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Pre-Seed Funding

Pre-Seed funding is also known as pre-seed money or pre-seed capital. It is the initial investment the business needs to get started. However, this is not included by many people in the cycle of funding. The funds can come from family, friends or investors. Sometimes the persons who invest in the company get a stake in the exchange. Crowdfunding is one of the pre-seed funding platforms out the various pre-seeding platforms.

During the pre-seed funding, founders along with small team working on the proof-of-concept or prototype. The founders themselves invests in the company or by their friends, family and sometimes incubator or any angel investor.

Seed Funding

Seed Funding is the initial money a company raises even they raise Series A or not in the future. However, few companies also raise pre-seed funding to reach a position to raise a seed round, but this is not done by every company. Seed funding is expected to support the growth of the company, it can help the start-up to reach its first step i.e. Market research or Product development from its idea stage.

Seed funding can be raised from friends, family and sometimes incubator or any angel investor. And for early-stage start-ups Angel Investors are most common however, Venture Capital firms are a very good option.

For many start-ups, seed funding is the endpoint as the company closes if money runs out without getting traction. And some start-ups close its funding as they are not interested in raising money for future growth.

Money Involved in Seed Funding?

Usually, Seed funding round is between $500,000 and $2 million. It may be more or less depending on the company’s requirements.

What is Series A funding round?

Series A round is next round of funding after the seed funding once the company has some traction on their key performance indicators e.g. Revenue, number of users, number of views, etc depending on their industries KPIs. This round helps them to uplift their current KPIs performance. In Series A round funding, the companies have to develop a business model as per their future plans. In the funds from Series A round is expected to be utilized in revenue growth.

Involved of Money in a Series A funding round?

This round comes after the seed round, so the investment is higher than a seed round i.e. usually $2 million to $15 million. The funding is not for the great idea but for implementing the ideas for future growth. Series A round and all subsequent rounds are led by lead investors along with other investors. As the first investor, it is most important so other investors need to be in line. As losing the first investor before this round can be devasting as others may also drop out. Usually, Venture Capital firms are involved in Series A funding sometimes Angel investors also get involved.

What is Series B funding round?

In case a start-up reaches that point where they are ready to raise Series B round of funding and have already initiated their product in the market fit and needs help for expanding.

Big questions during the Series B funding are: Can the company increase its customer base from 1000 to 10,000? Can the company show an increase of 100% in revenue? The expansion strategy to be followed after Series B funding includes increasing the customer base but also increase the number of team members so that they can manage the increasing customer base.

As this is a competitive industry, to stay in the position the company needs to hire talented people for ranges of roles. Funds from series B round would be helpful for the founder to give competitive salaries to the employees.

Involvement of money in a Series B funding round?

Usually Series B round is of $7 million and $10 million. Venture capital firms invest in Series B funding sometimes by the same investor who lead the previous round of funding, to increase their holdings in the company.

What is Series C funding round?

In case the company reaches that point where they are ready to raise Series C round of funding and when they are planning to diversify their product line, acquire other business or are planning to expand to a new market.

Mostly, the companies raising Series C round are ready to take their product to the international market. They can also think of going for an IPO to increase their valuation or an acquisition.

Typically, Series C is the last round of funding raised by the company raises, but some companies raise Series D or Series E round and beyond. However, Series C is the final push for the company to offer IPO or an acquisition.

Involvement of Money in a Series C funding round?

Typically, start-up raises an average of $25 Million in their Series C funding round. The main points to be discussed in round C funding are: What is the customer base? How much revenue the company has earned? What is the expected growth? Typically, Series C funding comes from private equity firms, banks, hedge funds and also by venture capital firms that do investment in late-stage start-ups. At this point of time, major financial institution gets involved in the lifecycle of start-ups as the company has proved their performance.

What is Series D funding round?

Generally, series D funding round is a little complex than previous rounds of funding. As we know many companies finish raising money in the Series C round however, there are few reasons why a company may choose to raise Series D funding round.

A positive point for Series D funding: The company have got new options for expansion and wanted to boost its performance before going for an IPO. Companies which are raising Series D funding and further want to increase their value before going for IPO to the public. Otherwise, some companies stay private for longer, for them, Series D would be more helpful.

Involvement of money in a Series D funding round?

Venture Capital firms generally fund Series D round. Very few start-ups reach this stage hence the amount raised may vary.

Other methods of start-up funding

Equity funding is not only the option for fundraising for Start-ups. However, it is popular for Start-ups especially tech start-ups.

Following methods for fundraising can be used by start-ups:

• Venture Capital & Series Seed Funding: A, B, C, D, E
• Small Business Loan
• Crowdfunding
• Private Investors
• Small Business Grants
• Angel Investors

Starting a business takes guts. And, pursuing your passion requires you to take risks. To maximize your entrepreneurial experience, you need to be willing to step outside of your comfort zone.

Going outside of your comfort zone makes all the difference when it comes to your business’s success. I should know—I had to step outside of my comfort zone often when starting each of my business ventures.

From becoming comfortable with public speaking to writing a 20-page weekly newsletter, entrepreneurship forced me to do things I wouldn’t normally do. And you know what? I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

6 Benefits of stepping outside your comfort zone

Once you’ve settled into your entrepreneurial role, you might start getting comfortable with the status quo.

As a passionate entrepreneur, you want your business to succeed. And your business success boils down to one very critical question: Are you willing to push the envelope?

Check out these six benefits of stepping outside your comfort zone in business.

1. You give innovation the boost it needs

Doing the same activity day after day can be monotonous. Failing to change things up in your business can be a death sentence for your company.

Innovation keeps your business on its toes. Constantly churning out creative ideas, strategies, and offerings keeps customers enthralled, makes you stand out to lenders and investors, and repels your competitors from closing in on you.

Step outside of your comfort zone to develop and pursue innovative paths.

It’s easy to follow the same tried and true method that works for your business. But before you get too comfortable, recognize that nothing lasts forever. A business strategy might work for you now, but the market is always changing.

But what if switching up your strategy costs you customers? What if your small business revenue plummets when you try out a new approach? What if …

… What if it works?

Stepping out of your comfort zone can boost business innovation and propel your business forward.

From your marketing strategy to your sales initiatives, be willing to step outside your comfort zone and pursue alternative routes.

2. You can grow both personally and professionally

How do you know you’ve become stagnant? Many business owners and their startups become stagnant when they fail to pursue growth. If you’re limiting growth in lieu of an unknown fear, it’s time to step outside your comfort zone.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone can help you grow both in your personal and professional roles.

In my startup days, I was deathly afraid of public speaking. But because I was passionate about my business’s success, I set my fears aside and took the leap. I spoke at 60-70 business conventions. Because I was willing to stretch my comfort zone, I was able to grow my skills.

I was also not a fan of writing. But in my startup, I forced myself to write a 20-page weekly newsletter for my customers every single week for eight years. Was that in my comfort zone? Heck no. Am I glad I did it? Of course I am. I had plenty of opportunities to hone my writing skills, and my business grew because of it.

Public speaking and writing were painful at first, but the long-term benefits of growing personally and professionally significantly outweighed that pain.

Of course, you should do a business risk analysis before charging blindly towards a significant new goal. For example, don’t step outside of your comfort zone by expanding your company without research.

3. You may receive a valuable lesson in humility

Believing in yourself is critical to your business’s success. Having a big ego is not.

It’s easy to look at what you have accomplished and take pride in your work. But if you aren’t careful, too much pride can turn into arrogance. And arrogance may cause you to become closed off to others’ suggestions and opinions.

Stepping outside of your comfort zone reminds you that there is much more to learn and more work to be done in your small business.

You can’t grow your business all on your own—you need help from your employees, feedback from your customers, and advice from your mentors.

So if you want to keep your ego in check, try something new. Rarely do people excel when they’re trying something they’re not used to (with the exception of beginner’s luck).

If you fail when stepping outside your comfort zone, remember that it’s not the end of the world. Instead, look at the failure as a learning opportunity.

Don’t stunt your business’s success by thinking you have all the answers. Value what others say and remember that you’re always learning in entrepreneurship.

4. You might just have fun

Traveling to new places, trying new foods, and experiencing new adventures all require you to step outside of your comfort zone. And I think most people would agree that these are pretty fun activities.

In business, don’t just leap outside of your comfort zone for your business’s health—do it for your health, too.

Refusing to try new things can become mundane. And when you’re an entrepreneur putting at least 40 hours of work into your business each week, getting caught in the rat race can take its toll.

Try something new in your business. Chances are, you just might have fun with it. And in addition to having fun, stepping outside your comfort zone can make you proud (which is always fun, too).

5. You become better equipped to handle the unexpected

Raise your hand if you take the same vehicle to work every day. One day, your car breaks down. You glance over at your rusty old bike, but the wheels are flat. You’re not exactly prepared to handle the unexpected car malfunction, are you?

When the weather’s nice, I like to ride my bike to work. At first, it was a nice way to step outside of my comfort zone. Now, it provides an alternative option in case the unexpected happens with my car.

Voluntarily doing things outside your comfort zone prepares you for scenarios when you are forced to do things you wouldn’t normally do.

If you step outside your comfort zone, you familiarize yourself with new experiences. You become more adaptable.

When you’re used to changing things up, handling business setbacks won’t be a big deal. And setbacks happen all the time in business. You better not get too comfy, my friends.

6. You can make amazing contacts

You’ve heard the saying, It’s all about who you know. While I don’t put all my stock into this saying, I do think there is a lot of truth to it. Whether it’s your family, business mentors, investors, or customers, the people you know impact your business.

Step outside of your comfort zone to widen your circle of contacts. Doing so can open the door to invaluable advice, partnerships, and relationships.

When I wanted to start my first business, I opened the phone book’s Yellow Pages and went through page by page. I scoured that book for businesses that might need to purchase a software package. I ended up making some great contacts who coached, mentored, and educated me.

So, push yourself to attend that trade show. Speak at the business conference. Reach out to a neighboring business owner. Doing things out of the ordinary can help you develop long-lasting relationships that further your business.

One myth of entrepreneurship is more powerful than all others combined. Thanks to a culture that glorifies long hours, founders have convinced themselves that hard work correlates directly with success. Someone who works 23 hours a day and naps under the desk during lunch is bound to launch the next unicorn, right? This is a founder traits more important than drive? Not so.

Fortunately for people who like to sleep, drive is not the most important trait of successful entrepreneurs. Dedication helps, but billion-dollar valuations are built upon more than late nights and weekends at the office.

Rather than skip dinner to answer emails, work on developing these traits and skills:

1. Time management.

No matter how hard you work, you can’t defeat nature.

Your body still needs to sleep, eat, rest and fulfill the occasional social obligation to keep your mind sharp. Stop trying to fit 40 hours of work into 24 hours a day and learn the art of time management. Figure out when you do your best work and schedule your hardest tasks for that time of day.

I like to get my big projects done in the morning, which is when most experts say humans are at their most productive. Look at your schedule of meetings and see if you can delegate some of that work to other people. As a rule of thumb, if someone else can do the work, let them do it so you can reserve your founder-exclusive knowledge for tasks that no one else can do.

2. Risk analysis.

Every disruptive startup receives praise for the risks its founders took along the way.

Bad founders take that statement of praise to mean they should gamble their seed money in Vegas or go all-in blindly on new markets. Good founders know how to assess the potential value of the choices in front of them and pick the right path (most of the time, anyway). Financial risks are not the only kinds of risks.

Commitments to floundering projects, forays into new markets and over-reliance on a small pool of clients all qualify as risky choices. Domino’s Pizza took a risk when it ran a campaign about how bad its pizza was. That the campaign became an enormous success is besides the point. Study the many successes and gigantic failures of other brands to learn which risks paid off and which ones aren’t worth the roll of the dice.

3. Resilience is a trait more important than drive.

Running a startup is a lot like dating — you’ll probably meet with rejection before you succeed.

Some people get lucky and only face rejection a few times, while others deal with dozens or even hundreds of failures before they strike it rich. Successful founders know that not every idea will work.

Booted from his own company on mutiple occasions, Elon Musk has seen his SpaceX rockets burst into flames. Even those catastrophes didn’t slow him down. Like every successful entrepreneur, Musk understands that the path to greatness is littered with good ideas that didn’t turn out. Sometimes, the only thing that separates a startup success from an also-ran is one more try.

4. Ethics is a noble trait to inspire within your company.

Startup culture is unapologetically cutthroat.

Companies undercut one another all the time, and founders who don’t know how to navigate the mayhem fold under the pressure. Just because the battleground is rough, however, does not give founders an excuse to fight dirty. Founders must operate ethically both on the budget sheet and in the office.

Scandals of Sexual harassment have taken down dozens of big players in Silicon Valley. Gratefully, this means founders cannot afford to overlook unacceptable behavior within their companies — not even for their best performers. They also can’t afford to cheat investors or the IRS. There are plenty of reasons and resources to sniff out financial dishonesty in your ranks. Just don’t allow it.

5. Curiosity.

Billionaires like Bill Gates are famous for their voracious reading habits.

Curious people are more likely to find new solutions to existing problems than people who are satisfied with the status quo. Don’t take industry best practices at face value, look within your company and ask yourself if those practices make sense for your processes. Read books written by people you admire to prepare yourself for similar challenges. Stay updated on the latest trends in your industry and in other verticals, then think about whether that news could help you run a better company.

Startup founders work harder than most people, but don’t let your drive become your identity. A founder who works longer hours will not beat a founder who knows how to shake off failure. Knowing and understanding how to evaluate risks and how to lead a productive team is a place to place your curiosity and value. Rather than spend another night working on spreadsheets, take a step back and develop these traits and skills to increase the odds of your startup’s success.

As CX professionals, we are largely compelled to align with our respective organization’s sales and marketing functions, and for good reason—they are generally the ones carrying out the strategy and business goals established by leadership and guiding the rest of the organization forward.

All is well and good except when it comes to product-centric organizations believing and acting as if whatever they manufacture and sell or offer as a service is perfectly aligned with client needs and wants. Economist Lawrence Abbot observed way back in 1955 that, “What people really desire are not products but satisfying experiences. People want products because they want the experience-bringing services which they hope the products will render.” A profound statement, especially considering this was made over 60 years ago.

I’m using the terms service and product interchangeably here to illustrate a point. Think of service as an intangible product that, through an exchange, delivers a tangible benefit to the customer. In a sense, both products and services can be considered as products from the provider’s perspective. It’s simply a matter of form.

Hands-on Experience

Earlier in my career, I had the opportunity to serve customers in a pure sales capacity with all the challenges that accompany a sales role, including quotas both achievable and unrealistic. But that’s a topic for another blog.

During my tenure in sales, I was introduced and trained in what is called the solution-selling methodology. I was selling complex and highly customized laboratory robotic and automation systems into the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. Essentially, there was no product to demonstrate or even discuss until the process to be automated was fully understood by me. Once I translated that over to the engineering team, they would then develop a concept for me to present back to the customer, to show them what it might look like, and how much it might cost. Overall, a highly intangible sales process for sure, accompanied by an extremely long sales cycle. It became clear that we needed to learn how to sell a “solution” to the customer, versus a “product.”

The solution-selling idea was originally developed in 1975 by Frank Watts, at Wang Laboratories. It was later adopted by Mike Bosworth, who founded a sales training organization of the same name based on the concept.

My sales colleagues and I were trained by the Bosworth organization back in the mid-90’s and the original book, Solution Selling: Creating Buyers in Difficult Selling Markets, published in 1994, remains available today. Bosworth and Holland have also published a more updated version of the concept in a book published in 2010 titled, Customer-Centric Selling, Second Edition, which is worth checking out as it addresses more of the current trends in the digital sales and business environment.

Wikipedia defines solution-selling very succinctly as a sales methodology, where rather than just promoting an existing product, the salesperson focuses on the customer’s problems and addresses the issue with appropriate offerings (products and / or services). The problem resolution is what constitutes a “solution.” Solution-selling is usually used in sales situations where products are just one of the elements that lead to a solution. Often the real solution develops after the sales process—as with software or large plant-engineering and construction projects. It is typical for solution-selling situations that the buyer only rarely purchases such a solution, and instead needs the additional knowledge of the solution partner.

Shifting the Mindset

Transforming an organization’s approach to selling solutions requires a shift in mindset from just pushing products to creating genuine connections with people. If this starts sounding a bit more like CX, which hopefully it does, then please continue reading.

Assuming we work within organizations that are not overly siloed, then perhaps we can begin having this discussion internally; more appropriately addressing customer needs, wants, and concerns earlier in the customer journey and in a more collaborative, partnering, and humanistic manner. Selling itself doesn’t happen in a silo. All departments from marketing to research and development to manufacturing and customer service must work with sales to create true value for customers. Customer experience encompasses all the cumulative efforts.

In a 2017 article written by Sona Jepsen for Entrepreneur Magazine entitled, Forget Your Product: Start Selling ‘Solutions’ Instead, the author asserts that the old way of operating is not sustainable. To achieve the aggressive sales growth that many companies require, sales departments need to stop trying to sell products and start selling solutions.

According to Sona, selling a solution requires that companies fundamentally change how they do business. Instead of pushing products, they must create genuine connections with other people. The solution-selling methodology requires building lasting relationships with clients in which the goal is always to find new ways to help. Does this sound familiar? This is the front-end of the customer journey where building relationships for repeated business begins.

4 Steps to Smooth Transition

Managing and making the transition from a product-centric approach to a customer-centric solutions approach isn’t easy, but the alternative can be disastrous. Here are four steps that Sona offers to smooth out the transition, turning a company stuck in the past into one ready for the future. As you read each one of these steps, do so through your CX practitioner lens and see what resonates with you.

2. Prepare and qualify

Treat sales like customer service. This means anticipating customers’ needs and having a greater understanding of their issues and challenges than they do. To properly implement a solution-selling methodology, every member of the sales team needs specialized knowledge and expertise. Apple, for example, has trained its salespeople so successfully that many companies have chosen to copy its entire model.

Make sure that every lead coming from marketing is properly qualified. That way, sales teams can do their due diligence and remain experts for every customer, while early-stage leads will remain with the marketing department until they’re truly sales-ready.

