in my book called “My Job Didn’t Exist a Year Ago,” that chronicles the ways international relations majors, psych majors, etc. create such opportunities for themselves.

Schawbel: Some liberal arts schools are going out of business and America is propping up the need for coding skills, yet Google and other companies want to hire liberal arts majors. What does the future hold for a liberal arts education?

Anders: Dave Elkington, the founder and CEO of Utah’s InsideSales, says “I love hiring liberal-arts graduates,” especially for new projects, where the winning strategy isn’t clear yet, and it’s going to take some improvisation and regrouping to get it right. “They aren’t stuck in a rut,” he adds. “They can challenge ideas.”
That willingness to try fresh approaches will be especially valuable as software, robots and workplace automation reduce the number of jobs that involve predictable, repetitive work. It’s interesting to note that when Amazon built its Alexa voice-enabled assistant, engineering majors did the coding, but the team that fine-tunes Alexa’s personality is led by an anthropology major.

Schawbel: Do you have any evidence in your book that liberal arts majors surpass computer science or engineering majors? Where do we draw the line here?

Anders: An engineering or computer-science degree is a ticket to a good earnings curve! For people whose tastes align well with STEM fields, there’s no reason to look anywhere else. But it’s a big world, and there are lots of opportunities that are uniquely well-suited for liberal arts majors. Who gets elected to Congress, or wins a seat on the Supreme Court? Mostly people who majored in history, political science, etc. Who runs the largest U.S. foundations? Liberal-arts graduates predominate there, too.

Schawbel: What type of qualities do liberal arts majors have that make them more employable?

Anders: Great question, and I invested some time in getting a well-documented, fresh answer. In Chapter 2 of my book, I took note of more than 5,000 job ads that pay more than $100,000 and explicitly ask for “critical thinking.” (That rather malleable phrase is the two-word nub of liberal arts values). These are ads from the likes of Allstate, Apple, American Airlines, etc. Analyzing these job ads in detail, I found that what employers really want comes down to these five key elements:

• A willingness to explore new areas
• Excellent analytic skills, especially in murky areas where simple routines don’t suffice.
• First-rate problem solving; finding the right answer when it’s not obvious
• High emotional intelligence; being able to read the room
• Persuasive communication skills, with speaking/listening probably rating even higher than writing.

Looking at this list in totality, engineering and business programs do a great job of developing the second and third skills as well. The liberal-arts disciplines don’t have a lock on all aspects of critical thinking. But for Nos. 1, 4 and 5, the liberal-arts approach is uniquely well-honed for success.

Schawbel: What are your top three pieces of career advice?

Anders:

1. Build up your self-confidence. Job candidates who project what one employer calls “comfortable charisma” tend to do really well. A lot of that can be learned, or at least burnished. I ache to see strong candidates whose momentary bashfulness hurts their chances. I offer a series of action-item tips in Chapter 12, “Telling Your Story.”
2. Welcome the unfamiliar. The most promising roads are not yet paved. Yes, it’s harder to do something that hasn’t been done before. But if you get good at taking on what’s new, you’ve got a valuable and highly transferable skill.
3. Accept some zigzags along the way. Sometimes, we’re too cautious for our own good. It’s a lot easier, in one’s 20s, to try a new city, switch fields, etc. The greatest advantage of a college education may reside in the greater mobility that it offers, rather than an often-frustrating hunt for lifelong stability.

Have you ever really stopped to think about who you are–or should be–connected to on LinkedIn and why? The power of your LinkedIn network is not just about how many connections you have. The power is more about who is in your network–both individually and collectively.

How your LinkedIn network affects social media efforts

There are three key benefits your network can provide you: access, visibility, and credibility.

Access

As you may have noticed, LinkedIn does not allow everyone to find and potentially communicate with all 400+ million members, which is probably a good thing. Instead, it provides access based on your current connections and their connections. (Access is also affected by the type of LinkedIn account you have; basically, the higher the subscription fee, the broader the access, but it all starts with your direct connections.)

In one form or another you can see and reach out to your direct connections, your direct connections’ direct connections, and their direct connections. Your access to LinkedIn members grows rapidly, as does your visibility to those members.

Visibility is exposure

Just as more connections means access to more members, it also means more people will potentially see you and your LinkedIn activity. Each time you post a status update or group discussion, or you like, share, or comment on someone else’s update, article, or discussion, your activity potentially shows up in the news feed of your entire network—all of your 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd degree connections.

The three degrees of connections also works in reverse. Anyone that you can see can also see you. This means you will show up in more searches of people who are trying to find someone with your experience and skill set.

Adding 1^st degree connections rapidly expands your overall network and the number of people who can see you and your activity. Your network grows exponentially.

Credibility

“You are known by the company you keep” has been said, in one way or another, by so many people–including your parents–that the exact origin doesn’t show up on a Google search. Regardless of where it started, its meaning survives on LinkedIn, where your buzzword alert or “personal brand” can be highly influenced by who you are connected to.

Although you can choose to keep your connections invisible to others, doing so will rob you of a chance to associate yourself with the right people.

Open, closed, or strategic

In the first days of LinkedIn, networks were a way to connect online with people you already knew personally, and knew fairly well. Every now and then I run across someone who still considers it important that he or she can pick up the phone and reach any and all of their connections. Today, from a sales, marketing, or business development perspective, I fail to see the value of a closed network strategy. Just like a real-world networking event, LinkedIn is a place to meet new people.

One the other end of the network spectrum are open connectors–known on LinkedIn as LIONs–who will connect with anyone who finds their profile and clicks on the Connect button. The thinking behind this networking philosophy is “you never know who may know someone you want to know.” That may be true, but simply being connected to someone who is connected to someone you’d like to meet isn’t going to land that person in your lap. You have to keep your connections warm or they’ll forget about you, and how do you do that with 7000 connections most of whom are completely irrelevant to you?

Somewhere in the middle of a closed network and an open one is what we call a strategic network, one that encompasses a growing range of relevant connections. Depending on your LinkedIn objectives, your strategic network might be comprised of prospects, customers, influencers, analysts, media, investors, and others who can help or be helped by you.

Being connected to market influencers and known 3^rd party experts will make me feel that you are one of them. Being connected to other people like me will make me comfortable that you have good taste. Being connected to every Tom, Dick, and Mary who sends you a connection request will confuse me.

How many connections should you have?

This is one of those questions that gets answered with the ever popular “it depends.” The size of your market, the number of accounts you handle, what you’re trying to accomplish all affect the number of people you may want in your network.

At the end of 2014, the average LinkedIn member has 930 connections. (source: LinkedIn) By March of 2016, 55% of users had more than 500 connections. But there are definite differences among industries, functions, and seniority levels.

