It’s a stereotype, but many of us have made the assumption that scientists are a bit rigid and less artistic than others. Artists, on the other hand, are often seen as being less rational than the rest of us. Sometimes described as the left side of the brain versus the right side–or simply logical thinking versus artistic creativity–the two are often seen as polar opposites.
An Old Recurring Revenue Model Due to a range of market forces, a recurring revenue model that’s been used for decades in industries such as airplane manufacturing is undergoing a resurgence. Widely referred to as outcome-based pricing, output-based pricing, and performance pay, it offers companies a compelling way to stand out in a crowded field. […]
This post An Old Recurring Revenue Model Gains New Converts appeared first on CloudTweaks Connected CloudTweaks.com.
For manufacturers and distributors that do business across several regions, an effective territory management system is vital. Without a well-thought-out strategy, sales can be tough to land.
Territorial management is at the heart of any company’s sales operations. All key processes, from sales force planning and deployment, to performance tracking and financial reporting, depend on knowing who’s assigned to which accounts and that your sales reps’ time is spent wisely.
Designing a territory management system requires meticulous planning. Carrying out that strategy is a whole other story. Luckily, there are solutions to help with the process. Let’s talk about some of the ways in which a territory management system can automate territory management.
Territorial models can help determine the most effective hierarchies, assignment rules, and territory assignments for your business. By modeling your sales territories into a logical and flexible structure, your sales team can maximize revenue in half the effort.
Territory models can be based on geography or customer types, and are used to promote effective usage of the sales team to maximize sales opportunities, provide superior customer service, and expand existing customer relationships.
For example, if your business offers free shipping in a certain territory, or unique products for an individual customer, territory management software can assign rules to territories so that sales reps do not have to manually apply them when writing sales orders.
Pricing is one of the most complex aspect of any business. Territory management software can help set up custom pricing configurations for different territories. Pricing options like territory-specific price lists, discounts, and multiple currency support can all be structured through more advanced territory management software.
In wholesale, automating the pricing system will remove some of the intricacies of writing a sales order. With some mobile order writing and order management solutions, you can even set specific pricing at the individual customer level. With these kinds of solutions in place sales reps no longer need to scrutinize price sheets or remember complex pricing schemes.
Sales territories must balance rep workloads, ensuring that reps efficiently cover your most profitable customers. By assigning customers to specific sales reps, territory management software can coordinate what information is disseminated to each rep, ensuring that each sales rep can only see the customer and sales order information that is most relevant to them.
For example, territory management software lets sales teams restrict the visibility of certain brands or products in a sales rep’s catalog. This is critical if a manufacturer or distributor has sales reps who only sell certain brands within their respective portfolios.
Territory management software can also accommodate staff changes. If a sales rep transfers offices, or is reassigned a customer account, territory management software will seamlessly modify your territory model so that no customer is left behind.
Territory management software holds sales teams accountable, allowing sales managers to report on the performance of their country, regions, or sales reps. Custom reports can also help sales teams organize territory models for optimum coverage. The availability of this data empowers sales managers to add and redraw territories based on performance.
Questions about territory management solutions? Let us know in the comments!
Today, there are 2.307 billion active social media users around the world. That’s nearly one-third of our planet’s total population of 7.125 billion!
As social media marketing professionals, we’re lucky to reach even .000001% of that population with any one of our posts. This can feel a bit underwhelming for businesses and marketers looking to demonstrate the true value and ROI of social media.
Everywhere we look it appears that brands and companies have it all figured out on social media. With each new post to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter comes thousands of likes, comments, and shares.
Even Grumpy Cat has earned more than $100 million dollars since 2012!
This leaves the rest of us wondering, “What are we not doing right on social media?”
We’ve experimented, made mistakes, and even learned a little bit in the process. From that, we’ve put together a playbook on solving the 10 most common social media marketing challenges.
Let’s jump in!
We’ve been seeing a massive shift in what it means to be effective on social media over the last few years. One challenge that marketers are facing in this new era of social media marketing is connecting with audiences on an individual and personal level.
Connecting with your audience helps to humanize your brand and build real, authentic relationships.
Connect with your audience by utilizing free or low-cost brand monitoring tools such as Respond, Mention, or TweetDeck and respond to every single comment on Twitter.
Monitor all additional social media channels and respond to each comment in an authentic way. You can do this by asking questions, linking to other blog posts, providing insights, or offering help with a problem.
You may also consider creating and growing a niche forum or group on Facebook or LinkedIn, or even creating your own dedicated community site similar to inbound.org or GrowthHackers – this gives you the opportunity to engage with users as well as let them indulge their passions and connect with like-minded people.
You may know what you want to accomplish and why, but without a social media marketing strategy, you won’t have a specific plan on how to get there.
Think of your social media plan as a roadmap to your goals – Sure, you can stop off and check out landmarks along the way (experimentation), but you’ll want to return to the road that gets you to your destination in the shortest time and distance (goals).
Creating a solid social media marketing strategy doesn’t have to take weeks to put together. For me, it helps to have 3 key things written down on paper:
What worked in 2012 when organic reach on social was booming vs. what’s working now with the decline of organic reach has many social media managers scrambling to find tactics that work, including myself.
If growing your organic reach doesn’t seem to be working, there may be another solution.
Solving this challenge:
Marketers can overcome this obstacle by looking at the decline of organic reach as an opportunity in disguise. That opportunity is paid social media advertising.
Even if you only have $5 to spend on boosting a Facebook post or promoting a Tweet, putting a few dollars behind the content you’ve worked hard to create will effectively get that content in front of hundreds potential customers. Look for posts with high engagement but low reach as a good barometer for potential success.
Use a combination of Facebook Audience Insights and Twitter Audience Insights to learn about your audience and create personas. Once you have an idea of who they are, use those insights to create highly-targeted ads that will resonate with users.
We completely understand. Managing social media is extremely time-consuming, and can become a full-time job. Which is why staying creative and original is one of the toughest social media marketing challenges to overcome.
The social media manager checklist seems to go on forever: curate, create, schedule, monitor, respond, update, and reuse content across several different social profiles.
That’s why it’s important for social media marketers to find little hacks to optimize their time.
Besides basic content curation and idea generation tactics like monitoring Facebook pages or scouring Buzzsumo and Quora for content, there are other less time-consuming tactics you can experiment with today.
Openness & Transparency: Some of our most popular content and social media posts are ones that feature an inside look into Buffer’s culture.
People love knowing that there is a “real person” behind the social media profile and by giving them a look into your company or brand you will evoke real human interaction.
Original graphics: We’ve also generated some excellent buzz by creating original graphics in Pablo or Canva and posting them to our social channels. This image, for example, received more than 100 retweets on our Twitter account in less than an hour.
To create it, we pulled stats from around the web and put them into a simple graphic, which only took about 30 minutes to create.
For some brands, the way to cut through all of the noise on social media is to simply post more. While this tactic may work for some, for many it has the tendency to irritate followers.
The Next Web posts 30-40 times per day on Facebook due to the high amount of new content they’re putting out online. But many businesses who are creating less content may struggle to show value from more frequent posting.
An excellent way to think about the quantity vs. quality is to treat every piece of content—every tweet, every Facebook post, every CTA, every press outreach email—with the utmost care, as Leo explains in our Buffer marketing manifesto.
People will naturally follow your brand over time from posting great content, not posting more content.
Marketers can benefit from embracing the “everything matters” mentality when generating content for their blog, graphics for social media, and forums for connecting.
Now that you have all of this great content for your blog and social media channels, people will surely follow, right?
As marketers know, this isn’t always the case. Promoting content, partnering with brands and influencers, and capturing audiences’ attention is a whole new social media challenge in itself.
The encouraging news is that if your content is enjoyed by a few people on your blog, then the chances are that people on social media will enjoy it as well. The challenge is getting it to those people.
Just like in investing, the “Compound Effect” is a powerful idea that works with social media promotion as well.
Let’s say every one person on Twitter has 100 friends that follow them, and those 100 friends have 100 friends that follow them. Even if only 5% of the total friends share your content, that’s still a massive amount of shares and impressions.
The key is not to sit back and hope that people share your content, but to actively seek out people that you know will benefit from it. A few ideas to get you started:
One thing that is particularly challenging on social media is finding ways to avoid what I like to call a “creative rut.” A creative rut is when social media managers find a tactic that works a few times and then continually go back to them over and over, even though the results may be even or declining.
Only posting blog links on Facebook, quotes on Instagram, or links to your own articles on Twitter are examples of content that is good, but could maybe use a creative boost.
Think “share first” by getting inside the mind of your audience. Before posting ask, “Is this something that I would like, comment on, read, or share on social media?” If the answer is “no” that may be a sign to look for other types of content.
The New York Times once published an excellent study on the psychology of sharing. It boiled down to the fact that sharing on social media is all about relationships. The study indicated that 49% of respondents said they share to bring valuable and entertaining content to others.
Jeff Bullas shared an excellent list of 10 ways to create contagious content with some fun ideas including:
How many of us wing it when tracking data in order to guide our social media strategy? I know I’ve been guilty of this a few times!
Previously, social media data was hard to access, difficult to understand, and seemingly useless. But these days, there are so many amazing tools out there that accessing data is a must-do for marketers looking to take their social to the next level.
Start by creating a simple Excel spreadsheet with each of the social media channels that you’re managing on the left and the most important stats you would like to track across the top.
Here’s a quick snapshot of the sheet I use: (Download the full Social Media Metrics Dashboard):
Tracking metrics week-to-week and month-to-month helps me to visualize if my intuition is working. That way I can quickly implement experiments, track the data, and pivot to another tactic if things aren’t on the rise.
