Rnordman

Quark Venture, a venture capital (VC) fund launched in 2016, has followed through with its promise of investing in prominent Vancouver biotech companies. The US$500-million fund — the largest of its kind in Canada — is expected to have a significant impact in the biotech industry both locally and nationwide.

With over two-thirds of academic research funding in Vancouver attributed to the Life Sciences, the city has been the origin for numerous innovative ideas and products in biotechnology. Upon expansion, however, many of these startups move south, leaving the Lower Mainland with a lack of mid- to large-sized biotech companies. While the arrival of Quark Venture brings new opportunities to the biotechnology industry, will its investments help improve the longevity of biotech firms in Vancouver?

Canadian biotech has long been plagued with a lack of capital to assist in the transition of promising startups to more stable, mid-sized companies. Unlike traditional tech companies that may reach mid-market status with seed funding of a couple million dollars, products under the umbrella of biotechnology require extremely expensive and rigorous clinical trials to transition.

Sean Lumb, director of new ventures at e@UBC, says, “when it comes to funding biotech, take a comfortable sponsorship from the tech world and multiply it by 10 — that’s what is often needed to push these products into Phase 2 clinical trials.”

While the Canadian government runs both the Scientific Research and Experimental Development and the Industrial Research Assistance Program initiatives to help soften the financial blow for startups in the first few years, most new companies rely on private funding to keep operations running. Such is the case for biotech companies worldwide. However, more population-dense areas such as the U.S. and the Europe have larger and more numerous VC funds that are more easily accessible.

Some U.S.-based VC companies like Versant do have Canadian offices, but most money lenders prefer to invest locally, leaving Canadian startups in the lurch. Lumb adds that, at present, it’s not possible to raise $40 million of seed funding exclusively in Canada.

The past 12 months, however, have seen a change in accessing capital for Canadian biotech firms. Bluerock Therapeutics, a regenerative medicine-focused company in Toronto, just acquired a $225-million investment from Versant and Bayer, the largest Series A investment in Canadian history.

The arrival of Vancouver-based Quark Venture has also led to subsequent funding of Canadian innovation with interests ranging from small molecules to medical devices. Quark Venture has announced partnerships with Aurora LifeSciences, Methylation Sciences Inc., Sitka Pharmaceuticals and most recently, Microbion Corp.

While the recent increase in financial interest toward Vancouver biotech is encouraging, strengthening the industry in the city isn’t without its challenges. Vancouver has long been a victim of ‘brain drain,’ or the relocation of promising talent to places such as the U.S. and Europe. The reasons are obvious: The cost of living in Vancouver is notoriously high and the wages offered can’t compete with similar companies in Toronto, Montreal or the U.S.

As a result, there is a lack of managers in Vancouver who have successfully taken a drug through Phase 2 clinical trials. That isn’t to say that experienced managers are absent, rather Lumb emphasizes that a “critical number” of managers is needed to stabilize biotech in Vancouver. He goes on to explain that newly successful entrepreneurs are generated through mentorship from previously successful entrepreneurs.

Blair Simonite, program director at e@UBC, adds, “In theory you get experts that have done this (sold a developed company) once or twice before and are able to do it again with naive entrepreneurs, who go on to sell themselves and add to the pool of experienced entrepreneurs.”

It’s a fine balance: A critical number of these mentorships generated at the same time is needed for growth in the biotechnology industry to be maintained.

Vancouver is already seeing an effort in addressing this issue with former employees of Canadian-based biopharmaceutical company QLT Inc. involving themselves in new startups. David Main, president and CEO of Aquinox Pharma, has also been touted for effectively mentoring his employees who have eventually gone on to start their own firms.

For young scientists seeking stable employment in B.C., Lumb suggests one of two paths: Jump into a Vancouver startup or gain expertise from working in a mid-sized company before returning to the city.

The former will open employees to all of the moving parts of a new company. Many startups hire business developers to manage company growth. As most of these new firms use the lean-employment model, employees will have direct access to the wealth of knowledge these developers possess.

Alternatively, working at a mid-sized company — be it in Vancouver or elsewhere in Canada — will provide insight to a business that already works and potentially connect you with mentors within the entire company network.  

It’s still too early to predict what the future holds for biotech in Vancouver, but the generous funding from Quark Venture will certainly act as catalyst for emerging medical innovations. 

Continued success, however, is reliant on keeping both naive and experienced talent in Vancouver and the rest of Canada. Focusing on training business-minded scientists (and science-minded business people) in the skills of resilient company growth is paramount for the effective translation of capital into a larger biotech industry on the West Coast.

Erika Siren is a Ph.D candidate in the Centre for Blood Research at the University of British Columbia. Thanks to Blair Simonite and Dr. Sean Lumb from e@UBC for their helpful insight and commentary.

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Life hacks are everywhere. From the obvious — getting a good’s night sleep to become a “morning” person — to the exotic — placing your phone in a glass cup to maximize its alarm — each comes with the same promise: Life doesn’t have to be so hard.  

But is it possible to hack your life in just five minutes a day? 

Productivity genius Tim Ferriss, the king of passive income Pat Flynn, and social media influencer Mimi Ikonn think it is. And thankfully, they’re willing to share how. 

Tim Ferriss: Focus 

New York Times bestselling author and self-proclaimed human guinea pig Tim Ferriss has spent his career hacking the rituals of uber achievers.  Read more...

More about Business and Work Life

• The price of Evzio, an auto-injector used to treat opioid overdoses, has a list price of $4,500, 680% higher than it was three years ago.
• 31 Democratic senators sent a letter to Kaleo, the company that makes Evzio, on February 8 asking for more information about the drug's price.
• Kaleo's CEO said in a statement that the company was responding to the letter, and "more Americans are able to obtain this life-saving product for $0 out-of-pocket than any time in history."

An emergency medication often referred to as an "antidote" for opioid overdoses has been skyrocketing in price over the last few years.

The device, the only auto-injector version of naloxone, is called Evzio, and it has increased in price by 680% since coming on the market in 2014.

In a letter dated February 8, 31 Democratic senators asked Evzio's maker, Kaleo, to explain its pricing strategy. 

Naloxone instantly reverses opioid overdoses by blocking the drug from interacting with the brain’s receptors. It has been on the market since 1971.

In 2014, when Evzio was approved in the US, the list price was $575 for a two-pack. Now, it has a list price of $4,500.

List prices don't tell the full story when it comes to drug pricing, though they are often the most publicly-accessible prices for a medication. Depending on the terms of their insurance plans, many people are only responsible for a co-pay, or might not have to pay at all. But for the growing number of Americans on high-deductible health plans, that list price can often be close to what they're asked to pay at the pharmacy counter. 

According to the letter, the senators want details about: 

• How Kaleo priced Evzio, and how much the devices cost to produce.
• Kaleo's donation program, particularly as it relates to public programs like health departments and first responders. 
• The reimbursements Kaleo gets for Evzio from the federal government. 

"We received the letter from the Senators and are in communication with them to ensure all questions are addressed," Kaleo CEO Spencer Williamson said in a statement sent to Business Insider. 

He went on to explain aspects of Kaleo's donation program, answering the senators' second question, noting that "more Americans are able to obtain this life-saving product for $0 out-of-pocket than any time in history," and that the device has a cash price of $360.

 "No naloxone product, branded or even generic, is less expensive for commercially insured patients, or patients without insurance and incomes below $100,000 a year, than EVZIO."

Williamson also said that the company has donated close to 200,000 doses of Evzio, which have been responsible for saving 2,800 lives.

Until recently, Evzio's price had been $3,750 per two-pack. And across the board, naloxone prices have been skyrocketing, as Business Insider's Harrison Jacobs has reported.

However, most other naloxone options, including syringes and a nasal spray, have list prices in the hundreds for sets of 10 vials or two nose sprays. As a proportion of the total naloxone market, Evzio made up roughly a third of prescriptions in 2016, according to data from IMS Health.

The auto-injectors with the $4,500 list price

The anti-overdose treatment isn't the first time Kaleo has gotten into hot water over drug pricing.

Kaleo, a private company based in Richmond, Virginia, also owns Auvi-Q, the emergency epinephrine device that made headlines in October 2016 when the company announced it would come back to the US as competition to the EpiPen after getting recalled a year earlier. The Auvi-Q and Evzio use the same auto-injector technology to deliver their respective emergency medications. 

The list price for a two-pack of the Auvi-Q comes in at $4,500 as well, though the company maintains that the cash price for people without insurance is $360 and that more than 200 million people will be able to get the device with a $0 copay. That list price is roughly 640% higher than the list price of the EpiPen, which was singled out in August 2016 for increasing the price of a two-pack by 500% over the course of seven years.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, one of the 31 senators who signed onto Wednesday's letter, also sent a letter February 3 to Kaleo asking for more information about the company's pricing strategy for both Auvi-Q and Evzio.

As mentioned earlier, list prices don't tell the full story when it comes to drug pricing. There are other players in the system that each take a piece, which means that what a drugmaker actually receives could be lower even as the list price rises. Kaleo declined to comment on its average net price for Evzio. 

"When setting the 'list' price for products, kaléo always starts with the needs of the patient first and then engages with multiple stakeholders in the healthcare system," Kaleo's vice president of corporate affairs Mark Herzog said in a statement emailed to Business Insider. "Following these discussions, in order to help ensure our product is available as an option to most patients for $0 out-of-pocket, we set the list price at $4500."

It remains to be seen how many prescriptions transfer from the EpiPen to the Auvi-Q. Before it was recalled, Auvi-Q only had a small share of the market at a list price of around $500.

But its high list price is already turning off health insurers and pharmacy benefits managers. FiercePharma reports that Cigna, Humana, and the pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts have come out against the pricing strategy for Auvi-Q, while Aetna is putting it on restricted coverage. The device officially launches in the US on February 14. 

SEE ALSO: EpiPen isn't the only emergency medicine skyrocketing in price

DON'T MISS: There's still a lot of uncertainty about what Trump will do about drug prices — here's what drugmakers are doing in the meantime

Join the conversation about this story »

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These sales terms get thrown around all the time. But what really is the difference between a Prospect vs Lead vs Opportunity?

There’s so much confusion around prospect vs lead, lead vs opportunity, prospect vs opportunity. Are they all the same?

Terminology in sales isn’t just jargon, and it can be confusing.

So many different ways to slap a label on someone. Sadly, there are so few sales facing teams who have a solid grasp on the terms.

To tackle to overall confusion, we’ve laid out three of the most commonly used terms here in one post. We’ll examine and cross-examine each one until you have firm understanding of each.

Why Do You Even Need to Know?

Correctly ascribing individuals or brands in your sales funnel will help you figure out how to treat them.

Imagine your sales and marketing team as journalists. Not the left/right garbage we’re all getting sick of today. Think about back in the day, when stories were written late at night with fedoras and cigar smoke.

So, the short version is leads, then prospects, then customers.

The rest of this resource will help you:

1. Determine the difference between prospects and leads
2. Turn the prospect into an opportunity
3. Finish the chain from leads to prospects to opportunities — all the way to customers

In a nutshell, this is how to look at it via this quick image we put together:

What is a Sales Lead?

Again using our journalist example, think about this in terms of needing a story for the front page of the Sunday edition. What is it that you need to get started?

A lead.

You’re looking for someone to speak with that could give you something to look into. It could be someone in the rolodex, or someone coming to you with a story that will break wide open (probably in a dark alley like in the movies).

Are they a good lead that will give you a front page story, or is it a dead end? It all depends on how the conversation goes.

It’s not that difficult to directly translate this to the business world.

Either you buy or put together a list of your own leads (e.g. rolodex), or via inbound techniques/advertising they come to you (e.g person coming directly to you).

The job for you or your team?

You need to decipher which leads could make it to print (or closed-won) and those that aren’t worth the time. Start by knowing the type of stories buyer personas that really fit into your newspaper organization.

Again, the lead could be nothing, or there could be something that makes you want them to stick around and keep talking.

The point is: a “Lead” isn’t a sure thing.

One of the dictionary definitions states that a lead is, “a slight or indirect pointing to something”.

When a lead comes into your outreach process, they should fit a certain mold. Whether that is certain firmographic/ demographic data or someone who is interested in your advertising or content online.

That said, they may have made little to no indication of interest in your products. That’s because leads need to be qualified.

Higher quality names in the beginning should give you a higher percentage of leads who move along in the overall sales process. However, you won’t know until you have a conversation.

Typically, reps will have to chip away at leads in order to have an initial conversation.

Things Leads May Be:

• Names on a list: Either one you’ve drummed up yourself through research, or bought from a third-party.
• Referrals: Either from colleagues or current clients.
• People who’ve responded: If someone responds to your cold emails and phone calls, they’re still a lead until you qualify them a bit.
• Inbound/Advertising: They’ve come to you and want answers. A great place to be in the sales world.

Before you can say that they are no longer a lead, you have to speak with them. There has to be an initial conversation for reps to determine whether or not a lead is either an uninterested party or our next term.

Depending on whether or not you’re B2B, Tech, or even direct to consumer—the questions are going to be different. All questions should be used to help you determine how likely a lead is to close.

Here are a few core components to find out from your inquiry:

1. Level of Pain: Are they really ready to switch solutions to solve the pain? Ask questions about why they are looking for something now. If it’s a “meh” type answer, they shouldn’t move on.
2. Logistical Issues: Budgeting, timeframe, buying cycle. Questions that determine the likelihood of a close in terms of time and money. B2B cycles can be a long time, but that doesn’t disqualify a lead (necessarily).
3. Competition: Find out what current provider they use (if applicable) and why. It’s important to know how you differ from leading comparable tools.

For some specific questions that you could tailor for your cold outreach, we’ve found a couple of resources from the web:

Here are 18 questions from HubSpot

7 overlooked questions from RingDNA

What is a Sales Prospect?

Imagine you’ve called on one of your leads and received a great tip that could just be the story you’ve been looking for.

You’ve asked them the questions and they’ve answered them all with the details you hoped to hear. At this point, your lead becomes a prospect. Following a prospect is where the real legwork begins, but it’s also the exciting part.

In the business world, it’s just as exciting.

The lead has been qualified and hopefully is willing to have continued correspondence with you.