Regardless of whether you chose to keep your network fairly tight or you get a kick out of big numbers, the important thing is that you give it some thought and approach it strategically.

Invoicing properly is crucial when you’re a freelancer because it’s how you get paid. While you might look forward to invoicing because often it means that payday is near, I personally just want to get it over with so I can continue meeting my deadlines for the day.

While invoicing can one of the less mentally draining parts of your day, you’re not getting paid to do it so you want to make sure you’re efficient and take advantage of as many hacks you can to minimize the amount of time it takes.

The best way to do this is to use an invoicing software program to make things much easier for you – especially around tax time. Once you start using invoicing software, you’ll realize that the small investment will provide you with a ton of value that you may not be fully utilizing.

Here are 6 invoicing hacks you probably aren’t using and why you should start using them regularly.

1. Personalized Messages

Almost all invoice templates will have space at the bottom where you can make a note for your client to see. This is a great opportunity to send personalized messages to your client whether it’s a simple thank-you or a small reminder so you don’t have to send multiple emails.

If you want to let your client know that you’ll be on vacation for a week the following month, you can add a message to your invoice to remind them and they’ll be more likely to see it since they have to carefully review the invoice in order to pay you.

You can also use that section to explain any updates to your invoice that might otherwise confuse your client.

2. Managing Discounts and Tips

Another cool feature you can use (if your invoicing software has it) is including discounts and tipping options for your work. If you’re a web designer who runs a referral program, for example, you can automatically calculate and apply a discount to your invoice for a website project.

If you freelancing in a field where tipping is common, you won’t miss out on any extra money when you include a tipping option/feature on your invoice. That way, clients can tip you conveniently as they pay securely online.

Using these features can often boost your business and help you better track expenses and income since everything is will be applied/deducted on one invoice.

3. Automating Late Payment Reminders

No one likes getting paid late, but it happens at times especially for freelancers. Sometimes clients forget to pay or lose your invoice and it can be a pain to take time out of your day to follow up with them and try to solve any issues to ensure you get paid soon.

To avoid having to deal with the rigorous follow-up process, set your invoices up so that automatic late payment reminders will be emailed directly to clients after a set number of days.

You can write a standard brief and polite message to send clients as a friendly reminder and even to remind them about your late fees if you have any. This can help regular the flow of payments so you can continue to work and rest uninterrupted.

4. Integrating Time-Tracking For Hourly Pay

If you track your time spent on certain projects and use that information to create your invoices, your invoicing program may be able to help you do that automatically.

If your business thrives off your hourly rate, there are much better ways to track your time than by hand. There are several programs and websites you can use to track your time completing various different tasks. However, your invoicing program might do this for you which allows you to easily integrate the date when you’re creating invoices.

This will come in handy if you have a team as well and need to accurately track their time spent working on different projects and it makes things so much easier whether you invoice weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

5. Processing International Payments

Being able to process international payments is crucial if you work with clients outside the country. You don’t want to risk not getting paid just because your client doesn’t use the same currency as you.

Plus, if you’re living a more nomadic lifestyle and travel often while you freelance and need to get paid without all the hassle while you’re out of the country, you’ll want to make sure you can easily process international payments.

I once worked with a contractor who moved from the U.S. to Hong Kong permanently while we were working together. It was a big hassle trying to pay her for her work at first.

She wasn’t familiar with how to send an invoice. She wasn’t motivated to send them either since she couldn’t actually access the money if I paid her in U.S. dollars.

As a solution, I was happy to recommend an invoicing program that would allow her to process my payments so she could get the money she earned.

6. Recurring Invoices

Finally, one of the easiest hacks you can use when it’s time to invoice is to set up recurring invoices for regular clients. If you do the exact same work for a client at a fixed rate, it doesn’t really make any sense to spend time creating the exact same invoice each month to send out.

I’m preaching to the choir with this one because after two years of freelancing, I finally started loosening the reigns a bit and getting into the habit of setting up recurring invoices and it’s saved me a lot of time.

If the work you do varies month-to-month, you may find it helpful to set up a few invoice templates where you can enter in some of the tasks you do regularly, then you can just fill the rest in whenever you’re ready to officially send the invoice.

Summary

Invoicing software programs can be a freelancer’s best friend. They’re affordable, easy-to-use, and can make your life so much easier when you’re trying to bill for projects as opposed to manually emailing invoices you design yourself.

Be sure to take advantage of the many features and hacks your invoicing program offers so you can get more bang for your buck and spend less time collecting payments.

The best part of business is getting paid, but getting paid isn’t always as easy or simple as it should be. In addition to figuring out the logistics of how to get paid, you may have to pay multiple vendors different payment processing fees. Those fees can add up fast. But you have options that can help keep things simple while lowering your fees. Read on to learn more.

Integrated vs. non-integrated payment processors

Both online and offline card payments require a series of important steps to complete. The ability to accept cards online requires both a merchant account and a payment gateway. A merchant account is kind of like a bank account used to aggregate payments from credit cards, debit cards, and sometimes ACH payments. A payment gateway is a system used to process payments, generally online, that feeds into the merchant account.

Thanks to the magic of online business, you can sign up for a two-in-one package to accept payments online. For a percentage fee, flat fee, or combination of the two you can process all of your payments for automatic deposit in a digital wallet or straight to your bank account. This is exactly what Due payments is all about!

Providers that do not integrate all parts still exist. You can work with a payment gateway that requires an outside merchant account, or pick a merchant account first and look for compatible gateways. But if you can get the two in one, nice, integrated package, it is much easier to use and manage. Even better, getting two in one gives you better control and information about the fees you pay for your payment processing service.

Choose your vendors wisely

Now that you know what type of payment processing vendors you may need, it’s time to pick your favorite. As we already discussed, getting your payment processing from one vendor is easier than two, but it can also save you money.

Consider it like this, if you have two vendors for payment processing, you pay fees to two companies. If you pay fees to two companies, they both need to charge enough to stay in business. That’s two sets of businesses reaching into your company’s profit margin instead of one.

While it is possible to get a better deal with two vendors, it is twice the work and much less transparent. For that reason, going with an integrated vendor that gives you clear pricing is a great way to keep payment fees low.

Shop around for fees before making a commitment

Once you have limited down the type of payment processor you want, it’s time to look at the rates. Payment processors typically charge in one of two billing methods:

• Flat percentage fee for every payment
• Flat percentage fee plus monthly recurring fee

There is no right or wrong here, just what makes the most sense for your business. In most cases, the providers with a monthly recurring fee charge a lower percentage fee for payments processed. There is a tipping point in dollars processed where one makes sense over the other. You just have to do the simple math for your business to compare.

For my business, an integrated flat fee payment provider worked best. I don’t process enough payments per month to justify a monthly recurring charge. But when I have an occasional credit card payment come through, I know I have it handled.