Check out the entire Buffer Social Media Strategy to see how we pulled the data from each network so that you can start tracking your own.
Visuals and graphics are the second most important factor for success on social media right behind the quality content. But creating quality visuals and graphics are another challenge on their own, regarding skill level and time it takes to create them.
Seeing as how visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content, there’s never been a better time to invest in visuals of your own.
Two of our favorite go-to sources of great visuals are high-quality stock photos and original images created by our team.
For high-quality stock photos, we’ve put together a massive list of 53+ free image sources. For original images, we suggest either Pablo or Canva. Each is fun, easy to use, and allow marketers to customize each image size based on the targeted social media channel.
A few design rules of thumb:
*Infographic created by Ethos3
A common thought in the social media sphere is that there’s a silver bullet of growth and engagement. The truth is that it takes a lot of work to create a community of engaged followers and brand advocates.
Growth and engagement are a result of a variety of factors, but figuring out which activities to focus on is an important challenge in social media marketing.
When putting first things first, it’s helpful for me to refer to Brian Balfour’s Growth Machine. Brian points out that a lot of marketers focus on tactics first, rather than creating a growth process.
Tactics first is putting the cart before the horse. You need a process that will help you build a scalable, predictable, and repeatable growth machine.
– Brian Balfour
The most important part is having one growth process and sticking to it no matter what.
Know your channels, your audience, and your market inside and out and make strategic experiment decisions based on those learnings. Doing so will help to focus on the things that matter most.
Thanks for reading! What challenges do you often face when it comes to social media? We’d love to hear from you below!
Do you know how valuable your customers are to your business?
When it comes to business, and picking up a calculator it can be one of the most mundane and difficult tasks. I was never taught the importance of maths for business purposes, so when I have to calculate important figures, it is always a pain of a task.
The most important calculation you will do for your business, is working out your customer’s lifetime value. This is the value a customer will contribute to your business over the entire lifetime of your company.
This calculation is usually done on a per customer basis, but is determined for the average customer in your target market. If you have more than one target market, you may find that there is a different in customer lifetime worth.
It is no news to you that it costs more to acquire a new customer, than it does to retain an existing one. Understanding your CLV (customer lifetime value) is crucial for increasing profitability, retention and overall sales success. Here are three reasons why your CLV should be a vital part of your business model, and customer retention strategy.
Knowing your CLV helps you focus on the communication channels that give you the most profitable customer. The way you market your business and the channels you use should be determined by the lifetime value a customer contributes to your business, rather than the gross profit on an initial purchase.
Your customer retention strategy should reflect not the value of instant revenue a customer drives, but the impact they had on the average CLV of your target audience.
Knowing your CLV allows you to improve the relevance of your marketing with more effective content, and the ability to nurture your customers the way they want to be nurtured. Spend more of your time focused on the customers with a higher CLV, remember; 20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue (Pareto’s Principle).
There are two different ways you can calculate your CLV; Historic CLV, and Predictive CLV.
Historic CLV is a good indication of your customer lifetime value and is simply the sum of the gross profit from all historic purchases from a specific customer. This is how the calculation works;
CLV (Historic) = Transaction 1 + Transaction 2 + Transaction 3 + Transaction N X AGM.
Transaction N = the last transaction a customer made.
AGM = Average Gross Margin.
You can calculate your CLV using your net profit, but this is a highly complex calculation and will have to be updated constantly. Using your gross margin is just as effective, and will give you great insight into how much each customer is worth to date.
This is a much more in depth and complex calculation of your CLV and will take into account previous transaction history and behavioural indicators. As long as you are calculating correctly, this will be very accurate.
Predictive CLV calculates the total value a customer will eventually give to your store over their entire lifetime.
According to Valdimir Dimitroff;
“CLV is always the NPV (net present value) of the sum of all future revenues from a customer, minus all costs associated with that customer.”
Here is the simple way to calculate Predictive CLV:
Where:
T = Average monthly transactions
AOV = Average order value
ALT = Average Customer Lifespan (in months)
AGM = Average gross margin
Let’s call the above equation gross margin contribution per customer lifespan (GML).
Here is the detailed way to calculate Predictive CLV;
Where:
R = monthly retention rate
D = monthly discount rate.
Here is a screen grab of my customer lifetime value, which is available for download here, completely free of charge.
How do you calculate your customer’s lifetime value, and were you surprised by the number?
Inflows into inflation-indexed exchange-traded bond funds this year have already exceeded flows for all of 2015, suggesting investors are growing more bullish that inflation will climb toward the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target.
Investors plunked $2.8 billion into U.S. ETFs holding government securities that protect against rising consumer prices as of April 19, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with $2.6 billion in all of 2015. A bond-market gauge of the expected pace of price increases over the next decade rose for a third day as oil prices surged to the highest since November.
Sales of inflation-index funds totalled only $671 million in the second half of 2015 as confidence faded that central banks could spur price gains amid a plunge in commodities and a slowdown in global growth. This year, oil has rebounded and fears of a U.S. recession have subsided as the Fed indicated it will be less aggressive in its approach to policy. Fed officials last month cut their forecasts for interest-rate increases in 2016 to two from four, saying global economic and financial developments continue to pose risks.
The Fed “has signalled a slow-growing economy, but under the surface we’re starting to see some initial inflationary pressure,” Lisa Emsbo-Mattingly, who leads the asset-allocation research team at Fidelity Investments, which oversees $2 trillion in assets, wrote in an April 15 note to clients. “At this point, I would worry more about protecting against inflation than against negative growth.”
The yield on the benchmark Treasury 10-year note rose by the most in almost two months, climbing seven basis points, or 0.07 percentage point, to 1.85 per cent as of 3:05 p.m in New York. The price of the 1.625 per cent note maturing in February 2026 was 97 31/32.
The gap between yields on 10-year inflation-indexed securities and equivalent Treasury notes, known as the 10-year break-even rate, rose one basis point to 1.63 percentage points. It fell to 1.2 percentage points in February, the lowest since 2009. The price of crude oil rose for a second day and has climbed more than 60 per cent from a 12-year low in February.
Inflation-indexed securities have advanced 4.5 per cent this year, compared with a 3.5 per cent gain for the broader Treasury market, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.
Demand for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities will be tested Thursday at a $16 billion sale of the debt, which offers a face value that rises and falls according to a gauge of consumer-price increases.
The core consumer-price index rose at a 2.2 per cent annual rate in March, according to a Labor Department report April 14. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures index, fell to a 1 per cent annual pace in February.
“Inflation is expected to remain low in the near term, in part because of earlier declines in energy prices, but to rise to 2 per cent over the medium term as the transitory effects of declines in energy and import prices dissipate and the labor market strengthens further,” the Federal Open Market Committee wrote in its March policy statement.
We know that a website is the hub of all our marketing efforts. So it’s critical to maintain a website that is up-to-date and filled with valuable, quality content to attract, convince and convert visitors into leads and eventually into sales. But if you’re website is making any of these mistakes, you’re missing out on a tremendous amount of opportunity to generate leads and drive revenue.
8 Major Website Mistakes You’re Still Making
Outdated Design/Architecture
When is the last time you looked at your website? Like, really looked. If you don’t know the answer of the top of your head – you’re already making one of the biggest cardinal sins of having a website. Unlike the past when simply having a website was enough to outshine you from the outside competition, today websites have a self-life of about 2-3 years.
If you can’t remember the last time you considered the state of your website, the next question you need to ask yourself is when was the last time you spoke with your website vendor? If it’s been longer than you can remember, it’s time to do a quick check-in, or possible start the search for a new vendor.
Poor Messaging
Many websites lack when it comes to their messaging. They are usually generic and stale, rather than appealing and convincing. Your messaging should be more about how you can solve a user’s problem, and less about how amazing you are. When your message is filled with self-proclaimed accolades, it gives visitors the impression that you only care about yourself. That doesn’t solve the problem that they are coming to you for and doesn’t show how you can help.
“Sell a happier life. Not a product.” – Kaleigh Moore
Successful website messaging should immediately resonate with your visitor and complement the design of your site. This requires using words that show empathy and evoke emotion.
No Contact Information or About Me
When a first time user lands on your website, they are in search of two things: credibility & trust. Unfortunately, too many websites lack the thorough contact information visitors are in need of. This can make or break your next sale, especially if it was a hot lead that you were convinced you were going to close. If they can’t reach out to you with any questions, they are more than likely going to head over to a competitor who will answer those questions.
Even more, a website that lacks a descriptive and informative About Me page immediately decreases the credibility of your business – especially if your messaging is boosting all your accomplishments. Show your team members and allow them to show a more personal, human-like side in their bios and head shots.
No New Content
Like the previous three I’ve already mentioned, the fact that websites still aren’t keeping their content up-to-date seriously makes me cringe. There is absolutely no way that any company can find an industry update, an internal company update, or simply spruce up or refresh a previously page of cornerstone content. Incorporating a blog or news center is a great way to add consistent new content that will educate visitors and position you as a thought leader.
Slow Page Load Times
With our users at the forefront of everything we do in our digital marketing tactics, their demands for a fast loading website are one we cannot ignore. Users don’t want to spend time waiting for your large images to load when they can head back to the search engine and find a site that loads quickly and provides all the information they need. That means you’ve just lost an interested prospect … the clock is ticking, is your site up to speed?
Not Mobile Friendly or Responsive
As of April 2015, responsive design is no longer a luxury for corporate websites. Google has now required it, as it is now a factor that determines whether or not your site will be visible in search engines. Beyond Google, 52 percent of users said they would be less likely to engage with a company if the mobile experience on their site was bad. Using a flexible CMS – such as WordPress – your web developer can ensure every piece of content published can be accessed and easily digested by readers regardless of the viewing device they prefer.