2. Offer the buyer new ideas and perspectives

A pervasive myth in sales is that the more knowledgeable clients are, the more likely they are to shop around and find an alternative. Improving customer knowledge has the inverse effect, fostering trust in a company and its products. By assuming a teaching role, the “solution representative” becomes a trusted partner in a collaborative process.

I work with a sales rep who exemplifies this mantra, helping customers recognize their pain points, anticipating and responding to potential problems, and aiding the entire process of implementing our solution. This enables the rep to offer a new perspective and can lead to more business from thankful customers.

3. Shatter archaic structures in every department

The solution-selling methodology isn’t just for the sales team; it’s a prescription for the whole company. As such, any silos or archaic compensation strategies that impede solution-selling should be rendered obsolete. Leaders must be open to critically evaluating everything about their companies, including command structure and culture. This can be tough, especially if the company has enjoyed a good ride. But sometimes, even if a company’s culture isn’t broken, it still needs to be fixed for the company to move forward. Fruitful solution-development relies on open communication and broad inquiries. If there’s evidence that the flow of information is being impeded, do whatever you need to be open those channels.

4. Create a sales liaison role

Sales success hinges on marketing’s ability to generate enough qualified leads. For this to happen, marketing needs to be clear about the sales team’s needs, such as its communication preferences and demographics. The two departments should also engage in a free exchange of best practices. A sales liaison, one who works within the marketing division but can relate to both, is an essential part of ensuring that this understanding occurs. This employee is the key to relaying the necessary sales information that will enable the marketing team to create initiatives that advance solution-selling goals.

Conclusion

As I underlined in step #3 above, the solution-selling methodology isn’t just for the sales team, and knowing that the concept and language around it has evolved into more customer-centric terms. There’s a great deal of commonality, with an overlap of goals and objectives plus knowledge and skills between sales teams, customer experience teams, and customer service teams. Perhaps the biggest area of commonality and overlap that I’ve seen in my 15 plus years as a CX practitioner and consultant, is in the areas of communication and trust.

As discussed in one of my previous Power of Listening blog series, those of us in the CX discipline can benefit tremendously from building improved listening skills which is of course a key element in effective communication and building customer trust.

As before, whether you are a practitioner, a provider, or a consultant within the CX discipline, there’s a lot to be gained by becoming a better listener, communicator, and thus becoming a more trusted business partner for your personal success and the success of your organization as well.

“You cannot force me to trust you. However, you can influence my decision and what influences my decision is based on your level of trustworthiness.” —John Blakey

The gig economy is the future of work. Freelancing is taking over in a big way, presenting businesses with a range of opportunities. No business wants to miss out on what this epic shift has to offer.

(1) It Is Growing Rapidly

56.7 million Americans freelanced in 2018. That’s 3.7 million more that just a short 4 years earlier. In 2014, freelancers made up only 34% of the American workforce. Today, over half of the nation’s working population chooses to freelance.

Even those Americans who haven’t yet quit their day jobs are spending more time freelancing than before. Upwork has tracked an increase of more than 72 million freelance hours worked per week in 2018.

This means that the majority of the country’s talent is to be found online, and savvy entrepreneurs will look to the web to find the best of it.

(2) It Is Becoming More Global

Freelancing is a truly global trend as countries all over the world get better connected. Compared to just 42% in 2014, 64% of freelancers in 2018 easily found work online that they are happy with.

Many people from places like India and the Philippines have been working remotely for at least a decade. Now, they and many others across the 7 continents have the freedom to freelance.

This means that the majority of the world’s talent is moving online, and entrepreneurs who hire remote get to choose from a very large global pool of talent.

(3) It’s Not Just Millennials

Millennials love the freelance life, for sure. But older generations are getting involved in the freelance economy, too. Young and seasoned professionals alike are enjoying the benefits of independent contract work.

Plus, freelancing allows many more skilled individuals who are unable to seek traditional employment to join the workforce.

This means more talent to be tapped by entrepreneurs who hire remote freelancers.

(4) Freelancing is More Attractive

Furthermore, all these people are enjoying more excitement and better work-family balance. Freelancing allows everyone to improve their lifestyle while maintaining a reasonable income.

At first, most people (63%) worry about moving from a steady job to the freelance life, but many more (77%) admit that freelancing brings them a better work-life balance. It can be rough to start freelancing, but after that first step, the wide world of opportunity awaits.

This means that freelancers are happier, which also means that they are more productive.

(5) Freelancers Are More Skilled

Freelancers are business owners – they don’t have the benefit of a steady job with a company that protects them end ensures them of long-term work. They have to hustle just like entrepreneurs do to make sure they have a good income flow. As such, freelancers place high value on skills training – they have to stay ahead of the game and prove their worth time and again with each new client.

A college education is not enough to make it in the freelance world – freelancers need more than a one-time certification. As the Freelancing in America 2018 report shows, this pushes freelancers to seek skills training beyond their original education and experience.

This means that hiring freelancers brings in fresh skills on top of experience and not just a stale degree.

(6) You Can Hire for Almost Anything!

The gig economy has broken down the barriers. The world’s workforce is steadily moving towards the freelance life. There is a much larger pool of skill-rich freelancers to choose from when hiring remote freelancers. Unlike being limited by what is available in any single local area, the gig economy offers almost every skillset imaginable.

This means that entrepreneurs can hire a freelancer for almost any task they need done – even some that they would never before have thought to hire for.

(7) Platforms Are Moving Towards More Pre-Vetting

Because freelancing is the future of work, freelance platforms are getting more serious about how they run their operations. Gone are the days when there were just a few places one could find a freelancer to hire. No more do we have to rely on our own savvy to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Today, entrepreneurs can partner with freelance marketplaces that bring them the best hiring experience. Platforms like FreeeUp pre-vet freelancers before allowing them to create their accounts so that they can ensure clients of a high level of experience. This also promises a fast, stress-free hiring experience because most of the hard work has already been done.

This means that entrepreneurs can hire the best of the best without having to devote a huge chunk of time and money into finding the right fit.

Final Thoughts

The freelance economy has opened up a world of opportunity – literally – for entrepreneurs everywhere. As the global workforce moves towards the freelance life, it’s time that businesses did the same.

Online is where the top professionals in a variety of industries are to be found. No intelligent, highly skilled and responsible person will stay in a less satisfying position when the gig life offers greater freedom, flexibility, balance and opportunity.

Lower Mainland property developer Bene Group has a company registered with the federal government that allows it to engage in foreign exchange dealing and money transferring.

Called the Bene Financial Group Ltd., its office is listed as located in a strip mall on No. 3 Road in Richmond. The sole director of Bene Financial is Ming Nan Li, the head of the Bene Group, according to B.C.’s corporate registry.

But the information is not correct.

Ming Nan Li was never the owner of the Bene Financial Group. Instead, another man ran the business under that corporate name and used the address in the strip mall as a convenience, according to a Bene Group company official.

“It’s not owned by us actually. … Actually (the other man) was just using our offices,” said Peter Zhang, who identified himself as an assistant at the Bene Group when he answered a number listed with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac). A money services business (MSB) is required to register with Fintrac, Canada’s financial intelligence gathering agency. 

A Postmedia investigation — involving hundreds of pages of court records, corporate registry filings and property records — shows that two dozen MSBs in Richmond, Vancouver and the North Shore are listed with Fintrac as being located in houses or condos. Other MSBs are located at the offices of lawyers, accountants and realty companies. 

Many of these have no public face — at the street level or online or through advertising — which would make it difficult for any prospective clients to find them.

Across Canada, more than 800 MSBs handle an estimated $39 billion a year in transactions. The federal government and international anti-money-laundering standards agency Financial Action Task Force (FATF) have identified the sector — which includes foreign exchange dealing, international money transfers and cashing or selling money orders and traveller’s cheques — as highly vulnerable to money laundering.

Zhang said he hadn’t seen for some time the man who actually operated the Bene Financial Group, who he named as Wang Bing Xu, and had no contact information for him.

B.C. Corporate Registry records show the Bene Financial Group was dissolved as a company on June 28, 2016, by the province for failure to file annual reports. That was nearly two years before the company was registered as an MSB with Fintrac. Its registration runs out on Jan. 31, 2021.

Bene Financial has potentially run afoul of several federal rules, including one that an MSB must submit a cancellation of a registration within 30 days if it ceases operations and must notify Fintrac of location and other changes. (Violations of these rules are considered serious and can result in fines up to $100,000 under federal laws.)

This finding by Postmedia is among several that raise questions about the scrutiny of MSBs in B.C. as increasing attention is being put on money laundering in the province and how it is being policed.

In its 2016 examination report of Canada, the FATF said: “MSBs are vulnerable to money laundering as they are widely accessible and exposed to clients in vulnerable businesses or occupations, and clients conducting activities in locations of concern.”

B.C.’s examples of MSBs that have been involved in money laundering include a $200-million laundering operation in the early 2000s that was run by Tho Ahn Khuc, who operated a currency exchange out of his Burnaby home. In 2014, a currency exchange in downtown Vancouver was at the centre of a criminal case where $24 million in drug money was allegedly laundered.

‘It just doesn’t pass the smell test’

Postmedia’s findings show that a man arrested in the 2015 raid of the illegal MSB Silver International, which is alleged to have laundered as much as $220 million a year, is a director of a currency exchange in Richmond.

In addition, a West Vancouver man who was listed as the sole director of an MSB operated out of a house became embroiled in a civil suit that alleges he arranged the illegal transfer of millions of dollars between China and Canada.

These examples raise questions that underline the need for greater scrutiny of MSBs, say experts, including why these operations are being run out of homes and why property developers or realty companies are running MSBs.

“The operation of those MSBs merit, in my view, an examination by Fintrac,” said Denis Meunier, a former deputy director of Fintrac and former director general responsible for criminal investigations at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Meunier, who now acts as a senior advisor for Transparency International in Canada, a non-profit group that advocates for better corporate transparency, said the Postmedia findings also point to the importance of having transparency on beneficial ownership of corporations.

Related

• Size of money laundering problem in B.C. not clear; estimates in the billions
• B.C. government-commissioned review will assess lack of money-laundering prosecutions
• B.C. money launderers more likely to be convicted in the U.S. than at home
• Investigation: Few convictions for money laundering in B.C. since 2002

“It just doesn’t pass the smell test,” added Garry Clement, a former RCMP superintendent who served as national director of the proceeds of crime program and is now an anti-money laundering consultant.

In response to Postmedia questions on MSBs in B.C., Fintrac said it could not comment because federal law prohibits the agency from disclosing information it has received or information it may have disclosed to police or other law enforcement agencies.

“In addition, Fintrac cannot speak to specific cases and is prohibited from commenting on compliance enforcement actions that may have been undertaken in relation to a specific reporting entity or within a reporting sector,” Fintrac spokesman Dino Roberge said in a written statement.

MSB owner linked to alleged underground banking

Postmedia’s findings include a court case that pointed to a money-transfer scheme between China and Canada that appeared to take place outside of normal transfer channels that an MSB would use, where money would be transferred directly through banks from one country to another.

In a B.C. Supreme Court civil suit, Vancouver resident Haibin Liang alleges that Zhuo (Tony) Huang, who headed up the MSB Ronet Current Financial Group Inc. between 2015 and 2018, entered into an agreement where Liang would deposit Chinese currency into bank accounts in China owned by individuals directed by Huang. In turn, Huang would deposit the same value of currency — minus a service fee — in a Canadian bank account designated by Liang.

These kinds of transactions, labelled underground banking by police and regulators around the world, are often used to get money out of China, which has a $50,000 annual restriction on the amount individuals can move out of the country. Transactions like these would violate Chinese laws and potentially Canadian regulations, which require reporting of cash transactions over $10,000.

According to court documents, about $3 million in Chinese currency was deposited between October and December 2016 by Liang into the accounts of eight different people at Chinese banks that included the China Merchants Bank, Shenzhen Kejiyuan branch, and the Agricultural Bank of China, Jinhu branch.

The first $2 million in matching deposits were made in Canada by Huang but only a portion of the remaining $1 million was deposited, according to the court filings.

Huang denied the allegations, filing a response that said he did not enter into a contract with Liang and has not received from or paid any money to Liang.

Huang’s response added that if the court did find there was an agreement, that because Liang’s intention was to use the exchange to circumvent the laws of China and Canada, Liang has only himself to blame and the court should not hear the suit. The last filing in the case was in September 2018.

Huang, who ran the Ronet Current Financial Group out of a $5.9-million West Vancouver home owned by his mother, could not be reached for comment.

Several calls to the number listed for Ronet Current Financial with Fintrac — the same number listed for Huang online as a realtor for LeHomes — went unanswered. Huang also could not be reached through LeHomes.

In a written response to Postmedia’s questions about the case, Fintrac spokesman Roberge said depending on the amounts of transactions in Canada, MSBs may have obligations under anti-money-laundering laws such as client identification, record keeping and reporting but that Fintrac could not comment on any specifics relating to Ronet Current Financial.

Another Postmedia finding revealed that a director of a Richmond MSB had been arrested as part of the RCMP’s E-Pirate investigation into the underground bank Silver International, considered B.C.’s biggest ever money laundering case.

In 2015, during a raid at Silver International in Richmond, Guo (Claude) Liang Wang was arrested coming into the business with an empty suitcase. According to court records, RCMP surveillance had observed him leaving the same location earlier with a suitcase and believed he was a courier. Wang was not charged.

According to B.C. Corporate Registry records, Wang is one of the directors of HKTK Investment Ltd., registered as a foreign exchange dealer with Fintrac.

Contacted by phone, Wang said he has never been questioned by Fintrac or by police about HKTK in relation to his arrest at Silver International.

Wang said he could not remember why he went to Silver International. “I think somebody tell me to go there,” said Wang. “I don’t have nothing on me, right. I don’t have anything. I just go there and I just got arrested. That’s everything.”

He had no explanation for why he was bringing in a suitcase.

Wang said that HKTK, located in a mall on No. 3 Road in Richmond and called HKTK Express Exchange, deals only in currency exchange and not international transfers. “We just do small amounts,” he said.

A visit to the currency exchange in the mall during business hours in mid-March found the office shuttered and locked up.

The RCMP did not respond to a request for comment and Fintrac said it was prohibited from commenting on specific cases.

No advertising or online presence

Another of the two dozen MSBs located in houses and condos is Anxin Real Estate, registered with Fintrac as a money transfer and foreign exchange dealing business located at a house in Kerrisdale. Information on the real estate firm’s website appears to be stale, dating from 2016.

Contacted at the phone number listed with Fintrac, a man said the MSB business ceased operating last year and had been connected to the real estate business. An MSB that has ceased operating is required to submit notification to Fintrac, but Anxin’s registration remains active on Fintrac’s registry, with an expiry date of March 31, 2020.

Asked how the MSB and the real estate firm were connected, the man, who would not identify himself, said he was not “really qualified to answer that” and was “not authorized to speak to any reporter.”

Calvin Bui and Partners Inc., registered as a money transferring business with Fintrac, is also listed as being located at a house in Vancouver. Bui, who also has a business listed online as a bookkeeper/accountant, said the MSB is no longer active. However, it is listed as active on Fintrac’s registry, with an expiry date of Sept. 30, 2020.

Bui told Postmedia that in the past he had helped some friends and family, but declined to say any more.

Dragon Wealth Holdings, a money exchange dealing business that has no apparent advertising or online presence, has locations listed on the 25^th floor of a Coal Harbour condo and at a home in Kerrisdale.

A man who answered one of the numbers listed with Fintrac for the business said it was the wrong number for Dragon Wealth and declined to say more.

Messages left for Crystal Xu, who is the sole director of Dragon Wealth according to corporate registry records and who has been involved in redeveloping houses on the west side, at the other Fintrac-listed phone number went unanswered.

German Report recommended licensing regime for MSBs

MSBs were identified as a concern in an independent report into money laundering commissioned by the B.C. government last year.

Peter German, the report’s author and a former RCMP deputy commissioner, recommended last summer the province consider a licensing regime for MSBs that is similar to the Metal Dealers and Recyclers Act. That act requires metal dealers to report suspected stolen items, and gives the province powers to inspect and issue fines up to $50,000 for companies and $5,000 for individuals.

Licensing of MSBs is common at the state level in the United States but Quebec is the only province to adopt it in Canada.

So far, it is unknown what would be required in B.C. to become licensed.

The B.C. Attorney General’s office said work has commenced on about half of German’s 48 recommendations, released in June 2018, but would not say what is the status of the MSB recommendation.

Meunier, the former deputy director of Fintrac, said he would like to see all provinces consider adopting a licensing regime similar to Quebec’s.

Unlike the Metal Dealers and Recyclers Act that German recommends B.C. consider for licensing MSBs, the Quebec act gives the province wider-ranging powers, including the authority to vet those who want to set up MSBs.

The application process involves applicants providing Quebec’s securities regulator with a significant amount of information on the proposed MSB, including its legal structure, officers, directors, partners and branch managers. The MSB and its owners must also meet conditions of suitability and obtain a security clearance from the Quebec police force, the Sûreté du Québec.

ghoekstra@postmedia.com

twitter.com/gordon_hoekstra

Chinh Pham got his first degree in genetics, but realized his real interest was the law as it applies to technology. Today, he combines his interests by working with a wide range of startups, including those in the life sciences, medical hardware and other industries where intellectual property defines a company from day one. As the co-chair of the emerging technology practice at international law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, he and his team provide a range of services to companies from the ground floor up; he also spends significant time with commercialization programs at top universities.

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On common startup mistakes:

“I’d say it is important to get all the founders in place and on the same page very early on. We’ve seen so many situations where there’s some internal turmoil before the company even gets off the ground, and then the whole venture falls apart. I typically suggest that each team member be responsible for specific tasks, because not everyone is good at everything.

“I also find that many student entrepreneurs are in the United States on an academic F1 visa. They may not realize that while they may found a startup, an F1 visa may not allow them to work or be employed by the startup. Therefore, consultation with an immigration attorney may be needed.”

On the importance of IP to many startups:

“I divide the world into wet, under which life sciences fall, and dry, under which everything else falls. Regardless of the type of client, I’ve found that most often IP is fairly critical for their success, because as they’re thinking about fundraising, they need a solid IP portfolio for investors to look at because most of these investors, as you know, aren’t going to put money into a company that really doesn’t have any innovation.”