Fees are a part of doing business, but don’t let them eat your profits

When you are in business, you can expect to pay fees here and there. That’s just part of running a business. But if you work hard to manage those fees, only sign agreements you understand, and do some due diligence before choosing your vendors, you won’t go wrong.

Want to make your salespeople more effective and efficient at closing deals -- all while decreasing time in meetings and the emails in your inbox? Your sales team needs Slack.

The messaging app (available for desktop and mobile) is an intuitive way to receive automated updates on prospects. It also streamlines your sales team’s ability to share and access helpful tips and strategies with each other.

Ultimately, Slack gives your team more time to prospect, speak with potential clients, and close bigger deals. Here are eight ways your team can win with Slack.

How Sales Can Use Slack

1) Answer Client Questions Immediately

How many times have you been on a call and received a question you didn’t know the answer to? Slack gives you easy access to the answers you need -- fast.

If you’re meeting with your prospect in-person, say something like, “Hmm. I don’t have an answer to that question. Would you mind if I send a quick message to a colleague who might be able to help?” More than likely, your prospect will agree.

Pop your answer in a group Slack room, and you’ll have an answer within minutes.

Your coworker then has the opportunity to answer your question -- or find someone who can -- getting you a quick response. You can answer your prospect’s question while it’s still on their mind -- not to mention, shown how your team would work together to resolve any questions or issues that might arise if your prospect chooses to go with your company.

If you’re on the phone, it can be tempting to try to Slack a colleague without cluing the prospective client in. Don’t do it. Awkward pauses and distracted typing sounds will do more to harm than help your situation. Be honest and repeat the script provided above.

2) Integrate Your CRM for Instant Updates

Receive a Slack notification any time a contact is added to or updated in your CRM. This will ensure you always reach out to them in a timely manner, making the most of each action they take during the sales process.

By integrating your CRM with Slack, you’ll also be able to receive in-app calendar notifications so you never miss a meeting, and real-time notifications when new contacts fill out lead-qualifying forms on your website.

Keep tabs on specific accounts, and never miss a touchpoint or opportunity to engage your prospect in a unique and timely way. You’ll forge a stronger relationship, gain credibility, and position your company as being organized and professional -- all important factors prospects consider when on the verge of closing a deal.

Looking for a CRM that fits the bill? HubSpot’s free CRM is a good place to start.

3) Engage with Inbound Leads Directly

Have Slack notify you the instant someone comes to your website and completes a series of actions (like downloading a case study or viewing a pricing page) that qualify them for outreach from a sales rep.

When you receive that notification, send them a chat message to ask if they’re interested in learning more about your product while they’re still on your site, or follow up immediately via email.

It might seem a little invasive, but a study conducted by Harvard Business Review found, “Firms that tried to contact potential customers within an hour of receiving a query were nearly seven times as likely to qualify the lead … as those that tried to contact the customer even an hour later -- and more than 60 times as likely as companies that wait 24 hours or longer.”

4) Increase Knowledge Sharing

Losing or gaining critical members of your sales team can have a big effect on revenue. When employee turnover does happen, ramp-up time, missing documents or signatures, and lost historical knowledge threaten your team’s overall number. In these cases, knowledge sharing through Slack is a sales goal saver.

Don’t allow valuable account information to be locked away. And never worry about previously signed documents slipping away forever. Instead, mandate that your salespeople use specific team, project, or individual Slack channels to share important account information and documents.

Storing important information on Slack ensures documents and account insights are always easily accessible and sharable. In turn, this makes meeting your quarterly numbers and onboarding new team members a less overwhelming task.

5) Collaborate Better

If several of your teammates are working on a single account or RFP, create a new Slack channel just for them. This allows collaborators to stay organized. It also prevents redundancies and makes it easy for project contributors to share updates with everyone.

Never worry about your BDR being left off of an email chain. And never wonder if your marketer missed the memo about that new slide you need. Everything is historically tracked and shared with everyone in your project Slack channel, so you can spend less time following up and more time closing the deal.

6) Save Time

Increased productivity might be the biggest reason to bring Slack to your sales team. With open Slack channels, and a few with specific purposes, you’ll eliminate redundant or ineffective communication.

Skip your Monday-morning stand-up meeting in favor of a Slack channel of the same name. Have everyone drop in their updates, and you’ll ensure the information sticks while everyone walks away with more time.

Instead of traditional emails between colleagues, which tends to clutter inboxes and eat up time, encourage everyone to communicate directly through Slack. Response time will be faster and inboxes stay clean and ready to receive prospect emails.

Integrations like DataFox even send Slack updates when companies in your vertical or pipeline experience trigger events. This removes the need for those Google Alerts you may have filtering into an unopened inbox file. It also frees up more time for your team to spend proactively communicating with prospects, instead of scouring the internet for updates about their business.

7) Unify Sales and Marketing

Set up a #sales-marketing channel to open the lines of communication. Your salespeople will love having one designated location for requesting new marketing slides or content for prospect demos. They can also ask quick questions about marketing campaigns, share feedback on lead criteria, and give the heads up when they’ve flagged website or collateral issues.

By giving both departments a direct mouthpiece to each other, you’ll see an increase in collaboration, revenue-driving content, and successful closed-won deals.

8) Ring the Sales Gong of the Future

Celebrate closed-won business, big or small, on Slack. Have a specific Slack channel automatically alerted when new business closes. And encourage everyone to celebrate accordingly.

Share your best GIFs, prove how strong your emoji game is, or add a team-favorite video to the mix. Celebrating these victories is a boost to team morale. It also stokes the competitive fire in your salespeople and lets remote or traveling salespeople stay in on the action.

Slack is a great way to keep your sales team effective, organized, and efficient. Get everyone talking to each other and get ready to close more deals. Once Slack is implemented on your team, you’ll probably find yourself wondering what you ever did without it.

In the early days of the software revolution, well before Salesforce was even an idea, Microsoft brought the ultimate bundle to the market: Microsoft Office. It was a box(ed) office smash (please excuse the pun) and software startups have tried to rip off the Office bundling playbook ever since. But let’s face it – the sequel is never as good as the original.

It’s hard to remember a time when Microsoft wasn’t the leader in all things desktop software, but as recently as the early 1990s they played second fiddle to WordPerfect (word processing) and Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheets).

The integrated, bundled Microsoft Office suite – along with product advantages and competitor missteps – helped propel Microsoft to dominate the entire category and become the ‘de facto’ standard. While Microsoft might not have been the market leader across every aspect of desktop software, they had a full suite of good enough products that all worked well together and gave customers a ‘one stop shop’ solution. Who wants to pay for another word processing software when they’re already getting it ‘for free’ with their purchase of Office?