No Clear Calls-to-Action (CTA’s)
Once a user lands on your site and feels you can provide value to them, they need to know what the next steps are going to be in regards to doing business together. Depending on where they are in the buyer’s cycle, these next steps will differ and evolve as they continue to move each step. In the awareness stage, directing them to a relevant, educational piece of content such as your blog, white paper or case study will provide more information about the problem they are having. As they move down the funnel, the actions you want them to take will continue to change as well, which will require different types of content. These types of format may include testimonials, email campaigns, industry reports, etc. Even asking someone to share a piece of content is considered a CTA and also helps expand the visibility and lifespan of your content.
“People mimic, so run a test showing someone doing the thing you want your visitor to do – like signing up for a trial or tweeting your tweet” – Kaleigh Moore
The ultimate goal is to capture the lead through a form and nurture that lead until they are ready to contact a sales rep. None of this is possible with a clear set of CTA’s that your visitor can follow.
Partnering with the wrong vendor or relying on DIY solutions.
Regardless of the avenue you take with your website, it can only be successful as the team supporting it. If you’re in need of a robust, attractive, compelling and cutting-edge website that stands out from your competitors, it is worth every penny as well as every bit of time it takes to complete it. A website can be built in a day, but it certainly shouldn’t be if you’re trying to gain a credible reputation on the web.
As you may be able to tell, many of these mistakes are minor. But when left unattended, these mistakes can leave disastrous problems that will not only decrease your credibility in your industry, but also decrease your quality and amount of leads and sales made at the end of the day.
Transforming the Content PlatformWith 15 years of experience technology marketing, Aaron brings a keen eye for how to successfully market to marketers through engaging and interactive content. He has become a skilled advocate for interactive content and its growing importance in the field, with the goal of getting more people into the funnel through engaging and rich experiences.
Many marketers struggle with the definition and application of “interactive content” for their customer base. Thankfully, Aaron comes equipped with real-life examples of marketers who cut through the noisy clutter of content to elevate the most ordinary of fields that, while important, fall outside of the realm of the stereotypical hip, cool, or edgy. He also presents a clear approach on how to incorporate interactive content throughout the sales funnel, maximizing ROI.
Aaron is ready, willing, and able to guide you through a 30-minute crash course in interactive content, its importance, and how to approach implementing it for your own use.
“We’ve created this explosion, this overload of content that is making it extremely difficult for brands to break through the noise.” —@ajdun
“It’s really about disrupting the experience.” —@ajdun (highlight to tweet)
“A lot of content marketers have struggled with connecting their content into the sales funnel.” —@ajdun
“Interactive content really provides a way of creating an experience and, if you do it right, one that your prospects will want to engage in because they are getting something of value or having fun.” —@ajdun
“We believe interactive content can be very influential and helpful all the way through the funnel.” —@ajdun
Coming from a family of firefighters, it’s no surprise that for a long time Aaron’s vision of his future involved a bright red truck. Even though he chose to put out a different kind of administrative fire through marketing, he maintains a tremendous amount of respect for the work firefighters do as they put their life on the line every single day.
Over the last 10 years, B2B demand generation teams have used technology such as marketing automation to become highly-scaled demand generation engines, delivering high volumes of leads each month. But these teams fail to adequately support the sales team’s strategic …
The post The 2016 TOPO Account-Based Marketing Framework appeared first on TOPO Blog.
Negotiating one’s salary and benefits can be quite daunting if you don’t know what can be negotiated. It can seem that salary is to job value what location is to real estate—everything. But, while salary is, of course, an important factor when you’re considering a job offer, there are other perks to explore as well. Remember that money doesn’t always show itself right away. A better title now, for example, could mean an easier time getting a higher-paying job down the road. Or a gym membership (when used as directed) could save you money on medical care in the years to come. Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes said, “The man who is prepared has half his battle fought.” The same can be said about successful negotiators. The best negotiators are often those professionals who spend time educating themselves about the job market and their target employer. Whether you’re asking for a raise, negotiating a new contract, or exploring benefits, it’s important to research all of your options before entering such a discussion.
Successful negotiation is based on preparation and patience. You should always anticipate what you may need to know when you speak with any potential employer. First, research the value of your talent in the employment marketplace. Find sources that tell you what companies pay for the job you’re considering. The sources should take into account the size of the company you work for and its industry and region. It is more helpful if you can use a source that helps you calculate the potential value of your personal skills and background such as education, length of experience, certifications, and management responsibility. Second, NEVER
Second, NEVER be the first to disclose a number. If possible, try to get the employer to disclose the pay for the job before you tell your requirements. If you find this too difficult or awkward, consider providing a broad range (based on the research you did above) and say you expect “a fair total pay package for the job and my unique set of skills, including….” Finally, p
Finally, rprepare a counteroffer. About half of all jobseekers accept the first offer that’s put on the table, but most employers make offers expecting candidates to counteroffer – so go ahead, ask for what you want. Remember that your counteroffer can include more than just base pay; it can include bonuses, stock options, vacation time, and a flexible working schedule. Every time you speak with a potential employer, you should be prepared with a complete summary of your ideal offer, and you should know in your mind how negotiable you are on each item.
Even though salary is important, don’t forget to negotiate benefits. Overall, benefits can make up to 30 percent of your salary. Your compensation should meet all of your needs, not just monetary ones. Consider hiring bonuses, vacation time, retirement plans, sick leave, insurance, flexible schedule (a reasonable trade-off to higher pay) and other company benefits as open for negotiation as well. If you are planning to go back to school, tuition reimbursement may be just as important as health insurance. If you’re planning to start a family, maternity leave and vacation time may be the most important feature for you. All of these benefits can tip the scale in negotiating salary.
As you approach these negotiations, be aware that a prospective employer may withdraw an offer if it feels that your requests are excessive and not in line with what the company can offer. Any negotiation should be approached in a professional and reasonable manner. Equipping yourself with research done beforehand ensures your requests will more likely be considered.
So those are the benefits, what are some common mistakes made by the average job seeker? The biggest mistake is accepting the first salary offer. Since employers anticipate a counteroffer, many include room for negotiation in their first offer. This is very true for jobs at a higher level or higher salary. If you accept the first offer, you may be leaving money on the table. Regardless of whether the employer has room to increase the salary offer, you should be comfortable asking. But be careful: don’t make demands or issue ultimatums unless you really are willing to walk away from the existing offer. Second, too many people rely on the potential employer to determine the fair compensation for the job. Spending a little time learning how the relevant labor market values a particular job and how your unique skills may further increase those values can have a dramatic impact on your ability to maximize your total compensation. Knowing the facts and being able to speak intelligently about them can support and justify your desired pay. Finally, once again, don’t neglect to negotiate things beyond base pay. Base salary is just one of the negotiation points. There are many more items to consider when negotiating your initial employment package. Once the salary negotiation is complete, moving on to the other components of total pay can be rewarding.
Sources:
http://www.salary.com/6-tips-to-successful-benefits-negotiation/
http://womenforhire.com/news/negotiating_salary_benefits/
http://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/10-salary-negotiation-questions
An email I got from Avinash Kaushik this week got me thinking about multi-channel attribution.
Assigning value based on position in the customer journey is like saying it’s more important for outcomes if the surgeon closes the wound (the last part of the operation) than removing the cancerous legion. Obviously, the surgeon needs to perform every step in the operation or the patient won’t have a good outcome. And, post-op care by nurses, medicines, and rest all contribute to a positive outcome, even though those things happen AFTER the surgery is complete.
Yet, hospitals and physicians need a basis for charging patients. Part of that charge comprises the inherent value of services performed and the costs associated with those services. They don’t use a multi-channel attribution model to do it. Why do we?
Image courtesy of Coast Digital
Think about the customer journey.
Along the journey, prospective customers visit various pages within your website, your social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and maybe visit a physical store to see your product in action (in fact, Best Buy filed a lawsuit that they’re performing a role in the sale, but not getting the reward because customers buy online).
Multi-channel attribution assigns a value to each step in the journey. Commonly, businesses use “last click” attribution which means assigning all the conversion value to the last step in the journey or “first click” attribution, in part because many analytics software products are set up that way. Alternatively, firms assign value to various steps using some formula, although this is much less common.
Google Analytics provides a variety of models for attribution like the one to the left — I’ve cropped the image to protect the privacy of client data, but yours will show the $ value of each step in the conversion.
Determining which model involves asking some difficult questions about how customers move through their journey.
Is one of these steps more important than the others?
If you eliminated one or more steps, would you enjoy the same sales volume at a reduced cost?
Do all customers experience the exact same journey or are there a nearly infinite number of combination of steps?
Does the customer progress through this journey at a regular pace or might there be multiple gaps before making a decision, thus extending the journey over months or years?
Does the customer progress through the journey in a linear fashion or might he/she use a more circular path by jumping up and down the funnel — or even sideways?
What happens when a prospect leaves your site? Do actions you can’t measure impact your results?
How does traditional advertising, which is much harder to measure, impact the results you see in combination with social actions?
And, these are just a few of the questions plaguing multi-channel attribution modeling. Hence, Kaushik suggests only the most sophisticated firms should even attempt to measure multi-channel attribution.
The first step in developing multi-channel attribution analytics is understanding the customer journey — from awareness through purchase to after-purchase support, which is the most overlooked aspect of the entire customer journey. The ultimate goal is developing loyal customers who spend a significant percentage of their purchases on your brand (we call this share of wallet), recommend your brand to others, and potentially becomes a brand advocate — defending your brand from others.