Below, you’ll find founder recommendations, the full interview, and more details like their pricing and fee structures.

This article is part of our ongoing series covering the early-stage startup lawyers who founders love to work with, based on this survey and our own research. The survey is open indefinitely so please fill it out if you haven’t already. If you’re trying to navigate the early-stage legal landmines, be sure to check out our growing set of in-depth articles, like this checklist of what you need to get done on the corporate side in your first years as a company.

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The Interview

Eric Eldon: First of all, how did you get into working with startups and within the wider world of the legal profession? I’d love to hear about your experiences working in Boston in particular as well.

Chinh Pham: My work with technology companies began while in law school in San Francisco back in the early 90s. As an intellectual property attorney, I’ve continued to work with technology companies, from startup phase to exit, throughout my entire career. Very early on in my legal career, an investor friend asked me about nanotechnology, which at that time, was a little-known but promising technology. I spent some time researching the nanotech industry and learning everything I could about the technology and its potential applications. Almost instantly, I was the nanotech expert at my firm and quickly became known as a nanotech specialist in the business world. That was an exciting time in my career, and I discovered that I loved the challenge and promise of emerging technologies, so I dedicated my practice to helping innovators develop, commercialize and protect their technologies.

Some of the most successful and influential SaaS companies include channel sales in their go-to-market strategy. Brands including HubSpot, Atlassian, Slack, Xero, Zendesk and Klaviyo use a variety of partner programs and other tactics to expand into new markets, scale their sales efforts and take advantage of partners’ existing connections and credibility.

For the uninitiated, channel sales refers to the process of partnering with third parties to get your product into the end user’s hands. Part of the appeal of this approach is that it’s a very effective way to scale revenue without having to go through the expense and effort of scaling your direct sales team. The ability to tap into the existing sales organizations of partners can be both very efficient and also cost effective.

That’s not to say that designing and building a successful channel sales program is easy. There are certain product and audience situations for which a channel strategy is more appropriate. And there are definitely certain requirements a company has to meet in order to make a partner program viable.

To help you explore the possibilities, let’s take a closer look at exactly what a channel strategy is, how it works, when it’s a good fit and how it all comes together.

Channel Sales versus Direct Sales – The Good and the Bad

While it’s not the end-all-be-all, a good, old-fashioned pros-and-cons list is not a bad place to start if you’re trying to decide whether or not a channel sales program is a good fit for your company. Understanding the advantages and risks can help you quickly identify any deal breakers that would rule channel sales out as a sales strategy for your organization.

Channel – Cons

The downside of channel sales can be broken down into three main categories: loss of control, increased complexity and—of course—reduced per-sales profits.

Loss of Control

Bringing a partner into the sales process means there will be an intermediary between you and your end user. In some models, you may not even have any direct contact with the sales process at all. While being more hands-off might become a positive attribute, it also comes with some potential risks:

• • • If a deal is in trouble or mismanaged, you may not have the ability to step in to salvage the situation.
    • Because you won’t usually have visibility into partner pipelines, it will be more difficult to predict revenues.
    • You may lose the ability to dictate timelines and other key aspects of a deal, which can then put your delivery and support teams in a difficult situation.
    • You may inadvertently put your brand’s reputation at risk if you associate with a partner who doesn’t live up to your standards.
    • You will likely lose opportunities to get feedback directly from customers, and even when partners share customer feedback, it might be delayed, incomplete, or even inaccurate.

Increased Complexity

While channel sales relieve some of the burden of building up and managing your own sales team, you’re still responsible for supporting your partners.

• • • Timely and clear communication is critical to any channel sales program. Any time you update your messaging, product mix, features, offers, etc., you need to ensure that the update will be made across all your partners, not just a centralized sales team.
    • You are also responsible for onboarding and training your partners. As the old saying goes, “Garbage in. Garbage out.” The quality of your outcomes depends on the quality of your partner support.
    • On a related note, relationships can get sticky pretty quick over conflicts between partners and your direct salespeople, or even between 2 partners. If your internal salespeople are competing for the same customers your channel partners are trying to reach, that’s a recipe for disaster.

Reduced per-sale Profits

Finally, there’s the obvious—when you involve a partner in the sale, you will have to take a cut in profits in order to give them their share. This, however, is one of those times when it’s usually best to avoid the penny-wise/pound-foolish trap. While you might retain less of each individual sale, you will probably be reducing your CAC and—hopefully—expanding your reach so that your overall sales volume increases.

Channel – Pros

Now that we’ve got the bad news out of the way, here are some of the reasons channel sales is a popular strategy among leading SaaS brands.

• • • To help offset those reduced profits, channel sales is designed to reduce sales, marketing and distribution costs. Because your partners are established entities who already market to the audience you’re trying to reach, your overhead costs are greatly reduced.
    • Once you have established your program and defined your model, you can scale very effectively by simply bringing more partners into the program. Doing this will not require major expansion of your internal resources since a single channel manager can handle multiple partnerships.
    • Channel sales is also a low-cost way to expand into new markets. Whether you’re working with a single partner or a partner network, a channel strategy allows you to plug into an existing market presence. This eliminates the need to build and manage new offices, spend for local advertising, or hire additional on-the-ground personnel.
    • On the branding side, working with an established and respected partner gives you instant credibility in their market and with their audience.
    • Collaborating with channel partners also provides the opportunity to do rapid testing with new customer audiences, product features, promotional offers and brand messaging.
    • Depending on how you design your program and what kind of partners you work with, a channel program can also reduce your customer success burden by shifting the responsibility for customer onboarding, training and technical support and service to qualified partners.

Direct Sales – Pros and Cons

On the flip side, direct sales—sales involving an in-house sales team who interact directly with the customer—comes with its own pros and cons. As you might expect, most of these are pretty obvious opposites of what we can expect from channel sales:

Cons:

• • • There are higher costs associated with direct sales because your success depends on building and managing an in-house sales team. Hiring, training and compensating this team can be a very expensive undertaking both in time and money.
    • Relying solely on direct sales also makes it more difficult to scale because scaling will require bringing on more sales people, which means more time and money spent on recruiting, onboarding and on-going training.
    • In a similar vein, if you’re only doing direct sales, it will be more costly and challenging to get into new markets. Instead of simply incorporating new partners, you will need to potentially open a new company, establish new offices, hire new staff and everything else that’s required to establish a local presence in a new market.

Pros:

• • • You retain full control of your sales process from designing the flow, to managing the pipeline, to having the conversations with customers. You own every deal from end to end, including having direct access to customer feedback.
    • Your per-sale profits increase because you don’t have to share revenue through channel discounts.
    • You don’t have to rely on external parties for revenue. By keeping everything under your roof, you will have better insight into sales forecasts and be able to adjust accordingly.
    • You control a valuable feedback loop which allows your team to iterate quickly and determine which message is resonating with your customer base.

Channel Models – Many Flavors to Choose From

Another strength of channel marketing is that there are a variety of engagement models to choose from.

Affiliate Partners

Affiliate marketing refers to programs in which the company selling a product rewards affiliates who promote and recommend that product to their audience. This category includes programs built around relationships with existing users, content creators, industry influencers and so forth.

Value-added Resellers

Value-added Resellers (or VARs) purchase third-party software to sell to the end user at a markup bundled with added features, integrations, configuration or other professional services. These kinds of arrangements ultimately enable the VAR to deliver a “full-service” or “turnkey” solution.

Distributors

Distributors are the proverbial middle man, providing a connection between the product company and a network of resellers who will then sell to the end user. Working with a distributor can shorten time to market by leveraging their existing distribution channel. In some cases, distributors also provide training, technical assistance and other kinds of support to channel resellers.

Managed Service Providers (MSPs)

Similar to VARs, but different in that they maintain longer relationships with their end customers, MSPs provide operational and maintenance IT services to businesses that do not have an in-house IT department. They may offer network maintenance, hardware repair, help-desk services, email management and many other services. In addition, they purchase third-party software to bundle with these services.

System Integrators

SIs purchase third-party hardware and software components (usually from multiple vendors) and integrate them to create a customized solution for the end user.

Consultants

Combining elements of MSPs and SIs, IT consultants are typically brought in to help a customer design a customized IT solution. They may provide advice, design services, project management, administration and other types of support needed to bring the project to fruition.

Strategy Alignment – When a Channel Program Is the Right Fit

While there are many benefits to incorporating a channel element into your go-to-market strategy, it’s not the perfect fit for all companies. In addition to considering how channel marketing aligns with certain attributes of your organization, it’s also important to consider timing. There is definitely a “right moment” at which to add channel sales into the mix.

• • • Product maturity: If your product is still evolving, you may not want to put yourself in a position of having channel partners sitting between you and your end users. At this stage, getting fast, honest and accurate user feedback is critical to help you assess and analyze what’s working and what’s not.
    • Target Market: If you primarily sell to enterprise businesses, a channel strategy may not be the best fit because your number of potential customers is fairly limited. If you are selling to mid-market and small businesses, however, your list of potential customers is a lot longer, and a channel strategy may be a more efficient and cost-effective way to reach that many people.
    • Buyer Profile: If your product is bought not by someone in IT but by Line of Business (LoB) buyers, but you don’t have relationships at that level, a channel partner may be a valuable asset who can help you reach that influential group of buyers.
    • Integration Opportunities: If your product must be combined with other products or services before an end user can realize its full potential, a channel strategy with partners who provide complementary technology and services is a smart move.
    • Growth Strategy: If you are looking to expand your sales territory into new geographic areas or countries, a channel strategy is one of the best ways to mitigate risk, scale across new locations, and generate revenue quickly.
    • Company size and maturity: Smaller companies—especially early-stage companies—often explore the channel sales model as a way to grow their business without having to make substantial investments in building and maintaining their own sales team. As these companies grow and mature, they may choose to pursue both direct and channel sales.
    • Sales process maturity: Before you take on channel partners, you have to be sure that you have a strong and in-depth understanding of your sales process—the customer journey, sales cycle stages and length, buying triggers, typical stakeholders and so on. You need to know every detail inside and out so that you can teach it effectively to your channel partners.
    • Sales process complexity: Channel sales is best suited to products that have a relatively short and simple sales process. The more complex and lengthy the sales process, the more challenging it will be for partners to resell successfully.
    • Geographic Footprint: If your office locations are all over the map, a channel sales model can help reduce the need for multiple sales teams, thus reducing overhead costs.
    • Revenue Urgency: While setting up a channel program usually ultimately less costly than recruiting, hiring and compensating your own salesforce, it will require a fair amount of time and money to do it right. If your company is at a stage where revenue is needed sooner than later, it may be wiser to stick with direct sales until you feel you have the financial bandwidth to invest in channel sales.

Identifying and Recruiting Channel Sales Partners

Once you’ve decided that a channel sales strategy is right for your company, and you’ve invested the time to develop your program and refine your model, it’s time to start building partner relationships.

The first step in this process is to identify the types of partners you want to target. In addition to determining the broad brushstrokes such as which types of partners (VARs vs. MSPs, for instance) and whether or not you will use distributors, it’s time to get down into some details about the characteristics of your perfect partner. A few attributes to consider include:

• • • Company size
    • Market position
    • How many and which vertical markets they serve
    • Existing customer relations
    • Product portfolio relevance and alignment
    • Commitment to partnering
    • Overall company growth strategy

Once you have gotten clear on who you’d like to partner with, you can design a recruitment campaign tailored to that audience. You can use a variety of inbound and outbound tactics including events, collateral, branding, social media, blogs and other content, webinars and more.

Whichever tactics you choose, it’s important to ensure that the content and conversations are useful and relevant to potential partners. The more you can make it about their needs and their customers’ needs, the better off you’ll be.

Motivating Channel Partners

Once you have landed partners in your program, you need to find ways to motivate them to invest and engage in being a valuable partner. This can be challenging because, unlike an in-house sales team, you do not have any actual leverage with which to influence your partners’ level of engagement or performance. The most effective ways to motivate partners are to stay in touch, provide excellent resources, and—whenever possible—offer them something extra. When you’ve reached a certain level, you may also want to consider doing some business planning with your partners.

Communication

Regular contact is key to maintaining and nurturing any relationship, and channel partnerships are no exception. By developing an ongoing cadence of communication, you will not only stay top of mind with your partners, you’ll also be able to keep them up to date on product news, brand messaging changes, major announcements, and so forth. You can communicate via email, Slack, a Facebook group, in-person events, periodic webinars or any other method that works for your partners.

Resources

Empower your partners with high-quality, in-depth content that inspires them and gives them the confidence to sell your product even though they are not actually part of your company. Provide collateral and reference materials for every stage of the sales cycle. Give them well-documented and easy-to-understand product specs, case studies, testimonials, competitor comparisons, call scripts and conversation guides to help them overcome buyer objections.

Extra Incentives

Everyone likes a little special treatment. Getting a cut of the sale may be what gets a partner to join your channel network, but keeping them working enthusiastically on your behalf might take a little more. Some companies use a tiered system to break partners into categories based on volume or performance and then reward those differentiated groups accordingly. Some companies offer bonuses for reaching certain sales milestones. Sometimes, the extra benefit is some kind of elite training, priority listing in a partner guide, or the chance to get some face time with key clients. And sometimes, the extra incentive is old-fashioned swag like tickets to special events.

Business Planning

To get the most out of more advanced partner relationships, collaborative business planning is a great way to add value by having a deeper understanding of a partner’s business and how their goals align with yours. This kind of effort can deliver a strong return, but it does take some careful planning and attention to details. When you’re ready for this step, you can learn more about how to set expectations, control the scope, establish a system of record, and successfully implement training, documentation, and information sharing in this post about maximizing channel relationships.

Measuring Channel Program Success

Finally, after you’ve done all the hard work of designing, setting up, and building out your channel sales program, it’s time to see how well its performing against your business goals. As with any measurable activity, there are almost countless metrics you can use to gauge the success of your program. Which ones give you the most accurate indication of how things are going will depend on specifics about your business and your program.

To get you started, Hubspot—a company that has seen great success with its channel program—has compiled a pretty comprehensive list of relevant channel metrics covering partner recruitment, sales success, and profitability. From partner attrition rate to the percentage of closed partner-submitted deals to the CAC for partner sale versus direct sale, there are plenty of ways to assess how well your program is delivering for your business.

Is your interest piqued? Get more information and insights about channel marketing on our blog.

The post Channel Sales for SaaS: What It Is, When it Works, and How to Build Your Own appeared first on OpenView Labs.

Once you defined your sales and marketing goals, you can tailor your referral program to get you the results you want to achieve. You can use several methods to record your data and track your referrals.

Why should you track referrals?

The simple answer is “he said, she said”. Whether you use the old methods of tracking a referral manually or the newer ways by using a referral software, you need to be able to trace back who is referring you.

There are various reasons why you should track referrals. Like figuring out if who you need to reward, and when you need to reward them. But more importantly, building a referral tracking system can help you make better decisions to further increase your referral marketing growth. Here are some other reasons.

Gauge customer satisfaction

Tracking your referral program will help identify a few key analytics to help you see the satisfaction of your customers. If customers are satisfied with your program, you’ll likely see a good amount of referral flow. Metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Customer effort score (CES) can help you track your customer satisfaction. A satisfied customer is more likely to refer than one who is not satisfied (this is true whether a reward is present or not).

View participation rate

You need to keep track of the participation rate to help you measure the success of your referral program. By looking at participation rates or the number of program sign-ups, you can determine if what you’re doing is working. If the rate of participation is low, you can try revamping your current referral marketing approach to up participation rate again.

See the share rate

Reveal the number of advocates sending the referrals. You can analyze the sharing channels preferred by your advocates, such as email, social media, dedicated link, etc. You can then provide more content sharing ideas for your advocates and maximize the ease of use and conversion.

A satisfied customer is likely to refer. Plus, if you offer a reward you’ll be able to gauge satisfaction there as well. A customer will refer if the reward is enticing enough.

Keep track of the referral share rate

How many referrals are your advocates generating? You may be able to push this number higher by creating a tier-based reward system. The main difference a referral rate and a share rate is that your member might share their referral code 1000 times with people on social media and only actually receive 1 referral, which would be only .1% referral rate.

Remember a new customer will buy if they are also satisfied with what you are offering.

Track conversion rate

As we mentioned, your member might share many times, but only get 1 or 2 referrals. You’ll be able to see how many referrals follow through and purchase your product. Based on this number you can determine if there are any changes you need to make in the program or promotion strategy. Many people use this number to determine how successful their program is.

This can also link up to how long it takes the referred customer to purchase a product after clicking on their referral link or code to determine how well your redirect, landing page, and sales funnels are.

Tip: If this number is low, you may want to revamp your reward to the referral or restructure your program to fit their needs better.

Track referrals to help create a referral program model

There can be a variety of ways you push referrals to happen. For example, you may want to create an expiration date for members to promote your business or provide certain discount code and or credit. If this is the case, you need to keep track of all the moving parts that go into your referral program.

Tracking your referral information is probably one of the more difficult and confusing aspects of referral marketing. But, there are a few options whether it be tracking via spreadsheet, forms, or cookies.

Not all referral programs are created equal, and they shouldn’t be. You might need a simple solution rather than something more complex based on your business needs. We’ll discuss how tracking your referrals work and the most important parts you’ll need to understand.

Referral tracking models

The diagram above shows an example of a referral program and how it works. Why is creating your referral tracking model important? As mentioned before, you’ll want to measure every single component. Tracking how A moves to B can help you understand where you are the strongest or the weakest.

Your sales have been blowing up lately and you’re thrilled but still unsure about what is causing the spike in sales. You have a feeling it might be the referral program you’ve set-up but you’re not tracking them effectively to find out if you’re right.

The other reason why you need to track your referral program is to be able to connect with each experience. From the time the referral has been initiated to associating the referral with the coupon, the date or cookies to help monitor the time of the payout. Let’s break this down a bit:promoters

1. Registering your Promoters
2. Assigning a referral code for your Promoter
3. Connecting Referrals with the Promoter
4. Reward redemption

Each trigger is initiated once the unique tracker (referral tracker) has been tagged as the first A to B interaction.