The economic rationale against bundling like Microsoft Office

It’s common for startup software companies to launch with a single bundled package. That’s fine when you’re starting out because you’re still trying to establish product-market fit and don’t have enough customers yet to finely segment your audience. You still need to collect data on which features get used the most, which never get used and who your power users are.

But this doesn’t scale. Your customers don’t all look the same, and they shouldn’t be offered the same thing at the same price. This essential insight has become ingrained in nearly everything we buy, whether that’s airline tickets (there isn’t just one ticket anymore) or even a Netflix subscription (there isn’t just one Netflix streaming plan, either).

The simplest way to demonstrate why is by brushing up on economics. In the graphic below, I’ve included a typical demand curve where the demand increases as price goes down. (Note that not every demand curve looks like this, and there may even be cases when demand increases as the price goes up).

When a company offers only one package at one price, as shown in Scenario 1, they limit their sales volume to the demand at that single price. A skilled salesperson may capture some of this extra demand through strategic discounting, but that would be, at best, a band-aid solution. What’s more is that they leave money on the table among folks who would pay far more since they’ve set a ceiling on the price.

Now let’s compare Scenario 1 with Scenario 2 where a company slots in a premium price point and a value price point. Companies that employ this type of pricing capture 50% higher MRR and a 50% increase in sales volume.

Let me underscore this. Your pricing strategy could be costing you a 50% increase in revenue and customers!

Microsoft has ditched the classic Office bundling strategy, too

While Microsoft’s bundling strategy served the business for a period, they’ve innovated over the years. In fact, their current pricing strategy looks a lot more like Salesforce than the Microsoft Office of yesteryear.

Today Microsoft starts by asking whether a prospective customer plans to use Office for home or business use. Depending on your selection, Microsoft then presents you with three packages to choose from.

Their business plans for instance are delineated into a classic Good/Better/Best structure with plans at $5/user/month, $8.25/user/month and $12.50/user/month with an annual commitment (see screenshot below). What separates the different packages are the specific Office applications and services included. Business Essentials – a fighter product against G Suite – includes email services, file storage, collaboration and communication tools. Their mid-level Business plan has the core applications associated with Microsoft Office, namely word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and so on. Finally, their top-tier Business Premium plan has everything you could want from Microsoft at a 50% price premium.

By the way, those aren’t all of Microsoft’s offerings. They also have enterprise plans, which go up to $35/user/month and include security, compliance and legal tools. Plus they have micro-segmented offerings for education, government, nonprofit and first-line workers.

Microsoft has effectively segmented its market in order to offer price points (and tailored solutions) across as many places on the demand curve as they possibly can. In the process, they’ve maximized both revenue and customer acquisition for their productivity suite. Microsoft has created an upsell path, too, allowing them to frictionlessly land and then expand new customers.

Now that’s something worth copying.

The post The Argument Against Traditional Software Bundling appeared first on OpenView Labs.

What We’ve Discovered to Boost Client’s Email ROI – Part 1

If you’re using email marketing or considering it, there are several key things you need to know that drive long term ROI. No matter what type of business you run, what vertical you’re in, or how your sales process works, email can help your ROI. There’s a reason it’s almost universally used by the most successful brands, large and small.

We help many kinds of businesses with email marketing. One of our primary focuses is helping contractors build their customer relationships and grow profitability. We’ve used an email marketing system, targeted at their existing customers as our primary tool. The journey has taught us plenty about what works, what doesn’t, and how to be more effective email marketers for our clients. Here’s what we’ve discovered about how to make email marketing more effective for businesses like yours.

One of our clients helps small technology contractors with their businesses. About 25% have multiple locations, but most are single location enterprises. What we discovered while working with them for the last 4 years was an eye opener. If you run or are responsible for marketing a similar business, our discoveries may be right up your alley. Even if your business is different in many ways, for example you own 12 fried chicken franchises, an ecommerce store, or an aircraft interior panel manufacturer, many of the lessons still apply to your email marketing system.

Marketing Challenges the Right Email Marketing System Solves for Small Business Owners

Small Business Email Marketing Challenge 1: High intention, no time.

This is a biggie. Most of our customers are small to medium sized businesses, typically with 25 or fewer employees and $5 million or less in annual revenue, although some are much larger. As such, there are plenty of multiple hat-wearers involved. The marketing director is usually the owner, or someone else who counts a few other things as their primary responsibilities.

They have every intention of staying closely connected with their existing customers as part of their marketing function. Other day-to-day business operations intervene and keep them from any consistency, if they ever send anything at all. Maybe they send a holiday mailer a few times a year, but that’s about it. To most small business execs, it’s an old story; 70 emails, 23 customer/vendor phone calls, 3 meetings, and 107 text messages later, the day’s end is long gone, and they still haven’t gotten to half the stuff on their day’s “To Do” list.

One of the first things to go by the wayside is any kind of regular communication to their past customers. Yes, they know it should be done, but so should addressing all those other issues that can have a much more immediate impact on their business. If it’s in your face, it gets your attention, and rightly so. An email marketing system can be a significant marketing time saver if you elect to do it yourself. If you outsource it, you’ll spend only as much time as you need to check your analytics. (More on that later)

Small Business Email Marketing Challenge 2: Unsure what works best or how to go about it.

The other big challenge we’ve found is many small business owners have little marketing background. Sometimes they have little direct business experience. They started their firm after working at a similar one. One day they decided to strike out on their own. Most were sales reps, technicians, programmers, designers, or project managers. Some had a combination of those roles.

While some have prior sales experience, sales is not really the same as marketing. Some sales reps do marketing as part of their job, though.

Marketing generates qualified leads that want what your business sells and is able to buy. Sales turns those leads into paying customers. A sales rep needs a steady stream of qualified leads if they’re to maximize effectiveness.

Many business owners don’t know exactly what works best to bring business through the door with the highest return on their investment in time and financial resources. For example, cold calling can be effective for talented, experienced sales reps, but it takes significant time. Those same sales reps would bring in much more revenue if they had a stream of qualified leads to work with. Sales and marketing activities that deliver consistently positive results and require minimal time and financial input are obviously preferred. This is doubly true for bandwidth-limited small businesses.

Small Business Email Marketing Challenge 3: They’re not copywriters

Most of our customers are not copywriters and do not have one on staff. They’re not versed in the subtleties of crafting content that keeps their customers engaged long term. They don’t know how to solve their problems boost desire, and have prospects take action when called upon. That’s vital in our case, because a primary goal is for our clients to score new contacts from their old customers. The ultimate goal is to convert those contacts into contacts, and ultimately into sales. For those owners or managers who can write compelling copy, see challenge #1. They simply don’t have the time.