Once you extend the customer journey to its final steps, you see multi-channel attribution models fail miserably when it comes to assigning value because they totally ignore aspects of the journey occurring after the sale.
So, should we totally ignore attribution, as suggested in the email from Kaushik?
No.
So, how do you implement attribution without running afoul of arguments that attribution models suck?
Recognize that each step in the customer journey provides value and accept that you can’t calculate the value of each step in the journey. Also recognize that various paths through the customer journey exist and some are more effective than others.
Next, you’ll need a custom model representing the customer journey options and assign value to each customer journey path. In the image of Google Analytics, you’ll find a link to create a customer model is at the bottom of this drop down menu. BTW, this used to be available in premium analytics, but Google made it available for everyone. Cool.
A great way to build your custom model is by looking at the funnel options in Google to see all the pathways folks take into and through your website. If you get really stuck, here are some from the Google Gallery of attribution models from leading analytics gurus.
Within this data visualization, you can see how visitors move through your website, where they came from and where they drop off. You can highlight any entrance option to see just how visitors from that source moved through your website. Notice, this is my website since I never share clients’ analytics. I don’t have an ecommerce site, so yours will likely look substantially different, but the idea is the same.
Crafting your custom model is fairly straightforward and Kaushik gives a great step-by-step on Occam’s Razor.
However, as good as all these models is, they fail to capture the value inherent in after purchase behaviors since many of them involve your website to a lesser degree. My suggestion is to build a more nuanced model by including other interactions likely to take place after the fact, such as accessing contact pages, FAQs, or review pages that might indicate a post-purchase behavior.
OK, you’ve got some value assigned to various channels and journeys based on real data. There are several ways in which this data provides valuable insights for decision-making — which is why you want this data in the first place.
You really shouldn’t use the data to determine a particular channel doesn’t work, so you should just drop it. That decision really requires more data. Plus, the true value of a channel might be obscured by the number of different ways it impacts customer purchase that are difficult to measure. Instead, use multi-channel attribution data for:
As a single brand, determining what the numbers mean in terms of decision-making is a little challenging. If you have multiple brands in the same market or work with an agency that might provide insights, you should really look at how a brand compares with others in the same customer market.
Difference between your performance and that of others indicates opportunities lost to ineffective strategy.
Rethink your strategy in an effort to improve your performance to match or exceed the competition.
Let’s say certain social channels don’t perform as well as you might expect.
Determine why these channels aren’t working and focus attention to improve their performance rather than simply limiting efforts to concentrate on channels that do perform better.
Use current performance across a particular channel to set performance goals for the next period.
Using A/B testing you might determine how much investing an extra $ on a particular channel translates into improved market performance. Don’t assume that spending an extra dollar will improve performance in a linear fashion as that’s probably not a valid assumption.
Once you know the ROI from a particular channel and how market performance improves by investing more money, you have the tools to forecast sales into the future. This makes budgeting more effective and allows better planning.
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a negotiation doesn’t go your way. Perhaps a customer pushed for a steeper discount than you wanted to give, or a potential client went with a competitor’s approach to a project. In the face of a disappointment — one where you might appear to be the “loser” — how do you save face? How do you make sure your reputation isn’t damaged and the relationship with your counterpart is intact?
What the Experts Say
Don’t worry too much about your negotiating prowess just because you lost this round. “A reputation comes from consistent behavior,” says Jeff Weiss, founding partner at Vantage Partners, a Boston-based consultancy specializing in corporate negotiations, and author of the HBR Guide to Negotiating. If you learn from the experience, there’s value to be had. A good way to start is by abandoning the adversarial mindset. “If all you’re thinking about is saving face, you’ve already made the negotiation and its aftermath into a battle,” says Margaret Neale, the Adams Distinguished Professor of Management at Stanford Graduate School of Business and coauthor of Getting (More of) What You Want. Think instead in terms of solutions so that your approach “becomes about problem solving rather than someone trying to win.” That’s where real win-win scenarios begin to emerge. Here’s how to bounce back when a negotiation doesn’t go your way.
Don’t panic
Take a deep breath and think about how to contain your losses. “Don’t assume that this is the end of the world,” says Weiss. More often than not “this is one transaction of many,” and there will be opportunities in the future to retry your case. You might also be overestimating the degree to which this outcome has dented your business position or reputation. Sure, you may not have gotten the price you wanted, for example, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the customer thinks you’re a pushover. “Don’t assume you lost face,” Neale says. “It’s like that old saying: You wouldn’t care so much about what other people think if you knew how little they think about you.”
Look for a bright side
You may not have “won” on the terms you came to the table with, but there may be some unexplored upside that you haven’t yet considered. “You’re never going to get 100% of what you want,” says Neale. But the best negotiators will find value and benefits in unexpected places. Perhaps you aren’t getting as big an order as you’d like but you’ve cemented a valuable client relationship going forward. “Ask yourself if you can tie some other detail to a piece of the deal,” suggests Weiss. “Are there other terms and conditions where you can balance this out in some way or make some sort of a trade?” That doesn’t mean frantically trying to renegotiate unfavorable terms, which could make you appear desperate. But it does mean thinking about how, for example, the lower profits you’re accepting might be balanced out by opening up new markets.
Be up front about your missteps
So you didn’t land the big client. Don’t sequester yourself out of frustration. Doing so is unhelpful and prevents you from controlling the narrative with your employees and managers. “Consider whether there are people internally you need to talk to, to get out ahead of this,” says Weiss. “Ask yourself whether there is anything you need to convey to your colleagues about why this happened and what it means.” Neale agrees, adding that being open about missteps is particularly important for executives, who often serve as role models. “Both learning from your mistakes and admitting to those mistakes are important for being a better leader,” she says. If you’re transparent, then your employees are more likely to do the same when a negotiation doesn’t go their way.
Leverage the future
Don’t think about this disappointment as the end of the story. “When you don’t get the outcome you want,” says Neale, “set up for the next negotiation.” While you’re still at the table, position yourself for the next deal. “You might frame it as a game of favors and ledgers,” says Weiss. For example, you might stress that the client has gotten a good deal from you because you’ve worked together for so long and you value their business. Or that because they’ve helped you solve problems in the past, you’re helping them solve a problem now. Try to focus the conversation on the road ahead. “You might say, ‘This one is a bit lopsided, but we can start thinking now about the next negotiation,’” says Weiss. That way you’re expanding this particular negotiation into a series of conversations.
Do a postmortem
Take the time to reflect on why you ended up on the disappointing end of the deal in the first place. “Ask yourself, ‘How did I get here? How did they put me in a corner?’” says Weiss. Perhaps you didn’t fully understand what your counterpart’s interests were or you didn’t adequately prepare for a pivot at the table. Think about your negotiating process: Was your messaging or positioning incorrect? Though you may not have done as well as you’d like, tomorrow is another day. “Stay focused on the long term,” says Neale. “This is just one of many battles.”
Principles to Remember
Do:
Don’t:
Case Study #1: Acknowledge your missteps
Sebastian Dupéré, the head of a Montreal-based steam cleaner company with sales in six countries, knew that his COO was one of his most valuable employees. But when it came time for contract negotiations, Dupéré instinctively played hardball, even though the COO was performing well and was, even by Dupéré’s account, underpaid. “We just didn’t have the foresight to think about how life would be without him,” says Dupéré. “We took him for granted.” When the COO walked, it was a wake-up call.
Dupéré knew he needed to head off further departures as well as stress and intrigue over the COO’s exit within the company; the executive had been respected and well liked. So Dupéré decided to be as honest and transparent as possible about how he and his fellow executives had behaved — and what they’d learned from the misstep. “We felt as if it was in our best interest to be very up front,” Dupéré says. They brought in different teams one at a time and said, This is what happened. We had a contract negotiation, and we made a mistake. We undervalued this employee. And we’ve learned from our mistake.
It was clear that employees appreciated the transparency, even if they didn’t agree with the outcome. “I got two emails right after the meetings, saying, ‘Thank you for being honest with us. I appreciate it,’” says Dupéré.
He also reached out to the former COO to rebuild bridges. They ended up golfing and now see each other on a regular basis. “There’s a warm relationship there more than anything else,” says Dupéré. The two still frequently consult each other informally on business matters.
“When a very negative thing happens to a company, the executives’ mentality is often to hunker down,” says Dupéré. “It’s better to address the issue head-on. The more transparent you are, the more trust you have. And the more trust you have, the more loyalty you have.”
Case Study #2: Look for unexpected benefits
Samantha Spector, founder of Saloonbox, a monthly subscription cocktail kit, was finding it hard to hide her disappointment. Her startup had begun holding meetings for outside financing, and a major potential investor wanted her to lower the company’s valuation — by 60%. “We were surprised,” Spector said. “They said our value was way off. If we had gone into the conversation knowing that, we might have thought, ‘Oh no, maybe we don’t want to talk to them.’”
Spector thought about getting angry and walking away. “But instead of ending the conversation,” she says, “we decided to explore what exactly they could do [if they invested in us].”
The investor had a great deal of operational experience and could offer consulting, assistance with the company’s pricing structure, and introductions for relationships that would be helpful. Ultimately, Spector decided to keep the negotiations open because of the benefits the investor brought to the table.
“It showed us that it’s really important to listen, ask a lot of questions, and not go into a negotiation with a firm idea of something,” she says. “Even if you think, ‘I want to storm away,’ it’s always in your best interests to hear somebody out.”
After the initial disappointing conversation, Spector says, “We really realized that we could make a lot more in the long run from this kind of partnership if we were willing to give up a little bit more in the beginning.”