This lead has the problems that your products solve, a budget that warrants your pricing, and a timeline that puts them near ready for a decision. However, you may not get the sale right away.

In B2B scenarios (especially larger organizations) there are multiple people involved in the buying decision. The data suggests 5.7 on average.

For this, your one-lead story becomes a multi-person operation.

More interviews, finding the right person to talk to, and schmoozing everyone in order to get the intel that you want. Call it journalism, call it sales—not much of a difference.

That’s ok.

Just make sure that you factor that into your overall process to deem it worthwhile. If a prospect is close to making a decision, but needs a ton of work dealing with multiple influencers; you’ll want to factor that into your efforts.

Prospect: A lead that has proven to be a fit for your products/services and is progressing toward a decision by having a continuous conversation with a sales rep.

For these reasons, the prospect stage isn’t necessarily a short one.

This phase could actually be the longest, given the direct time that you’ll be involved. Leads are leads until you get to have a conversation.

Prospects are prospects until they move into the opportunity phases (our next definition), or are ruled out due to other factors (e.g. cold feet, change of personnel, unforeseen issues). Although, you shouldn’t continue to call them “prospects” if they aren’t progressing toward a decision.

Note: There is another definition for prospect that we didn’t include here for the sake of confusion. Essentially, a prospect (by this second definition) is a company/individual that fits into a particular buyer persona. Before you contact them, they are already a prospect by this definition. We opted not to detail this one out.

Another Note: The word “prospect” is also not to be confused with “prospecting“. Prospecting is the process of finding leads in the first place. (See why we’re trying to define these terms?)

What is a Sales Opportunity?

You’ve talked to all the people involved in the story, you’ve done a stakeout to catch the culprits in the act, and you’ve even filled up one of those little memo pads with all the notes for your story.

Now, it’s time to put it all on the line and pitch your story.

Often times in the boom of print media, reporters would have to write out the story and put it on the editor’s desk—hoping for the best.

Is sales any different?

Sure, you’ve done your best to determine the fit and have extracted all the juicy details to make things as interesting and beneficial as can be. But it all comes down to whether or not, the decision maker thinks it’s worthy of a spot on the page (purchase).

That’s what an opportunity is for reps. It’s the point in which a prospect agrees to consider your solution.

Important: If a prospect is not willing to seriously talk about and consider either changing from their current solution or just using you for the first time—they are still a prospect.

You obviously desire to sell your products to those who need them. Therefore, the opportunity hinges on the potential customer.

Once your prospect decides they need to consider your solution, it genuinely is an opportunity. You can’t sell to someone who’s not interested. You can explain the benefits and pour salt in the wound of their pain, but it takes willingness to consider for there to be potential.

After the Opportunity is Recognized

You’ve done some fine journalism, but it’s time to write the story.

All the opportunity in the world won’t sell itself. The most interesting story interested decision maker still needs to have a call-to-action. For journalists, it means retelling what you’ve lived through.

If you’re a sales rep — it means using the intel you have, getting on the phone and having a conversation.

It’s Story Time

Hopefully our analogy and definitions have helped bring some clarity to your sales process. Now, it’s up to you to utilize the information and identify those in your outreach funnel. Take the information and use it to close more deals.

Use this for you (or your rep) and differentiate a prospect vs lead vs opportunity in your funnel.

Grab yourself one of those little memo pads and a fedora and get to work on turning some leads into prospects and turning those prospects into opportunities.

Find the story.

Have any questions about prospects vs leads vs opportunities? Ask in the comments below!

Things are looking a bit desperate in China.

The country has been suffering from money outflows for months  — something that troubles Beijing because it pulls down the value of the Chinese yuan and makes the economy harder to manage.

But government measure to stem the outflows — like requiring citizens to report transfers over $10,000 and discouraging overseas acquisitions— still aren't showing up in the numbers. In January, up to $82.7 billion left the country, according to Bloomberg economist Tom Orlik, bringing currency reserves down below the $3 trillion mark.

Analysts are wondering how long the country can hold on without devaluing the currency, or taking control of it all together and undoing years of reforms to liberalize its markets.

"China's authorities have chosen to pursue harsher measures against capital outflows over a large change in the exchange rate to address the country's outflow problem, at least for now," said Autonomous Research analyst Charlene Chu in a note to clients last month.

She continued: "This could work for a few quarters, but we think closing the gates is not feasible over the long run for the largest trading nation in the world with a USD33trn banking sector. We expect growth to begin decelerating in 2Q17, as a weaker credit impulse passes through, but this is of secondary importance to outflows and the currency."

So things are getting real, but they're also getting surreal.

The government is looking in every nook and cranny to block any way money can leave the country without its knowledge. That is why on Wednesday the People's Bank of China had a meeting with the country's top Bitcoin exchanges, to urge them to keep money in the country.

Let that sink in. The Chinese government went after Bitcoin.

The next day, two exchanges announced that they would no longer allow withdrawals and the cryptocurrency crashed almost 10%. 

And of course, state media is on message — telling people to remain calm because the situation is not that serious, while also blaming outside forces their trouble.

One state-owned finance publication said that there is "no need to worry," because the overall fundamentals of the economy are good. It also blamed the issue of falling reserves on Tibet.

But right now reserves are important. China is using them to keep its currency, the yuan, stable as its value has been falling. The strong dollar is only been making that situation worse. 

And the reserves are important in the event of an emergency. The Chinese economy is transitioning from one based on manufacturing and exports, to one more based on services industries like retail and banking. That means a lot of massive, often state-owned companies are heavily indebted and need to be downsized. There's a lot that could go wrong there that China could use reserves for.

Now, China could take control of the yuan and fix its value, but it's clear from the media that the state wants to continue on its path to liberalization, not take steps back. It also wants to keep the currency stable. 

That, of course, means using more reserves to buy yuan and keep its value from falling too quickly. 

It's true China does have plenty of reserves in the tank. But it's also clear that the government is doing it's to downplay the meaning of the continuing drop. Across the board, over and over, publications are referring to the drop in reserves below $3 trillion as a "psychological" issue.

Get your head around that too.

SEE ALSO: One of the most brilliant China minds in the world has a warning for the 2nd half of 2017

Join the conversation about this story »

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It’s a big year for small businesses. There’s a new president, a new administration with new policies and all the while, the increasingly digital world is becoming more complex and competitive. Even with all the changes, nearly half of the 1,100 small businesses surveyed in Wasp Barcode Technologies’ recently released annual State of Small Business Report say that they expect a positive impact on their business with a Trump administration. This is an increase from the 39 percent that believed the same thing around this time last year, when asked what kind of impact a new president would have on business.

The report also revealed that 50 percent of those surveyed don’t think the government is currently doing enough to support small businesses, and 13 percent don’t want the government involved at all.

Still, the mood seems positive, as 69 percent of small business owners and executives anticipate revenue growth this year, whereas 10 percent anticipate a decline and 15 percent predict no revenue change compared to the previous year.

Below are the seven strategies business owners plan to adopt to achieve growth in 2017:

1. Improve existing customer experience and retention

Forty percent of those surveyed say they will grow their business by improving existing customer experience and retention. This makes a lot of sense, as keeping the right customers and retaining them is much cheaper than acquiring new ones. In fact, a number of research finds acquiring a new customer costs anywhere between five to 25 times more than keeping existing customers happy.

Additionally, increasing customer retention rates by just 5 percent can increase profits by 25 to 95 percent, according to research done by Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company (the inventor of the net promoter score). Still, most companies still spend more resources and put more effort into acquiring new customers rather than finding ways to retain existing customers.

What is your customer churn rate?

One way to keep existing customers happy is to keep communication lines open through a useful website. For instance, use blogs to engage with your customers. Wasp’s report finds that only 24 percent of those surveyed plan to offer a company blog on their website, compared to the 28 percent who planned to do the same the previous year. Another great engagement tool is allowing visitors to your website to watch videos, whether about your product or even better, videos that give a glimpse into the inner-workings of your company. Today’s consumers want to know that they are supporting a brand they believe in, and employer branding is a great thing to showcase through videos.

2. Launch new products and services

Wasp’s report finds that 36 percent of those surveyed plan to diversify their business in 2017 by launching new products and services in hopes of growing revenue. Fortunately, 42 percent say they will be using social media to promote specific products and services.

The introduction of social media has completely changed the way businesses communicate with their customers, and even consumer behavior and expectations have changed. Customers today no longer trust traditional advertising methods, because they know it’s paid for and there is no way to have a two-way relationship with a traditional medium. On the other hand, social media is all about engaging and communicating with consumers. Brands can interact and get feedback from customers this way, an especially great tool when launching new products and services.

More than half (54 percent) of those surveyed in Wasp’s report say they will invest more than 4 percent of their revenue in marketing, with the top tool used being a website, followed by emails (likely newsletters), then social media and word of mouth or referrals. Does your business have a referral or loyalty program? Do customers feel like they are getting something out of being a loyal customer, and can they feel good about referring your products and services to others because you have a good employer brand?

3. Invest in new customer acquisition and activities and methods

Small business owners understand that retaining customers is important, but so is attracting new ones. In fact, 32 percent say they will invest in new customer acquisition in 2017, and 33 percent will do so by gaining likes and fans. Again, social media is great way to establish direct communication and build relationships with potential customers. A whopping 68 percent of those surveyed say they use Facebook as a marketing strategy, much more so than LinkedIn (39 percent), Twitter (34 percent) and Instagram (27 percent). Using these social media platforms is also a good way for keeping track of the way you communicate with the public. For instance, if you see a drop in your followers, you can examine the way you’re communicating on social media. And remember, always use social media to listen to what potential customers are saying. When they see that your brand is a customer-first kind of business, they will be inclined to learn more about you, and spread the good word for you.

4. Expand into new markets

Our world is becoming increasingly global and interconnected, so businesses that may not have had to care about what’s going on on the other side of world, now do. Wasp’s report found that 30 percent of the small business owners and executives surveyed plan to expand into new markets in the new year. With this, comes more complex inventory and management systems and way of doing business. Yet, only 18 percent of small businesses use an inventory control software and system. Sure, that’s an increase from the 16 percent that had a system in 2016, but the number is still too low. The last thing you want, as a business, is to lose customers and damage your reputation by not having the goods you promised, or having too much or forgotten inventory sitting on your shelves, destroying your balance sheet in the process.

5. Hiring new employees

Bringing new talent in is certainly a great strategy for growth, but it also happens to be a top challenge for small businesses (50 percent agree hiring new employees is what’s keeping them up late at night). Still, 52 percent of small businesses plan to hire new talent to achieve growth in the new year. We know hiring the right talent is crucial for business success, so what’s the best way to source and find great new talent while also keeping overhead costs low? By involving existing employees. Do you have an employee referral program at your company? The impact of a successful employee referral program can be very beneficial to your bottom line, and studies show that referred hires tend to stay at jobs much longer than those who joined with no connections to the company.

Additionally, Wasp’s report found that only 24 percent of small businesses do not involve their employees in marketing efforts at all, which is a huge loss to the companies. It takes an entire company to find great hires, so why not empower your employees to do so. Ask them to share content on their social media sites and engage with potential candidates, which only happens at 30 percent of the small businesses from Wasp’s report.

6. Invest in training or tools to improve employee productivity

Our increasingly connected, 24/7 world means companies that work smarter end up on top. Wasp’s report found that 21 percent of the small businesses surveyed say they will invest in new training tools to improve employee productivity in the new year, and 42 percent plan to increase IT spending. Looking back at 2016, the top IT changes were replacing computer hardware, updating networking security and upgrading network. This is all great, but adding a cloud computing software was number six and implementing an inventory management system was scarily number nine on the list from last year–and both of these IT systems are crucial for business success.

7. Open new stores / sites / facilities

Out of the 1,100 small business owners surveyed, 6 percent say that they plan to open new stores, sites and facilities. There are lots of ways to do this successfully and get the word out there to the right customers, but just remember to involve the entire company and use marketing and IT solutions to your advantage. It’s all about working smarter, not harder.

How much is a blog post worth? $50? $200? $500? According to the fine folks at Fiverr, $5 a pop?

Companies are hungry for content, and words can be had for virtually any price (yes, even $5). In today’s tech-obsessed world, there’s a push for everything to happen faster, cheaper, more efficiently. Place your order on an app or a form, and in the blink of an eye, you’ll receive a package of content with the exact titles and keywords you’ve specified. Presto!

This on-demand delivery model can work awesomely well when it comes to buying groceries through Instacart or booking an Uber at the airport. But when it comes to content marketing, more often than not, the end product is utter crap when you follow this hands-off model, regardless of whether you’ve gone straight for the lowest bidder or not.

If your content creator views your content as merely an order to be fulfilled, nine times out of 10, it’s not going to satisfy your needs.

Why?

Great content is a craft–not a commodity.

Here’s why the SaaS model, smart as it is for many things, doesn’t work when it comes to content:

Great content requires true insight

Are you asking someone to write an article on your behalf without ever having a conversation with them? That’s your first mistake. Keyword data can be useful, but when you’re asking someone to write a story that showcases the value of your brand, they need to first understand who you are and what makes your prospects tick. Quality content needs to speak to its readers’ passions, fears, and motivations–which means whoever’s creating it needs the time and space to climb inside their heads. That takes a genuine content strategy; it’s not possible in a formula-driven package offering.

Content marketing is a collaboration

In the same vein, it’s important to get out of the mindset that content is a product to be bought and sold. It’s not: It’s a partnership between the content creator and the stakeholder.

Your role in the process is to clearly define the messaging and goals of each piece of content, and the creator will offer a recommended plan of attack. Once you’ve mutually agreed on an ideal game plan, you’ll work through the content process in pre-defined stages (at our agency, we typically start with a detailed pitch or outline, move to a draft, which is internally edited prior to client review; and then complete another draft based on our client’s feedback). You’ll ensure that your content creator has the right resources, such as access to research documents or subject-matter experts, and the creator work to ensure a solid understanding of the goals and messaging of the piece before moving forward. A collaborative process is crucial to developing successful content, and in an on-demand market, it’s completely missing.