What Doesn’t Work in Email Marketing

If business owners had dabbled in email marketing before, we’ve found 2 big mistakes they typically made that kept them from seeing the kind of success they were hoping for. As to what doesn’t work in email marketing, we are going to ignore the basics, like poor layout, cheesy graphics, and spelling errors. You’re not making these. The audience expects more from you.

Email Marketing Mistake 1 – Sending emails that were primarily product, service, or company focused.

This is what email marketing means to many, especially to those used to retail marketing. It’s been the norm for many non-retail business too. Their emails were all about the new products from XYZ Company, all the arcane features, and why those products are so special. Images, yes, but just big product pictures, straight from the manufacturers’ stock, and product description (ditto). Some call this strategy “brochure marketing”.

The problem with that?

Others can sell those same products. Even if they can’t, a winning message is not about the product (yet), it’s about the problem and the solution. There is a place to talk about a product, but it’s very strategic, at the end of a sales funnel. Talking about a specific product and why it’s cool doesn’t deliver the small business’ audience any value, and value must always come first to build the relationship and maximize conversion rate.

“Product speak” only serves the business, except that it doesn’t, really. It’s a key reason behind email marketing failures. See closely related Mistake 2, below.

Email Marketing Mistake 2: Pounding their customers over the head with endless “Buy! Buy! Buy!” emails.

It’s all too common practice among email marketers. You’ve seen them too; probably the last time you checked your email. Your audience has too. They get that all day, every day from everybody else. Don’t fall prey to the temptation; your audience will just tune you out. Worse, unless you’re in restaurants or some retail verticals, that email style significantly increases long term unsubscribe rates, and reduces open rates. At best, customers ignore those emails.

“Buy! Buy! Buy! this New 4K TV From Us Now! It’s Sooo Cheap!” “Sump pumps 25% off – Now only”

It highlights the need to target email marketing campaigns for specific audiences and markets. The promo style emails work well in the hospitality industry, where subscribers subscribed specifically to get timely specials and promotions. Having 2 for 1 chicken nachos tomorrow during happy hour? Yum, I’m on the way!

On the other hand. that style doesn’t translate as well to the software or contracting spaces, where the goal is long term engagement, an eventual customer email or phone contact, and a consultative sales appointment. For example, when it comes to email marketing messages for custom AV or IT contractors, very few clients are going to buy a $80,000 system tomorrow because you just sent them an email today.

Think about it this way: Email marketing is just that; marketing. It isn’t email sales. While selling directly from email messages can be highly effective in some spaces, we’ve found that it does not work well for technology, consulting, or building contractors. In fact, it can be a real killer.

Another reason blasting out specials doesn’t really work in the contractor market is simple. Customers aren’t buying components. In this case, our customers’ are contractors. They provide a solid value add, and sell complete, installed systems. In most cases their audience doesn’t know enough about exactly which components work with their system to know if that new network switch special the contractor just blasted out is even a good fit for their system.

Consultants work with businesses to strengthen their processes. Their prospects aren’t going to respond to “Buy Bombardment” either. They must demonstrate value first. Their consulting service is a large ticket purchase, not something bought on a whim because the price is 20% off. It’s about the value they provide, and using email to help demonstrate that is what drives sales.

Here’s another example: How well would it work for a general contractor to offer a special on Glu-Lam beams? Not very well, probably. Who, but possibly other general contractors or framing contractors, would know if those specific beams would work for their project or what a good price would be? It’s all about knowing your target audience and ideal customer.

Email Marketing Mistake 3: Don’t make this one!

A common way many small business owners try to leverage content is simply using their vendor’s press releases as email newsletter content. Don’t fall prey to this one! Sure, it’s easy, but so is tripping over your feet. It can work for some highly anticipated products, but it’s a rarity. A big problem is those releases all lead back to the manufacturer. They stimulate interest; good. They make your audience go elsewhere, not to you, to get more info; bad!

The natural reaction to a press release on a product is going to the product manufacturer’s website for more info, even if you don’t link to it in your email.

If you do send out manufacturer press releases, add significant value to the basic release as part of your email. How does the release benefit your customer? How can you increase the value to them?

Ok, now that stuff is out of the way…..

What does work to drive long term ROI with email marketing?

If your reps only have one goal — meeting their quota — they’re selling themselves short (literally). Hold your reps accountable to smaller weekly or monthly goals, and you’ll increase the likelihood they’ll meet their bigger number.

Smaller goals let your reps build confidence with incremental wins. They also help track your reps’ progress toward larger goals, giving you more time to work with struggling reps.

A Dominican University study found setting specific goals increases motivation beyond simply telling yourself, “I’ll just do my best.” The study ultimately reported professionals who stuck to a goal-oriented plan performed better than those who didn’t. What would improved performance from each of your reps look like for you?

Below, find out how to set sales goals on an individual and team level. It might seem like a lot of work, but the result is motivated salespeople who have the support they need to succeed.

1. Calculate your monthly sales goal.

If you’re setting personal sales goals or team goals, they should align with annual sales goals. Figure your monthly sales goal by working backward from your company’s annual revenue target. Once that target is defined, calculate how much your department, teams, and individual reps need to sell to meet that goal.

Be sure to take seasonal or staffing fluctuations into account. If you’re onboarding three new salespeople this fall, it may be hard to meet aggressive goals during Q4, as staff may be tied up in training those employees. However, because you’ve planned for this, you can adjust goals and push harder in Q3.

You should pull it all together in a sales goal chart, like the one below.

Create your own sales goal chart using our free sales conversion and close rate template.

Monthly Sales Goal Example: “Sell $100,000 worth of product by the first day of each month.”

This monthly sales goal is easy to understand — but don’t let it stagnate your team. If you keep the same number every month, it’ll be easy to plateau and fall out of pace with overarching revenue goals. You can increase this number every month, or keep it the same until your team meets it and exceeds it.

Remember to work backward from the companies’ annual revenue target. Be sure to bring in any higher-ups who want to have a say on the monthly sales figures they’d like to see from your team.

2. Set waterfall goals.

The waterfall goal system is when a team works linearly toward a set end goal. This approach is better for morale because missing goals can increase fear and squash motivation. The waterfall approach also produces higher quality work and better numbers. Your team won’t experience burnout from the increase in work, and you’ll give them time to ramp up quality.

Waterfall Sales Goal Example: “Add $3,000 more revenue in Q2, $4,000 in Q3, and $5,000 in Q4.”

Get each of your reps contributing $5,000 more per month than their current averages by ramping them up over the course of the year. Waterfall goals are fantastic for keeping team morale high and for being more flexible. If, for instance, one of your reps falls just slightly behind, while another exceeds expectations, you can adjust their individual numbers accordingly.

3. Sequence goals.

This is another way of saying “prioritize your goals.” Determine which goals bring the highest value when hit, and make sure your reps are meeting those first.