Whether you’re a corporate exec, a midlevel manager, or an independent striver — and whether you want to start a success or grow one — you need to be able to meet the market. Figuring out how to interest and influence others, particularly when it requires or invites significant change, can be intimidating. When you’re walking a challenging path, it’s good to have a guide.
A guide can be a person or a handbook, and you can get both from Sam Horn. She describes herself as an “intrigue expert and TEDx speaker who helps people create one-of-a-kind projects that scale their income and impact for good.”
I’d say she’s an amazing communicator and coach. Since coming across her TEDx talk, I’ve read several of her books and met with her. Sam sounds the same whether she’s on the stage or the page: full of funny and relevant stories, practical experience, and plainspoken wisdom. Here’s a three-act plan for getting unstuck and moving ahead based on the sense and savvy in her books:
If your self-talk is undercutting your progress, or you know what you need to do, but can’t get on with it, try What’s Holding You Back?: 30 Days to Having the Courage and Confidence to Do What You Want, Meet Whom You Want, and Go Where You Want.
Reading this book is like chatting over the fence with a nice neighbor who also just happens to be a self-help guru, and wants you to get out of your own way and use your potential. Its practical, put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other advice will help you make progress on things you really care about.
Nobody gets “found” anymore. It doesn’t matter how truly wonderful you are. You need a hook to help your product or organization stand out from the crowd or no one will even notice that you’ve got something special to offer. For this stage of the game, POP!: Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline for Anything is full of solid techniques to help you name and describe your idea or initiative.
The book is loaded with great examples of how to be “Purposeful, Original, and Pithy” and grab the attention of your target audience quickly and effectively. The techniques are broken into bite-sized chunks, so all you have to do is follow the steps. You don’t need a marketing department to get value out of Pop!, and it’s so entertaining you won’t feel overwhelmed by the work.
How can you show that what you’re promoting has specific value for your audience? You need to cut through the bloviation and distraction to make a deeper connection, full of credibility and promise.
Got Your Attention?: How to Create Intrigue and Connect with Anyone helps you take your project or proposal on the road. To get your audience to take action, you also need communication, collaboration, and a commitment to helping them accomplish their purpose. The content is very current, it doesn’t feel like a grind, and it’s delivered in quick bites, so you can tackle each a chunk in just a few minutes.
You can think of this journey as moving forward from the inside out, starting with you as the center of your own attention, toward a focus on what gets the attention of others, and then locking in relationship to get a buy-in or a go-ahead. Whether you’re a corporate exec, an entrepreneur, or a soccer parent, if you apply Sam Horn’s sense and savvy, you’ll surely enhance your own potential, pizzazz, and performance.
Over the last five years, electronic health records (EHRs) have been widely implemented in the United States, and health care systems now have access to vast amounts of data. While they are beginning to apply “big data” techniques to predict individual outcomes like post-operative complications and diabetes risk, big data remains largely a buzzword, not a reality, in the routine delivery of health care. Health systems are still learning how to broadly apply such analytics, outside of case examples, to improve patient outcomes while reducing spending. From a review of the literature on health systems that have successfully integrated predictive analytics in clinical practice, we have identified steps to make predictive algorithms an integrated part of routine patient care.
Determine the clinical decision. There is now a plethora of data available for nearly every potential clinical outcome. And where you have data, there is a potential predictive algorithm. But while it may be easy to develop clinical algorithms, it is equally necessary to be specific about which specific clinical decision(s) that algorithm will inform.
For example, there are many algorithms predicting a patient’s risk of hospital readmission (although the vast majority perform poorly). But simply knowing the percentage risk of readmission does not answer the questions that physicians and nurses typically ask before a patient is discharged: Should I discharge this patient now? Should I assign this patient to a readmission prevention intervention? Should this patient go to a short-term rehabilitation facility? Does she need a home care visit in the next two days?
Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, Texas, has developed a validated EHR-based algorithm to predict readmission risk in patients with heart failure. Patients deemed at high risk for readmission receive evidence-based interventions, including education by a multidisciplinary team, follow-up telephone support within two days of discharge to ensure medication adherence, an outpatient follow-up appointment within seven days, and a non-urgent primary-care appointment. In a prospective study, the algorithm-based intervention reduced readmissions by 26%. Parkland’s success stems from focusing its algorithm on a specific population and tying it to discrete clinical interventions.
Leverage the data from EHRs. Algorithms are only as reliable as the data they are based on. While algorithms for acute clinical issues (e.g., heart attack, septic shock) may not require large amounts of data to predict risk, algorithms that utilize greater amounts of clinical data have greater accuracy and potential clinical applications.
The Veteran’s Health Administration (VHA), the largest health system in the United States, has collected electronic data from its patients for over three decades. Beginning in 2006, the VHA built a corporate data warehouse as a repository for patient-level data across its national sites. The sheer amount of inpatient and outpatient data has allowed the VHA to create comprehensive algorithms that reliably predict meaningful outcomes such as risk of death and hospitalization. Nurse care managers use these scores to guide intensity of outpatient services, including end-of-life and palliative care, delivered by multidisciplinary teams. The VHA’s investment in an integrated EHR and data repository — 5% of its total health spending — is substantial. However, the ability to reliably predict outcomes to improve quality of care may explain why the VHA’s net return on EHR investment is over $3 billion.
Focus on low-value decision points. Uncertainty over a clinical decision often leads physicians to overtreat or undertreat patients. Predictive analytics can allow clinicians to steer high-cost interventions to those high-risk patients who actually need them.
Consider the use of antibiotics to treat newborns. While less than 0.05% of all newborns have infection confirmed by blood culture, 11% of them receive antibiotics. Kaiser Permanente of Northern California has used predictive analytics to reduce this overuse. Its researchers have developed an algorithm to accurately predict the risk of severe neonatal infection based on a mother’s clinical data and the baby’s condition immediately after birth. Using this algorithm OB/GYNs can better determine which babies need antibiotics, sparing up to 250,000 American newborns each year from receiving unnecessary antibiotics. This could reduce medication costs and side-effects among vulnerable newborns.
Integrate — don’t force — analytics into the existing workflow. Physicians see hundreds of numbers (vital signs, laboratory values, etc.) each day. So there’s a danger that an algorithm’s output may just be another number that physicians ignore if it does not fit well into a daily workflow.
AWARE, a decision-support tool, is an example of how a predictive output can be iterative enough to be useful for a practicing physician. A critically ill patient’s risk of deteriorating varies constantly in the hospital. Thus, static risk percentages would be of little use to physicians, who need real-time information to make real-time decisions. AWARE’s decision-support algorithm output extracts high-value data from the EHR and uses analytics to reflect a patient’s current clinical status across organ systems. In prospective trials, providers in intensive care units using AWARE’s output were more efficient in gathering clinical information and made fewer cognitive errors — a perfect example of how just-in-time analytics can improve a provider’s existing workflow.
Predictive algorithms are becoming more complex and sophisticated. However, this sophistication means little if health systems cannot apply such algorithms to improve value in everyday clinical care. In this next era of value-based care, health systems must critically think about the clinical situations where enhanced analytics can be useful, help providers use them routinely in patient care, and develop strategies to evaluate the clinical impact of algorithms. By doing so, organizations can reduce spending and improve outcomes by targeting interventions to patients who need them the most.
Brands have spent a lot of time (and money) trying to figure out how to market to Millennials, and it comes easier for some than for others.
Social media successes such as DiGiorno’s irreverent live-tweeting bonanzas and the Denny’s fever dream Tumblr page generate laughs, clicks, and—most importantly—the attention of young, digital-savvy consumers.
These clever campaigns often inspire envy, plus a little trepidation, among companies such as banks and healthcare providers that—due to the highly-regulated nature of their industries and older customer bases—can’t necessarily get away with the sort of candid, real-time content that consumer brands are able to pull off.
It’s no secret that marketing to Millennials is necessary for nearly all businesses, but it’s easy to understand why mature companies might be reluctant to become tongue-in-cheek meme machines when such a strategy can draw eye rolls from the very people they’re trying to reach.
The good news is that there are ways for the adults in the room to get the kids’ attention without resorting to played-out slang or outright pandering.
At the very least, companies should:
You’d be hard-pressed to find a financial services, healthcare, or insurance provider that doesn’t use a wide range of social media channels. Still, there are ways for these large, well-established companies to reflect their wisdom and grown-up confidence in a Millennial-friendly manner.
Research shows that concise content is a particularly effective way to reach younger consumers. In fact, according to one study, brief content has a better chance of succeeding among Millennials than material that is funny or interesting.
The Snapchat generation’s love of brevity may rub some people the wrong way, but in a world where people of all ages are spending dozens of hours per week consuming digital content, there is an obvious need for concision and directness.
Banks, for example, can tweet straightforward infographics about investing strategies for young professionals. Say what you will about the generation’s love of brevity, but a youngster with some money in his or her pocket is more likely to internalize information in tweet form than from a CEO letter or a predictably dull TV commercial.
A tweet such as this one strikes the right balance of information and simplicity and serves to position BlackRock—a company trying to shake the image of a sterile financial behemoth—as a useful resource on Millennial investing habits.
Millennial women are tuning in to their finances, but can do more. Find out how https://t.co/yVNeAvWQrp pic.twitter.com/o8UUajvund
— BlackRock® (@blackrock) March 18, 2016
‘Snackable’ content is the new normal for a significant portion of the population, and it would be wise for companies—regardless of how many decades they’ve been in the business—to recognize this trend.
Over the past few years, observers of the marketing space have noted the critical importance of authenticity when it comes to reaching Millennials.