What is a referral tracker?

Referral trackers (or referral code ) are little bits of code inserted into referral link (URLs) for tracking purposes. It acts as a unique identifier.

With the example above, the referral code is the unique referral tracker we will be using to identify what Referrals go to whom and when redemptions of rewards are initiated. Whether you use a referral link, code, or physical coupon, each referral tracker can be triggered.

Let’s see how it works in three different ways:

1. Manual referral process

If you are using a physical coupon for your brick and mortar store, you can provide business cards or printed materials to Promoters so that they can write their name on them to give it to their Referrals. Or you can even assign a code on the printed material and that code will be associated with the Promoter, and anyone who uses that code will be tied back to the Promoter.

These options would work well if you were handing out referral cards, for example. Here are some popular referral card ideas you can check out.

2. Online referral process

The simplest referral program model would be:

1. Member of the referral program invites their friend using their unique referral tracker (link or code).
2. Tracking matches the unique identifier to the correct person in a referral tracking system like Google analytics then gets links them to the referred person.
3. Once the person who was invited makes a purchase using the link, the member (Promoter) of the program gets a reward.

3. Using a referral program software

With a referral program software, it gets a bit complex, but the software does all the work

1. Javascript web pixel tracking is used to set user attributes (uses user browser cookies) on a confirm page
2. Postback URL – call back to the referral program software with conversion’s information and URL parameters that is passed to you. Think of it as a medium
3. API call – calls back to the referral program with the URL parameters that is passed to you to reference the member.

Referral program using our spreadsheet

We actually created a Do-it-yourself Referral Tracking Spreadsheet that you can use if you decided to test out and start your own referral program. Whether you want to do a trial of a referral program for your business, or simply understand the scope of how everything works. We thought it would be fun to make and show you how it’s done.

After doing it all manually you may realize how having a system in place makes it easier.

There are three different tabs on our referral program spreadsheet:

• Promoters
• Referrals
• Promoter Reward Redemption

Promoters

The Promoter tab is where you will be able to find the customers who have joined your referral program. They will be assigned a unique referral code for tracking.

In order for people to register, you can provide the form for them to sign up, or you can have someone on your team register them. All you need to do is Click on Grid ViewRegister Promoter. This will open the form that will allow you to add each promoter.

Additionally, you can click on” Open form” along the top of the menu if you’d like to get a form URL to share. This URL could be emailed to potential promoters if want them self-register.

As you now have seen, Airtable will provide a form for you to register your Promoters or provide the link to share with your Promoters to register on their own.

Once you have filled out the form, a “referral code” will be generated automatically for your Promoters for tracking their referrals and rewards.

Obviously, it’s not a fancy referral program, but for those who are just looking to explore how to run a referral program, and don’t feel the need to use software at this time, you have the option to use this simple spreadsheet to dip your toes a bit.

Referrals

In the Referrals section, you can switch from Gridview to Referral Sale to open up the form to add a referral.

The form is similar to the Promoters form. In that, you can open it within the Airtable or with the “Open form” button to open to its own URL.

Once the Referral is linked to a Promoter, the Promoter can redeem their reward.

Something to consider: updating Referrals

When the Referral has to take action to earn a reward, you’ll have to update the status of the Referral. The typical statuses are PendingQualifiedApproved and Denied. Rewards can be tied to Qualified and Approved statuses, dependent on the program design.

While the spreadsheet can help you keep track of Promoters to Referrals and Promoters to Rewards, you might want to be able to track Referral purchases too so that you can identify when and who purchased something so that credit is given to the Promoter.

Pretty cool right? It doesn’t cost you anything to use, but let’s take a deeper dive to how tracking your Referrals in a more advanced way can help you do more with your referral program.

Promoter reward redemption

When the Promoter wants to redeem their reward, go to Open Form under the Promoter Reward Redemptions tab. Find the Promoter via the form drop down and the amount the Promoter wants to redeem. Note this can be anything you want to associate with the redemption.

You can add notes to the redemption process form. In this example, we wrote that the Promoter came into the store and redeemed his reward, as seen in the image below.

The referral tracking system also includes the date and the time it was redeemed to help you keep track of when everything happened.

9 best ways to track your referrals

Aside from the Airtable we’ve created, there are other ways to track referrals. Here are 9 ways you can consider.

1. Spreadsheet

The success of your referral program relies on creating an effective database. Tracking the old fashion way using a spreadsheet might be an option if you decide to manually approve your referral payouts.

It might also be a good option if you want to first test out a referral program before diving in head first, as we mentioned earlier. Or if you’re a small business who might not need a complex program that is equipped with referral software.

If you don’t want to use our Do-it-yourself Referral Tracking Spreadsheet, you can use a Google Spreadsheet or Excel, you will need to create a unique referral ID for each of your Promoters.

But don’t stop there. You can still use a variation of technology to make the program easy to run. Whether you have your employees enter in the information to track referral sales or if your payout is when you collect leads from your influencers, customers, you can use a simple form builder and have it sync with Google Sheets.

For example, you can use Zapier integration to help make it easy to add, track, and collect data.

2. Google Analytics

Google Analytics has an attribution model built into it. You can use a variety of attribution models such as first touch or last touch depending on who you want to credit for your referral.

From the data, you will clearly see where a majority of your conversions are coming from. It’s an easy way to asses which partners are working for you and which are not. Also unlike some tracking software, Google Analytics is absolutely free.

3. Using UTM parameters

This technique lies somewhere in between the tracking software and Google Analytics when it comes to complexity. You will have to provide your guests with a unique URL through which they can refer their friends or colleagues. The data of unique URL for specific visits will be available in your Google analytics data so you do need to have that set up as well.

This method is free as well but involves a lot of additional work for the marketing team as opposed to using the Attribution Model already built into Google.

4. Coupon codes

Similar to UTM URLs you can also provide customers that sign up for your product or service with their own personal coupon codes. These coupon codes are then shared by your customers with their acquaintances to spread the word about your business. You can judge the strength of your referring partners based on the number of times their coupon code is mentioned in your data.

5. Use a redirect referral page

Generally speaking, using a referral redirect will give you plenty of control over what your new customer will see. This option allows you to drop your referral on the page of your choice after they click on the referral link provided by your customer.

In many cases, the referral will land directly on your homepage. But, you can drop them on a form or contact page as well. This option typically uses cookies to tie the referral to your customer, so even if you don’t have them fill out a form, you will be able to track certain information. This option works really well for eCommerce businesses.

6. Referring form fields

You might have noticed a few companies asking you to enter details in the field “how did you hear about us”. You can have a similar field on your sign-up form. If you’re incentivizing your referrals, people that refer your business to others will surely ask your potential customers to write their name in that field.

It’s not a sure-fire method of collecting the data but it’s a start. If you want to forgo using cookies, you can always get information on your referrals by asking them to fill in a form. This option is best for service businesses who may need to set an appointment or provide a quote or follow up in some other manner with a referral.

7. Confirm redirect URL

In some cases, you may not be able to add additional scripts to your referral capture pages. This option works by using a page that takes information in the URL of your external source into a confirmation page, then it forwards the user to the desired landing page. This might work best for those businesses who are using various form creation sites that use a redirect method upon form completion.

8. Old fashion way

If you’re a brick and mortar store, you could have printed materials and write their names on the back of the material like a referral card, coupon, etc. You can check out our referral card ideas. Or the cashier would ask the customer who referred them and they would then enter that information into their spreadsheet.

9. Referral tracking software

The easiest way to keep a track of your referral data is by using a referral tracking software. Most simple referral programs come with a simple setup wizard that allows you to get started within a few minutes. In most cases, you simply enter a few basic details and the software then generates, tracks referrals, and even issues rewards on your behalf.

What else can you track using a referral program software?

You can manually or automatically approve a referral once the tracking event occurs. While having it work synced with different criteria like cookies and attributions. Using a referral program software can help you expand and fine-tune your terms as in what defines a reward to creating a set conversion, to fraud detection.

What is the Conversion Tracking Script?

The Conversion Tracking script is added to a page that signifies that a conversion has happened. This could define a successful demo form submission, quote request form submission, e-commerce purchase, mailing list sign-up, or any other on-site action that you want to track. The script is triggered whenever the page is loaded by a visitor.

The Conversion Tracking script does three things:

• Checks if the user is a referral, by checking for the existence of a cookie.
• Creates a referral record and attributes it to the correct referring member, if the user is a referral.
• Optionally adds parameters to the new referral record from your site. Examples include the referral’s name, email address, and purchase amount.

This script does the hard work of creating a referral upon a sale or other desired actions and adds information (parameters) about the new referral.

The Conversion Tracking script is usually placed in one of the following areas:

• A thank you page after a successful form submission.
• A confirmation page after a successful e-commerce purchase.
• A welcome page after a successful user sign-up.

Automatically approve referral?

Approving your referrals and rewards can be time-consuming if you are using a spreadsheet for your referral program. Identifying when the sales happen, and if you have a waiting period before providing any rewards to your promoter (perhaps based on your return policy). And keeping track of when that sale was initiated, on top of reminding yourself to follow up with the sales after 30-90 days.

Referral software can help you automate the process. With most referral software you can even automatically approve or set it manually. Here’s an example:

You may have the option to select ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for automatic approval. If “Yes” referral will be approved once the conversion tracking event occurs (On your purchase or booking confirmation page). If it’s set to “No” you’ll have to manually approve the referral. This option is typically used if the sale is not complete right away or if the sales process is longer than usual.

Tracking Expire

Cookies are added to the referral software to help keep track of who should get the rightful credit. If a referral was offered the link from two different Promoters, who gets the credit? With a cookie, the first link the referral clicks on will store the Promoters ID and cannot be overridden. The tracking cookies (first and third party) will live for the number of days specified after the user clicks. If they click again, they have issued a new cookie and the time begins again.

Here are a few cookie examples and how they work:

Tracking with First Interaction Attribution

Last Smart Interaction (Recommended) – Credit for the referral goes to the last member whose link was clicked by the referral. For example, if a user first clicks Member A’s link and then clicks Member B’s link, Member B’s tracking cookie will replace Member A’s cookie.

First Interaction – Credit for the referral goes to the first member whose link was clicked by the referral. For example, if a user first clicks Member A’s link and then clicks Member B’s link, Member A’s cookie will not be replaced, except in the case that it has expired.

Last Interaction – Cookies are always replaced on a new referral link click, regardless of whether the referral clicks the same member’s link more than once. This reduces tracking accuracy and fraud detection but can be useful if multiple members and referrals are expected to share the same device, as each referral link click on the same device will be tracked as a different user.

With that said, you’ll want to discuss and ask questions with the referral software of your choosing, since different referral software companies might have a different take on how to handle cookies.

Common questions you should be asking your referral software provider would be:

• How long does the tracking cookie stay in referral’s browser?
• What happens when a referral uses a mobile browser using the referral link and then switches to a desktop browser, not using the link?
• How long can I set my cookie duration? Can I set it to forever for my promoters?
• How should I provide this data on my privacy policy and cookie policy so I am GDPR compliant?

We went through quite a bit on how to track your referrals, how you can track referrals manually using our referral tracking spreadsheet and how referral program software can help create advanced features for your needs. If you are still wanting to know why you need a referral software, feel free to try our spreadsheet to see how your business can grow, look at some of our referral marketing statistics to help you understand the importance of referral program.

How you answer this question determines how you view the customer. Tesla recently announced that they were going to close their stores, move sales online and in doing so be able to cut their prices by 6%. You would probably say that this is an expensive move on their part. Tesla soon took back their statement and shared that they would not close as many stores and as a result, only have to reduce their prices by 3%. Would you say that Tesla is now calling sales an unnecessary expense that could actually be totally avoided? Here’s the link to the full article.

Tesla sees sales as an activity required to handle transactions. Clearly, they don’t view sales as something that is able to generate incremental opportunities.

Sales is not about servicing the business, taking care of orders that roll in, etc. If you view sales this way, it is truly an expense. Every sale needs to be monitored and reduced wherever possible because each can be a drag on profitability, just like all expenses.

Let’s start to look at sales as merely an activity designed to create incremental sales, either from existing customers or new prospects. By changing your mindset, you’ll see sales as an investment. In order to maximize your return, optimize this valuable investment by making adjustments along the way, just like with personal investments. This will help build on your initial investment and produce more growth.

You can’t afford to view sales as anything but an investment. Making sales an investment proves that your sale has a future and that you’re confident in your ability to help others.

The important questions you need to ask yourself are:

1. How do I invest more in sales to create an even bigger investment?
2. What do I need to change to improve how I manage my time?
3. Do I need to make changes in my sales process?
4. Do I need to change how I prospect?

I can tell you that sales will never be an expense in any organization that I am involved with. There are too many opportunities and people to help for sales not to be an investment. One of the greatest benefits of sales is the investment it pays out for the buyer and the seller.

Copyright 2019, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Prospecting: Powerful Strategies to Find the Best Leads and Drive Breakthrough Sales Results

Without sturdy pipeline management, it is difficult to generate leads and build relationships.

Help your sales reps and managers get into a steady groove in their sales process with these tips on how to nurture leads from seed to sale.

What exactly is a sales pipeline?

It is a visual representation matched with a statistical approach that creates a process intended to help sell a product.

A sales pipeline helps to track clients, quotas, and deals.

(Source: Freshsales)

A good pipeline will allow sales personnel to effectively trace leads, money, goals, and manage client relationships over time using accurate data and analysis. The CRM for your sales pipeline should alert the user to deals and customers that need specific attention at a designated time.

Find your data points

To take charge of your sales funnel find the right metrics to focus on. Aimlessly collecting data isn’t the best way to customize and design a high-functioning pipeline. It is not only essential to understand your numbers, but also have accurate ones.

Here are some metrics you should be paying attention to:

• New leads per month
• Average closed deal size
• Average sales cycle
• Conversion rates of leads to sales
• Sales Velocity

Get specific with the data sales reps are entering into your company’s CRM. Sales managers should monitor to ensure the data is accurate for improved forecasting.

Schedule Reviews

To increase the number of lead-to-sale conversions and improve overall lead generation, it is smart to schedule regular pipeline reviews. There is always room for improvement, and while your pipeline might be full of leads, it could have low conversion rates, for example. Look at the data from the past month, quarter, or year and hone in on problem areas.

Reviews can also prevent pipeline lags from occurring. Regularly evaluating all components will help to increase sales velocity and also help to create improved forecasts for the department. Forecasting tends to only focus on results, that is why it is necessary to set aside separate time outside of a forecasting meeting to review the pipeline.

• Review your pipeline honestly
• Look at the whole pipeline not just problem areas
• Create solutions and preventative strategies

The review process can help you get a handle on runaway leads, a common symptom of a poorly operating sales pipeline. Get both management and reps involved in pipeline reviews.

Use the Appropriate CRM

A good CRM that meets your sales team needs will help your team contact the right person at the right moment in the sales cycle. The CRM is the foundation for all things sales pipeline; it is not only a sales management tool but a way to organize the entire department. The more people involved in a single sales pipeline, the more complicated things get. Remember, that if your CRM isn’t meeting your needs, you should find a way to further customize or adjust the software to support your sales team.

A CRM that matches your product and company reduces administrative work and allows teams to focus on the deals.

• Review your current CRM and attempt to fix issues
• Shop around for a new CRM
• Make sure your CRM can grow with your company and product

If a CRM is falling short in just one area, look into different tools and apps that can supplement your CRM rather than getting an entirely new one. This can save time and money and reduce department stress. Migrating contacts into a new CRM and getting everyone in the office up to speed on a different interface can be draining. Customize your tech stack to the best of your ability without overwhelming sales reps.

Focus on Quality Leads and Drop the Dead Ones

While it is a good approach to treat every lead like the biggest sale of the quarter, it is equally important to learn when to let go. Manage your pipeline to focus sales energy on the hottest leads and don’t get bogged down in the remnants clogging up the pipeline.

Sort your CRM based on the highest value leads, not always just chronologically. This can help sales reps hone in on top deals that are ready to close. Don’t think of letting go as giving up when it comes to leads, even if you have spent weeks on relationship building, nothing is ever a total loss in sales. It is never goodbye, only see you later.

• Shift focus to top value leads
• Let go of leads that express formal disinterest
• Sort through and evaluate leads using data

Continuing to chase weak leads is a sure fire way to lose sales momentum. Prioritizing leads and moving towards big opportunities and putting to rest dead leads (for now) can improve lead flow tremendously.

Keep Things Short and Sweet

B2B sales cycles are notoriously long, and this can slow your sales velocity down quite a bit. The longer your sales cycle the more opportunity the prospective buyer can change their mind or find another product solution.

That is why keeping the sales pipeline as efficient as possible can be powerful. If your reps are having trouble closing deals it could be due to the sheer length of the pipeline. Adjust your CRM to find a pace that closes the most deals without rushing leads.

• Reduce the number of days between follow-ups
• Track results and test new lengths
• Remove unnecessary steps

Another issue that could be slowing down the sales pipeline is low lead to sales rep ratio or in-house lead generation. Outsourcing a part of the pipeline, like lead generation, could help to abridge cumbersome processes weighing your company down.

With more than 50% of sales managers calling their pipeline performance inefficient, there is always room for improvement to get a handle on your lead flow.

Samsung has unveiled the highest-capacity smartphone DRAM chip yet, a 12GB LPDDR4X package that will give premium smartphones more memory than the average laptop. The chip will be ideal for complex multi-camera devices and folding smartphones with hi...

Leading a sales team takes a different skill set than just working on one.

According to the World Trade Organization, 75% of all business transactions and purchases occur through indirect channels, which means that you likely have a partner program in place. You probably have a channel incentive program as a part of the broader partner initiative (including the marketing materials, MDFs, co-op fund availability, access to a PRM, and other activities or benefits).

A channel incentive program is a very specific part of a good partner program. But if this isn’t performing in the way you originally expected it to, there could be a number of factors at play. Here are some potential gaps that you could be overlooking.