If you’re sequencing goals for a junior sales rep, set goals around where they can improve.

Sequencing means even if your reps don’t meet every goal, they’ll meet the ones that matter most to your company’s bottom line or their professional growth.

Sequence Sales Goal Example: “Set up X product demonstrations per week/day.”

For a rep who struggles with product demonstrations, set a goal of giving a team member a demonstration once a day, then twice a week, to sharpen their skills.

If a rep struggles to move discovery conversations to the next phase, make a goal for them to set up three demonstrations per week, then four, then one a day.

4. Set activity goals.

An activity goal is a behavioral objective for salespeople. These activities can generate cash flow, opportunities, and generate visibility depending on the task assignment.

Activity Sales Goal Example: “Share one sales article per week.”

Does your rep need to be more visible within your organization? Set a goal of having them share one article per week on your team Slack channel or internal communication portal. Or ask them to contribute one article per quarter to your company's blog.

5. Incentivize goal attainment.

Incentivizing goal attainment is a way to give your team more motivation at different levels of achievement. Receiving bonuses, getting variable compensation, and even keeping their job are all incentives for reps to meet their quota.

Incentivized Sales Goal Example: “Hit a retention number greater than X%.”

If your reps are easily closing new business, but that business churns three months in, that’s not good. Set goals that incentivize reps to close only quality leads that are a match for your business. For example, you might give a cash bonus to every rep hitting quota whose retention number is higher than a specific percentage.

Don’t have the budget to offer a monetary incentive? No problem. Position company-wide recognition or extra vacation time as a reward for goals met.

6. Monitor goal progression.

Goals are of no use if they’re not being monitored. Track progress via a dashboard in your CRM or have reps enter their weekly numbers the old-fashioned way — in an Excel spreadsheet. If someone on your team isn’t hitting their weekly numbers, talk to them before it becomes an impediment to meeting their monthly quota. Monitoring these small goals makes them worth the extra implementation time, so don’t skimp here — even if it’s tempting.

Progressive Sales Goal Example: “Reduce the amount of time it takes to convert a lead to a customer.”

Speeding up the sales process closes deals quicker — this means the company will realize the revenue faster, and the sales rep will have more time to spend on other deals and prospecting activities. Creating a goal to reduce the amount of time it takes to move a lead to an opportunity or an opportunity to a customer will speed up the sales cycle.

7. Set stretch goals.

A stretch goal is a goal exceeding their primary goal, which can be effective. Think about the old saying: “Aim for the moon. If you miss, you’ll be among the stars.” Keep in mind that this isn’t right for everyone. If a rep is struggling to meet their quota every month, a stretch goal will only increase their anxiety. But if you have a high performer, set realistic stretch goals that will challenge and motivate them.

Stretch Sales Goal Example: “Upsell 12X more customers than you did the previous month.”

A stretch goal pushes your high-performing team — or, at least, your highest performing rep — to do their best work by putting a seemingly unattainable goal before them. Remember, you should only suggest stretch goals if your team is already exceeding expectations. If they’re still progressing toward your primary goals, it’d be wise to use another type of goal to motivate them and track their progress.

8. Suggest mentor goals.

If a rep is having trouble ramping up or hits a rough patch (it happens to everyone), suggest they find a mentor or two. Provide a framework you'd like them to work through or advise them to create one with their mentor. Having someone to confide in besides their manager can be just what they need to thrive.

Mentor Sales Goal Example: “Attend one professional development event per month.”

If a rep isn’t attending professional development events, set a goal of one per month to start. That’s an easy way for them to get the mentorship they need from distinguished voices in the industry.

9. Create a collective goal.

A collective goal is a specific objective co-created by a team to focus and achieve — like hitting X number of calls/meetings/emails, X amount of revenue, or X% client retention.

Collective Sales Goal Example: “Book the most meetings of any rep on the team.”

Strike up friendly competition by challenging your reps to see who can book the most meetings or demos this week. If you’d like to truly have fun, you can post the numbers up on a leaderboard, highlighting the top three or the top ten sales reps.

Now that you know how to set goals, let’s take a look at some templates that can help you create them without needing to start from scratch.

Sales Goals Templates

1. Sales Conversion and Close Rate Calculator

Download Your Free Template Now

Want to get to the numbers straight away? Then use our sales conversion and close rate calculator to outline your financial goals in one simple, frills-free place. It’ll help you automatically create annual goals with the months broken down as well.

2. Sales Plan Template

Download Your Free Template Now

Our sales plan template will help you create more traditional, qualitative goals. You can write goals not only in numeric terms but in terms of what you want your sales organization to achieve at large. It’s a great starting point if you don’t want to dive into the nitty-gritty of your sales goals just yet.

3. Sales Metrics Calculator

Download Your Free Template Now

To set realistic sales goals, you first need to know how you’re doing and track these metrics across time. Our sales metrics calculator will help you lay the groundwork for creating better and more effective sales goals. It will also help you get more acquainted with sales metrics you might not have considered tracking in the past.

4. Objectives and Key Results Template

Download Your Free Template Now

Setting OKR sales goals is another effective method for improving your team’s performance. Like our sales plan template, this OKR template will help you set goals in more general, qualitative ways — so you don’t have to know the exact numbers just yet. You can refine as you go, change goals as necessary, and track your key results.

5. Sales Dashboard

Download Your Free Template Now

Pull it all together in a sales dashboard where you can see all of your goals — and your progress toward those goals — in one place. You can set targets and track your progress toward those targets. If you don’t work in the tech industry, you can change the names of the fields to better fit your business.

Once you’re ready to set goals in a more automated environment, consider upgrading to a CRM that will help you set better and better sales goals every quarter.

Now that we’ve talked about how to set goals, let’s take a look at some examples that you can adapt for your team.

Goals for Sales Managers

1. Reduce customer churn.

As a sales manager, you oversee the success of your company’s sales department. Some of your main goals should be centered on improving your retention rate and reducing your customer churn.

Customer churn is the rate at which customers stop using your product or service. So the higher your churn rate is, the more likely your business has room for improvement to delight customers — and there are many different approaches managers can take to achieve that goal, the primary one being to only sell to best-fit prospects.

2. Increase average deal size.

If there’s one thing better than closing a deal, it’s closing a large one. Managers that make goals to increase the average deal size put their sales team in a position to create profitable relationships with high-profile, target customers.

Ways to increase deal size can look like bundling more products or services into a contract, or rewarding customer loyalty with exclusive discounts.

3. Increase customer lifetime value.

Customer lifetime value is a business metric that measures total revenue that can be earned from a customer over time.

Managers that set this type of goal can optimize the performance of their sales team’s strategy and create longer-lasting client relationships that will extend the business value to customers.