Content marketing is a service, not a product

At the end of the process, you may end up with a product: An ebook, a series of blog posts, or an infographic, for instance. But in order to get to that end product, it takes a team of people who are invested in your goals and objectives. You’re not paying for words or images on a page–you’re paying for the time and expertise of the people who worked together to conceptualize and deliver the best possible work they could for you.

So, if you don’t have an in-house team available to craft content for your business, it’s fine to look for support (and in some cases, I recommend it). But as you choose your partner, think carefully about the goals of your content, and find a collaborator who’ll be invested in the journey with you. Only by slowing down and being thoughtful about content–treating it as a core part of your business rather than a simple commodity–can you truly realize the immense power of content marketing.

Download our ebook for more advice on how to kickstart your content marketing plan.

I have to admit, this post is targeted primarily to vendors of Sales/Marketing tools, services, and consulting. I guess being a consultant in this space makes me a target for more than my fair share of poorly thought out marketing and sales approaches. Frankly, I think any person with sales, marketing, business development in their job title gets inundated with the same crap I have to wade through daily.

To make my point, I have to step back to the 80’s At the time, I was an executive in the Manufacturing Industry segment of IBM. We had responsibility to sell IBM solutions to engineers and manufacturers of everything from toys to semiconductors, automobiles, airplanes. As you might guess, IBM was a very big manufacturer itself. In trying to grow our business, we noticed customers asking some very interesting (discomforting) questions.

“What systems and tools does IBM use for these functions?” It could have been engineering design, process control, manufacturing systems, classic ERP functions, and many other things.

In many cases, the tools we sold were not the tools our plants and labs used. In some cases we had our own “proprietary” tools, in others the plant or lab selected a tool different from what we sold. Upon discovering this, some of the more challenging customers (read huge/mega manufacturers) would ask, “If the tools you sell aren’t good enough for your own plants and labs to use, then why do you expect us to buy them?”

This single question shifted our thinking about both what our internal plants and labs used, as well as what we sold. IBM was (is) a great design and manufacturing company. We could, in fact, become the greatest reference for best practices in many segments. We also realized that many of the “proprietary” tools IBM plants and labs used, might be commercialized. Finally, we recognized our own facilities might get tremendous value from using the tools we sold.

As a result, we came up with the thought, “Sell What You Use, Use What You Sell!” It was a huge internal and external initiative, producing stunning results–both in selling to our customers, as well as improving our own operations.

Flash forward to today. Based on the majority of marketing and selling I see from the vendors of Sales/Marketing tools, services, and consulting, I wonder if they “Sell what they use or use what they sell.” I read their websites and am informed of things like targeting, research, relevance, impact, putting the customer first, understanding the customer needs, priorities, goals. You know what I’m talking about—great professional sales and marketing practice/execution. I read how their tools are supposed to help all sales and marketing people be much more effective in doing these things–that is executing marketing and sales at the highest levels of professionalism, driving higher levels of engagement, effectiveness, and efficiency.

But then I see what they execute……

Emails and phone calls that are nothing but product pitches. Outreach that is irrelevant to me, but I happened to be on the list they procured, but didn’t scrub. Calls where the sales person knows nothing about me or my business, but claims he can help me solve my problems. When I ask the question, “What am I doing wrong,” they freeze.

Over a year ago, a SDR suggested I didn’t understand how to maximize the performance of my sales team. When I asked what she knew about my business and what I was doing wrong, I could hear her fingers on her keyboard, then I heard her mutter, “Oh sh*t!”

Or they aren’t prepared for the simplest issues: At one time, as EVP of Sales, my team was looking to buy about $2M in sales training. An important part of the training program was sales call planning and execution. When their sales people met with me for their final presentations and closing calls, before the meetings started, I asked each person for a copy of their sales call plan (One would think a call to close a $2M order would justify a sales call plan). Of the 4 vendors presenting, only 1 had call plan. You can guess who got the business.

I’m on the “list” for one of the major marketing automation vendors. Every 3 months, like clockwork, I get an email stating, “You haven’t opened a piece of correspondence we’ve sent in a year, we are dropping you from our list…” But I continue to get their mailings, I continue to get the same email every 3 months and I think, “How are they using their scoring on me? How come nothing they send me is relevant to me? Isn’t their tool supposed to help with this?”

The marketing and sales execution of too many of these vendors are far from the practices they espouse and what their customers should execute, yet my and too many other’s email boxes continued to be filled with pointless, irrelevant, messages. 95% of the phone calls are simply product pitches and requests for a meeting/demo, without any questions about why I might even need the solution or what I’d like to see.

If you are selling Marketing/Sales tools/services, your prospects/customers are examining how you market and sell to them. If it isn’t consistent with what you are “selling” to your customers, they will–and should throw you out!

If you are buying Marketing/Sales tools/services, watch how the vendors sell to you. If they aren’t executing what they preach, then ask why they aren’t. If they aren’t leveraging their tools to improve the quality of engaging you, then think about whether you can really get the value from what they are selling.

Yes, we all make mistakes. I’ve done poorly thought out prospecting and mediocre calls, far below my personal standard or what people should expect. It’s not the occasional mistake I’m ranting about, it’s the systemic cluelessness of many sales and marketing programs, focusing more on volume and velocity, and not on engagement.

Many friends and colleagues working for these companies will think I’m betraying them. I think there can be great value from lots of these tools–properly implemented. But you owe it to your customers and to yourselves to make your own marketing/sales approaches those that your customers aspire to emulate.

How are you prioritizing your sales resources towards your best opportunities?

As sales leaders, it’s critically important that we focus our reps on our sweet spot, those companies and prospects where you have the best chance at selling a high-value deal. Creating a solid sales planning process for an organization involves three key areas.

1. Territory Management
2. Account Management
3. Opportunity Management

The challenge comes when we don’t have a cadence or a rhythm around driving accountability for the forecast at the rep level and a concentration on building pipeline at the territory level.

Even veteran sales managers sometimes struggle to effectively extend accountability for the forecast to the rep level. As a result, your sales team is one giant ball of stress as the end of the quarter nears. Sellers, plagued with poor planning processes, try to squeeze that revenue number out of opportunities already in the pipeline. They lose “territory perspective” while scrambling to close deals and desperately searching for ways to hit the number by the end of the year. To get customers to move, they resort to discounting their price to get deals through that aren’t fully baked. This means lost margins for the seller and your company, as well as ongoing pressure from the customer to discount even more when it’s time to renew a deal.

Remember Pipeline Cures All Ills for a Sales Organization.

A sales organization is much more productive if its team members focus on building pipeline at the territory level. If we want to drive success in sales planning – we need to drive accountability in the forecast, creating a sales culture where we drive pipeline at the territory level. Here are some key questions to assess your sales team:

• Do they understand the geography, vertical markets, and prominent players?
• Do they understand their target account profile and how to identify these accounts?
• Do they understand the current market conditions and the impact these conditions have on their ability to sell certain solutions?

When your reps have a solid grasp of their territories, they’ll focus on building their pipeline at the territory level rather than scrambling to fuel the forecast at the opportunity level. Targeted and coordinated sales activities at the territory level will drive a healthy pipeline that can make the difference between your meeting this quarter’s revenue goals and falling short. As a sales leader, it’s important that you take the critical steps to coach your team to maximize their territories and pipeline opportunities. A comprehensive approach to sales planning maximizes your efforts as a sales leader.

Develop a Cadence Around Your Sales Planning Activities.

The right operating rhythm not only provides sellers with a credible and executable account strategy, it also drives metrics that provide management with a clear line-of-sight into the performance of their entire sales organization.

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) = Focused B2B Marketing

2016 was the year of category creation for account-based marketing. ABM was added as a category on TrustRadius and the very first book on ABM, Account-Based Marketing For Dummies, was published. ABM was one of the biggest buzzwords in our industry. Just look at the rise in Google searches for “account-based marketing.”

Now that 2017 is here, there will be an increasing number of B2B marketing teams putting ABM into practice. ABM is now a well-established practice, and research shows that an increasing number of organizations are investing in marketing technology (martech) to support their ABM efforts. Just look at how much the martech landscape has changed in 2016!

There are nearly 4,000 tech vendors out there to support B2B marketers in their endeavors. But candidly, all of this technology is useless without a holistic marketing strategy. This is where an account-based marketing strategy comes into play.

Why? Because a comprehensive ABM strategy is proven
to increase revenue for B2B organizations!

Here are 17 statistics showing why 2017 will be another big year for account-based marketing.

1. B2B marketers invested more heavily in account-based marketing in 2016…

This research from SiriusDecisions was led by Megan Heuer. Their goal was “to find out just how far (ABM) has come in terms of execution.” 27% of survey respondents said they were devoting between 11% and 30% of their total marketing budget to ABM. This metric was up from 19% in 2015.

Source: SiriusDecisions’ 2016 State of Account Based Marketing (ABM) Study

2. …and that pattern is expected to continue in 2017.

Over 70% of the survey respondents said they spent more of their budgets on ABM in 2016. “It’s likely that these spending patterns will continue in 2017,” the research states. This is an important indicator that there’s an increasing number of early adopters investing in martech to execute ABM programs at scale.

Source: SiriusDecisions’ 2016 State of Account Based Marketing (ABM) Study

3. Marketing technology is a fast-growing industry in 2017.

More than 70% of survey respondents said they expect their marketing technology budget to increase slightly (50%) or greatly (20%) in 2017, and only 2% expect a decrease. Per the previous statistics, it can be inferred that an increasing number of B2B marketers are investing in tech solutions to do #MarTech and #ABM at scale.

Source: The State of Marketing Technology 2017 study by Walker Sands Communications & chiefmartec.com

4. B2B marketing budgets as a whole are also increasing in 2017.

From the marketers surveyed, 57% of respondents said they expect their marketing budget to increase in 2017. Comparatively, only 14% of marketers surveyed said they expected their marketing budgets to decrease.

Source: Gartner 2016-2017 CMO Spend Survey

5. ABM gives marketers a serious return on their investment.

Almost 85% of marketers who measure ROI describe account-based marketing as delivering higher returns than any other marketing approach, with half of those marketers citing significantly higher returns.

Source: ITSMA

6. The current marketing landscape puts buyers in charge…

“Presented with copious information available digitally, business buyers have learned to use technology to make more informed choices. Sellers once controlled information, price, and location — now buyers, empowered with mobile devices and cloud-based apps, have taken that control.”

Source: Forrester’s Winning In The Age Of The Customer

7. …but account-based marketing gives vendors a bigger advantage.

“ABM helps shift the advantage away from digitally empowered buyers by reapplying fundamental marketing principles like segmenting, targeting, developing rich customer insights, testing, aligning across channels, and acting in response to results.”

Source: Forrester’s Retro Yet Revolutionary: Demystifying Account-Based Marketing

8. Account-based marketing is a strategy, not a technology.

David Raab is one of the top thought leaders in the ABM space, and his first-ever ABM vendor report is chock-full of insights and analysis. “ABM is a strategy, not a technology,” Raab writes. “But ABM requires many tools, including data and predictive modeling to identify target accounts; campaign engines to orchestrate messages; execution systems to deliver those messages; and analytical systems to evaluate results.”

Source: David Raab’s Account Based Marketing Vendor Report

9. Predictive analytics are on the rise in B2B marketing.

Gartner has “Predictive B2B Marketing Analytics” at the peak of inflated expectations, noting that this type of tech has a huge ROI and can be instrumental for account-based marketing.

Source: Gartner 2016 Hype Cycle for Digital Marketing and Advertising

10. Most marketers have already built a content marketing foundation for ABM.

When asked, “Does your organization use content marketing?” nearly 90% replied “Yes” from more than 1,100 respondents. Content marketing is the essence of ABM, as content will need to be aligned to personas and industries in target accounts.

Source: Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America

11. Even AdWeek is getting on the ABM bandwagon!

This is a great article discussing how in 2017 even more B2B marketers “will adopt techniques including account based marketing.”

“…we believe ROI pressure will lead marketers to seize ownership of the overall customer experience and create strategic alignment across marketing, communications, sales and IT.”

Source: 6 Digital Trends in 2017 That Will Redefine Influence and Interaction for Marketers

12. Companies that do account-based marketing are more tightly aligned.

A survey from Bizible found that “marketers doing ABM are about 40% more likely to report alignment with their sales team compared to marketers not doing ABM.”

Source: Bizible’s State of Pipeline Marketing Report 2016

13. In fact, B2B companies that do ABM are more successful in a lot of ways!

This report from Bizible and TOPO found “ABM outperforms a traditional marketing approach across a number of categories, including sales and marketing alignment, overall customer LTV, contract value, close rate, and ROI.”

Source: Bizible and TOPO’s ABM Insights & Recommendations

14. Account-based marketing isn’t just successful; it’s measurable.

“ABM’s ability to drive revenue creates benefits for the marketing organization. The ultimate goal for a marketing organization is to not just influence revenue, but to attribute a measurable contribution to revenue.”

Source: ABM Adoption Report

Hang tight! We’re almost done!

Lastly, we have two customer case studies with awesome proof points that highlight the importance of account-based marketing.

15. ABM works to generate more opportunities.

Our ABM superheroes at WP Engine used the Terminus account-based advertising platform to generate 28% more new opportunities from target accounts. As a result of their ABM campaign, WP Engine saw:

• Engagement from 93% of the accounts on their target list.
• A 59% increase in open rates (from 27% to 43%).
• A 29% increase in reply rates (from 4.9% to 6.3%).

16. Innovative companies use account-based marketing to revive dead opps.

In this video testimonial from Vidyard, hear from CMO Tyler Lessard on how his team was able to revive more than $1 million in lost opportunities by taking an account-based approach.

And the most important thing to remember about ABM…

17. The martech landscape will only continue to grow.

If there were nearly 4,000 software vendors included in the chiefmartec.com landscape in March of 2016, imagine how many Scott Brinker will include in the 2017 supergraphic. We look forward to seeing it debut at the MarTech Conference in San Francisco this May!

Want to explore account-based marketing technology?

Four thousand software vendors is a little much for the typical busy marketer to sort through, but we’re here to help. Use our new interactive tool, the ABM Stack Grader, to visualize your B2B technology stack, identify gaps and overlap in your tools, and build your ideal account-based marketing tech stack.