The need for straightforward, honest content is due in large part to the generation’s cynical bent and outright distrust of advertising. According to Forbes, a whopping 1% of Millennials say that a compelling advertisement would make them trust a brand more. On the flipside, 89% of Millennials trust so-called “influencers” over brands themselves.
Thus, it is essential that older, more experienced companies lean on the expertise of their employees and mobilize them to educate and, well, influence younger consumers.
This Citi blog post, for example, is full of advice aimed for young professionals. Because the post features earnest suggestions and revealing examples from a real, live person, it is helpful without seeming forced or patronizing. The advice isn’t coming from a Millennial but rather a more experienced professional who is uniquely qualified to provide advice for younger people. It’s real, it’s effective, and—fortunately for advertisers—it’s easy to replicate.
While there is no need for the Citigroups of the world to turn their social feeds into a gif-fest (at least not yet), there is positive attention to be gained from staid-seeming companies loosening their collars a bit.
These brands should consider using social to promote content that’s amusing or informal by corporate standards. This may entail using a more conversational tone in social media and other web content, or a more substantial approach such as dedicating a blog or report to relevant advice for younger consumers.
In short, companies can tailor their communications without altering or straying from their core messages.
Banks can provide important, useful information—without sounding like an overbearing grandparent—with articles like, “How Not to Go Broke During Wedding Season” and “How Long Can you Really Ignore Credit Card Debt?”. Similarly, a healthcare company might join the fray with a lighthearted Facebook post laying out safety reminders for yoga and Crossfit enthusiasts.
Geico, ever attuned to the public’s need for gecko and caveman-related content, has a very approachable blog that includes cheery-but-important advice on matters such as affordable romance.
In addition, this Bank of America study on Millennial money habits overflows with information that can help the selfie set chart a better financial future.
Much smaller in scope, this post from New York Life provides important insight on insurance in an approachable, un-stodgy manner—from the perspective of a 23 year-old.
For some companies, projecting knowledge and experience is more important than gaining re-tweets. Fortunately, the two strategies are not mutually exclusive. More traditional plans can step a toe outside the proverbial box and gradually emerge from it as they identify what works for them.
—
Love them or hate them, Millennials are growing up, and many are now in the market for products with which we tend to associate older generations: Home loans, health insurance and the like. Consider that Millennials make up the largest share of home buyers in the country, according to the National Association of Realtors.
It’s a group that packs an economic punch and one that will only become more influential in the coming years.
Companies that deliver these resources are chomping at the bit to reach these important consumers, and with a bit of strategic thinking when it comes to their social strategy, they can do so without coming off like, well, this.
On a rainy Wednesday in February, I took the subway to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to tour a Success Academy (SA) elementary school that opened in 2014.
The trip was spurred by a comment I heard at a news conference a few weeks before, when SA CEO Eva Mosckowitz accused The New York Times of using "gotcha tactics" in its reporting of the schools.
That press conference came after a Times article showed a recording of an SA teacher verbally abusing a first-grader for failing to answer a math question correctly.
Mosckowitz mentioned SA's "open-door" policy at the press event, encouraging people to tour her schools and see for themselves how they are run.
It seemed, to me, a bold invitation amid the chorus of negative reactions to SA's model. I jumped at the chance to visit.
SA is New York City's largest network of charter schools, or schools that receive government money but operate independently. It has 34 schools spread throughout New York's boroughs, with the exception of Staten Island.
Students in the SA schools far outperform students in traditional public schools in New York City on standardized tests — even students in wealthy zip codes. But the network has come under increasing scrutiny for the pressure it puts on its students, as well as the number of students it suspends.
It is also a burgeoning darling of Wall Street. At the fourth annual spring gala to support SA, hundreds of Wall Streeters gathered and raised more than $35 million for the charter school network.
Hopeful I'd be able to better understand what makes SA schools so successful, though polarizing, I arrived at the school at 7:30 a.m., just in time to see students arriving at the door.
Their principal, Jonathan Dant, stood outside the school, umbrella in hand, to greet them.
Some students trotted in excitedly chatting, while others meandered in a bit slower, heads down. They all took a moment to say hello to Dant by way of a fist bump, and then a smile.
Dant told me he starts every morning this way, greeting students who are 22% Hispanic, 17% black, and 11% Asian.
Those students — 55% of whom qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch — represent a microcosm of the greater community. Bensonhurst contains the second-highest number of foreign-born citizens in New York City.
"We have families from all six habitable continents," Dant said. "Most of our families are first- or second-generation immigrants."
Throughout the school, there seemed to be a genuine sense of joy among the students, whether they were enmeshed in a math problem, or dancing in their elective class. Some of this may be attributable to the heavy emphasis on the need for play time at SA Bensonhurst.
Dant explained that, even in core subjects, there are dedicated times for "wiggle breaks" or "dance breaks" where students stop learning and are free to partake in some unstructured fun.
We began the tour down a brightly decorated hallway of the school, which is currently kindergarten through second-grade but expects to add a grade every year.
The walls were explosions of color, with bright poster board and aspirational statements. I poked my head in homeroom classes of Morehouse, Harvard, and George Washington — named after the alma maters of the head teachers in the classrooms — and saw students attentive and focused.
When we stopped into a kindergarten science class in the midst of their computer programming unit, the teacher was praising a student for his work.
"I want to give a shout out to Jacob because he immediately wrote down his program," the teacher said. "He's not forgetting that programmers write, then try. Show some love."
"Gooooo Jacob!" the students all responded in unison.
In front of us, a couple of students began to argue. "Cam, Cam," Dant calmly chided, diffusing the situation before returning his attention to me.
I asked Dant how often he observes classes and offers suggestions while instruction is happening. He explained observing classes is a big part of his day.
"Sometimes I'm listening to the questions the teachers are going through," he said. "Sometimes I'm listening to the kids."
If he has simple suggestions for teachers, he'll talk to them in the moment. However, if there's an issue that requires a longer conversation, he'll save it for their one-on-one meetings. It seems like it would be a fine line to walk, correcting teachers in front of their classes without hurting their credibility. Dant disagrees, explaining that's exactly what makes SA unique.
"We are feedback driven, because we want them to get better in real time, and they want to get better in real time," he said. "We make feedback very comfortable."
Next, we stopped by a first-grade math class called math milestones. Students came up with their own individual way of solving math problems, without receiving guidance from teachers on techniques they should use. It's a class that intends to mimic the way people utilize math in the real world.
"The way that I think about it is that if I go into the grocery store and I have a recipe that calls for 28 ounces of tomatoes and they come in 12 ounce jars, there's not going to be a math problem there for me to solve to figure it out," Dant explained. "You have to contextualize the math and experience outside of the classroom."
When we headed to a second-grade reading class, students were discussing a text about the first Thanksgiving.
"What does the author mean by the real deal," a teacher named Ms. Fasig asked the class.
When the students hesitated to answer, Dant interjected, "Have them turn and talk to each other."
The students quickly paired off and the quiet room began to roar with conversation. Fasig gave them 30 seconds and then counted down from three. When she hit one, the students stopped talking at once, and the room was again silent. She pointed to a student who emphatically answered the question.
"I think it's called the 'Real Deal' because that's what really happened during the first Thanksgiving," the student responded.
Fasig was satisfied and continued on with her questions about the text.
Next, we headed to elective classes which students signed up for according to their interests. In a yoga class, students stretched to calming, instrumental music.
"Take a deep breath in," Ms. Vanszl instructed. She had them demonstrate downward dog, cat, and cow poses, and reminded them to find a spot on the carpet or the wall to help them balance.
Next door, the elective experience was a bit more lively. Students did ballet to the beat of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe."
Ballet teacher Heresia Hayes asked the students to walk her through first position through fifth position.
Then we moved on to flag football, another elective separate from gym class, where students sprinted and ran plays. There were some excited shouts and chatter, but still the atmosphere in the gym was a controlled chaos.
The environment in the gym — and in the other electives and academic classes I saw — seems vastly different from the draconian teaching style that SA has been accused of fostering in the past.
Last year, a New York Times report alleged that students in the third grade and above were wetting themselves in classrooms because they felt so stressed out and didn't want to lose time during standardized tests. The same article described the public shaming of students for poor grades.
And more recently, the video that emerged of a first-grade Success Academy teacher berating a student who could not answer a math question correctly was elevated as further evidence that SA crosses the line in order to achieve the results they do.
But just like all organizations, individual schools are largely dictated by their leadership.
"I'm very laid back and sometimes people will say maybe I'm too laid back," Dant told me. "But that's just my style. It's very calm, that's something I value."
The practice of rip and redo — the contentious method of ripping a student's paper if it is deemed unsatisfactory — is not something that Dant allows in his school.
"As far as rip and redos, I don't believe that as a philosophy that you should shame a child in any way," Dant said. He said that he starts the school year by having these types of conversations with his staff so that the ethos of the school is unified.
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As for measurable success, SA Bensonhurst is still untested, at least in the traditional sense. New York State standardized tests don't begin until the third grade.
But in terms of less tangible measures success, SA Bensonhurst seems to be thriving. Teachers seemed relaxed and engaged when Dant joined in on their class discussions. They weren't thrown off when he would step in and take a student aside to as a question, or tell them a student was misbehaving.
Students, too, seemed comfortable with their principal standing at the back of the room observing them, and would call him over to say hello and catch up.
"I founded this school on the promise to parents that we have to be more engaging and exciting than your iPads, your movies, and your video games," Dant said.
And to that end, it seems like he is succeeding.
"It's the little things that I notice like skipping down the street before school or walking in with smiles on their faces," he said.