4. Improve average win rate.

The average win rate is the rate at which final stage prospects become customers. As a sales manager, you want to form a solid strategy and train your team members on how to effectively win more deals with their clients.

5. Lower customer acquisition cost.

As a manager, you want to keep costs as low as possible without compromising your team’s ability to succeed. A sales manager could work with reps to better source qualified leads based on the types they’ve found the most successful.

Goals for Sales Reps

1. Invest in continuing sales education.

One of the best ways to grow as a rep is to invest in your sales education. Expanding your product knowledge, negotiation skills, or sharpening your business acumen.

2. Shadow high-performing team members.

You can run this goal by your sales manager to see whom they think would be the best fit. But shadowing someone who consistently exceeds their sales numbers may just be what you need to help you reach your sales goals and refine your skills.

3. Perform more prospecting activities.

If your company is trying to expand into new verticals, why not help them reach their goals by prospecting a number of new clients per target industry? You’ll not only impress your manager, but you’ll also help the business break new ground, giving you a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment.

4. Follow up with more prospects.

Some sales reps struggle to stay in touch with new customers. If that’s you, make it one of your goals to touch base with each of your new clients by phone or email at least once a month, then once every two weeks, to keep relationships strong.

5. Schedule a specific number of qualified sales conversations.

Are you tired of wasting time with prospects who aren’t interested? Set a goal for yourself to schedule qualified sales conversations that have higher interest or value in your offering. After all, you want to give your time and effort to those who are actively looking for a solution you can provide.

6. Schedule a specific number of discovery conversations.

If you’re having trouble finding prospects and scheduling discovery calls, it’s time to set that goal for yourself. The more frequent you conduct them, the better you’ll get at matching client goals and needs to your offering.

7. Reduce the amount of time it takes to convert a lead to a customer.

Making it a goal to improve your lead conversion rate can potentially save you time and reduce your budget. This is also commonly known as shortening the conversion cycle.

8. Improve closing ratio.

Perhaps you’re a rep that contacts a lot of leads, but you're not reaching the finish line with a lot of your prospects. The closing rate is one of the most important metrics to monitor because it’ll identify sales team strategies that yield the most success. You'll want to progressively increase that number. You should procure additional training if needed and hold yourself accountable for your percentages.

9. Achieve an important revenue number.

Giving a revenue goal to your team on a monthly or quarterly basis can encourage sales reps to work toward an idea that’s more attainable. This type of goal setting can also be accompanied by incentives featuring bonuses or even extra PTO for added motive.

Now, let’s break these goals down even further by aligning them with the SMART goal framework.

SMART goals are a proven framework for progressing toward a desired end result. They can help you stay focused. “SMART” stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

All of the above goals are SMART sales goals. Let’s dissect a few of them.

1. To reduce customer churn by 20%, I will train my sales team to better provide support over the next six months.

• Specific: Tackling the issue of customer churn rate.

• Measurable: Customer churn rate is a measurable formula.

• Attainable: A 20% improvement is realistic.

• Relevant: Training the sales team to better support customers can affect loyalty.

• Time-Bound: This goal duration is six months.

2. Increase average deal size by bundling two or more services in a limited time offer for the next three months.

• Specific: The goal is to increase the average deal size.

• Measurable: Average deal size can be calculated over a period of time..

• Attainable: It’s feasible to increase the average deal size in a scaling company.
• Relevant: Bundling services is a way to increase sales, a primary goal for sales teams.
• Time-Bound: The goal duration is for three months.

3. In six months, we’ll increase customer lifetime value by 10% by offering larger discounts.

• Specific: The goal is to increase customer lifetime value.

• Measurable: Customer lifetime value is a metric that can be tracked and calculated.

• Attainable: 10% is a feasible amount of change.

• Relevant: Discounted offers can affect customer lifetime value.

• Time-Bound: The goal duration is for six months.

4. For the next quarter, I want to improve the average win rate by 15% by refining our lead prospecting strategy.

• Specific: The goal is to improve the average win rate.

• Measurable: Average win rate is a measurable formula.

• Attainable: An incremental change of 15% is feasible.

• Relevant: Lead prospecting directly correlates to sales win rates.

• Time-Bound: The goal duration is for the upcoming quarter.

5. In the next three months, I will lower customer acquisition costs by $500 through adjusting our paid search to better reach prospects that fit our buyer personas.

• Specific: The goal is to lower customer acquisition costs.

• Measurable: Customer acquisition costs can be tracked and calculated.

• Attainable: $500 is a realistic amount of money for small businesses.

• Relevant: Adjusting paid search to target buyer personas directly affects acquisition costs.

• Time-Bound: The goal duration is three months.

6. I want to be promoted to a sales manager in the next year by investing in continuing sales education.

• Specific: The goal is to be promoted to the role of sales manager.

• Measurable: While not numeric, the completion of continuing sales education classes can be documented and hold weight.

• Attainable: It's feasible for sales reps to continue education for betterment.

• Relevant: Candidates who invest in education are seen in a positive light for promotions.

• Time-Bound: The goal duration is for one year.

7. For the Spring, I will shadow two high-performing team members to learn how they build rapport with customers.

• Specific: The goal is to learn how to build rapport with customers.

• Measurable: By studying the actions of high-performers, there can be identifiable behaviors that can be enacted into someone else’s strategy.

• Attainable: It's feasible to observe team members at work with permission.

• Relevant: It’s possible to learn how to build rapport from high-performing salespersons.

• Time-Bound: This goal duration is for the Spring season.

8. Attend at least one professional development event per month to engage in more prospecting activities.

• Specific: The goal is to attend one professional event on a monthly basis.

• Measurable: The number of attended events can be tracked overtime.

• Attainable: It’s possible to set aside time and seek out professional development events.

• Relevant: Networking at professional development events can lead sales people to engage in more prospecting activities.

• Time-Bound: This is an on-going goal, but it’s bound to a monthly basis.

9. I will follow up with more prospects after our initial interaction by setting up automated emails in the coming quarter.

• Specific: The goal is to follow up with more prospects.

• Measurable: Automated emails can be made and tracked in a CRM system.

• Attainable: It’s feasible to reach back out to prospects through email.

• Relevant: Setting up follow up emails is a great way to follow up with prospects.

• Time-Bound: This goal duration is tied to the upcoming business quarter.

10. Schedule at least three demos with enterprise-level prospects over the next three months.

• Specific: The goal is to schedule a minimum of three demos with enterprise-level prospects.

• Measurable: This is a quantifiable goal that can be tracked.

• Attainable: This is feasible for a big business selling at an enterprise-level.

• Relevant: Demos with high profile prospects are relevant to the goals of a sales team.

• Time-Bound: The goal duration is for the next three months.