When you think about your business, how do you approach sales? Public relations and marketing strategies like pitching the media, blogging for SEO, connecting with consumers via social media and distributing email newsletters are powerful tactics for selling your products or services, but in reality these activities are tools to reach potential customers to reinforce your message and reiterate why they should work with your business.

With this in mind, it’s important to consider the messages you’re sending through your marketing channels. Are they effective? I recently read The Science of Selling, which shares research behind how buyers make decisions, and it comes down to an overarching theme we emphasize all the time at Three Girls: make it about them – your clients, consumers, readers, followers and anyone else you’re targeting. Everything you say, write, share or post should be about serving the people you’re trying to reach.

About the Book: Using Science to Increase Sales

The Science of Selling shares a fascinating, revolutionary approach scientifically proven to dramatically improve sales. Author David Hoffeld has decades of experience in the industry, working with organizations of all sizes – from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies. He took a look at research from social psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics to develop an evidence-based approach to closing sales. In his book, Hoffeld explains the science behind each component of his approach and provides examples for how to frame readers’ conversations with potential buyers.

As a small business owner, this book would be incredibly valuable. You may not have a dedicated sales team, but you can take the advice Hoffeld lays out in the book and apply it to your conversations with potential clients as well as your marketing strategy. In fact, I noted 6 tactics that seamless apply to marketing and public relations as a whole, including content marketing, pitching the media, etc.

6 Tactics From The Science of Selling That to Apply to Marketing

1. Form a relationship and make it about them.

“Despite the undeniable role that technology plays in selling and buying these days, people still buy from people” (page 5). Email, blogs, social media accounts – these are all tools to connect person A to person B.

“The way most salespeople are taught to sell is grounded in selling, not buying. Salespeople are shown sales activities and behaviors and then taught to make their buyers conform to the their model of selling. It’s the exact opposite of how it should be” (page 24).

In fact, one strategy Hoffeld shared is to start the conversation with, “How are you feeling this morning/afternoon/evening?” Research actually showed response rates doubled when the Hunger Relief Committee asked this question first. It makes sense, though: you establish right away that they’re the focus of your conversation (page 27).

As you use various public relations and marketing tools in your strategy, how do you make it about the person with whom you’re trying to connect?

• For Journalists: Read what they’ve written and check out their social media accounts. Pay attention to what they’re interested in and the types of stories they cover. When you write your pitch, show them you did your homework by personalizing it, and then clearly connect your story idea to their readers, listeners or viewers.
• For Blog Readers: Pick topics that provide value to them. Answer common questions you hear. Write a “how-to” article. Share insider tips for success. While it may feel like you’re giving away the farm, Beth Adan summarized it well in her post about blogging for stellar customer care: “Giving away some of your secrets can have a positive impact not only on your customers’ perception, but also when blogging for SEO.”
• For Social Media Followers: Don’t only talk about yourself! Instead of inundating users with self-promotional posts, make sure that about 80% of what you post provides value they’ll appreciate, such as a thoughtful article, an inspiring quote or helpful tips.

2. Establish yourself as an expert.

“A meta-analysis that analyzed fifty years of research found that expertise is a primary component of trust. Cognitive psychologist R. Glen Hass maintains that when the brain recognizes that someone is an expert, it is far more likely to comply with that person’s suggestions” (page 65).

Whether you’re pitching the media, writing a blog post or publishing social media updates, you need to establish your credibility. Why should journalists, readers or followers listen to you? You can share your expertise in a variety of ways:

• Showcase your experience by sharing a recent project that finished
• Share industry news alongside your thoughtful commentary
• Provide tips, tricks and helpful advice for those that don’t know as much about the field as you
• Share client testimonials or editorial media coverage you receive as a third-party endorsement in your blog, e-newsletter and social media channels (Note: make sure you don’t pitch a reporter with other coverage you’ve received; journalists want the scoop on a story, so chances of them writing about your business greatly decreases if you send them past articles you were featured in).

3. Stay positive.

“There are a slew of scientific studies showing that experiencing positive emotions boosts comprehension, enhances the mental capacity to make decisions, and increases receptiveness to persuasive requests…these upbeat emotions predispose buyers to be more likely to take your call, agree to a meeting, affirm your value propositions, or even purchase your product or service” (page 80).

As you put your public relations and marketing plans into action, remember that keeping your company’s messages positive will put consumers in a more receptive mindset. Keep your social media updates hopeful and optimistic. Write blog posts with an underlying message of optimism. Keep emails friendly, helpful and positive. Despite all the negativity we’re exposed to, research shows positive emotions will serve you and your business best.

4. Ask questions.

“Questions have such potency that behavioral scientists have found that just asking people about their future decisions significantly increases those decisions” (page 101).

How often do you ask your current and potential customers questions? In addition to sales, this can be a very helpful marketing tactic. Asking questions lets consumers know you care about them. Their answers can be extremely helpful too, from simply increasing engagement and connecting with them more effectively on social media to collecting valuable insight to areas your business can improve.

5. Don’t overwhelm consumers by diluting your message.

“Many salespeople frequently hinder the effectiveness of their sales presentations by engulfing buyers in a plethora of options…but as we’ve seen, too much information obstructs the brain’s capacity to make a decision” (page 184).

While The Science of Selling is using this data to recommend salespeople only offer potential buyers with a few options to choose from, the same principle applies to your public relations and marketing. If you send too much information in a media pitch, your email is actually more likely to end up in the trash. If your social media updates aren’t focused on one point, users will glaze over the text as they skim through their newsfeeds.

The lesson here is, before you create any new content, determine the primary message you’re trying to communicate. Then, as you craft the media pitch, blog post, social media updates, e-newsletter, infographic, etc., keep that message the primary focus so your message doesn’t become confusing and convoluted for your target audience.

You might think: How do you do this for a longer piece of content? Think about this blog post, for example. Although it’s quite lengthy, there is one consistent topic throughout the article: public relations and marketing lessons from The Science of Selling. If I turned around and started writing about tips gleaned from the Super Bowl in the middle of the post, you’d likely find it jarring and confusing.

6. Use images regularly.

“Because the brain thinks in terms of pictures, it is able to process and retain them more easily than words” (page 195).

This concept is backed up by slews of studies. As you execute your public relations and marketing strategy, think about ways you can include clear, crisp, high-quality images. Easy ways to do this include sharing them in:

• Social media updates
• Blog posts
• E-newsletters
• An electronic press kit for your company
• Your website

If you have the time and resources, infographics and white papers are also great ways to share helpful information alongside images.

Learn More About The Science of Selling

The quotes I shared from The Science of Selling only scratch the surface of the fascinating facts, strategies and examples throughout the book. Although every small business owner needs to know how to sell effectively, Author David Hoffeld does a great job of providing helpful ways to influence consumers that can be applied to a wide range of activities, including public relations and marketing. Check it out here.

Poll expert Sam Wang, from the Princeton Election Consortium, ate a cricket live on CNN after losing a bet. Based on his statistical analysis of presidential polls, he didn’t believe Donald J. Trump would win more than 240 Electoral College votes.

Data is a tricky thing. If you misread the data or overlook important points, you could end up in Wang’s place, erroneously making bets you think you can’t lose.

While business intelligence isn’t the same as political data, the overall concepts involved are the same. You look at facts, data and relevant parameters. You build out predictions, strategies and investments based on that analysis. And sometimes, when you bet on these analyses, you bet it all. Unfortunately, though, you may have a lot to lose.

In Business Acumen vs. Business Intelligence, author Robert Brodo says, “Business Intelligence (BI) is the ability to prioritize what is important and not waste time on the things that aren’t important.” And that’s the crux of the issue. Business intelligence only works if it’s actually intelligence, and not leading us down the wrong path.

That’s the whole point of BI, right? To help us avoid the risks involved with simply following our guts? While I’m not advocating we all become statisticians, I am saying we need to learn more about data and how we can use it to help our businesses.

Visuals Aren’t Enough

In this social media-obsessed age, it’s easy to look at something like your number of Twitter followers and think, “We are awesome!”

But are you really?

Data visualizations are great for rendering complex information easily digestible, but not every visualization displays the data points you need most.

What’s the engagement, ROI, or clicks to an action or website? What’s demographic traits do your most engaged fans share? To what extent is your social media activity actually impacting your bottom line? Which geo areas are driving your highest conversion rates? Which social channels are referring the customers whose orders are the biggest, or who give you the most repeat business over time?

For these types of insights, you’ll need to collate data from multiple sources, which is far easier to accomplish today than it was just a couple of years ago, thanks to the rise of “self-service” business intelligence (SSBI) tools like Sisense, Birst and Qlik.

SSBI platforms are generally controlled by using simple, drag-and-drop interfaces that don’t require any database or coding skills, so they’re especially useful for small business managers. Check out the below dashboard as an example.

“While we like to see our data in easy to handle visualizations, platforms that only give you this are not enough to get real insights from your company’s data,” Sisense’s Aya Ephrati recently wrote in a provocative thought piece about the pitfalls associated with visualizations that don’t display any real meat. “With data visualization tools, as you can imagine from their name, you don’t have all the initial, background stages of preparing and joining the data.”

Just because SSBI makes data more accessible doesn’t mean that the data you work with needs to be over-simplified. In Data Dojo: 3 Reasons Marketers Need to Learn Statistical Analysis, I argued that “We are entering an era of smart data where everyone in an organization will be able to harness the power of business intelligence. So while I don’t believe we have to go back to school and become actual statisticians, I do believe we need to become proficient in numbers.”

Don’t rely on visuals from someone else’s analysis. Learning about the information that’s going into a cool chart is more important than the graphics themselves.

Sounds Too Good to Be True? It Probably Is.

How many times have you relied on an expert’s advice?

Many years ago, when I first started my business, I was determined never to learn about taxes. I wanted to pay someone else to do everything that involved my finances (yeah, forgive me – I was young and hated math). My IRS expert always got us lots of money back. Why would I ever question free money?

That worked for a few years until my “expert” tax guy wound up in jail for defrauding the IRS and we lost tens of thousands.

While it’s not exactly the same, the lesson applies to data experts too. I didn’t want to deal with a business issue and let someone else make business decisions for me. In The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – but Some Don’t, author Nate Silver writes, “People gravitate toward information that implies a happier outlook for them.” That’s exactly what happened to me.

While I’m not suggesting that we stop using data experts, I am shouting loudly that we need to question everything. Get second and third opinions. Ask where the data came from and how it was analyzed. Especially when it sounds too good to be true.

Trends Can Point to Predictions – Not Prophesies

There’s a huge difference between BI and predicting the next trend.

Business intelligence can give us a snapshot of what happened last year. Predictive analytics looks at what may happen next year.

Let’s say you have an eCommerce business that uses abandoned shopping cart technology. It can tell you that 100 people left an item in their shopping cart without buying it. It can’t tell you why they didn’t buy it, but it can send a follow-up reminder email (maybe with a free shipping offer) to entice the customer back.

In Dell’s Business Analytics: Moving From Descriptive To Predictive Analytics, author Bill Schmarzo explains the difference.

Business Intelligence answers:

• When did customer X abandon the shopping cart?
• How many customers purchased an item after receiving a follow-up email offer?

Predictive Analytics answers:

• What’s the probability that customer X buys something this week?
• How much revenue will be generated by abandoned shopping cart technology?

Use the right data for the right problem. BI gives you facts and reliable data. Predictions may give you possible trends for the next year.

Never Make a Bet You Can’t Afford to Lose

Data is changing the way we do business. We can pinpoint certain timeframes and learn everything we can about a marketing campaign. And BI isn’t limited to tech wizards from the IT department anymore. The entire marketing department can use the same data and make decisions based off the success or failure of the last campaign.

Yet, the entire concept of BI is to improve our businesses. It’s to figure out how we can connect with customers faster, easier and cheaper. It’s to help us make more money.

Our ability to use data to our advantage is an essential part of being a successful business in the digital age. We have all this information at our fingertips. And so did poor Sam Wang, who had to eat a bug because he lost a bet.

Remember the brave Sam Wang the next time you’re about to make a data bet you can’t afford to lose.

You need cutting-edge prospecting strategies to obtain and develop leads to ensure you can grow your business in any economy, but before you can get to the advanced stuff, you have to learn and understand the basics of prospecting. This skill will make you an invaluable asset to your company. Learn what prospecting is and why it is vital to your success.

What Prospecting Is

The word prospecting comes from Latin, prospectus, which means, "look out for; search for." To prospect has 4 different meanings:

1. Something expected, a possibility.
2. Chances and financial expectations.
3. Potential client or customer purchases.
4. Location of minerals.

Looking for minerals where there is an actual deposit—the gold miner, silver miner, oil miner—these guys are out prospecting for a hole to discover whatever valuable thing they are after. People, sales, opportunities, attention, minerals, girls, guys, it’s all prospecting. If you want the right spouse, you have to go prospecting. If you want more clients and more money you have to go out and prospect. If you’re going to find the minerals, you have to prospect.

The definition of prospecting for a salesperson (all of us) is creating a potential customer or client for your product or service. I’m selling me every day. Some people think that’s wrong but I want people to know me. Without attention, they won’t buy my product or service.

Your prospecting will only improve when you take your pipeline and go big and fill it up.

You need to prospect for clients, attention, referrals, opportunities—your future finances depend on your ability to prospect. Prospecting is important because if people don’t know who you are, it doesn’t matter what your price is, how good your product is, how good your service is, none of it matters if people aren’t thinking about you. You have to not just have clients, but quality clients. And you can’t just have quality clients, but quality clients in the right numbers. This is where people fail.

Businesses fail not because they run out of money, they fail because they couldn’t produce enough prospects for their business quick enough that would fund their activities.

The number one reason a salesperson or a business fails is the inability to find qualified, ready, willing, and able to buy people. You could be the greatest salesperson with the greatest product with the greatest location, but without people talking about you, coming to see you, reaching for you, you’re dead. You have to confront this prospecting thing. That means cold calling.

Levels of Actions

There’s 4 actions that people take with any prospect and only one of them works.

1. None—they simply don’t lift a finger to do anything.
2. Retreat—they actually see a customer in the grocery store and decide to retreat.
3. Average amount of action—doing whatever is expected of the people around you.
4. Massive amounts of activity—the only way that works.