SEE ALSO: This is the best high school in America, according to US News & World Report
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: EX-UNDERCOVER DEA AGENT: What I did when drug dealers asked me to try the product
In case you hadn’t noticed, the mass adoption of high-speed internet has dramatically transformed the way that businesses operate. For the first time in history, businesses are not impeded by geographical restrictions when it comes to securing a skilled, professional workforce. After many decades of an industrial, one-size-fits-all approach to business culture, flexible working arrangements are becoming more and more popular.
According to a study by PGI, a software services provider, 80% of workers stated that working from home improved their morale, while 70% stated that working from home improved their productivity. It has been estimated that if an average American business allowed employees to work from home half of the time, they would save approximately $11,000 annually on overhead costs.
While remote workers save money on commuting costs, it seems that money is not the key driving force for their choice of lifestyle. When 1,500 technology professionals were questioned, 36% stated they would take a 10% pay cut for the opportunity to work from home!
One aspect of a business that is particularly well-suited for outsourcing to remote workers is content marketing. So long as the content is published on time, reflects the brand with integrity, and provides value to its intended audience, it makes very little difference whether the content architect is working from a bustling office under the prying eyes of his or her manager or alone on a tropical beach. The output is what matters to the customer, not the process.
Additionally, many editors, copywriters, and visual content creators are natural introverts and choose to work remotely because they dislike the 9–5 schedule, dress codes, loud offices, hierarchies, and compulsory corporate team building events come with a traditional office job. In order to get the best results from these people, it’s important that they’re able to work in an environment where they feel comfortable and productive.
By outsourcing your content marketing to remote workers, you can reduce costs and free your time to work on the aspects of your business which play to your strengths.
Although outsourcing your content strategy can be daunting at first, follow these proven tips, and your chances of success will dramatically increase.
Whether you find your writers on freelance sites such as Upwork and Freelancer or on job boards that pertain specifically to writers, such as Problogger or Freelance Writing Gigs, choosing the right worker can sometimes be challenging (for more about where to find writers, check out this post).
First, it’s always wise to choose writers who are able to show positive testimonials from previous clients. You may get lucky picking someone green, but why take the chance if you don’t have to? Also, insist on seeing examples of their work to see if you like their style. While it can be useful if a writer has previous experience in your niche, if someone has experience writing about a range of topics and consistently turns out high quality content, this is a strong indicator they are willing to learn about your industry and brand in order to do a good job.
Finally, include a special message in your job description for potential writers to repeat in their response—this shows that they pay attention to details which is a very important trait! Avoid writers who send generic responses which have absolutely nothing to do with the job description. This shows a lack of care which will probably be reflected in their work.
While many business owners are fanatical proponents of face-to-face communication, giving instructions to remote workers is perfectly appropriate via email. In fact, having a written record of all discussions to refer back to usually helps to avoid ambiguity.
That said, you do need to be crystal clear in the instructions you give to your writers in terms of tone of voice, style, formatting, and layout. It helps if you have a branding document or style guide to give to new writers, although there’s nothing better than an abundance of examples for writers to mimic.
For this reason, you may wish to hire one writer initially before branching out to a team. In his highly actionable book Content Machine, author Dan Norris states that implementing a style guide led to a dramatic improvement in the standard of content submitted by external writers.
Outsourcing content is not an excuse to outsource your brainpower; it’s still up to you to come up with a long-term vision for your content strategy. Once your vision is clear, it will be a lot easier to set instructions for your writers, so that they can generate content which perfectly aligns with that vision. For this reason, you may wish to use an editorial calendar and schedule your content months in advance.
If you want to boost your company’s visibility and reputation in 2016, it is essential to publish high quality articles on a regular basis. While it’s important to ensure your content adheres to your style guide to preserve the integrity of your brand, avoid agonizing over minor details if it creates a bottleneck in your publication schedule.
Particularly for niches such as digital marketing where the value of a post is usually based on its utility, your audience cares more about receiving actionable information than they do about whether the author adheres to your in-house style guide. Your blog posts don’t need to be literary masterpieces—they just need to provide insane amounts of value to your audience (the people who keep your business afloat with their money).
Edit every post to make it as impactful as possible, and always provide writers with clear feedback for how they can improve, but always prioritize consistency over perfection.
Most people don’t have the talent or ability to become aeronautical engineers, brain surgeons, or UFC fighters, but writing is a skill that almost everyone has some level of proficiency at. Because freelance writing is available to anyone with an internet connection, supply far outweighs demand, which in turn drives down rates. You can offer writers $10 to write a blog post, and you’re likely to get many responses, but as the saying goes, “If you pay peanuts, then you get monkeys.” Your content is an extension of your brand, so pay to get high-skilled writers who will take the task seriously.
If you do get lucky and find someone who is talented and prepared to work for a meager wage, they’re either just getting started and lack a portfolio or are going through a dry spell and will leave you as soon as a better job comes along. Either way, underpaying writers is not a smart (or ethical) strategy if you want to succeed at content marketing long-term. (highlight to tweet) It’s far better to have two good blog posts a month than two underwhelming posts per week.
While you and your remote workers may not enjoy beers after work or jovial conversations next to the office watercooler, it’s important to remember that they are still real people.
In his excellent book Virtual Freedom, author and outsourcing expert Chris Ducker states, “Though your team is based remotely, you shouldn’t treat them any differently than you would treat employees working in your own office back home. This means that it’s important to remember birthdays and celebrate achievements. The small things really do go a long way.”
Positive feedback and praise (when deserved) is always well-received. People want to work for those that appreciate their efforts, regardless of whether the relationship is face-to-face or remote. Similarly, if a remote worker has encountered a person problem that will affect their output, try to be compassionate. By investing in long-term relationships with your workers (rather than seeing them as expendable labor), you’ll create a profitable partnership for both you and your workers, economically and emotionally.
Some types of visual content don’t require outsourcing—with tools such as Canva, you can create compelling images to accompany your blog posts and share on social media. However, for more complex forms of visual content such as infographics, the DIY approach is not always ideal (unless you are a designer).
Many diabolically bad infographics are the result of the following scenario: a business leader, who knows nothing about infographics, commissions a content writer, who knows nothing about design, to write content for a freelance designer, who is working on 10 other projects at the same time. A disjointed production process normally results in a disjointed infographic.
It’s always best to hire a researcher/copywriter who has proven experience in creating content within a visual context (a background in design is desirable), and it’s even better if they already have a working relationship with the designer you’re using.
While great illustration-oriented infographics can be produced by employing a remote writer and designer separately, for more sophisticated infographics with lots of data points, graphs, and charts, team chemistry and experience is very important.
As with blog posts, infographics are an extension of your brand, so unless you are convinced you can do them properly, it may be better to steer clear. An unprofessional, poorly designed infographic sub-communicates that you do not take your business seriously.
While many businesses want their writers to anonymously ghostwrite for their brand, there are some big advantages to giving them byline credits. Firstly, writers tend to produce their best work if their name and headshot is featured alongside the content. Every good writer has some degree of ego based on their skills, so use this to your advantage!
Secondly, if the writer has a popular blog or a strong digital presence, you can encourage them to share the content with their networks, sending more traffic to your website and boosting your brand reputation as a consequence. The popular personal development and productivity-boosting site, Lifehack, is an excellent example of this.
Just because a piece of content adheres to your style guide and makes you gleeful doesn’t mean it will gain traction and help to build your business in the long-term. Social media shares, the quality/number of comments left on blog posts, website traffic, content-related conversions, and email newsletter subscriptions are all indicators of how effective your content is.
Although it’s difficult to judge a piece of content in isolation (sometimes the least expected pieces gain the most engagement), you can see trends appear over time.
If in doubt, ask your audience what kind of content they like. Add a survey to your website or send an email to your subscribers. If you don’t truly understand your audience, it’s difficult to craft content that they will enjoy, so make this a priority.
This point is particularly crucial in the context of outsourcing, as it can be easy to blame remote writers for creating underwhelming content when you haven’t taken the time to learn about your audience’s desires, dreams, and aspirations, and therefore have no idea how to generate engagement.
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At $50, we called Amazon's Fire tablet "incredible value" and a device "that sets a benchmark for budget slates." It was so cheap, in fact, that Amazon tried to sell them like a six-pack of beer. Now, the company is back with some new colors -- magen...
You may be surprised to learn the buyer has a process, too. You’re probably familiar with this progression whether or not you’ve called it the buyer process in the past.
In order to connect with buyers, sellers need to align with them. Once a connection gets out of alignment, sales fall apart. This misalignment is at the root of many lost sales. It happens when:
Paying attention to where a buyer is in the buyer process is also a way to show you care. Focusing on the buyer and tracking the stage of the process he or she is in helps the seller to maintain alignment. This prevents the feeling a buyer may have of being rushed or of not being heard and understood.
DISCOVER Questions™ can steer a buyer through their own buying process. Questions are also useful for a seller who wants to check where the buyer is. By asking questions to track the buyer’s current position, a seller maintains alignment. This may seem like you are creating more work but taking this extra step actually reduces your selling time. You’ll be decreasing confusion and increasing the likelihood of a closed sale with a satisfied buyer.
The award-winning CONNECT2Sell Blog is for professional sellers who believe, as we do, that Every Sale Starts with a Connection.
Deb Calvert, “DISCOVER Questions® Get You Connected” author and Top 50 Sales Influencer, is President of People First Productivity Solutions, a UC Berkeley instructor, and a former Sales/Training Director of a Fortune 500 media company. She speaks and writes about the Stop Selling & Start Leading movement and offers sales training, coaching and consulting as well as leadership development programs. She is certified as an executive and sales coach by the ICF and is a Certified Master of The Leadership Challenge®. Deb has worked in every sector and in 14 countries to build leadership capacity, team effectiveness and sales productivity with a “people first” approach.