You fail to set the appropriate goals in advance of program and/or promotion launch.
Simply declaring that the program should “increase sales” ain’t gonna cut it. It’s essential that you and all stakeholders understand the goals of the entire program prior to launch. Are you trying to build long-term loyalty with your channel partners through increasing “tier” or reward levels that incorporate more than just “sell X, get Y?”, or are you primarily interested in tactical exercises that will push a new or flagging product or product set by offering quick rewards for the sale of each?

Leveraging historical sales data from previous promotion, set quantifiable targets that will allow you to determine where the program is failing, or at least not performing the way it should. Some of those KPIs include:

• enrollment;
• login frequency;
• sales (by product or product set);
• sales (by region/company/individual);
• training completion; and
• any other metrics that can be evaluated and measured.

You should be able to track and analyze this data on a regular, if not real-time, basis so that you can pivot accordingly while the program is running.

You’re making participation difficult.
Functionally, you have to look at your program through the users’ eyes. To register for the program, do you require a form to be sent in to your headquarters, then manually approved by someone at your company, then processed, then approved weeks later? Does the program website (if you have one) include information for every promotion, even if the user isn’t qualified for it? Does your sales submission process take multiple steps? Set up an automated, or at least semi-automated process, behind the scenes when someone tries to register for the program by using dealer identification numbers, store names, and others as the qualifying criteria for registration. Host the program within a platform that takes participants directly to the areas in which they’re interested: the promotions for which they’re eligible, their rewards bank, and any communications you may be sharing. And you may not think that submitting sales claims via fax or snail mail is that tedious, but your users certainly might. Instead, let them upload scans or images of their invoices so that it automatically enters your sales validation process.

You set the bar too high with your promotions.
It’s one thing to earn $10 for every refrigerator one of your participants sells. It’s a whole other ballgame to tell them that they’ll earn $500 … but they have to sell 25 fridges before they will be eligible for the reward, or they have to be among the top 10% of all sellers to get it. The point of an incentive program is to encourage selling behaviors that actually increase the number of units sold. You can leverage something like a tiered structure to boost this: sell up to 10 units and you get $1 per unit, sell 11 to 20 units and you get $2 per unit, and so on. As with any consumer loyalty program, your channel incentive program participants will be motivated to sell more with the expectation of hitting a higher earnings level—and thus getting more for their efforts.

You don’t use segmentation.
All too often, companies with channel incentive programs launch promotions that target all participants in the same way. As anyone involved with sales already knows, the 20-60-20 rule comes into play (20% top sellers, 60% adequate sellers, and 20% “meh” sellers), yet so many companies continue to run their incentive programs on the premise of “top sellers get a trip to the Bahamas!” This, frankly, leaves 80% of the sales force in the lurch. Instead, try segmenting your audience when building out your program instead of going for the “umbrella” approach. Reward your top sellers for doing what they’re doing, of course, but try different approaches with the rest of your participants; for example, give rewards for improving sales on a quarterly or annual basis. This will motivate the middle and lower groups to sell more because they have an incentive to sell more without having to reach for the unreachable (i.e., matching or surpassing the regular top sellers). By targeting promotions at particular regions, stores, or even individual participants, you have far more control over the results of each promotions—and can pivot more quickly should each tested promotion not work as expected.

Modern B2B marketers understand that the key to an effective digital content strategy is meeting customers where they’re at, and giving them what they want. With this in mind, the appeal of social media videos only makes sense. We know that billions of people are on social networks, and we know (or at least research leads us to believe) they want video. Then again, certain developments may cause us to question what we think we know. How meaningful is it, really, if X% of users are watching X% of a video while scrolling through their feeds? And how can we be confident this data is even accurate, after the whole inflated metrics fiasco? If this matter is pressing on your mind, you’re not alone. Social media is an eternally tough nut for B2B marketers to crack. In Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) 2019 benchmarking report, fellow practitioners called out changes in social media algorithms as the second-biggest issue of importance this year, behind search algorithms. We believe that best answer content is the most reliable way to remain visible amidst Google’s unpredictable shifts. Is video the best answer for enduring social media relevance? To explore that question, let’s dive into the latest news surrounding the three most prominent social platforms for B2B marketers: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn*.

Facebook: Pivoting Once Again?

Not so long ago, Facebook was one of the leading forces behind the “video takeover” movement. In 2016, Mark Zuckerberg was predicting that within five years, he “wouldn’t be surprised if … most of the content that people see on Facebook and are sharing on a day-to-day basis is video.” It was a natural direction. The engagement metrics for video were stellar, and brands couldn’t help noticing the way this content type was gaining higher placement in the platform’s feed algorithm. But later that same year, the company disclosed a “miscalculation” that led to inflation of video view numbers. This later became the subject of a lawsuit from advertisers, alleging that Facebook knowingly obscured and downplayed this information. And now? Facebook doesn’t seem to be quite as all-in on video as they once were. Earlier this month Zuckerberg laid out his privacy-focused vision for social networking, and talked about private messaging as a central emphasis going forward. The only time video was mentioned in his overview was a reference to “video chat.” Casey Newton of The Verge surmises this “pivot to privacy” will result in diminishing prominence of the News Feed, which would lower the impact of all public-facing content including video. It bears noting that Facebook video isn’t disappearing anytime soon. A recent study found that video posts drive more interaction on the platform than other types, and a product called Facebook Premiere launched late last year, enabling interactive video polls, pre-recorded live broadcasts, and more.

(Source)

At this moment, there’s no reason to abandon video on Facebook. However, the company’s evolving priorities are worth tracking. So too are the movements of their top competitors in the social space...

Twitter: Powering Up Video Analytics and Engagement

As Facebook appears to be taking its foot off the gas pedal with video, Twitter is pressing right down. We wrote last year about the platform’s renewed push for live video, and it seems that was only the beginning. A post on the company’s blog earlier this month asserted that “video is reshaping digital advertising,” and called out the format’s significant inroads. “There are around 1.2 billion video views on Twitter each day, which is 2x growth in 12 months according to Twitter internal data,” wrote Liz Alton. “Tweets with video attracted 10x more engagements than Tweets without video. And Promoted Tweets with videos save more than 50% on cost-per-engagement.” Within the past few weeks, Twitter has rolled out new tools for maximizing video engagement by helping publishers understand which times of day people are most likely to watch, based on historical data. This is helpful info, since the ephemeral nature of Twitter’s feed can make it tough to nail down timing. The insights are extremely high-level so we can’t necessarily draw specific conclusions about when audience segments (say, the B2B crowd) might be more likely to engage. But it’s a start, and I suspect we’ll only see the platform steepen its commitment to growing out video capabilities for brands.  

LinkedIn: Let’s Do It Live!

Finally, we come to the No. 1 social network for B2B lead gen. LinkedIn has made video a major focus since launching the feature for brands last summer. The big fresh development here is the platform’s brand-new live streaming video service, which debuted in February. “LinkedIn Live” is still in beta form, so it’s not available to everyone, but we can safely assume it will be soon. In the past, we’ve shared pros, cons, and examples of real-time video for content marketing. The engagement, authenticity, and accessibility are attractive perks, and now marketers will have an opportunity to tap them with more B2B-centric audiences (and deeper professional insights around viewers). TechCrunch says of LinkedIn’s vision for live video: “the plan is to cover conferences, product announcements, Q&As and other events led by influencers and mentors, office hours from a big tech company, earnings calls, graduation and awards ceremonies and more.” It’s easy to see how B2B audiences would find value in this kind of content, and you might already be seeding ideas for relevant broadcasts in your brain.

The State of Social Media Video for B2B Brands

There’s an old saying that change is the only constant, and it certainly applies for social media. Keeping up with all the pivots and posturing can feel exhausting. Given the relative cost of investing in video content, this is a weighty issue for marketers. We’re here to help you keep a finger on the pulse of this key tactical area. And while this is all — of course — subject to change, these appear to be the top present takeaways for B2B marketers where social media video is concerned:

• Video still drives engagement on Facebook, but the platform’s heightening focus on privacy and direct messaging casts some doubt on the long-term impact. However, now is not the time to call it quits.
• Twitter is only increasing its commitment, building out the advertiser’s toolkit after elevating live video last year.
• Speaking of live video, it’s coming soon for all brands on LinkedIn, and offers an intriguing assortment of possibilities there for high-value B2B content.

Want more insight on where social media marketing stands today and where it’s heading? Check out some of our recent updates:

• Social Media Marketing Benchmarks: What Works & Where to Focus
• From Messenger Bots to the Growth of ‘Gram, Social Media Examiner’s Annual Report Reveals Trends to Watch
• How to Survive the Social Media Midlife Crisis

*Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing Client. TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden is on the road again. His next stop? inOrbit 2019 Conference in Portorož, Slovenia on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Learn more here.

The post Where Do Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn Stand With B2B Video? appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

With proper execution, the addition of a strategic email marketing plan is a huge asset to your digital marketing efforts. In fact, according to HubSpot, email is one of the only marketing channels we can use to build an authentic relationship with the humans that keep our businesses alive. Building relationships through email marketing can’t be done through spam or through a message that offers your reader no value. There is a technique to building relationships through email that takes time, planning and most importantly, authenticity.

How to Build Relationships Through Email Marketing

Communicate properly with your readers.

Many marketers write their emails as if they are some form of advertising or announcement. If your email sounds too much like a sales pitch, more than likely, it will end up in your reader’s trash bin. Instead, consider writing your email as if it were a direct, casual conversation between you and one of your readers. Your readers want to be communicated with, not communicated to. Several studies reveal this tactic is highly successful.

Keep your message brief.

In the digital marketing sphere, we often argue that “you only have a few seconds to capture your customer’s attention once they reach the homepage of your website.” The same applies to your email. Lengthy marketing emails are often unnecessary. While some emails may be longer than others, try to maintain an appropriate length for your message. The goal of many marketing emails is to get the reader to take an action. If your message is too long, it is likely your reader will give up reading long before they reach the call to action (CTA). If you choose to share a lengthier marketing email, make sure to include your CTA in the first or second paragraph as well as the end of the email so you don’t lose a conversion opportunity.

Make it personal.

Personalization is proven to increase open rates and drive revenue by as much as 760%. A common personalization tactic includes adding your reader’s name in the subject line. But, there are many personalization strategies that go far beyond this. Check out this article for some email personalization techniques.

Make sure your emails provide value.

When someone subscribes to your emails, they are looking for something in particular: value. If you want your subscribers to actually read what you have to say, you need to make your emails worth their time. Rather than focusing your email content entirely around self-promotion, make sure your emails reflect the needs of your customers. From the subject line to the content and images, you need to make sure you’re connecting the value of your brand to your reader.

Be consistent, but don’t attempt to communicate too often.

No one likes an inbox full of marketing emails. Sending too many marketing emails could encourage your readers to unsubscribe. Knowing when to cap off your marketing emails depends entirely on how well your email marketing strategy is performing. It is important to pay attention to your response rate and make sure you are providing value in every email.

Whether you are an experienced marketing professional or novice business owner, you can easily leverage email to build a relationship with your audience. Not only will you please your audience, but using email effectively can help you build your customer acquisition and profits significantly.

Struggling to develop a successful email marketing strategy? Contact SMA Marketing today! We would love to help you engage with your contacts in a way that benefits both your audience and your brand!

The first time buyers and users of your product or service or solution will be disappointed by the challenges and limitations of what you sell. Because they lack experience, they are easily frustrated, and they are susceptible to being wooed away by a competitor.

The second time they buy, they will believe that the first company they bought from was the obstacle to success. They will likely choose to buy from a larger company, considering it a safer choice. Many buyers will experience the same challenges and limitations when using the larger company, repeating the experience and becoming more discouraged.

Some of the people and companies who try the product or service or solution will give up, concluding that it doesn’t work—or at least it doesn’t work for them. However, a good many will try to find someone who can make things work.

The third time they buy looks an awful lot like the second time. If the largest and the alleged “best in the world” failed them, then the second largest company might be better because they try harder. When this decision fails the buyer, they start to look again for the right partner.

At this point, the contacts and the company are ready for a real partner, having already become familiar with the systemic challenges and issues in buying and using your product or service or solution. They have a more mature understanding of their needs, and because they recognize the constraints of using what it is you sell, they are willing to look at making adjustments themselves and are infinitely more flexible when it comes to accepting how you deliver things to overcome the challenges they’ve experienced.

You may not want to be a new buyer’s first experience. You may not want to be their second or third experience either. It might serve you better to focus on displacing your competitors, taking their unhappy clients away from them after your competition has educated them on your industry, your solutions, and the reality of the constraints that afflict all of you.

Win customers away from your competition. Check out Eat Their Lunch

Mature buyers have more realistic expectations and are more inclined to work with you. You want to be the one who takes the training wheels off, not the one who puts them on.

The post Taking Off the Training Wheels appeared first on The Sales Blog.

One year for my birthday, one of my closest friends gave me a very special notebook. Not only is a notebook a good gift for me in general, but it was also in my favorite color (red) with a lyric from one of my favorite songs (Arctic Monkeys’ “Fluorescent Adolescent”) on the cover. Talk about a personalized gift! I felt like it was created just for me.

It turns out that it was created just for me. My friend bought the notebook from Etsy.com, and she selected the color and asked the artist to add the lyric to the front cover just for me. In other words, she personalized the notebook for me based on what she knew I liked.

The term “personalization” is used all the time in the world of marketing, but I think sometimes it’s true meaning can get lost. So, in this blog post, I want to spend some time properly defining it.

What is personalization?

According to Gartner, personalization is “a process that creates a relevant, individualized interaction between two parties designed to enhance the experience of the recipient.”

More simply put, we would say:

Personalization is the act of tailoring an experience or communication based on information a company has learned about an individual.

Just like my friend had a notebook tailored based on information she has learned about me over the years (my favorite color and songs), companies can tailor experiences or communications based on information they learn about their prospects and customers.

Tailoring Experiences

What types of experiences can be tailored? Most of the channels in which customer interactions take place can be personalized. Some of the main ones include:

• Websites
• Mobile apps
• Emails
• Web apps (like a SaaS application)
• Online ads
• In-store/in-branch communications
• Online chats
• Call centers

Acting on Information

What kind of information can be acted on to tailor experiences in those channels? It’s basically an unlimited list that contains any information a company can collect about its customers and prospects. But some of the most common include:

• Geolocation
• Source (such as search, email, social, paid ad, referring site, etc.)
• Firmographic information for B2B (such as industry, company, revenue, employee count, technology stack, etc.)
• Buyer persona
• Buyer status (e.g. customer or prospect)
• Time of day
• Browser or device type
• Number of site visits, logins or pages/screens viewed
• Active time spent
• Time elapsed since last visit, email open, call center interaction, etc.
• Purchases made, articles read, videos viewed, etc.
• Lifetime value (LTV)
• Mouse movement (scrolling, hovering, inactivity)
• Affinity toward content and products along with their characteristics (categories, tags, brands, colors, keywords, etc.)
• Email opens and clicks
• Push notification dismissals or clickthroughs

Personalization Examples

There is a seemingly endless number of ways you could use this information to affect experiences in the channels I mentioned.

For example, a B2B tech site that modifies its website homepage experience to speak differently to specific companies is using personalization as part of its ABM strategy.

Experience: Tailor homepage hero image, copy and calls-to-action
Information used: Company name

A B2C shoe retailer that features nursing shoes on its homepage only to visitors that have shown an interest in nursing shoes is using personalization.

Experience: Tailor homepage hero headline, image and call-to-action
Information used: Past browsing history and time spent by category

A financial services site that displays content recommendations based on each visitor’s individual interests is using personalization.

Experience: Present individually relevant content recommendations
Information used: Interests and preferences inferred from visitor’s site engagement

A retailer that sends emails to remind a shopper of an item left in his cart and suggest other products he may be interested in is using personalization.

Experience: Send triggered email with individually relevant product recommendations
Information used: Item abandoned in cart and preferences inferred from visitor’s site engagement

A SaaS application that displays a message offering real-time tips to eliminate user confusion in the moment is using personalization.

Experience: Display timely, in-app message
Information used: User’s actions

A site that highlights the most relevant products for each individual (based on the colors, brands, and styles they usually shop) in its search results is using personalization.

Experience: Show individually relevant on-site search results
Information used: Preferences inferred from visitor’s engagement with products and those products’ characteristics

A call center rep that refers to a person’s account information and site browsing activity to deliver a more helpful customer experience is using personalization.

These examples show only a small fraction of what’s possible with personalization. Essentially, any time a company tailors imagery, messaging, recommendations, communications, interactions, promotions, or advertisements based on something it has learned about a person, it is employing personalization.

Personalization vs. customization

This definition of personalization may sound similar to another concept, customization. But there is a clear difference. With personalization, a company modifies an experience without any effort from the customer. Customization, on the other hand, allows the customer to intentionally modify the experience himself.

For example, when you adjust your Gmail settings to indicate the number of messages you want to see per page and add a signature, you are customizing your email experience. But when Gmail displays advertisements to you based on your interests, it’s personalizing your experience for you. In the first example, you’re intentionally changing the experience. In the second, you’re receiving more relevant ads without taking any action yourself.

Let’s explore another example we’re all familiar with: online shopping. Many e-commerce sites allow you to filter the products shown on a page to help you more easily locate the ones that meet your specific criteria.

That’s customization. You are intentionally customizing the products you see on that page to help you find what you’re looking for more quickly.

But a site could deliver a similar result — helping you find the product that best meets your needs — without requiring you to take any action yourself. Instead, the site could sort the products on the page and list those at the top that meet the preferences you’ve demonstrated by your behavior. For example, if you regularly shop and purchase home decor in black and brushed nickel, it might display those items toward the top of the list. This way, you can find those products more quickly without needing to scroll through pages of irrelevant gold or white decor first.

In another example of customization vs. personalization, let’s consider email frequency. Often when you sign up to join a company’s email list (or when you attempt to unsubscribe), companies offer you the option to modify your preferences to dictate how often you’d like to receive emails (daily, weekly, etc.)

This is another example of customization; you’re telling the company how often you’d like to hear from them.

But you could reach the same end result (more or fewer emails) with personalization too. In that case, the company would pay attention to how often you tend to engage with their email communications and adjust the frequency of email sends accordingly. Recipients who tend to open and interact with more emails will receive emails more frequently, while those who only interact occasionally will receive emails less frequently. That’s personalization.