Action is the middle finger to doubt. If you are ever in doubt, take action. Of the 4 levels, the most dangerous is the 3rd level—average amount of action. The guy that does nothing or retreats is not as dangerous as the guy who only operates at normal levels. Why? He actually believes he is doing something. They believe they are doing something based on what others do. Most people are losing in the marketplace.

In prospecting you must begin to think in massive amounts. You want to be omnipresent and have people looking for you. You want people talking about you. You need blogs, videos, and people promoting you. If you do prospecting right you can command a higher price for your service or product and give yourself confidence. What happens when you don’t see anyone for 2 or 3 days? Your confidence drops.

Purpose of Prospecting

The purpose of prospecting is to keep your pipeline so full, so abundant, so loaded up with opportunities, that you create an economy regardless of what’s happening in the outside world. You don’t want to be dependent on the economy—you want to create your own economy by making your own efforts and investments. Make your pipeline full of opportunities, people, and prospects. Look, you have to have numbers of people. You have to have quantity to be successful selling anything, whether it’s furniture, cars, or computers.

Have a full pipeline.

Industries that are dependent on traffic, like brick and mortar retail, are losing because they are just hoping someone shows up. This is why malls are failing all over the country. People have to go there, park, get out, walk in, and find a store. If you can generate your own opportunities and traffic, I’ll be much more valuable to the company and independent of the economy. If the company drives opportunities to the store and you just sit there and wait on people, you become dependent—a slave—to the company.

When I generate my own traffic and bring people in asking for me, the company becomes dependent on me. Isn’t that what you want? Do you want to be dependent on them, or you want them dependent on you? I know I would want the company I work for to be dependent on me, to value me more than the money they give me. How can you do that? One way. Generate your own traffic.

You cannot be successful without prospecting. Most salespeople never embrace this skill. The wealthiest people have gigantic pipelines. A contact only becomes a contract when an R is added, and the R stands for relationship. Your job is to create the relationships. Whether you sell a product or a service, you are in the people business.

You need traffic and opportunities, people talking about you, people coming to see you and people for you to go see. Prospecting, short of closing the sale, is the most valuable skill you will ever develop. And the truth is if you are a great closer but have no prospects—you have nobody to close.

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Be great,

GC

We’re a month into 2017.

Everybody is thinking about how to maximize their efforts to accomplish everything they want to do this year. The to-do list is insanely long for B2B marketers. Unfortunately, one thing I have heard from a lot of my compatriots in the B2B industry is that they are still focused on lead generation.

I thought now was the time that we were starting to shift away from leads? But here we are at the beginning of 2017 and folks are still discussing how to generate all these new prospects to fill in the top of the funnel.

Before we talk about how to move forward in 2017, I want to take a moment to reflect how we got here. I recently had the privilege to sit down with Scott Brinker, the godfather of marketing technology (#MarTech) and founder of chiefmartec.com.

Scott had recently published Hacking Marketing and we (along with Jeff Perkins, CMO of QASymphony) talked about the biggest mega trends in B2B marketing. You can see the interview here:

For the biggest B2B marketing mega trends, let’s take it back to the beginning of this millennium.

It’ s the year 2000, and email marketing is on the rise.

Enter the world of AOL, email, and mass marketing. Enter amazing open- and click-through rates that gave rise to other trends like landing pages, content marketing, and much more. Even today, e-mail marketing is still hot. B2B marketers rely heavily on email to drive revenue.

By 2005, marketing automation has entered the scene.

B2B organizations had the ability to send virtually infinite emails at no cost. But too many emails gave rise to the need for automation In 2005, marketing automation was born, with companies like Vtrenz (acquired by Silverpop), Eloqua (acquired by Oracle), and Pardot (acquired by Salesforce) paving the way. My colleague and friend, Bryan Brown, who recently became our first Chief Product Officer at Terminus, has an awesome LinkedIn blog post on this topic.

So what happened?

It was great that we were able to communicate through email and to automate this marketing activity in one platform, but what were these tools actually doing to drive revenue? This was a problem for B2B sales teams.

Marketers were presenting sales with all these leads they generated from emails, webinars, you name it. But if you’ve been in the B2B marketing game for a while, then you’ve probably heard at least one person from your sales team bemoan the fact these leads are crap.

That’s because the leads were more interested in your new white paper download or the free iPad you were giving away at your trade show booth than actually doing business with your company.

That’s what gave rise to predictive marketing in 2010.

With too many leads, inside sales teams struggled with knowing which contacts to actually work and pursue. This gave rise to predictive marketing to underscore the point that not all leads are equal. Just because someone downloads content from your email does not mean they’re a “hot” prospect.

Predictive analytics helped to identify which leads had the highest propensity to buy based on their fit with your ideal customer profile (ICP). Today, companies like Everstring, Mintigo, 6Sense, Infer, and many others are actively working on solving this problem with marketing to people at the best-fit companies.

This is the evolution of B2B mega trends I’m talking about.

Here’s an interesting thing to note about these trends: what hasn’t changed is that B2B organizations are still using email as the primary channel for engagement. There are a lot of marketers out there that are still maniacally focused on generating new leads. How much has lead gen actually helped us?

At some point between the year 2000 and present day, B2B marketers forgot that they were supposed to generate high-quality leads. This goes beyond getting hundreds of people to your webinar, or meeting thousands of people at an event.

But our world is changing. Our buyers are online on multiple channels. It’s no longer just about emails and phone calls. There’s an ever-increasing number of social channels and ways to connect. We have to graduate from engaging with one person over email or one guy who downloaded a piece of gated content.

Enter account-based marketing, the biggest mega trend in B2B marketing.

The future of #MarTech is getting even more interesting. Now that we know we have the leads that fit our ICP criteria for the sales team to focus on, the question that we are left with is: are they from the right accounts?

After all, sales only closes accounts and not leads, right? This philosophy of focusing on best-fit accounts truly flips the traditional B2B marketing and sales funnel on its head and is revolutionizing, yet again, the marketer’s job.

The current future of B2B marketing is the rise of account-based marketing (ABM).

We have to quit relying on emails to do it all. It’s the marketer’s ability to connect with best-fit accounts across mobile, social, web, videos, at events, sending direct mail, and other targeted activities that will help generate revenue for sales.

Here’s a presentation I did on the subject at the #FlipMyFunnel Atlanta conference towards the end of 2016.

2016 was the year that US digital ad spending surpassed TV ad spending. A 2016 survey Rakuten Affiliate Network commissioned to Forrester Consulting shows that US affiliate marketing spend will increase by a compound annual growth rate of 10.1 percent between 2015 and 2020, to an estimated $6.8 billion industry.

The study also showed that nearly 90 percent of advertisers said that affiliate programs were important or very important to their overall marketing strategy, and the majority of publishers revealed that affiliate partnerships drove more than 20 percent of annual revenue.

The survey concludes that once regarded primarily as a tool to drive consumers to the purchase event, affiliate marketing is now viewed as a powerful channel for consumer discovery that leads to brand engagement and incremental sales at compelling ROIs.

As publishers, what can we expect from affiliate marketing nowadays? What myths exist and what trends are expected in this obviously popular way of selling products and establishing brands? This blog will first list 7 expected trends and then discuss 5 myths surrounding affiliate marketing.

7 Current affiliate marketing trends

Adam Weiss and Xavier Santana expect these 7 trends to continue to rise to the forefront in 2017. As the industry continues to enhance its tools and technology, publishers will continue to improve the shopping experience for the consumer.

1. Influencers

There will be a continued rise of influencers in 2017. Working with influencers is like having your own private army of brand ambassadors. You can read more about influencer marketing in my blog Why to Expect More from Influencer Marketing Now.

2. Driving offers to consumers who shop in-store

Networks will continue to make it easier for publishers to deliver offers and savings to consumers no matter where they shop. Many people still like to shop at a brick-and-mortar store.

Technology will improve the ways that publishers drive in-store offers. Examples include card-linked offers, where sites allow members to link their credit card and activate offers from select retailers. When the purchase is made in store using the linked credit card, the member receives a rebate.

Publishers will work with brands to provide more opportunities for consumers to activate offers across their preferred stores, both online and in brick-and-mortar shops.

3. Tracking performance

Advertisers will close the loop on tracking. Cross-device tracking is no longer a nice-to-have feature, but a foundational component for analyzing performance.

Additionally, the ability to track which online publishers drive consumers to convert in-store will be critical to truly measure success.

Similarly, as more brands prioritize building dedicated mobile apps, publishers can be employed to encourage app downloads and in-app purchases. Having tracking in place to capture these mobile conversions will be integral when analyzing mobile app performance.

4. Keep going mobile

Elaborating on the previous point, going mobile is now one of the most crucial affiliate marketing trends. Indeed, this is something that brands have been working on for years now, but the need to employ this strategy is not going away anytime soon. Think about the revenues associated with mobile apps.

There is a lot of room for anyone looking to get affiliated with mobile apps since publishers all over the world are looking for ways to monetize their apps. Retailers just need to keep affiliating themselves with as many publishers as possible, since you cannot have too many mobile apps endorsing your product.

The takeaway from this trend is that anyone looking to succeed in their marketing strategies needs to invest in getting traffic through mobile devices. No doubt that the leaders in the affiliate industry are making mobile conversions one of this year’s top priorities.

5. Understanding the story behind your data

Next year will continue to be about harnessing data — from using attribution to recognizing how affiliates contribute at each stage of the funnel to using data across channels to better your display and paid search campaigns.

Furthermore, affiliate networks will provide more opportunities for publishers to leverage data to drive conversions. Through tools and technology, publishers will have the ability to personalize the affiliate experience, using insights that will allow them to display more relevant offers to consumers.

6. The universal appeal for saving money

Forget trends. Some things will always endure the test of time. In this case, it is the popularity of coupon and deals sites, cash-back, and loyalty.

Luxury brands do not need to fret, though. Shoppers will continue to employ loyalty and cash-back sites to help them realize savings in the form of rewards for purchasing these higher-priced goods.

7. Non-traditional affiliate marketing

Santana claims that innovators are looking at a more humanized approach to marketing. Perhaps one of the most common types of non-traditional affiliates is known as “storefronts.” The term is used to refer to partners (usually non-profit entities that get co-branded with the retailer) who offer products through different storefront websites. This way, exposure is increased and sales rise.

The retailer gets to sell its products, the storefronts receive commissions, and consumers find what they are looking for. It is an efficient way of spreading a brand because of how it distributes the work among various partners. Best of all, it does not get in the way of other existing strategies at all.

Busted: 5 Affiliate marketing myths

This section is based on a recent blog by AJ Arimas, in which he busts some myths about affiliate marketing. I list the ones that I think are relevant and I comment on them.

1. Myth: Affiliate marketing is really easy

As said above, affiliate marketing is not easy money. Do you think all you need is a website and affiliate links? Just like any other type of business, you need to invest time and money in order for it to work. And no, just because you have a website and affiliates to work with, you will not be successful overnight. The biggest challenge for those who are in this business is to develop a website.

Content is key. You need to have the right content that your visitors need and that attracts more visitors. You must consider SEO and proper keywords. You must also have resources to use, such as videos, links, and written content to support your website. Finally, you must also be capable of promoting your materials and content on social media the right way.

2. Myth: Much traffic also means much money

Yes, high traffic helps, but it is not all about that. You do not need to have much traffic for conversion. As long as the traffic to your website is coming from high-quality visitors, your conversation rates will go up. By high-quality visitors, I mean the people your content is aimed at, providing a good match between the readers and the products described and offered.

3. Myth: Affiliate marketing is dead

As the introduction to this blog shows, affiliate marketing is not dead at all! It is just changing and the trend today is a lot different when it was first conceptualized. Newer trends are more restricted and affiliates are now refrained from practicing link-spamming while banner displays are reduced. To me, this sounds like a good thing!

Google’s algorithm is also strict about contents as well as SEO practices and websites who fail to comply with the standards are shifted to the last part of the search results page. Banner ads are restricted simply because they are not compatible with mobile phones these days. The sizes of the images used alone are not as effective as they used to. Today banners are replaced with text links that you can find between blogs you read.

To me, it sounds like affiliate spamming is dead and that affiliate marketing is very much alive.

4. Myth: Your social media posts will automatically get many likes and shares

In order for your posts/content to be shared or liked, you must post something that is engaging. It must attract the attention of others. Writing an original post or curate content can help.

Keep in mind that everything on social media takes time. If you know what to do, consider each post as an investment that will make beneficial returns.

5. Myth: Only a few niches are profitable

All niches are profitable, but how you promote and develop it plays a vital role in the success of your affiliate marketing. In practice, your skills are more important than the niche chosen.

How do you find the right niche? Start with your interests or hobbies. If you know what these are, it is much easier to promote and develop your niche.

How to be great at affiliate marketing

I hope you have enjoyed this blog about the current affiliate marketing trends and myths. If you are interested in improving your skills, my blog 10 Tips to be Great at Affiliate Marketing might be a good read!

With the increase in worldwide eCommerce, more merchants are realizing that global product sales can offer immense potential for business growth.

It’s estimated that global online trade crossed the $1 trillion mark in 2015, with cross-border eCommerce accounting for around 20% of that number.

Despite this opportunity, some merchants are still reluctant to join the global marketplace.

Strict cross-border regulations, the complexity of doing business overseas, the language barrier all make pursuing global e-commerce, a challenge for many smaller merchants.

While successful global eCommerce requires multiple parties working in tandem, it can be done profitably.

The challenges that face international sellers can be divided into:

• regulatory issues
• payment processing
• creating a streamlined logistics process

By doing their due diligence, merchants can prepare for and overcome all the challenges.

In a client poll, we unearthed eight concerns of eCommerce merchants that want to go global. We’ve outlined them below with our suggested action items to resolve each one.

Identifying Restricted Items

Every country has a unique set rules about what can be sold and even to whom.

In some countries, the law could be an outright prohibition, like the ban on certain dog collars in New Zealand. Other countries impose restrictions on some goods to protect their domestic industries.

To import some goods into some countries, specific requirements have to be met. When unmet, the importer can be held liable for not meeting those requirements.