11. Reduce the amount of time it takes to convert a lead to a customer by 25% over the next year.

• Specific: This goal is to reduce the time necessary for average lead conversion.

• Measurable: This can be tracked and calculated in a CRM system.

• Attainable: 25% is a feasible amount of change.

• Relevant: Lead conversion time can affect the productivity of a sales team.

• Time-Bound: This goal duration is for the next year.

12. Schedule five more qualified sales conversations for next month to improve closing ratio.

• Specific: The goal is to schedule five more qualified sales conversations.

• Measurable: This quantity of calls can be tracked.

• Attainable: This number is a feasible increase of conversations.

• Relevant: Qualified sales conversations can affect the closing ratio.

• Time-Bound: This is an on-going goal, but it’s bound to a monthly basis.

13. Sell $100,000 worth of product by the first day of each month.

• Specific: The goal is to sell $100,000 worth of product.

• Measurable: This metric can be tracked and calculated.

• Attainable: This is feasible for big businesses selling at an enterprise-level.

• Relevant: This goal is directly tied to revenue, a primary metric for sales.

• Time-Bound: This is an ongoing goal, but it’s bound to a monthly basis.

Keep Your Sales Reps Happy with Sales Goals

As you’re setting new goals or revisiting old ones, check in with your reps and ask how they’re feeling. Make sure goals are remaining realistic, challenging, and attainable. That’s the recipe for happy, successful reps.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in October 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Manufacturing is the driver of innovation and emerging technologies. Richardson has partnered with some of the leading global manufacturing companies to provide comprehensive solutions based on a deep knowledge of this industry. While there are nuances specific to various manufacturing segments, this report will provide insights into the global trends including:

• Growth by Acquisition: While organic growth is slow in this industry, expansion through acquisition is on the rise. Global organizations are making gains by acquiring companies, thereby widening their footprints.
• Sales Through Distribution Channels: Buyers, influenced by channels, often dictate the marketing strategy of a company. The industry norm of using a distribution model is growing amid efforts to minimize overhead and stay competitive.
• Innovation Driving Globalization: Companies are constantly seeking new markets. Therefore, leaders need to invest their money with a focus on the best potential growth. This growth begins with a focus on innovation. Sales opportunities based on innovation are becoming a driving force for global growth.

Sales Challenges in the Manufacturing Industry

These strategic shifts are becoming the focus for many manufacturing companies facing challenges like differentiation, and market share preservation. Here’s a look at some of those challenges, with insights on how to overcome them.

Consistency in Sales Approach

The reach for growth via acquisition is creating new complexities. Imagine one global organization, acquiring five different companies. Each company introduces five distinctive processes and five unique (and sometimes conflicting) sales methodologies. As a result, pricing strategies fall out of alignment.

In this example, the confusion for these five respective sales teams and their clients can be overwhelming and ultimately leading to brand corruption, decreased customer satisfaction and client turnover. Ensuring that these disparate teams are aligned and consistent is a huge challenge for most sales organizations.

Acquired growth creates diverse sales teams. As a result, it will be necessary to implement a consistent and easy to execute selling methodology. Salespeople must have a uniform process that checks for verifiable outcomes consistent with customer buying behavior. They must also have excellent and consistent dialogue skills to be successful. Reinforcement tools that are embedded in their everyday work will ensure that processes and skills are strengthened, adopted, and become part of a consistent selling culture.

Overcoming the Commodity Driven Sales Pursuit

Amid diversity and competitiveness, the industry has always had sectors of price-driven deliverables. However, today’s buyers are treating the business as commodity.

Competitive inflows from emerging countries are causing a downward movement to a price-only focus. The result is a saturated market. Salespeople are now challenged with procurement-driven sales pursuits and clients that are unimpressed with standard value-adds. Unfortunately, selling in a commodity market is the new norm.

The effectiveness of a simple “feature benefit” presentation is waning. Even traditional consultative dialogue and a value-based sales approach, is becoming less successful in the attempt to avoid deep price discounting.

To overcome this price-driven market, salespeople must establish a deeper trust with the client. That means providing compelling and thought-provoking value. The key is to understand the client’s market and business objectives while educating key decision makers on the long-term implications of buying decisions.

Set Channels Up for Success

Salespeople in this industry essentially have two types of customers – direct customers and distribution channel customers. Smart manufacturing sales organizations implement insight driven, consultative dialogue with direct customers, resulting in improved trust and ultimately increased revenue.

The same dialogue that has been effective with direct customers, however, may not be effective with the channel. Channels are an entity of their own, as are the salespeople who represent them. Manufacturers have little control over a channel’s approach or sales results. The role of the manufacturer’s salesperson is one of influencing the channel to recommend their product to future customers. The challenge for the salesperson is how to best influence and persuade that channel partner.

Selling to different audiences in manufacturing is a challenge. It’s critical to create a sales approach specific to that audience. To increase effectiveness salespeople will need to tailor their sales approach and dialogue to align with the channel model.

Take time to ask broader questions and understand channel needs. Then, position persuasively based on those needs while remaining cognizant of the audience’s nuances. Salespeople will need to be intimately aware of the channel’s business model, and what represents success for them. Also, remain aware of influencing versus selling. Building persuasive skills that influence the channel to promote their product long-term will result in a stronger direct channel relationship.

Transitioning Technical Resources into Sales

Subject matter experts (SMEs) are becoming customary in client-facing situations. While a technical SMEs brings a strong level of expertise to the table, they do not always have the sales skills to effectively uncover opportunities or close business. Moreover, technical SMEs such as Sales Engineers, rarely consider themselves a salesperson.

If not skilled correctly, SMEs can overwhelm the customer with so much technical information that it deters from the needs-based discussion. The challenge for salespeople is ensuring that SMEs are skilled in consultative vs. technical dialogue.

Companies will need to help SMEs develop their consultative dialogue skills by strengthening their questioning and positioning skills to ensure they will learn customer needs before presenting technical data. As a result, they will be able to tailor metrics in a way that speaks to the customer’s needs.

SMEs also have tremendous exposure to the client both during the sales pursuit as well as in post-sale support. Helping SMEs understand how to effectively listen for additional needs is an excellent way to uncover additional opportunities. They will be more effective once they’re able to listen for sales cues while learning through questioning.

Organizations will need to equip disparate sales teams with a consistent and effective sales approach. It is critical for salespeople to provide compelling value through insight driven discussions to compete in a commodity market. To effectively grow the distribution channel, salespeople will need to tailor their dialogue to influence channel representatives to promote their product long-term. Finally, SME’s will need the skills to lead a consultative dialogue.

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Contact us by clicking here or calling 215.940.9255 learn more about our customized sales training programs for manufacturing & industrial companies.

 

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