With both personalization and customization, the end result is a more relevant experience for the customer. But the difference is whether the customer does the work or not.

Personalization Expectations

There are many reasons why an organization may choose to personalize. It can increase engagement, drive conversions, foster loyalty, and improve a number of other KPIs. But at the broadest level, personalization is important because in today’s world, people have come to expect personalization.

For instance, I use Spotify every single day. I have come to rely on the personalized playlists that Spotify curates for me based on a careful observation of what I have listened to over the last several years. I feel the same way about watching TV shows and movies through Netflix. With all the content that’s out there competing for my attention, I love that these platforms sift through it all for me and make recommendations, helping save me time and improving my satisfaction with the services.

Even if you don’t use Spotify and Netflix as regularly as I do, you can probably still appreciate that personalization is essential to a modern customer experience. Generic experiences fall flat when compared to experiences like those.

Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Consumer” report found that 59% of consumers and business buyers believe that tailored experiences based on their past interactions are very important, while 84% of them say that being treated like a person, not a number, is very important. It also found that customers are 4.7x more likely to view real-time messaging as important versus unimportant.

And marketers have recognized that their customers demand personalization. The vast majority (98%) of marketers believe that personalization helps advance customer relationships, while 88% believe that their prospects or customers expect a personalized experience.

In other words, personalization is important to both customers and marketers today. At Evergage, we believe that it will only become more important in the future — so it’s something to invest in today.

Final Thoughts

Whether personalization is obvious, as in the case of Spotify and Netflix, or more subtle — as in some of the examples I provided above — it provides a better experience for the customer. It surfaces important information and makes them feel valued.

Half of you are opening this blog thinking “finally someone’s going to explain what I had been thinking for a long time”.

The other half are probably thinking, “no, I read the latest report and the average number of touches to engage a prospect in 2019 was xyz”.

OK, stop, right there. All the reports you read about “average number of touches to engage” are wrong.

First I will explain the problem with using these stats to shape your prospecting strategy. Then I’ll explain why these stats are even more dangerous for email. “Average” and “Engage” are meaningless in this context.

Let me elaborate.

Why “Number of Touches” Isn’t Useful for Phone Prospecting

Most of these reports consider “engaging” a prospect as getting a response or a phone connect. Some of these reports just base their numbers on simple (but bad) math. A 5% connect rate on the phone means that you need 20 calls to get a connect, therefore it takes 20 touches to engage a prospect!

So simple, and so genius! But actually wrong.

|Related: Sales Engagement Survey Reveals Buyer Preferences

Some prospects are more prone to pick up the phone and will pick up 1/3 of the calls, others almost never pick up the phone and you’ll be lucky to get them 1/100 times. So the average of your sample can be 20 calls, but suppose you actually decide to call each prospect exactly 20 times on a sequence.

Many prospects will pick up on calls 1-4. After that, your connect rate will drop a lot because you’re left with those who only pick up 1/100 calls!

It does not make sense to continue calling after your connect rate drops below a certain level. It just takes too much effort to connect, and the law of diminishing returns takes effect.

Depending on who you are calling, that connect rate threshold where you should stop adding call steps might be between 2-6%. I’m lucky that I can track that using different winning sequences for different purposes in Outreach.io, so I know when my time is being wasted.

Why It’s Not Useful for Email Prospecting (Applies to LinkedIn InMails, Too)

An even worse way to think about “engaging prospects” is to look at the email response rate.

Why? Because when you have a sequence with automated emails, it takes no effort to send more emails, yet these emails clutter your prospects inbox.

This is a fantastic way to annoy prospects.

I can guarantee you that most – if not all – of stats that saying it takes X number of touches to “engage” a prospect did not measure the positive response rate. They just measure the response rate.

That’s a vanity metric that can hurt you a lot. Let me give you some examples of why this data is useless.

Imagine I put 100 prospects in a 4-step email sequence. I get 8 responses with the following distribution.

My average number of touches to engage a prospect is 2.6! Yet, I decide to add more steps to my sequence and add another new 100 prospects.

I got even more responses! My manager is happy! So I continue adding more touches!

When I add more touches, my average response rate will go up. So will the average number of touches it takes to get a response.

This data is useless!

It doesn’t mean you should just continue adding touches. It also doesn’t mean you should reduce the number of touches to the average. After all, if we just did the 13 touches that my last sequence has as an average, I would be missing on a lot of responses.

So do I keep the 24 touches? Do I add more? Do I cut to the average?

This data cannot answer that question for us because it is easily manipulated. The average depends on how many touches I used in the first place.

“But Tito, How Many Touches Should I Use?”

The truth is, the average number of touches you should use in a sequence depends more on the number of positive and negative responses you are getting.

Examples of positive responses are demos taken, or introductions to other people in the organization.

Examples of negative responses are unsubscribes, and any other negative responses that give people a bad experience with your brand (like people telling you to stop annoying them).

By measuring the basic sentiment of your responses, you will be able to optimize intelligently. You’ll have data to tell you how to increase number of demos you get per prospect added to your sequence. And you can minimize the number of people who have a bad experience when interacting with your brand.

At AltiSales we have this down to a science, we know exactly how to optimize our campaigns and continue to increase the number of meetings we get from prospects via phone and email. Unless you are in the business of burning leads and burning relationships, I recommend you change the way you work.

The post It Takes 18 Touches On Average To Get a Response from a Prospect (But It’s a Terrible Strategy) appeared first on Sales Hacker.

If you’ve spent any amount of time researching sales strategies online, then you no doubt have heard this:

| “Sell your benefits, not your features.”

Or maybe this:

| “A great product demo sells your story, not your features.”

Those are both good pieces of advice. The problem is that the advice often stops here. Nobody’s done a good job telling you how to tell a good story, or even why it’s so important!

When you finish reading this, you will know:

• Why storytelling is so effective in product demos.
• How to turn your value propositions and features into customer benefits.
• How to use the 7-sentence story structure to turn any product demo into a story.
• 9 Tips to make product demos productive, engaging and (dare I say it) enjoyable for your prospects.

Why Storytelling is So Effective in Product Demos

1) It makes your product and your pitch easier to remember

A list of features and functionality is easy to forget, because it lacks context. If I tell you that my product “uses AI to make salespeople more effective”, you’ll probably forget in just a few minutes.

A story about somebody who has used the product to become more successful in their role would be much more memorable. In fact, some psychologists say that stories make something 22 times easier to remember.

2) Good storytelling makes you more human and approachable to your prospect

Telling a story in your product demo gives you the opportunity to show your prospect how much you care about your mission, and the journey you took to get to where you are. They can relate to that!

It establishes you as a real person, rather than some faceless charlatan who’s out to take their money, never to be heard from again.

3) A good story in your product demo builds trust

Your leads want to buy products from people that they trust. To build trust, you need to have the ability to go from a sales drone to someone that your prospects actually want to spend time talking to.

And our brain chemistry actually commands us to be more trusting and more willing to cooperate after we’ve heard a good story. Some research from Claremont Graduate University showed that people are more willing to donate money after watching a video with a narrative.

So, you get why storytelling is critical to a great demo. Good! Here’s how you can start improving your demo skills today.

How to Turn Your Value Propositions and Features Into Customer Benefits

Step 1: Identify your top three value propositions.

The first step in this process is to identify what value your product brings to your potential client. Write down your top three value propositions.

For example, at Outreach.io our three value propositions are:

• To drive predictable and measurable revenue growth
• To Increase effectiveness across sales and customer teams
• To improve visibility into sales activities and sales team performance

Put your value propositions into an excel sheet, so you can build out the rest of the exercise alongside them. Don’t be too wordy in this step. Use simple sentences and get to the root of what your product’s true value is. It really is as simple as “our product can do X for you.”

Without spoiling the surprise, this is what mine looks like:

I personally love those value props, and I know they address our customers biggest pain points. But to you they probably sound a little dry, because there’s no story (yet).

We know a good demo has to be interesting to the listener. So how do we know exactly what we want to say to them, if we can’t just list our value props?

Step 2 – Write three features associated with each value proposition

Now you should identify some features of the product and how they relate to the value propositions we’ve chosen above. Choose three features for each of the items you wrote down in step 1.

Don’t get frustrated if you can’t fit everything in here. You don’t want to overload your potential buyer with information on the first product demo. If all goes well, there will be additional meetings later in the sales process, and you can pitch these extra features then.

For now, just focus on which features would be the most important. You should know about them and their business, so cherry pick some features you know would be perfect for their use-case.

Not only will this make for a great presentation, but it shows your potential client right off the bat that you cared enough about their business to tailor your pitch to them. That goes a long way in establishing good relationships with your leads.

Here’s what my product demo planning exercise looks like at this point:

You cannot stop here! This is just as boring to a prospect as listing value props. Time to turn this into language your prospect actually cares about.

Step 3: Write down the benefits of each feature

Now that you’ve identified the key features of your product, establish why the prospect actually needs them. Try to put yourself in their shoes and think about how these features could make their business better.

Ask yourself, “how would their day be different once they have these features at their fingertips?”

It’s your job to make them care about these features. Again, if you know anything at all about their business, then you should be able to quickly identify potential problems they might be having. Offering a solution to a problem your contact has is a great way to pique their interest and get them to listen to the rest of your story.

Here’s what my product demo plan looks like now:

How to Use the 7-sentence story structure to build your story

Now that we’ve mapped out everything that we could say in our story, it’s time to use the 7-sentence story structure to actually build a narrative. It helps to focus in on one or two benefits.

For the purposes of this example, I’ll focus on the “Sequences” feature, and the benefit it provides: preventing leads from falling through the cracks.

The 7-sentence story structure poses a sequence of scenarios and asks you to fill in the blanks related to the benefit you choose to highlight. It’s simple, but it will help you take advantage of the psychology of selling, so it’s actually entertaining for your prospect!

Here’s the 7-Sentence story structure for product demos:

1. Once upon a time _______
2. Every day, _______
3. But one day, _______
4. Because of this, _______
5. Because of that, _______
6. Until finally, _______
7. And ever since then, _______

You can use this it to establish all of the important bits of your story in a way that makes it flow nicely. You’ll establish who the story is about, what they’re doing, what their problem is and how they find a solution to that problem.

All of this will, of course, be in relation to your product, because it’s a story about what you can do for your customer. Use this framework to tell them how you and whatever you’re selling can solve their problem.

7-Sentence Story Structure Example:

1. Once upon a time there was an ADR named Mark.
2. Every day, he would reach out to prospects and get a response after 2 or 3 emails.
3. But, one day, he realized that 2 or 3 touches no longer worked!
4. Because of this, he started doing 8-12 touches.
5. Because of that, he couldn’t keep up with 8-12 touches per prospect. Leads were falling through the cracks because he didn’t have a consistent process.
6. Until, finally, he discovered the Outreach sequence!
7. And, ever since then, Mark has a consistent process to follow up with every single lead – with no leads falling through the cracks.

Step 7 should refer to the benefit you chose to create your story around. Your plot should be leading your prospect to why they need this particular feature by using a compelling story.

This is the most important part of your story, because it’s the climax.

9 Tips For Hyper-Productive Product Demos

1. Repeat the story framework for each feature

You can simply repeat this process for the other features which you listed in step 2! When you’re finished, you’ll have nine different stories to use in your demos.

2. Start with a script

When I first started using this framework in product demos, I used the exact sentences as a script for the story part of the demo. I’d recommend you do the same to start, just like you probably used a script when you first started cold calling. But think of it as training wheels. Eventually, you should feel comfortable enough to tell the story without using these sentences exactly.

3. Match your product stories to the prospect’s pain points

I know you ran a super effective discovery call, so you should be able to consolidate your prospect’s pain points into a few distinct areas. And you’ve created your story frameworks for each feature beforehand, so you have stories ready that address each pain point.

Make sure they match up! Don’t tell stories that aren’t related to conversations you’ve already had – at least not unless the prospect mentions the corresponding pain point first.

4. Start your demo the outcome your prospect should expect

Great product demos don’t hold the good stuff until the end. Unlike a movie, building anticipation is not your friend. Instead, begin your demo by reminding them of the pain points they mentioned during discovery, and immediately sharing how you can help solve that problem.

For example, I might say something like:

“Hey Sarah, last time we spoke you mentioned X. So what I want to cover today is how we are going to use [feature] to help you increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your reps…”

After that brief opener, I’m into the story I chose to address her specific need.

I don’t show her all the features, then tell her how they will solve her problem. That’s backwards.

5. Practice your Pitch

Practicing your pitch with a live audience can help you figure out where you’re missing your marks. Gather some friends or co-workers who can help you hone your craft, and ask for feedback on where your stories are lacking.

6. Measure, Improve

It’s important to remember that storytelling is an art form. Don’t be discouraged if your stories are not masterpieces on your first go. Every great artist throws away more work than they release to the public.

If things aren’t panning out how you want then take a step back and think about why that is. What would make this story better? How could it be more interesting to your audience?

7. Demo Length

I aim for a demo length of 30 minutes to an hour depending on the questions prospects ask. I’ve seen research that successful demos are about 30% longer than unsuccessful ones, but that doesn’t mean you should try to push your demo to be longer.

The conversation is over when it’s over! Just make sure you’ve shared what you need to share, agreed on next steps, and that you understand how your prospect views your solution in their life.

8. Talk about pricing when your prospect wants to (not when you do)

If you’ve done your job interesting your prospect, they will bring up pricing when they feel comfortable. Trust me.

You can share some information about pricing at this point in the demo, saying something like “pricing ranges from X to Y.” But don’t negotiate or settle on anything until you’re ready to deliver a formal proposal.

9. End your demo with T.E.D.

Even towards the end of your demo, prospects are still trying to paint a picture in their heads of how your solution can help their team. You can help them draw some of those lines and fill in the color by giving them one (or more) of the T.E.D. prompts:

• Tell me how you think this solution would fit in with your team
• Explain to me how you think this could help you and your team
• Describe to me where you think your team could be with this solution in place

Bonus: Use tools to make your demo more attention-grabbing

I try to keep my demos simple. I don’t use a deck, and prefer to just show the parts of the platform that I know will make the biggest, most immediate impact for the prospect.

So I don’t usually use a ton of software or tools in the demo itself. Still, using some tools like LimeLite draw focus to features I built my story around. It makes it easier to subtly highlight the parts of the screen I want my prospect to pay attention to, and I don’t lose their focus.

Full disclosure: I created LimeLite, but I hope you find it helpful!

The post The 7-Sentence Product Demo Framework: How Storytelling Sells Your Product appeared first on Sales Hacker.

Achieve Results by Setting the Right Sales Goals

Sales is all about achieving results, but how are you going to get there? Reaching a destination requires directions, and achieving results requires goal-setting. After all, how can you track your progress or celebrate success if you don’t know what you are hoping to accomplish?

Goal setting improves performance: One 2015 study by psychologist Gail Matthews at Dominican University revealed that participants who actually wrote down their goals performed 33% better than those who did not. The world of psychology is filled with similar findings which emphasize the connection between goals and performance. And while this statement rings true for pretty much anything in life, it is especially relevant for sales. Setting the right goals will motivate and engage your sales team. It will also help them track their success, and keep them aware of and accountable for their progress.

But setting the right goal can often be just as difficult as achieving it. Goals that are unrealistic or unclear will potentially have the opposite effect of what you hoped for: They are great for discouraging and disengaging team members. Luckily, the SMART goal-setting framework makes it easy for you and your team set clear and effective goals that will continue to motivate, inspire, and improve performance.

The S.M.A.R.T Goal-Setting Framework

Below is a breakdown of the characteristics SMART goals consist of, and some SMART vs not-so-smart goal examples.

Specific: Objectives should be clear and concise.

Measurable: There must be some operationalized way of measuring success in achieving said goal.

Achievable: Goals should challenge the individual, but need to be kept realistic.

Relevant: It is important that the individual is able to see the connection between this goal and their current position, as well as their long-term goals/plans.

Time-bound: Due dates and a well-thought timeline are a must.

A SMART Goal Example: The Right Way

Picture this: You’ve just been hired for an exciting new sales position. Upon being hired, you meet with your sales team leader, and the two of you sit down to talk goals. Luckily, your new boss knows about the SMART framework. The goal you agree on is this:

In the next 3 months, you aim to close at least 5 deals within your dedicated region that are worth $1,000 to 5,000 each in net profit. You and your sales manager will hold intermediate progress reviews each month.

Let’s walk through what makes this a SMART goal:

1. Specific: 3 months, 5 deals worth $1,000- $5,000. You can’t get more specific than quantitative figures.
2. Measurable: Another great thing about quantitative goal-setting, it’s already operationalized. Money makes an easy metric.
3. Achievable: This is a general example and we don’t know the reality of this particular company, however in most companies across industries, 5 deals in 3 months seems like a realistic and achievable goal.
4. Relevant: This goal is completely relevant to a salesperson’s field of responsibility: It is a direct duty of the position, you are not being asked to do something outside of your scope of responsibilities.
5. Time-bound: The timeline is made clear: There is a deadline of 3 months which will be maintained with monthly reviews.

A Not-So-SMART Goal Example: The Wrong Way

Unfortunately, confusing and ambiguous goals are all too common in the world of sales (and in general). I’ve definitely witnessed quite a few in my own experience. So let’s imagine the same scenario as above, but instead, you and your new boss decide on this goal:

You aim to double the company’s revenue by implementing an innovative, efficient sales strategy.

This is a ridiculous goal in more ways than one. Again, let’s use the SMART framework to break it down:

1. Specific: It’s extremely vague. What does “innovative efficient sales strategy” even mean?
2. Measurable: You have not been given insights into what the company’s revenue even is, so how can you quantitatively measure your success?
3. Achievable: Is this even possible for one person? How is the company planning on supporting you in achieving this?
4. Relevant: Is your actual role responsible for the increase of the entire revenue?
5. Time-bound: There is no clear timeline or deadlines. Expectations are not clear- Is this your goal for your entire time at this company? Your goal in a year? 5 years? WHAT?!

Long Term vs. Short Term Goals: They Both Matter

Now that you (hopefully) have a clear understanding of the fundamentals of SMART goal-setting, I want to emphasize the importance of establishing and tracking BOTH long-term and short-term goals.