With certain foods, many countries mandate that the labels must display ingredients, nutritional values, manufacturing date, and expiration date. Failure to comply may lead to Customs restricting its passage indefinitely, plus a potential fine for violation.

Action Item:

Use Tools like UPS TradeAbility and DHL’s global trade map to research the import compliance laws of countries you hope to do business in. If you are just getting starting and really want to advance quickly and trade confidently, courses from experienced international traders, Import Dojo for example, can get you up to speed quickly.

Know the Customs, Duties, and Taxes

Speaking of Customs, every product imported into any country must clear Customs, before its delivery can be allowed. The check is to make sure the product is allowed into the country and to see if all country-specific taxes & duties have been correctly paid.

As this fee depends on the value of the product and the country it’s being shipped to, an eCommerce store can have some trouble keeping up with the Custom fees of different countries.

Therefore many merchants tend to pass this fee on to buyers in countries that charge VAT (Value Added Tax).

Action Item:

Don’t let this come as a nasty surprise to the customer. Update your site with a notice for international customers.

Dealing with Overseas Suppliers

A favorable exchange rate may mean you source products exclusively from overseas, but dealing with overseas suppliers can present some difficulty.

There may be a language barrier, then there’s the possibility of doing business with people that have a different culture and set of values from you.

All of this creates a situation with a potential for misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Action Item:

To get around this, educate yourself about doing business in that country. The best way to do this is to find other eCommerce merchants who are currently importing from, or exporting to, the country concerned. You can also contact the company directly for a list of references. A reliable overseas supplier should have a list of customers they have worked with, who can vouch for their reliability.

Beware the Inaccurate Addresses

A report by E-Commerce Times states that failed deliveries cost large retailers an average of $85.00 every time.

The retailers often have to ship replacement products ASAP. The increased cost of doing business hurts profitability. This is in addition to the cost (hassle) of clearing Customs and paying for international shipping.

Your reputation is also tarnished as the customer associates a failed delivery with the merchant, not the carrier. An unhappy customer with a bad shopping experience leads to poor word of mouth ‘advertising’. Can your smaller eCommerce business afford this triple blow?

Action Item:

To prevent this occurring, verify each address during checkout, using a tool like PCAPredict’s Address Lookup and Verification.

Estimating Transit Time & Cost

It goes without saying that international shipping will take longer than domestic shipping.

Despite this, some customers expect sellers to use any means possible, including air transport, to get their products delivered quickly. Before committing to using either, merchants must look at cost and product.

• Can your product survive on a longer but cheaper sea trip?
• Or are the goods perishable and require speedy but expensive delivery?

Action Item:

As a merchant, figure out the most efficient way to get the goods into customers hands, in a way that still benefits your business. Display this shipping information on your site.

To Insure or Not To Insure

When delivering goods across international borders, regardless of the method used, the risk of damage is much higher. This means taking out insurance should be a no-brainer, right?

Some merchants try to save a buck or two by not taking out insurance.

Doing this risks a double loss if their goods are damaged during the shipping process. They’ll lose the initial cargo and still have to offer a replacement.

Action Item:

Always insure your goods.

Know Your (True) Numbers

When planning your move across the globe, it’s easy to make assumptions on costs. Merchants often focus on the lowest unit cost, and are caught off-guard when there is an additional, unexpected cost:

• What is the product requires any extra processing, like fumigation?
• What if there is a delay in delivery?
• Who pays the extra charges for an expedited delivery?

While these may seem far fetched, it’s best to plan for the worst.

Action Item:

Factor in costs like transportation, brokerage services, banking fees, financing, to name a few. Knowing these will help with your pricing strategy and enhancing the consumer buying experience.

Shipping Profitably

With the many moving parts required to successfully complete global shipping, it’s no wonder merchants are wary about using it.

But one of the secrets to being successful at eCommerce is to figure out how to ship profitably.

By reducing your shipping expenses, you can develop a price range that is appealing to the customer, and profitable to you too.

Shipping profitably isn’t as straight forward as walking into your local Post Office and asking for the best rates. Depending on packaging, weight, destination, the charges will always differ. Left unchecked, you’ll be shocked at how quickly these little charges add up.

Action Item:

By this time, the profit to be gained from international sales may not seem particularly attractive.

But this is where outsourced order fulfillment services come in–businesses like Floship exist to take the headache out of shipping internationally.

Final Words

When it’s all said and done, international shipping is much trickier than domestic shipping.

But with the proper logistics systems and processes in place, your sales can be maximized by tapping into international markets. By partnering with an experienced logistics provider, you will save time and effort.

With so many options to enhance the user experience and create more value for visitors on your website, how do you evaluate and prioritize opportunities? Which enhancements will keep your brand competitive, most impact the bottom line, and support inbound sales?

Today, more than ever, there are endless tactics to attract leads and convert them into customers. Live chat is a vital component of an inbound marketing strategy. According to the American Marketing Association, live chat increases conversion by 20 percent and results in a 305 percent overall return on investment.

While more traditionally a B2C conversion tactic, there is much evidence that all consumers ultimately behave in the same way and that B2B businesses will see just as much return on investment when implementing this support channel. This post will outline the reasons why live chat is a critical component to generating sales-ready contacts.

1. Build trust on the path to purchase

Decision-makers and their teams search online to first understand their problem and then to evaluate solutions that ultimately solve it. As they move from the awareness stage to the consideration stage along the buyer’s journey, live chat can build buyer confidence. When a potential customer is unclear about the details of your offer or needs to reaffirm that your solution offers what he or she is looking for, having an instant answer to questions will begin to position you as an authority and trusted partner. Further confirmation from a Bold Software Survey (cited by Telus International) reports that 77 percent of live chat users agree that chat tools positively improve their attitude towards the company they interact with online.

Professionals across generations now make decisions using information from digital platforms and have a strong preference toward chat as an online resource. Telus International reports that, of both Gen Y and Gen X consumers (professionals between the ages of 18 and 40), 20 percent use online chat when they visit a website. This growing channel is preferred by these generations over baby boomers and seniors, who use chat half as often. With the shifting demographics of the workforce, chat will be instrumental to remaining competitive across the digital landscape.

2. Educate along the buyer’s journey

Education is the basis of inbound marketing, and the capability of live chat to answer questions creates a personalized buying experience. This hyperpersonalization of content, which includes a live-chat expert overcoming specific objections and redirecting the lead toward highly targeted content—such as product pages or blog articles—can help fill in gaps and accelerate the buyer’s journey. Leveraging content via live chat can support conversion in ways similar to sales enablement.

Longer sales cycles are especially common for B2B organizations where a variety of stakeholders may need to weigh in. These industries can specifically benefit from online chat, which delivers a personalized, positive brand impression and resolves potential objections during the consideration phase.

Measuring the micro-conversion of online chat engagement as an indicator of interest provides insight into how purchase-ready your leads might be. This touchpoint in the buyer’s journey can be an important attributing factor to a macro-conversion, such as a new client acquisition.

3. Build the customer experience with micro-moments

Tony Zambito, author and modern authority in buyer insights and personas for B2B marketing, reminds us: “Instead of using technology to automate processes, think about using technology to enhance human interaction.”

This human interaction is more widely known as the customer experience, or the sum of all interactions between a brand and its buyers or potential buyers, over the lifetime of the relationship.

More than ever, this experience is built on micro-moments, which Google defines as “intent-driven moments of decision-making and preference-shaping that occur throughout the entire consumer journey.” In these moments, customer expectations are high, and brands with a strategy to deliver digital answers on demand will have an advantage over the competition. Successful hyperpersonalization of the buyer’s journey supports a positive brand experience and inbound marketing success.

Moreover, leveraging subject-matter experts on live chat can significantly impact the bottom line. In some incidences, a simple live chat can evolve into screen-sharing, video chat, a product demo, or a sales call as prospects build trust that you can meet their needs. Live chat provides a touchpoint and micro-conversion opportunity as prospects move from consideration to decision, as outlined by HubSpot below.

4. Define website optimization priorities

The foundation of inbound marketing is a well-performing website that helps an audience move through the buyer’s journey. Feedback via this digital chat tool is invaluable, and visitor questions via live chat can provide insights, including:

• Content needs
• Clarification of pain points
• Motivators for buying (price, features, customer support)
• Product/service feedback for new product development

Not to mention, live chat makes a website dynamic and interactive, which is essential to improving site engagement metrics, such as increasing time on page, decreasing bounce rate, and supporting conversion goals. Especially if your company is committed to growth-driven design, these customer insights can help prioritize your site updates, using data to drive decisions. Ongoing website updates positively impact the buyer’s journey for all visitors—whether or not they engage in live chat.

Live chat’s return on investment

The impact any tool has on the bottom line ultimately drives the decision to implement. While using live chat to assist the buyer’s journey is important, it’s also essential to add it to your support customer stack as a means to delight your current customers and create brand evangelists. Live chat impacts your bottom line in these key ways:

• Reduces overall customer service costs by resolving questions quickly
• Minimizes phone expenses
• Helps combat customer support agent burnout by creating a platform to manage multiple conversations simultaneously, instead of managing support escalations on the phone
• Improves the customer and prospect experience and positively impacts Net Promoter Score, which gauges brand loyalty

Not to mention, according to a benchmark study by TELUS International, chat can increase customer lifetime value, as it allows for more frequent, targeted transactions, because it positions trained chat agents for upsell and cross-sell opportunities. In addition, having someone respond immediately to specific needs and direct solutions is a form of lead nurturing invaluable to moving a prospect through the buyer’s journey. The specific ROI, as reported by TELUS International, can be found below.

Source: TELUS International, Online Chat: What You Didn’t Know

No matter the benefits of live chat, the success of this channel will depend upon the partner or vendor that delivers the service. Selection criteria, such as the quality and training of agents and system features, are critical to ensuring the benefits outlined in this article. Two live-chat B2B platforms making a big splash are LiveAgent and Tagove. A couple popular chat options that integrate directly with HubSpot are SnapEngage and Pure Chat.

When you think of artificial intelligence (AI), do you imagine Will Smith battling humanoid robots? Well, think again…did you know that AI is already being applied in the Internet, helping you go about your daily life without drawing attention to itself?

Artificial intelligence simulates traditionally human processes like learning, reasoning and self-correction. Unlike traditional programs, AI-based applications don’t need to be continually fed data or manually coded to make changes to their functionality and output. AI can be (and already is) immensely useful to B2B professionals in all industries.

Now— “Narrow” AI That Provides Assisted Searches and Sales-Focused Conversational Assistants

Most people tend to think of “strong” AI examples like IBM’s Watson, but “weak” or “narrow” AI is more common and useful to our businesses and everyday lives. “Weak” or “narrow” AI systems focus on a very specific, defined task and are already prevalent in today’s marketing efforts.

Predictive Search Programs

Have you noticed that Google will try to automatically fill in your search query for you as you start typing your search phrase?

This feature is called predictive search, and it is one of the more established and widely used forms of AI. Predictive search helps save users’ time, and can also be used to make subtle suggestions that influence the outcome of a search query. These programs work by compiling search data and common keywords, then auto-filling the search bar when familiar patterns pop up.

Predictive search programs that are specific to websites are becoming increasingly common, and can be beneficial to B2B organizations with large, unwieldy websites.

The Benefit: When potential prospects come to your site for the first time, they don’t have any context for the layout of your site. Predictive search can help those visitors to hone in on specific assets and pages that they may not have found on their own. When web visitors have a good user experience, they are more likely to stay longer, meaning increased engagement and more leads for you!

The Challenge: Predictive search narrows the focus of the results, which means that some less-trafficked content may be continually pushed to the bottom of the pile. This is where stellar SEO tactics come into play in order to have your content ranking higher in search engine results.

Virtual Digital Sales Assistants

Voice-controlled hands-free assistants have migrated into many of our digital devices, including smartphones, home security, computers and cars. Whether it be Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Microsoft’s Cortana, conversational assistants all have a similar purpose: answering basic questions and performing basic tasks. Now, what Gartner calls “virtual digital sales assistants” are being created with the salesperson in mind, bringing together CRMs like Salesforce, social networks like LinkedIn and team communication tools like Slack.

The Benefit: Conversational assistants that integrate steps of lead prospecting, such as Tact, can save your sales team a lot of time and energy. For example, being able to add contacts directly from LinkedIn to Salesforce without opening either application saves several minutes per prospect.

The Challenge: While not as commonly used, voice-activated assistants are imperfect, and sometimes have trouble processing more nuanced commands. They are prone to the bias of their creators, and their search results can be manipulated by SEO tactics, advertising and web traffic. They also have relatively low adoption and use rates (for now), and your sales team may find the process too strange to use effectively.

Later—“Strong” AI That Will Perform Customer Service and Complex Marketing Tasks

As technology continues to advance, “strong” Artificial Intelligence will rise in sophistication and popularity and support humans in many low-level marketing tasks. Many of these systems are in use today but are not yet as complex as they will be one day.

“Strong” AI will be able to perform multi-faceted complex tasks that more closely resemble human ability to reason, multitask and process complex information.

As we move toward these kinds of interactions, it is vital that we understand how to best design content and web marketing strategies to accommodate the technology.

Automated Chatbots for Customer Service

Chatbots have been around for a long time, and have been developed with varying degrees of sophistication (remember AOL Instant Messenger’s SmarterChild, anyone?). Now, chatbots can be programmed to field complex customer service interactions, like handling returns, processing warranties and troubleshooting product issues.

Bots can also help site visitors navigate through large amounts of archived information, which is particularly helpful if you have a large, complex site.

The Benefit: Visitors who come to your website after business hours can still get a personalized experience that helps them navigate your site. Your customer service can be available 24/7 without your staff having to work around the clock.

The Challenge: Interactions with a customer service chatbot produces more data for marketing and sales teams to sift through. It can also be exceptionally difficult to build and maintain a bot that will effectively field customer inquiries, and may not be worth it unless you can dedicate one or two people to manage the program.

Advanced Email Personalization and Segmentation

Marketing and email automation platforms currently offer sophisticated and nuanced segmentation capabilities, and automating nurture streams has become an industry best practice. However, there is still quite a bit of heavy lifting that marketers need to do in order to create and maintain these campaigns, including segmentation and automatic contact labeling, content creation and lead scoring.

Soon, AI will take things a step further and create hyper-personalized emails, subject lines and campaigns that are tailored not just by segmented list, but by individual recipient. Platforms such as Salesforce’s Einstein AI are already on the way to developing this capability.

The Benefit: Clients and customers will receive hyper-personalized emails that can generate subject lines with tailored language and arrive in an inbox at a perfectly opportune time for the individual recipient. Without AI, the labor involved in this level of segmentation would make it impossible to implement. Hyper-segmented email campaigns will elevate account-based marketing efforts to the next level.

The Challenge: There is room for error when we turn over emotional processing, tone and nuanced human reasoning to a computer program. Since AI will be processing and generating large amounts of content, it will take considerable efforts to monitor the content for typos and clarity until the system “learns” enough to become accurate.

Artificial intelligence has already made leaps and bounds in advancing the way we market our organizations, and the possibility for growth in enormous.

Rather than being daunted by the changes, marketers should seize the opportunity to learn new skills and become early leaders in a technology movement that is sure to have a significant impact on the marketing landscape over the next decade.

This post originally appeared in Launch Marketing’s B2B Marketing Blog and was co-authored by Emily Neie.

When I started back in the family staffing business, my sales manager gave me a list of companies I was forbidden from calling. She and her sales reps were worried about one of the owner’s sons being given preferential treatment, and they wanted to protect their turf.

Honestly, they didn’t have a firm grasp on how a family business works. In most family businesses you are expected to do more than anyone else, whether or not it is “your job,” and regardless of what you are paid—or not paid. That is exactly the preferential treatment I was given, and I never expected anything different.

The list they handed me had all of the most well-recognized companies in and around Columbus, Ohio. You would still recognize many of these names. They cherry-picked what they believed to be the biggest and best prospects, and they walled them off from me. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it.

Not being able to call on what everyone else was calling on forced me to call on companies with names no one would know. The Internet wasn’t what it is now, and I dialed through the business pages of the phone book. I literally started at the letter A, and I dialed number after number, unless it was clear that we couldn’t serve them. I skipped churches, auto repair shops, and day care centers.

I got a lot of appointments. When I got to M, I found a company called Murfin. Murfin was tucked away on the middle of a road that had a gas station at one end and apartment complexes on the other. Because the building was surrounded by residential areas, you would never suspect a plant to be located deep in the neighborhood.

The small building that housed the business was no indication of what they spent. They were spending millions of dollars on temporary employees. No one would ever happen upon this client by chance. I won their business because I was ridiculously disciplined about cold calling.

On the way out of Murfin, I noticed another building across the street. I wrote down the name, Weathersfield, and upon arriving back at my office, I called them and scheduled an appointment. Weathersfield was spending a couple million dollars when I won their business. Two hidden companies resulted in millions of dollars in business.

These two companies became anchor accounts for our office. I would not have found them had I not called companies without knowing whether they used a service like mine. I turned over a lot of rocks to find these accounts, because a lot of prospecting is simply turning over rocks to see what lies beneath.

You should have a list of known targets. You should have another list of your dream clients. But you should also turn over rocks to see if there is anything there. You never know what you’ll find.

Maybe right now you should call all of the leads that you haven’t yet tried.

The post Turning Over Rocks appeared first on The Sales Blog.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Satellite telecom Inmarsat and facilities maintenance and management firm Acility have partnered to develop a LoRaWAN network.

Though adding to a wealth of already-existing networks, the new offering provides a compelling mix of low-power and faster data transfers, giving its application more flexibility.

Here are some different potential use cases for this network:

• Asset tracking in the supply chain. Companies are increasingly turning to connected devices and IoT solutions more broadly to monitor all aspects of their supply chain operations, and this network is ideal for asset tracking.
• Agribusiness and the agricultural IoT. This network could be used in connected farming solutions, such as tractors or other harvesting equipment, which can aid in enhancing efficiency in farming operations.
• Oil and gas IoT solutions. GE and other oil and gas equipment providers are increasingly connecting their offerings, typically for predictive maintenance.

This diverse set of applications could help drive the popularity of the network. Many IoT networks are designed specifically for a single use case rather than many different ones. Low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), for example, are often focused on the industrial IoT. This flexibility could make the network more popular than others that are more narrowly tailored.

Although Wi-Fi and cellular networks can connect IoT devices to the internet, they have inherent characteristics that make them ill-suited to do so for small, low-power components like sensors, smart locks, and smart lights.

BI Intelligence expects that more than 24 billion IoT devices will be installed globally in 2020, and the vast majority of these will fall into the small, low-power category.

So networks that are better suited to connect these low-power IoT devices — notably, Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) — are being developed. These networks can connect devices over large geographic areas because of their long range, but use less battery power on the devices they connect and offer cheaper data subscriptions than traditional cellular networks. Interest in LPWANs among IoT providers and end users is growing in response to the opportunities these benefits present. For example, a municipality deploying parking sensors for a smart transportation project could lower its costs by using a LPWAN instead of a cellular network. It would also then be able to replace the batteries on the sensors far less frequently.

BI Intelligence has compiled a detailed report on LPWANs that explains the impact they will have on the growth of the IoT and the benefits of using LPWANs for IoT connections. It also forecasts the internet connections and subscription revenues associated with these networks and explains in detail the many standards for LPWANs that exist today. Finally, it lays out the current market landscape going forward as different network providers launch LPWANs.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Low Power Wide Area Networks are specifically designed for connecting low-power devices like sensors over a very long range. This makes them well suited to a wide range of IoT use cases like smart agriculture and smart cities.
• Low Power Wide Area Networks can connect these low-power devices at a cheaper cost than existing cellular networks. LPWANs have cheaper hardware costs and data subscription costs because they don’t need to provide the high data rates that cellular networks do.
• BI Intelligence estimates that the total number of IoT devices connected over LPWANs will reach 700 million by 2021. This represents remarkable growth for such a new technology that has little present adoption.
• A number of startups and new networking providers are launching LPWANs using standards that leverage unlicensed spectrum. These providers are trying to secure networking revenues from the billions of low-power IoT devices that will go online over the next few years.
• Cellular network carriers are responding to this trend by developing their own standards for LPWANs that leverage their existing infrastructure that supports their 4G networks. This means they will be competing directly with some of the new providers mentioned above.
• Different LPWAN standards are best suited for specific use cases, and business and government organizations will need to understand the benefits of the various standards to find the solution that fits their needs.

In full, the report:

• Details the broad need for low-cost, low-power internet connectivity for IoT devices that LPWANs will help meet.
• Forecasts the growth of the LPWAN market including new networking providers and traditional mobile carriers that are launching their own LPWANs.
• Examines how LPWANs will be adopted by different industries that are launching IoT projects.
• Compares the distinct characteristics and advantages of different standards for LPWANs.
• Explains how the LPWAN market will develop over the coming years in regards to different standards and competitors.
• Examines what the future of internet network connectivity for IoT devices will look like, including LPWANs and the coming of 5G mobile networks.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of LPWANs.

Join the conversation about this story »

Just about everyone knows that you should never text and drive, and that you should stop, drop, and roll if you catch on fire.

But life can also throw situations at us for which we don't have a quick, handy response.

Commenters in a recent Quora thread about life-saving facts offered their best tips, which are easy to remember and could have a huge impact if you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation.

You might want to save these for later.

SEE ALSO: 6 animals that attacked critical human infrastructure

Your brain can't handle walking and using your phone at the same time — so look up.

Safety adviser Murali Krishnan points out that walking and using your phone both demand large amounts of cognitive effort. 

As a result, you can't fully focus on both at the same time in the same way you can with walking and gum-chewing, for instance. You'll suffer "inattention blindness," where you may see an object but not process that it's a car speeding toward you.

Eliminate your car's blind spots by adjusting your mirrors properly.

Blind spots aren't inevitable in all vehicles, argues user Kristen Rush. 

By adjusting your mirrors so that you barely see the edges of your own car, you can effectively eliminate the blind spots on the sides of the vehicle. The rear-view mirror should be able to locate any car behind yours. It's worth the few seconds it takes to adjust these when you get in the driver's seat.

Heat transfers faster through liquid than gas, so keep warm by staying dry.

There's a connection between being wet and getting cold, and vice versa for heat, says engineer Lia Lavoie. 

To ensure your body temperature doesn't fall too quickly in cold environments, invest in clothes made of wool instead of cotton — they'll absorb more moisture so that dampness doesn't linger on your skin. And, of course, do your best to stay dry.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

You might think that using a script for your sales calls is old fashioned or outdated or inconvenient – after all, many sales people don’t want to feel like a telemarketer. What’s the point of using a sales call script? You know your stuff, right? Why not just wing it and speak off the cuff instead? It sounds more natural and is more effective to NOT use a script, right? Wrong.

Despite the protests of many sales people over the years, sales call scripts really do work! No matter what you sell, your sales calls are going to be better organized, more persuasive, more effective and easier to improve upon if you use a consistent sales calling script.

Here are a few reasons why you need a sales call script:

Scripts Help You Stay Organized: With a sales call script, you have a way to keep your call organized and make sure you hit all the key points of the call, every single time. You won’t forget to mention anything, you won’t accidentally omit any key details – working with a call script helps you stay focused on your key messages every time, guaranteed.

Scripts Make Your Calls More Persuasive: Have you ever gotten a sales call from someone who seemed disorganized or incoherent or who just didn’t quite seem to know what they were doing? Don’t be one of those sales callers! Instead, use a script. It will help you stay focused and sound smarter. Your sales call script will help you feel more confident on every call, because you have a quick, easy road map to keep you on track and keep emphasizing the right messages with every new prospect. Your sales call script is not meant to slow you down or get in the way of your work – it’s meant to be a supportive assistant to help you succeed. So use it!

Scripts Make Your Future Sales Calls Better: Working in sales is a long-term process and it helps to try to get better every day at your professional craft of selling. The best sales people understand this – there is always something that they can be doing to improve their sales skills, whether it’s learning more about the product or researching new customers or talking through various sales scenarios to anticipate objections and overcome problems before they arise. This is why it’s important to work with a sales call script: your script gives you a consistent framework to go through on every call, and you can evaluate each part of the script to see which messages work and which ones don’t. Which parts of your script are people responding to? Which parts are leading to pushback or objections? Over time, you can revise and hone the message of your calling script to make sure you’re getting better at focusing on exactly the key concerns of your prospects. Every sales call should ideally help you get better at making the next sales call – and using a script helps make sure that this happens. Your calling script is not set in stone, it is a living document. You need to keep making adjustments and making your script better over time.

Many sales people are reluctant to use a script, but don’t ignore the upsides! A calling script doesn’t mean you “don’t know your stuff,” it just helps you be better (and get better) at your job. Sales calling scripts will help you to stay focused and organized, make your most persuasive points at the right moments, and generally build more effective sales relationships by sounding more professional and well-informed. Working with a sales call script is the start of bigger and better sales results!

Varying vision among marketing colleagues is a double-edged sword. It’s helpful when ideating, and debilitating when executing. Diverse perspectives are great for out-of-the-box problem-solving. Unified perspective is essential for goal achievement.

Why Marketing Vision Silos Exist

• You’re born with left-brain or right-brain strength: In general, right-brain marketers are inclined toward subjectivity and marketing creative, while left-brain marketers are predisposed toward objectivity and marketing science. Every marketing department has — and needs — a mix of both.

You have ingrained views of the world: Habits and assumptions cause automatic reactions to situations and stimuli. Others also have automatic reactions. (This is also known as “mental models.”) This can lead to general mistrust of individuals’ interpretations of what’s justifiable. Unless mental models are surfaced, you may find yourselves marching in different directions.

• You have different charters and incentives: Each department has its role, and may view their work as an end in itself. This can cause competing efforts, and most importantly, gaps for customers. When marketers project a vision of the brand in excess of what the rest of the company typically delivers, chaos extends to multiple organizations’ and external parties’ productivity.
• You’re human, with some blind, hidden and unknown perceptions: “Open” in the diagram (also known as Johari window) shown here represents what you and others both know, “Blind” represents what others see that you don’t, “Hidden” represents what you see but others don’t, and “Unknown” represents truths of which nobody is yet aware.
• You may underestimate the necessity of proactive efforts to create and maintain shared vision: Shiny objects and exciting ventures can be so alluring that it seems obvious that others will feel and view things the same way. Yet post-mortems show time-and-again that a universal downfall in any endeavor is lack of necessary attention to people and processes. Change management is much more than navigating a shifting environment, and far more than patching up disconnects after the fact. It requires extensive pre-planning, socializing concepts, removing roadblocks, and finding rallying points to stay the course in executing any effort.

How You Can Vault Vision Silos

1. Begin with the end in mind: Imagine what will be different. Acknowledge that different is not equally easy or desirable to everyone. Conduct due diligence to discover what’s needed to capture the hearts and minds of relevant employees and anyone else who has a stake in the matter. Think broadly, to include other departments, suppliers, alliances, channel partners, press and analysts, along with customers. Most often, what matters most to customers will be the most compelling rallying point. An established corporate value or objective is also a universal context for building shared vision.
2. Predict what-if scenarios: Use marketing mix modeling, allocation management, predictive analytics, and other techniques to paint a picture of what to expect. Combine creative, subjective, scientific and objective elements to appeal to everyone’s natural outlook.
3. Surface mental models: Build transparency into your conversations, processes, reviews, and communications. Test your assumptions, and encourage assumption-testing in all of your meetings. Make it safe for people to be forthright. Applaud diversity and uncover common ground as the basis for driving unity in execution.
4. Cascade goals: Ensure your objectives and key performance indicators are in-tune with your C-team’s vision. Like a waterfall, cascade what they’re trying to achieve, in turn, to what you must achieve. It won’t work the other way around.
5. Drive organizational learning: Shore-up Blind, Hidden, and Unknown areas by sharing lessons learned and connecting the dots between people, data, resources, processes and metrics. Make post-mortems a habit, and make the findings easy to access by anyone in your company. Search out other organizations’ efforts (inside your own company, as a start) in similar topics before venturing forth with your own effort, to see what you might build upon, instead of reinventing the wheel.