Many sales teams make the mistake of focusing only on long-term, usually quarterly or yearly, sales goals. But this is a mistake. Small, incremental goals are also a critical part of motivating your sales team and ensuring you are all on the right track to achieve any long-term goals. They provide important for helping you identify what small steps you need to be taking to achieve a large goal and provide opportunities for you to reflect on what’s going right and wrong.

As a sales manager, you should be meeting with your team regularly to go over company and individual goals. Team meetings where you discuss short term goals should be held regularly- as a way of tracking long-term progress. Going over long-term goals can be less frequent but is equally important. Everyone on your team must have a crystal clear understanding of what their long term goals are and how their short-term goals are contributing to their achievement of said goals.

Short term goals include:

1. Daily-to-dos: What needs to get done today? In B2C, both daily and weekly goals can be connected to closing deals, whereas for B2B daily goals/to-dos are more about getting you closer to achieving your monthly or quarterly goals.
2. Weekly: Discuss weekly goals with your team, and what needs to happen on a daily basis to make them happen.

Long-term goals include:

1. Monthly or Quarterly: Sales is all about the numbers. At the beginning of each quarter set clear quantitative goals with your team. Check-in monthly about the progression of these goals to avoid last minute stress. A successful month or quarter means completing (or better yet, surpassing) these goals.
2. Yearly: Where do employees see themselves in one year? Five? Ten? It is crucial for you to make a strong and salient connection between what they are doing on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to what they are hoping to achieve in the grand scheme of things. If you fail to help your employee make this connection, they will struggle to stay motivated.

Goal Setting for B2B vs B2C

It’s important to note that the structure of goals varies across B2B or B2C. Obviously, the type of goal you or your team are setting depends greatly on your specific industry and workflow, but here are some general differences between the two business systems.

B2B Goal-Setting

Those of you in a B2B industry know that closing the average deal is a long-term process. In this case, there is simply no point in sales managers checking in on lead conversion goals and planning on a daily basis. Instead of short term (daily or weekly) B2B sales goals are about tracking your progress and getting you closer to your long term goal: On a daily or weekly basis, your B2B sales goals should involve consistently improving leads by doing research for richer insights on your prospects. For B2B, look at your short-term goals as inching you closer to your monthly or quarterly goal of converting your lead.

B2C Goal-Setting

Sales in B2C settings are different: Short term and long term goals in this industry tend to be much more similar. The sales cycle is usually significantly shorter, meaning that multiple sales in one day is entirely possible. Short term goals for B2C salespeople should reflect these differences: Daily goals can, and should, be connected with actually closing deals. You should have enough insights on your daily and weekly sales to set quantitative goals each day.

No matter what industry you work in, setting a goal is the first step towards achieving results. As a sales leader, you play a big role in helping your reps set realistic and motivational goals for themselves. Regularly check in on how they are feeling about their goals and the progress they are making. Yes, goals are a way to keep employees accountable, but their main purpose is to help achieve success. Do not be afraid to revisit and revise goals that are not working. Once you and your team have mastered the art of setting effective goals, achieving your goals should be much easier.

Originally published here.

I can never write enough about prospecting. It is essential to staying in business! Dips in sales are tough on cash flow and moral. In order for your company to have steady growth, you need a steady flow of leads. Many businesses lack a process for lead generation, if you don’t have one, you are not alone. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but you do have to have a process. Here’s a simple process you can adopt.

1. Define – Your ideal prospect (based on your ideal customers) then build a list of companies or people who fit.
2. Determine – How you will let them know you exist and how you get them interested in your offering.
3. Execute – A plan to generate a certain amount of leads monthly, “Rinse and Repeat.”

Once a prospect has interest, the selling can begin – so that’s the goal. Engage the prospect so they ask for a conversation.

You have lots of lists. People you met at trade shows, people who attended a webinar, and people who have repeatedly downloaded or interacted with your content. In order to turn a list into leads, you need to trigger some activity and have a conversation so you can determine if there is an opportunity.

Turn your List into Leads

Here are 6 ways to turn your list into leads:

1. Cold Call

Cold call the list. This is not my favorite, but many companies have some success. This is a pure numbers game. If you call 100 people, you will reach a certain percent and of that percent you reach, some will be interested. It’s time intensive, fraught with rejection, riddled with negative feedback and most people hate doing it. If you choose to do it, I recommend planning a campaign that includes, email and/or mail and prepared voicemails.  Hopefully, they will remember your company because they saw you at a trade show or attended a webinar, but don’t be surprised if they don’t. Be ready to make 12 attempts before giving up. You’ll need to leave at least 3 voicemails (engaging and insightful) and make many dials.

2. Send Information

Mail or email information about the brand or the products and services. This has a very low response rate, but it may help build brand awareness so that when the salesperson calls there is at least some name recognition. If you choose this, you need to plan a series of messages that go out consistently over time. People may not respond to the first message, but they may respond to the 6^th.

3. Events

Companies hold events or exhibit at events and invite prospects. This defines 3 categories for follow-up. First, those who attend, then those who want to attend but can’t and last those who don’t respond. Make decisions about follow-up flow from there. Of those that attend, some will be “hot” leads so be prepared to follow-up, follow-up, follow-up. Studies show that when pursuing a prospect who showed interest, it takes at least 6-8 touches. Don’t give up. Try different methods to reach the person with engaging and insightful messages.

4. Connect on Social Media

That’s a whole topic of its own. There are so many great ways to use social media, but you need a plan. LinkedIn, if used properly can help you build connections that lead to sales. Start by taking 10 companies from the list and looking for connections on LinkedIn. Find people you know who are connected and get introductions.

5. Get Referrals

By far my favorite! Take the list and choose the top 10 companies you want to prospect. Then ask for introductions. Ask your colleagues, customers, friends, and family, everyone who knows you, likes you and trusts you. Tell them what you are trying to accomplish and give them the words they need to make a good introduction. Rinse and repeat! Take the next 10 and do the same. Learn referral selling from the best. Watch Joanne Black’s course on LinkedIn Learning or purchase one of her books: No More Cold Calling or Pick Up the Damn Phone.

6. Combination

Do a combination of all the above over a defined period of time.

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Consistency is the key. Develop a prospecting process so that you are consistently generating leads. You don’t have to do it alone, call me and I’ll help. Click here to schedule.

The post 6 Ways to Turn a List to Leads appeared first on Alice Heiman, LLC.

B2B buyers can get lots of information from provider websites but will typically need more to reach a level of trust that compels them to commit to one as a partner. Getting buyers to that desired point requires more from B2B marketers than providing facts and figures about your solutions. It requires a relationship.

One great way to advance relationships and begin earning trust with your audience is by creating a dialogue through webinars. B2B webinars are effective, multi-purpose marketing tools that can deliver valued thought leadership content, generate quality leads and further engage prospects already in the sales cycle.

So, if you’ve been ignoring webinars as a component of your B2B marketing strategy, read on to learn more about how they can help your organization.

Position your company as an industry thought leader

In an ever-growing sea of marketing emails, ads, mailers and more, getting your brand to stand out is a big challenge. Providing compelling, authoritative and innovative content that addresses B2B buyer challenges can help to elevate your organization above the crowd and showcase your thought leadership.

Webinars are an excellent tool to achieve this goal as they offer an opportunity for your audience to learn from and engage with your subject matter experts from virtually anywhere and at no cost to them. This provides a great way of adding context to your value proposition via conversation that facts and figures alone cannot.

Add new leads to the top of your sales funnel

Webinars are especially appealing to new prospects in the early research and education phases of the buyer journey. All that’s required on their part is a bit of time and attention. And even if they don’t ultimately attend your webinar, the information they provide when registering demonstrates interest that enables you to share subsequent relevant content and offers. For example, a security webinar attendee or registrant may also benefit from your whitepaper on “cybersecurity best practices” or be interested in a free assessment. You can also test the inclusion of additional registration questions such as “do you use any of the following cybersecurity tools” for even more insight.

Teaming up with other organizations to co-deliver webinars is another excellent way to add to your credibility and introduce your company and expertise to new audiences. When both organizations respectively promote the webinar, the outcomes (including your ability to capture new leads) are amplified. Each organization has already built some level of trust with their respective bases and serves as a signal to those customers that they can trust you too.

Move existing leads further down your sales funnel

Webinars are also a powerful way to keep active leads engaged and move them further down the funnel. The B2B buyer’s journey typically requires multiple touchpoints before a lead becomes a genuine opportunity for business, so webinars allow an efficient way to keep the conversation going and reach those later phases.

To gauge interest and elicit insights from your audience, consider including polling questions at a few points during your webinar. This will also help you adapt the direction of your presentation, keep participants engaged and provide points for an end-of-webinar Q&A session. In fact, Clickmeeting found that half of webinar attendees engage through chat, polls or Q&A.

Unless explicitly touted as a product or service overview, the focus of your webinar should be on delivering relevant content that centers on your personas’ needs and pain points, and solutions to address them. That doesn’t mean you can’t leverage this opportunity to convey how your company can help, but be careful to position it in the proper context.

Not only can you expect the audience to ask specific questions about your company and products during the Q&A session, this is also a great time for a short live demo about your capability, which can be so much more powerful than a datasheet or simple ad.

Lastly, hosting a B2B webinar is a great way to qualify your leads. Spending the time to attend a live webinar or download the on-demand version shows a certain level of interest and perhaps need for your company and solution.

Deepen engagement with your existing customers

Customer retention is always a goal for B2B companies. Beyond the obvious reason of protecting existing revenue, providing your customers with an avenue of additional value-added content via webinars keeps them engaged, deepens their advocacy for your brand and fosters referrals.

Webinars can also open or advance paths for wider business opportunities with your existing customers. Continually educating them on topics of interest renews their trust in you and exposes them to other aspects of your business they might not have been aware of before. Furthermore, webinars provide a convenient training tool for new members of a customer’s team and can easily be used to share best practices and tips so more value can be derived from your offerings.

Bonus benefit! B2B Webinars are an affordable gift that keeps on giving

The technology used to broadcast webinars is very affordable and you can even take advantage of free trial offers if you are not yet convinced of the long-term value. All you really need is to have an enthusiastic presenter in-house who can deliver a unique perspective in an engaging manner on a topic your audience will want to hear about.

Audiences across the globe can access your webinar without the cost of travel or need for in-person attendance at an event or conference. And because you can record your webinar, you can continue to benefit from it after the live presentation. Prospects and customers who registered but didn’t attend can access the on-demand recording and content via your website or YouTube channel. And wider prospects may learn about it from your social channels or email marketing efforts.

Putting webinars to work for you

With a better idea of the benefits that webinars can bring to your marketing strategy and business, the next step is up to you. If you want to strengthen brand awareness, boost lead generation, advance existing leads and deepen customer relationships, get started now on planning your first (or next) webinar. And to get you going, here’s a helpful checklist on how to produce a successful webinar.

A customer’s relationship with any product or service is not going to be ‘happily ever after’. They would’ve experienced bumps at various points in their purchase journey. But, what if your customer support that is supposed to help them messes up? Imagine a chatbot suggesting an irrelevant solution, a support agent putting a customer on hold for a long time or a not-so-professional email from support. This is where customers get frustrated further as your support should be helping rather than adding to their bad experiences.

With heavy competition all around, not giving enough attention to customer support is proving to be a costly mistake for brands. Every year, companies throw away an average revenue of $62 billion due to poor customer support¹ and it puts a dampener on their growth. This is why the upkeep of customer support is important.

Signs of Poor Customer Support

Your brand’s customer support doesn’t turn bad in a day. Minor issues give way to major ones eventually turning into a jarring error. That’s why you need to be all ears to these warning signs.

– high average resolution time
– dip in first contact resolution
– low customer satisfaction scores
– an upward trend in incoming queries
– lack of sufficient support channels

These signs indicate that your customer support needs to perform better both team-wise and technology-wise. So, what will happen to brands that don’t identify these signs well in advance? Take a look at these outcomes along with how to avoid them before it’s too late.

#1 Agent Burnout

After customers, the first ones to get impacted by poor customer support are your support agents. They constantly have to juggle between providing a quick resolution and personalizing customer support. But, with customers lashing out when they face issues, failing to give a quick solution only makes it worse for agents. As they try to fix it, more impending issues come in making them rush into fixing issues instead of empathizing with customers. Eventually, they get demotivated and frustrated leading to burnout.

How to Keep the Support Agents Engaged

Manage their workload: Ensure that you have regular one-on-ones with agents to identify their roadblocks and provide guidance on how to overcome them. Take steps to reduce their burden if they are being bombarded with too many issues at a time. Establish a comprehensive self-service guide or chatbot to help decrease your agents’ workload. In case there’s a seasonal peak in issues, consider hiring part-time employees instead of letting the existing team take on huge volumes.

Improve your hiring and onboarding process: Not everyone is cut out for customer support. Which is why you need to look out for traits like empathy, self-motivation, and patience in new hires. These will make them a natural fit for the role of customer support. When it comes to onboarding, have personalized conversations with them and assign a mentor to guide them until they settle in.

Give appropriate training: Before you bring anyone into your support team, make sure they master your product/service. Also, train them on how to be productive by sharing the necessary tools and tips.

When you hire the right talent and train them, you create a team that’s equipped to provide great customer support. They not only strike a balance between providing quick responses and keeping the customers satisfied but also stick to your organization for a longer time.

#2 Decreased Customer Satisfaction

This one is obvious. When customers are unable to contact support or find the right solution, they get pissed off with your brand. When they start to see this trend every time they get into trouble, they move on to other brands. Customer support is becoming a differentiator which is all the more reason for companies to keep it in check. When your support team doesn’t give a satisfactory reply, that frustrates your customers. Your brand loyalty takes a hit and before you know, customers start churning.

How to Improve Customer Satisfaction

Ask for feedback: Survey your customers to find the areas where your customer support could improve. Ask them if they faced any difficulties during the whole support process. This will help you find their pain points and act on them.

Offer support through multiple channels: Email and phone support aren’t enough anymore. Include other channels like social networks, forums, live chat with an inbuilt chatbot, and a self-service portal. Integrate them all under one roof to provide omnichannel support. Increase the overall satisfaction rate by eliminating the need for customers to repeat their issues when they switch from one support channel to another.

Provide proactive support: Don’t wait for your customers to contact you. Whenever a new user signs up, ask them if they need any help with onboarding. Similarly, reach out to them if you find any problem in their usage. And, make sure to give them a heads up if there’s going to be an update or maintenance.

When it comes to improving customer satisfaction, listening to customers is a great way to gauge what they feel about your brand’s customer support. This lets you stay one step ahead of their expectations. Plus, remember to keep up with new trends by making your customer support omnichannel and proactive.

#3 Negative Word of Mouth

23% of customers who have bad experiences with customer support post negative reviews online. This damages your brand image which affects both existing and prospective customers.

When certain brands tried to block negative feedback, it had only worsened their image. For example, a hotel named Broadway² in the UK imposed a fine of $100 on a couple for giving a one-star review on Tripadvisor. Apparently, the hotel’s reservation agreement had a clause which said they could levy a fine on customers for leaving a bad review. This gained a lot of media coverage when the enraged couple reported to the press and the brand became infamous overnight.

Many people have begun relying on review sites and social media to check up on a brand’s customer support. This is why brands need to be aware of low ratings and bad reviews on public sites.

How to Prevent Criticism from Denting Your Brand Image

Offer a sincere apology: Before you start typing ‘we’re sorry for the inconvenience’, get to know the problem a customer is facing. Based on the severity, provide an apology that empathizes with the customer or even a special gift. If you’re on a call, allow the customer to vent out before jumping straight to the apology part. This will make them feel heard.

Think twice before commenting: Whenever a customer complains on social media, request them to DM their problem to avoid further criticism. Most importantly, don’t mess up as it takes just one click for the customer to expose your faux pas. Take a look at how Appleyard’s reply backfired³ as the customer pointed out their unprofessional email.

Word of mouth can make or break your brand’s reputation. When your company is consistently known for bad customer support, people hesitate to be associated with you. Customers will not want to take any risks and will rather opt for the brand that offers better customer support.

#4 Impact on Revenue

A lost customer means lost sales and revenue that is lost forever⁴. When a user registers for a product or service, they expect that brand to offer a helping hand if they face any issues. This is especially important in B2B sectors as one problem could affect both your customer and their respective user base. During such situations, the customer support team cannot afford to be unavailable or slow. It will impact the customer on a large scale and it won’t be long before they leave for a better brand.

How to Increase Customer Retention

Implement a 24/7 support: While self-service and chatbots are okay for minor issues, your team needs to be available when a customer faces an issue. By being there for a customer when they need it the most, they look up to you as someone they can always rely on.

Maintain regular communication: customer support is not all about resolving issues. It includes letting the customers know when a feature they requested comes live and also ask them if they’re facing any difficulties from time to time.

Gaining a new customer costs six times more than retaining an existing customer. Here’s where offering stellar customer support can be an advantage to increase the bottom line. Get your team to upsell and cross-sell in suitable situations which are great ways to build revenue in the long run.

Conclusion

Customer support has become an integral part of every brand. When a brand’s customer support takes a bad turn, it is important to work on the gaps before things get out of control. Failing to do so leads to agent burnout, customer dissatisfaction, negative word of mouth and loss of revenue. Here’s where brands have to be aware of how to tackle these outcomes. Because at the end of the day, it’s the brand that stands out for its customer support wins.

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Source:
1 – https://freshdesk.com/customer-support/customer-support-statistics-infographic-blog/
2 – https://brand24.com/blog/3-times-brands-turned-bad-customer-experience-in-viral-social-success/
3 – https://twitter.com/SouthEastTom/status/1096807774678384641
4 – https://www.yourtrainingedge.com/the-29-costly-implications-of-losing-customers-2/

Any B2B marketer worth their salt understands the power of account-based marketing (ABM). It’s been widely adopted due to its proven success rate throughout the B2B industry. But there’s a movement taking place, as marketers jump on the ABM train due to the expected ROI and pace of excitement. But, any good ABM program has to start with a strategic lens – and end with one. Lately, this seems to be lacking as sales and marketing silo their goals rather than unify them.