Vision silos can wreak a lot of havoc: wasted time, resources, costs, efforts, morale, relationships, and continuity. Vaulting vision silos in marketing can accelerate your success through synergies as your team works together seamlessly. Vaulting vision silos is an essential key to marketing scalability and organizational agility.

Image purchased under license from Shutterstock.

When should you give up on a prospect? The answer is “never!”

The post When You Should Give Up on a Prospect – Episode 39 appeared first on The Sales Blog.

Many of us see the new year as a clean slate, an opportunity to start something new. As you reset and revitalize your professional goals, we want to help you #StartSomething great with the help of our newest LinkedIn Premium features. Whether you’re looking to gain a competitive edge as a job seeker or to take your organization to the next level as a business leader, LinkedIn Premium can help you pursue your career aspirations more effectively by empowering you to work more efficiently. Our two...

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New rules for developers won't kill traffic, but should make life better. The post To Win the War on Cars, San Francisco Weaponizes Real Estate appeared first on WIRED.

Much of my consulting practice centers on working with software-based companies. But I have substantial hardware market experience as well, so I also work with hardware companies. Hardware vs software business models is something that you don’t often see a lot of debate about. But sometimes there is a choice between these two distinct business models (or a combination of both) – so let’s take a look at the differences and relative advantages of each.

So what are the differences and similarities between software vs hardware for successful businesses?

Hardware vs Software Capital Requirements

One of the larger differences is that software companies generally require much lower capital to reach profitability and continued growth. This is primarily because they don’t need to invest in expensive semiconductor development tools and semiconductor masks for semi companies, manufacturing plants/equipment for all types of hardware companies, manufacturing engineering personnel, unfinished and finished goods inventory, etc. So except for startups aiming at huge, established markets and backed by substantial institutional capital, it’s much easier for typical startup software companies to adequately capitalize their businesses with much smaller funding rounds, relative to their hardware and semiconductor counterparts.

Margins

Another important area where software companies generally have an advantage is in margins—both in the area of typical gross margins as well as the potential for higher net margins. This is primarily due to the negligible cost-of-goods-sold for most software companies. As a result, it easier for software companies to reach profitability sooner and if a large enough market is found, sustain that profitability. Remember, throughout this article I am speaking in “on average” terms. There are hardware businesses with excellent gross margins (dominant semiconductor companies come to mind) as well. But in general, this is an area where the advantage goes to software.

Pricing

The big difference between software vs hardware business models here also is related to costs. The major difference comes down to direct product cost, which in the long run creates a pricing floor for anyone who would actually like to make a profit. Optimal pricing of both hardware or software should be based upon a value-based approach—with market segmentation as the key to success. However, in my consulting practice I rarely find this pricing approach to be used rigorously—whether the company markets a software or hardware product.

In the hardware business, you tend to see a lot of simple pricing models that are cost-based. For software businesses, the negligible direct product cost can act as the other end of the proverbial double-edge sword when it comes to pricing. In a competitive software market, you often see aggressive competitors who literally “give away” the initial product (freeware or freemium models) to build an installed based and then rely on an upgrade revenue stream or advertising revenues to make a profit downstream. This can strain the profitability of the entire market segment and in severe circumstances can suck all the profit from the market. You see this scenario most often started by weaker competitors or in market segments where switching costs for customers are high. While hardware pricing can be just as competitive in general, it is less likely for a weaker competitor in a hardware market to introduce a “zero-margin” program. This is because it is often tougher to hang onto a customer in the second generation (if the market has commoditized) and the market leader often has a gross margin advantage—making this tactic an ill-advised maneuver, other than as an attention-getting, short-term promotion.

Distribution

The advent of the Internet has created a major difference in distribution between software vs hardware companies, where there was very little difference in the past. It has made direct distribution much more practical for small software companies in market segments where a simple download or a SaaS-based model is practical. Of course hardware companies sell directly over the Internet as well, but the cost advantages aren’t the same due to shipping, inventory, etc. For those companies which aren’t direct-only, distribution is similar for hardware vs software companies. Traditional distribution through third parties tends to be very similar, although higher inventory costs are even more of a burden that hardware companies need to manage more closely, both for in-house finished goods and in-process inventory–as well as finished goods held by the channel.

Defensible Strategic Advantage

This is an area in which hardware vs software markets have both similarities and large differences. Both hardware and software companies value patents as a form of providing a sustainable competitive advantage. But in my opinion, the inherent malleability of software makes patent protection less useful in software than in hardware. It is easier to “find another way” of accomplishing the same end result when you are dealing strictly in software code. It’s also easier to segment in software markets, creating a targeted, niche version of a software product for a specific segment, allowing a smaller competitor to nip at a market leader without drawing their fire. It’s much harder for a small hardware company to differentiate itself this way. On the other hand, a hardware market leader that establishes itself and creates a large volume business gains important competitive advantages—cost efficiencies and brand recognition are huge, defensible advantages. So I believe this point comes down to scale—in software markets, it’s easier for a small competitor to overcome the scale of larger competitors and develop a niche strategic advantage. While in hardware, the large competitors can use scale to create the ultimate competitive advantage.

Hardware vs Software Localization Requirements

This is an area in which hardware companies normally have an advantage. They usually have simpler user interfaces, and sometimes utilize symbols extensively in their interfaces, greatly reducing translation requirements into local languages. Hardware companies do have to deal with some physical differences in standards, such as electrical—but these have stabilized over time, and are often handled easily in one or just a few standard product version(s), which allows the selling of it worldwide.

Conversely, software user interfaces are usually language intensive and more complex, with much more extensive user documentation. This requires many software companies to live with higher localization costs and longer lead times if they want to market worldwide. The exception to this is complex software sold to highly technical/educated users, where English is often used as the standard language on a worldwide basis.

Potential for Dominance

I’m going mostly by empirical evidence here. It seems that there have been a lot more hardware companies who have dominated their respective businesses for a longer period of time than in software. For every Microsoft it seems there are many more examples like Intel, Cisco, IBM, HP, Dell, etc. Hardware markets tend to commoditize more easily, but this occurs with standardization on a few leading brands in the long term. It’s harder to make money in the long run in hardware unless you are one of the top two or three players. Large hardware markets are also relatively larger in revenue than the corresponding “large” software markets, allowing market leaders to more fully utilize their profit and cost advantages over competitors, by spreading marketing costs over larger revenue bases. So if your desire is to build a truly dominant company from scratch, the odds appear greater in hardware—although you probably are still better off heading to Las Vegas and putting your life savings on roulette red!

There are many more ways to contrast and compare hardware vs software business models for tech companies, but I will end it here. What other points would you add? As usual, post a comment or send me an email message to further the discussion.

The post Should You Start a Hardware or Software Business? appeared first on the Morettini on Management Blog.

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Research shows most important factors for selecting martech

Marketers now have many, many potential marketing technologies they can deploy as shown by our 30 categories of martech relevant for all businesses serious about growth and optimisation. Selecting any type of new marketing technology is a serious businesses since although many services today offer paying monthly, collection of data and integration with other systems mean that although it's easy to switch providers in theory, in practice it often isn't. Of course, this depends whether it is a mission-critical systems like CRMs, which involve a lengthy migration between platforms compared to AB testing tools which can be switched relatively easily.

This research from Trustradius covers the factors that are important in taking a decision.

The research shows that buyers want hands-on experience with the product and insights from customers. Product demos and free trials were the best resources for buyers, who generally find them helpful and trustworthy. After hands-on experience with the product, peer resources such as direct referrals from colleagues and user reviews were the next most helpful and trustworthy information sources. This clearly indicates buyers want to understand and validate what it will be like to use the product on a daily basis.

• Source: Trustradius B2B tech purchasing report
• Sample: 418 B2B buyers who played a key role in a significant software purchase during the last two years.
• Recommended Smart Insights resource: Free essential digital tools report

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is a popular term; however its definition varies depending upon which blog post you read.

In one respect, Account Based Marketing is not new. The marketing teams that actually spent time in sales offices and were dedicated to working with a sales rep or manager “figured out” how to think like a salesperson. As a result, marketing was adapted (account based marketing) to help sales reps get at bats at companies that the sales reps wanted to penetrate. However, today’s marketing technology puts a new twist on conventional Account Based Marketing and that alone requires a skill-set refresh for B2B marketers.

Today, Account Based Marketing is not a checklist item, a task or something you do once. Account Based Marketing is a system and it requires discipline to be effective. To determine if your organization has really embraced Account Based Marketing, ask and honestly answer the questions below:

Marketing Background

• Does the Account Based Marketing function report to sales or marketing?
• Has the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) or VP Marketing served two years or more as a Director or VP of Demand Generation or Field Marketing?
• Has the marketing team been through sales training?
• Has the marketing team been trained on the sales process?

How is Marketing Compensated

• Do the Account Based Marketing team’s target earnings include a variable portion equating to at least 25% of their total compensation?
• Is the Account Based Marketing teams’ variable compensation tied to the quota targets of the sales rep or region they support?
• What percent of the marketing budget (people and programs) is allocated to Account Based Marketing?

Marketing Integration with the Sales Team

• Is the Account Based Marketing team invited to sales kickoff?
• Is the Account Based Marketing team invited to quarterly business reviews?
• Does the Account Based Marketing team report, with the sales team, the status of each targeted account every week?
• Are there regularly scheduled meetings with sales, Account Based Marketing, sales operations, sales development and sales enablement?
• Is the Account Based Marketing teams’ database of companies to prospect identical to the database of companies that the sales teams use to prospect?

Marketing’s Focus

• Is marketing goaled on generating Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)?
• Is marketing measured on generating qualified sales opportunities within targeted accounts?
• Do the sales reps and Account Based Marketing team identify a targeted set of accounts each quarter to penetrate?
• Have specific plays been built to penetrate targeted accounts?
• Do the Account Based Marketing team and sales teams jointly develop the sales messaging to bridge into the targeted accounts (trends, topics, business outcomes, challenges, opportunities, etc.)?
• Is gathering marketing intelligence on targeted accounts a manual, ad-hoc or an automated, managed and repeatable process?

The questions above are intended to highlight whether or not your organization is really doing Account Based Marketing. In short, Account Based Marketing is a tremendous opportunity to align sales and marketing. It’s more than a campaign or attending a meeting. If the questions above raise doubt or uncertainty, it’s a perfect opportunity to reevaluate your Account Based Marketing effort.

<< DOWNLOAD Questions to Ask When Building Go to Market Plans >>

We marketers are an optimistic breed. We focus on building new things, we like to make things happen, and we want to make a real difference at our companies. We’re a very positive group of people.

And yet, at one time or another, there are those moments when things go horribly awry. Nobody likes to think about them, but we’re hearing about more and more of these moments from conversations from marketing professionals at the companies we talk with. In fact, our team has started calling them, “Oh Shit!” moments. To help marketers avoid these events, we thought it would be valuable to share some of the most cringe-worthy, real-life “Oh Shit!” moments we’ve heard about in the last month, and discuss what you can do to avoid them.

Imagine for a second that moment when…

You’ve emailed a new customer a promotional offer with lower pricing than they just paid. You find this out from a long string of emails that started with the customer asking for a price adjustment and escalated all the way through the VP of Sales to your CMO.

You’ve done dozens of successful campaigns in the past, carefully testing out each offer on how it renders on every browser and on mobile, and you’ve religiously had two coworkers proof your text. In an instant, your credibility is shot, and your CMO is looking at you, wishing he didn’t have to deal with this.

You’ve just received an unexpected invoice from you marketing automation system provider for another $20K because you’re over your database size limit.

You’ve spent days mapping out your budget for every single campaign, you’ve always asked for discounts from every vendor, and you’ve dutifully tracked your invoices against your plan. Even the accounts payable people are impressed with how on top of things you are. But, it’s the end of the quarter, and you’ve already committed every last penny with signed contracts. Then, you get this bombshell.

You’ve just shelled out big bucks to a new database provider, thinking you could build out your company’s 3,000 account target account list, and now you’ve found seven. Yep, just seven.

You thought you did your homework and you narrowed down your list to two, well-known database providers. Their sales reps parroted back the problem you shared with them, and one confidently boasted about how their database had 18,000 names that fit your filters. Now you’re squirming to position how your five-digit investment provides the value you pitched when you sought funding.

You can hear through a glass wall a heated discussion between two regional sales VPs about who owns what’s quickly shaping up to be a seven-figure deal, and you see both of them stop and look through the glass at you.

It had taken a lot of work and some mental calisthenics, but you thought you figured out how to make lead routing work pretty darn well with a long set up rules that took pages to print out. One sales VP accused the other’s team of dropping the ball on following up on some of the hottest MQLs you’ve ever delivered, and the other accused the first one of poaching. The only thing they seem to agree on is that marketing isn’t routing leads well.

Talk about having a bad day.

At first glance, it might not appear that there’s a consistent thread running through all these cringe-worthy events, but it’s there. It’s simple. You’re a data-driven organization, but you’re working with poor quality data, so you’re not driving very well.

Think about it. You’re not doing lead-to-account matching very well, so a lead that just came in the door wasn’t associated with an account that was flagged as a customer, so you hit them with an early-stage offer. Your product’s user database also isn’t correlated with Salesforce.com, so customers and users are not accurately reflected in your marketing automation solution.

You’ve had a ton of duplicate leads the sales teams created that were never merged, so your database is swelling, and now you’re literally paying the price for that. You didn’t ask for an anonymized database dump to check out how the vendor’s data compared with what you already had because you thought it would be a huge amount of work to do your due diligence. And, your lead records had some typos that caused your system to route the best leads you’ve ever delivered to the wrong person.

You might feel your blood pressure going up just thinking about these common “Oh Shit!” moments! However, they’re real-life problems for marketers, where the root cause of these issues has been poor quality data. In a nutshell, they’re cases of garbage-in, garbage-out. Poor quality data invariably results in “Oh Shit!” moments that negatively impact your professional reputation, your company’s reputation, and your company’s bottom line. The only way to avoid the frequency of these “Oh Shit!” moments is by taking a good look at the quality of your marketing and sales data and then taking the step to fix the problems you see.

Don’t know if your data quality has you poised for an “Oh Shit!” moment? You can find out in 20 minutes with a free Data Diagnostic of your Salesforce or Marketo instance.