A full 87 percent of B2B marketers now agree that ABM delivers higher ROI compared to other marketing efforts. And 92 percent consider ABM “extremely” or “very” important to their marketing efforts.

What is Account-Based (Strategy) Marketing

Account-based marketing is a strategic B2B approach that is concentrated on a set of clearly defined target accounts. These accounts are identified as the most important prospects for a business. Sales leads the conversation – but marketing puts the magic in the program.

So, how does your brand get from strategy to implementation, action and results? Follow the step-by step-guide below so that your marketing team can achieve results with a post-sale, FULL-cycle ABM strategy. You’ll learn what to do even after you’ve closed the deal on your target ABM accounts. As a result, your brand will acquire and retain your ideal customer base, while achieving optimum revenue goals.

Not sure if ABM is right for your B2B company? Before continuing with this step-by-step program, we recommend completing the below checklist:

Step 1: Focusing on the Right Targets

The Rs to Success: Research, ROI and Return on Relationship.

Dare to be specific. Don’t think of hypothetical personas. Do your due diligence. Drill down to get to know the target companies, even the exact individuals who make the purchasing decisions. You can identify target accounts with fit, using predictive marketing (look-a-like and propensity models to identify accounts); intent, looking at in-market activity across the web by topic; and behaviors, by tracking activity such as understanding who is coming to your site or engaging with your brand.

As you develop your ABM strategy, assess what your ideal customer profile looks like and don’t waste effort on prospective accounts that will not give you the biggest bang for your buck.

Additionally, focus on the longevity of your relationship of that targeted account and those that will eventually become advocates for your brand. Building long-term relationships can result in a strong ‘Voice of the Customer’ program, an increase in brand advocates, strong referrals and an overall high RoR (Return on Relationship).

Step 2: Integrating Your Teams

Align. Communicate. Collaborate.

Building that relationship for the long run “takes a village.” Align each of your departments – sales, marketing, customer relations and/or support.

Sales + Marketing + Customer Relations = Brand Advocates

Set your teams up for success by identifying the right roles and resources to get you started.

From a tactical, day-to-day standpoint, your team should have someone that’s going to review and segment historical data; identify customer profiles; review and update account data on a regular basis; and implement CRM tools, updates and processes.

From a more high-level standpoint your team needs someone to strategize, run point between sales and marketing; educate teams on customer awareness, engagement and acceleration; CX; best practices and lessons learned.

However, the most meaningful role – and often the most forgotten – is the one that maintains, monitors and reports on the ABM accounts post-sale. How satisfied is that account? Are they continuing to be nurtured? Given the right content at the right time? Have they been adopting new services or products? This role and resource for your ABM team will be critical to the overall success rate and longevity of this program.

Carrying over the enthusiasm and commitment of the sales cycle into the hard work of managing the client account and providing an exceptional customer experience ignites the power of account-based marketing well beyond the sale.

Find common goals, strategy and metrics across your organization. Making sure everyone is on the same page (and has the same expectations) is critical when taking next steps towards a named account strategy. Step 6 will dig in even further on how to align and define these key metrics and goals between each department. For now, your integrated teams should be focusing on roles and resources needed within your organization, the strategy, how to communicate with each other and at what customer “trigger points” are you passing off in terms of CX, relationship-building and nurturing. Sales pass to marketing, marketing to customer success, back to sales for the upsell (think: land and expand). Any lack of communication in this daisy-chain will throw ABM efforts out the window.

Not sure if your team has the right skill sets available for ABM success? Consider tapping an integrated agency to backfill your in-house efforts. Public relations, content marketing, social media and influencer marketing all play a role in ABM content strategy. If you don’t have all the pieces in place, don’t delay bringing the right talent to the table through outsourcing.

Step 3: Implement an ABM Content Strategy

Personalize. Map Content Pre, During and Post Sales.

The power of ABM is not only targeting those relevant accounts, but also building highly personalized messaging. Your content and engagement strategies are critical. By appealing to the emotional needs of your audience, you can develop highly tailored, actionable and authentic content. Then map that content to account-based stages.

A successful strategy requires an integrated approach. Owned, earned, shared and paid media all work together and support each other – driving one consistent message while effectively aligning resources that drive action and outcomes for your ABM efforts. It’s important to understand the power of integration. People will drive that connection and personalization will fuel the engagements.

Consider the customer journey through the ABM process. A pre-sales social media post targeted a particular organization. A guest blog from a prospect during the pre-sales cycle. A request for a case study from a client after a successful campaign. Use these touchpoints to build relationships.

Pre-Sales ABM Content

47 percent of buyers viewed 3-5 pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep (Demand Gen Report).

This is your brand’s time to shine. You’re looking to turn the data and information that you’ve previously gathered into helpful and (internally) shareworthy content for that prospect. Your targeted accounts won’t be able to find this type of information elsewhere – setting your brand apart from its competitors. This kind of thoughtful personalization might take time, but the results will take you into the sales cycle of this journey.

During-Sales ABM Content

Now that you’ve made the sale, there’s no time to waste when it comes to building that customer relationship. First impressions will make or break your brand’s reputation and customer experience. On the flipside, don’t overload your new accounts with content. Assess, prioritize and acknowledge their pain points as a first step. This should be information that’s fresh and documented from the sales team. Marketing can leverage that to build out helpful content that guides them towards an easy transition into using your product or service. If you’re not sure what kind of content would be most valuable for your new customers – go back and do your research. Investigate what they’ve been sharing and discussing on their channels, ask questions or simply send a quick survey.

Post-Sales ABM Content

Solid content marketing is imperative here – how do you create a detailed content program that keeps customers engaged, highlights loyalty and brings out customer voices? Foster a long-term customer relationship with a full content experience. Use case studies, customer spotlights, Q&As, and customer reviews. Continuously appeal to customer emotions and roadblocks. It’s a two-way feedback loop – ask your customers how you can improve.

Make your content easily accessible and digestible so that they’ll come back for more. Strive to be that go-to resource and thought leader for your post-sale ABM accounts.

Whether the account is a warm lead or an about-to-be-signed new account, mapping out content journeys for each will continue to move them through the sales funnel towards success.

Use the below checklist so that you can tackle each customer stage of your content mapping journey:

Step 4: Apply Complimentary Content Distribution Techniques

Touchpoints Beyond ABM.

Did you know that earning a new customer is between 5 to 25x more expensive than retaining current ones? And the average customer spends 67 percent more between months 31 and 36 with a business than they do from months 0-6? This makes any extra effort to retain your ABM acquired customers all the more important.

Build longevity by continuing to reach out using personalized, targeted touchpoints.

Include different channels of communication – social media, emails, surveys, invitations to private events, etc. Do whatever it takes to improve the customer experience, differentiate your company from the rest and keep clients from straying.

Monitor, listen and engage with your post-sale ABM customers. Celebrate their successes, engage with them on industry trends, collaborate on campaigns, speaking opportunities and the like – all while keeping their primary objectives and goals at the center of any outreach.

Focusing on the accounts you have in the pipeline is useless if you can’t keep the ones in hand happy.

Only 31 percent of marketers are personalizing campaigns and only 21 percent are focused on customer experience (PAN Communications & Holmes Report).

Step 5: Defining Success Beyond the Sale

Revenue. Retention. Reputation. Referrals.

How do you define success beyond the sale? Ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Are you retaining those customers?
2. Are you building brand advocates with a Voice of the Customer program?
3. Have you mastered the upselling process?

Voice of the Customer

Loyal customers are 5x as likely to repurchase, 5x as likely to forgive, 4x as likely to refer, and 7x as likely to try a new offering.

Retaining and building brand advocates is the goal. Developing a Voice of the Customer (VoC) program to create great customer experiences will move you towards that goal. A VoC program should be embedded within your post-sales cycle ABM strategy and a way for you to determine the success rate of these programs as outlined below.

Your brand’s VoC program should include customers that encapsulate and align with your brand’s core values. These customers are going to be the drivers when it comes to reaching prospects under similar personas, so you’ll want them to be the best brand advocates that you have. Leverage this relationship even further by capturing the tone and preferences of your ABM accounts. It should show them that their feedback and opinions truly matter.

As you continue to build out your VoC program tied alongside your ABM strategy, don’t forget to document everything that you’ve learned. Update your personas and targets to include new communication channels, unresolved customer pain points, disrupting industry stats, lessons learned, customer quotes and testimonials. Your team should have a knowledge bank that will guide and lead your ABM efforts into future success stories.

Remember the 4 R’s for defining the success of a VoC program:

1. Revenue: Land and expand.
2. Retention: Making customers feel important and becoming an extension of their team.
3. Reputation: Word of mouth is key here even if it doesn’t lead to a referral right away. Ask for testimonials and quotes in the interim.
4. Referrals: Business connections can go a long way, especially if a previous customer has just jumped ship to another company, they’re likely to recommend your agency to that new company.

The 4 Rs should translate into a platform sales, marketing and other key stakeholders can point to for validation. This will help drive new business and revenue for your organization.

Step 6: Measuring ABM Throughout the Customer Journey

What is the coin of the realm in your business?

• New business revenue generated
• Increasing revenue per account
• Upselling existing accounts to a premium product or service
• Finding efficiencies to increase net revenue
• Superior customer experiences

Before getting started on KPIs, ensure sales and marketing teams agree on specific lead scoring and hand-off rules. ABM KPIs are different than your standard marketing metrics. Track impact and influence, time spent, and quality over quantity. Before someone spends money with you, they’ll spend time with you.

It’s about accounts, not leads. Ensure that you and your teams have the tools they need to manage and track the customer experience. Assess your martech stack and identify what you may be missing when it comes to KPIs and metrics.

Your ABM metrics should ladder up to the rest of your marketing KPIs. Track not just generic measurements but also get to true ROI (Return on Investment — or Return on Impact). Take a dual approach to your analytics. This means aligning those marketing KPIs with topline business goals. Think of measurement as a continuum, starting with your organization’s big picture revenue goals and drilling down to the granular, tactical results.

Conclusion

Success beyond the ABM sale requires bringing VoC, content and integrated teams together so that you end up with loyal, long-term happy customers. Happy customers lead to higher retention rates, a better brand image, and references; all of which fuel the bottom line, growth.

• BHP — the world's largest miner — has a global footprint in all the major commodity markets, including oil, gas, coal, and copper.  
• In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, CEO Andrew Mackenzie outlined his outlooks for each of these commodities, where he sees prices headed, and how the company is prioritizing what to invest in. 
• He also told us his views on "peak oil," and what climate change means for BHP.

When Andrew Mackenzie became the CEO of BHP in 2013, his priority was focusing the company's spending on the most profitable, long-term commodities. 

This approach compelled the world's largest miner to make big investments in less mainstream materials like potash, a component of fertilizers that Mackenzie foresees as a 100-year profit generator.   

But make no mistake: BHP remains a juggernaut in mining traditional commodities. It earns about 40% of its profits from iron ore, and 20% each from oil, coal, and copper. Those proceeds are then measured against a set of capital-spending rules that determine how much should be returned to shareholders, and how much should be allocated to finding new opportunities.  

During a recent, exclusive interview with Business Insider, Mackenzie detailed his outlooks for all the major commodities, the scope of investing opportunities that lie ahead, and where he sees prices headed.

His views are quoted below, and some have been lightly edited for clarity. 

Crude oil

"I'm more interested in catching what I think could be some quite high oil prices in the 2020s.

"I think shale has been a great success. And I think it'll remain that way for gas. But a lot of the shale oil developments we were a part of until we sold came as a result of people being a bit depressed by the low gas prices, because there was so much gas. I think this might be a relatively temporary phenomenon. And when that's apparent, and there's a shortage of new oil production coming on, I think you might see a bit of spiking [in prices].

"Will oil disappear as an energy source quicker than coal? If you really see penetration of electric vehicles, it'll never go completely, obviously, but you could hit peak oil before you would hit peak coal even in a relatively green scenario.

"We're in a place where there is a risk to our business for peak coal — and not metallurgical coal — but peak energy coal and peak oil. And we need to think about how we diversify. But that isn't going to happen until the 2030s. And if you handle it well, you could manage the transition."

Read more: The CEO of the world's largest miner details where he's investing as the world shifts away from fossil fuels — and he says it could lock in 100 years of profits

Coal

"We're not likely to invest big time in growing our energy coal business.

"Coal will last forever, but as a growing business, it's a finite opportunity. And it's likely to shrink over time.

"My message to Trump was, this is a great opportunity for technology leadership. Think about the most efficient ways of burning coals and ways of actually capturing and storing some of that carbon. You can think about way in which you could make a contribution to the Paris Agreement, and still be thoughtful about some of the people who voted for you. In the long run, you'd have to say that, probably, the most likely outcome is that the use of coal will decline."

Copper

"Copper is a little on the cheap side.

"We do think supply additions are hard in copper. And copper is like oil: there's a natural decline, because of grade, which there isn't in the other commodities we're into.

"Our signposts on the demand side are really just the uptake, and penetration, of electric vehicles. Right now, it's looking more positive and greener than we would have said two or three years back. But that may change. And that, of course, then triggers the interest in things like nickel and copper, and the concerns we might have for the future of oil."

Read more: Paul Krugman, Rick Rieder, and 47 more of the brightest minds on Wall Street reveal the world's most important charts

Nickel

"We have the possibility of [investing in] nickel, which could be a market as big as copper in the future if it's the main component of batteries or more local storage units.

"When you look at some of the growing demand, particularly for some of the new energy technologies that are coming through, and you look at the comparable stocks and the investment in new supply, we would be reasonably optimistic that some of those prices like copper, and nickel, and uranium will recover from current levels."

Iron ore 

"Realistically, we wouldn't invest a lot more now in iron ore and metallurgical coal. We think the next investments would not return a decent return. So, our alternative is to pay more cash back to the shareholder."

Bonus: Potash

"At the moment, about 40% of our profits come from iron ore and 20% each from metallurgical coal, copper, and petroleum. We could replace one of those areas with potash over a few decades."

SEE ALSO: An investment chief at $1 trillion Northern Trust lays out a strategy that's survived every major market crash, including the Great Depression

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NOW WATCH: Amazon will pay $0 in federal taxes this year — here's how the $793 billion company gets away with it

The opposite of memorable is forgettable. Unremarkable. Average.

You are none of those things. So why act like it? Why act like every other seller out there, blending in to a sea of sameness?

The work of selling is a lot more fun when you do the things that make you a standout. When you take risks, encourage your buyers, collaborate to co-create something unique, and personalize your approach. If you aren’t taking steps to be more memorable, you’re missing out on the fun!

By Joshua Baez, Engagement Manager at Heinz Marketing

“How do my peers make buying decisions?”

It’s a question on the mind of many of today’s B2B marketing leaders — and for good reason. The role of the marketing leader is evolving, expanding to focus on more strategic purchase decisions spanning the entire customer lifecycle. And with this expansion comes the greater potential that your decisions more broadly impact the success of your company as well as the other functions across your organization.

The creation of the B2B buying committee was intended to lighten the load of the buying process for marketing leaders. However, our research has indicated otherwise. Though these committees of decision makers and influencers are present in a majority of organizations, the onus is still on the marketing leader, themself, to see a decision through from start to finish.

Which brings us back to the question at hand, “How do my peers make buying decisions?” Or more importantly, what’s their involvement like throughout the purchasing process? What drives their ability to make better buying decisions? How do they play a more value-added role within their organization? And, of course, where do you stand compared to them?

For B2B marketing leaders, knowledge is power. And understanding what your peers are doing gives you the ability to change, improve, and, ultimately, raise the bar not only for your organization, but for the industry at-large.

To understand how B2B marketing leaders engage the buyer’s journey, interact with content, and make decisions, PathFactory and Heinz Marketing conducted a survey in December 2018. The responses came from 204 B2B marketing leaders (senior director, VP/SVP, or C-Suite) with decision-making authority across various organization sizes.

Here are four key findings we uncovered from our research.

1.  Anyone can vocalize a challenge, but it’s the marketing leader who initiates the buying process.

2 in 5 marketing leaders report anyone in any role can be the first to express challenges around a strategy, tactic, or tool. Rather, whoever vocalizes an issue is more dependent on the situation than it is on the actual role of that person. However, in most cases, it’s the marketing leader who formally initiates the buying process.

 

2.  Marketing leaders are heavily involved at the beginning and end of the buyer’s journey.

Once the process is set in motion, over 9 in 10 marketing leaders are heavily involved at both the beginning and the end of the buyer’s journey. And while 62% of marketing leaders work within a buying committee of 1-5 other people, 2 in 3 will likely not delegate purchase decisions to other members.

 

3.  Marketing leaders are too regularly served lackluster content.

92% of marketing leaders report content plays an important part in their decision-making process, but 1 in 2 leaders have issues that the content they receive is irrelevant to their pain points, challenges, and responsibilities. And this irrelevance makes leaders less responsive to content. As a result, marketing leaders turn to outside sources to find what they’re looking for.

 

4.  Marketing leaders take buyer enablement into their own hands.

When vendors and prospective solutions aren’t delivering what they need, a vast majority of marketing leaders take it upon themselves to find relevant information through other means. Asking peers or colleagues, browsing third-party review sites, and reading analyst reports are among the ways a marketing leader continues down the buyer’s journey on their own terms.

 

What do these key findings reveal?

Marketing leaders of all organizations and buying committee sizes place the onus on themselves to not only initiate a decision, but also to personally see it through to the end. Marketing leaders help to uncover the gaps in their teams and search for solutions that address them. And in the process, these individuals see for themselves the extent of what options are out there while sifting through irrelevant content to find something that’s of value.

How do your peers make buying decisions? With thoughtfulness, personal involvement, and a whole lot of time and effort.

The role of the marketing leader is one filled with challenges, but it’s also not without its wins. The ability to problem solve, to lead the charge in finding a solution, to play both a strategic and an operational role in the buyer’s journey — those are the traits of a successful marketing leader.

Looking Ahead

To fully understand the implications of our research, it’s necessary to dig a little deeper. Download the full report now and uncover what it means to engage the buyer’s journey from inside the head of a marketing leader.

The post New Research: Inside the Head of a Marketing Leader Throughout The Buyer’s Journey appeared first on Heinz Marketing.