The post Buyer Process or Sales Process? How to Get Alignment appeared first on People First.
The best salespeople don’t just listen to what prospects say -- they figure out what prospects actually mean. Because as you probably know first-hand, prospects aren’t always 100% transparent with sales reps.
“People don't like being direct and telling salespeople ‘no,’" explains Muse account executive Jeffry Harrison.
Is that the prospect’s fault? According to Kelly Green, EVP of Education Sales for Kindermusik, it’s up to the rep to “immediately connect on value and fit” and uncover the buyer's true motivations.
To do just that, let’s take a look at some of the common things prospects say versus what they actually mean.
While a rep might take this as “I’m interested, but I’m currently slammed,” Harrison says it’s more likely, “I don't want to say ‘no’ to you on the phone right now, so I'll tell you over email in a couple weeks."
Because, let’s face it: If the prospect thinks what you’re offering can save her company resources or make it more competitive, she’ll want those benefits ASAP, not in the somewhat distant future.
How to respond: “Okay, I can do that. And so that I can give you the most relevant info, can you tell me ... [qualifying question]?”
Not only will this get you more information about the prospect, but you might be able to lead him or her into a full conversation.
Alternatively, try, “I’m sure you’re busy. Would you be open to a five-minute phone call before then? I want to make sure it even makes sense for us to keep talking before I use up any more of your time.”
According to Suzanne Herron, sales director of Listen Current, this brush-off translates to: “I don’t know why your product is important to me.” After all, even the busiest people will find time for a product they think will help them.
How to respond: “Not a problem. I’d be happy to follow up in [a couple days, a week, a month, next quarter] -- but if you have just two minutes right now, I can tell you how the product will help you with [very specific prospect problem].”
“The key is telling the prospect exactly how you can solve their specific needs,” Herron explains. And once they understand how your offering is relevant to them, they’ll conclude that you’re worth their time.
Prospects tell you they’re “too new” to make a purchasing decision when they’re actually thinking, "I'm afraid to break the status quo and put my name on the line for a new product," Harrison says.
How to respond: If your research shows there’s someone higher up on the ladder that would have more purchasing authority than this particular contact, say, “I completely understand. Should I be talking to your [CMO, CTO, CIO, CXO]? Also, I’d love to send you a document showing how our product will specifically help your company with X problem. That way you’ll be on the same page as [name of decision maker].”
However, if you think the prospect does have the authority, reduce their perception of risk by saying, “I completely understand. This is just an informational conversation. I’d be happy to send you some case studies on how [other companies in their space] have used our product. I’d also be happy to set up a [demo, trial, sample] so you can learn more before you make any decisions.”
According to both Herron and Harrison, “budget constraints” are typically code for "We don’t think your product will work.”
“I’ve seen prospects that really want the product get creative in finding the money,” Herron says. “If you position the product as one they just can’t live without, they’ll find the money for it.”
How to respond: Your approach will change depending on which stage of the buying process the prospect is in. If you’re talking to the prospect for the first time, say: "That’s okay. We don’t expect you to buy anything right now. We’d just like the opportunity to share what we are doing and see if it’s valuable to your company.”
But if the buyer is later in their process, go back to the ROI of your product, and show how not buying will cost them money.
(Want more? Check out 22 more ways to respond to “it costs too much.”)
When a prospect says your product is a “good fit” or “seems like it could really help,” it’s easy to mentally put another notch by your name on the sales leaderboard. But Mark Gibson, director of sales enablement at Centrify, warns against counting your deals before they’re won.
Unless the prospect is simultaneously writing a check, Gibson points out that this phrase usually means, “Your product sounds like a good fit, but I’m also considering two or three competing products, and they look promising as well.”
How to respond: Gibson recommends answering with: “How would you know if this is the best fit for you? How will you decide?”
If you’ve already identified your prospect’s major objections (for example, price and scalability), now is the perfect time to address them. In this scenario, swap out the second sentence for: “I know you had some concerns about X and Y. Are those holding you back from buying?”
Sometimes, this excuse isn’t an excuse at all -- your product is simply missing a feature your prospect considers to be crucial. However, close.io CEO Steli Efti says it often means, “You haven’t shown me how your product solves our needs.”
How to respond: “Okay, thanks for letting me know. Why is that feature a priority for your company?”
Once you’ve figured out why the feature is so important, follow up with, “I definitely understand why you want [X feature]. While our product doesn’t have [feature], you can accomplish the exact same outcome by doing [Y]. We actually decided not to build [feature] because … ”
This reply demonstrates that you understand the prospect’s needs beyond the surface level -- which 69% of people say improves their sales experience. In addition, you showcase your commitment to helping above all else by suggesting an alternative solution -- even if it can’t be accomplished with your product.
Asking for the start or delivery date is a good sign. According to Gibson, this question means there’s a good chance the prospect is interested and thinking, “How soon can I have this?”
How to respond: “What would be the optimal date for you? I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
Even if you can’t meet the exact day and time the prospect names, this response shows you’re eager to help.
However, if you suspect the prospect isn’t ready to buy, Gibson recommends asking, “What's causing the need for the product now?” This question should help you surface any needs the prospect hasn’t yet shared.
Do you disagree with any of our translations? Have your own buyerspeakisms to add to the list? Let us know in the comments.
Humans are visual beings, and as such your sales should leverage this visual bent in the course of selling. Sales people tend to be verbal creatures, which is why the best sellers use visuals wherever possible to not only improve how they communicate with buyers, but to accelerate the sales cycles.
Everyone has heard the expression that people buy based on emotion, and then rationalize that. This is based on the research showing that people usually make decisions with their primitive brain, and then rationalize with their neocortex, (no more science, I promise). The same is true for visuals, they communicate directly to the primitive, where decisions are made. As a result, whenever you can link a visual to a decision, it is more likely to resonate, you will still have to help with the rationalizations, which why I guess we are in sales.
But visuals go beyond simple pictures, and given the body count of buyers who have been victims of death by PowerPoint, you may want to stay away from going that route. There are plenty of other means of achieving things, while being different from the pack.
One truly easy type of “visual” many sales people overlook is the power of stories. As a successful salesperson, you are a subject matter expert, and have seen different ways your clients have used your product to deliver a positive impact on their business, and to achieve their objectives; and you have likely seen many failed attempts. All of these make for good stories to “illustrate” key points you want to make. Stories are naturally visual, and allow you to help the buyer see themselves in successful outcomes based on how you position what you deliver. The power here is that rather than “selling” you sharing experiences of other similar scenarios, and helping them see the possibilities.
You can take this even further when you are in a live selling situation with either a group or individuals. Most boardrooms and even offices have a whiteboard. I often stand up in a meeting and “would it help if I draw this out, I’m a visual person and like to see the whole picture”. There is always a smile, because they would like to see that as well. Invite the prospect to come up and contribute, have them draw out their vision or plan, ask them to make changes based on their goals and objectives. It is great what can happen when you put a marker in your prospect’s hand.
Instead of long dreary proposals, why not consider using graphics for time lines, aspects of the deliverable and other element; a blend of text for legalese and graphics for impact will make your proposal stand out from the others, especially creative use of colors.
Finally, follow ups, I find it strange how few people send a thank you note after meeting with a prospect, but if you are one who does, why not add a video delivering your thank you. You can add pictures of products discuss, schematics, etc. It allows your personality to come through in a vivid and personal fashion.
Those are a couple of ideas, take them on, and see what else evolves.
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With legions of social activists paving the way, we’ve been dealing with the lack of workplace diversity in America for over a decade. And although you’d think that tech startups—with their productivity solutions and their open office spaces—would be at the forefront of the gender equality movement, the numbers tell a different story.
Before we start, here’s a quick overview of the findings:
An overwhelming majority of 89% of software development positions are filled by men, despite the fact that Fortune 500 companies with at least 3 females in leading tech roles see 42% more return on their sales, and diverse teams see a 22% decrease in turnover rates.
Tech startups know there’s a problem, and some have announced that they’re actively trying to close the gender gap in tech. But it’s one thing to pay lip service to improve your Silicon Valley reputation, and another to actually take steps to improve gender diversity.
Acquiring a diverse workforce starts with a great job ad — something that tech hiring managers don’t put enough thought into.
A job ad isn’t simply a tool that employers use to find candidates. For the job seeker, it’s a small window into the inner workings of the company and culture. So if it inadvertently shows a gender bias or neglects to emphasize equal opportunity, that’s an immediate red flag.
To see how well startups are doing at attracting good candidates, we used the job-ad optimizer Textio. In an analysis of 50 startup job ads for software engineering positions, we found that a significant number of companies—whether they realize it or not—have gender-biased job posts, limiting the appeal of their job. In targeting only a fraction of the population, companies are missing out on the opportunity to find the absolute best candidate for the job.
Textio did a survey of over 10,000 job listings and found that the listings with certain keywords appealed to women while men showed a preference for ads that had drastically different language. Based on this evidence, Textio tells you how your job ad ranks on the gender bias scale.
Job ads that appeal the most to women— the ones that are considered “feminine”— use language that’s community-oriented, emotional, and goal-driven. They include words like “teamwork,” “meaningful,” “foster,” and “transparency.”
Meanwhile, ads that drew more men, and considered “masculine,” revolve around independence, aggression, and leadership. These are words like “tackle,” “proven,” “experts,” and “world class.”
(Charts created with Beam)
According to our study, only half of the job ads were neutral and unbiased towards a certain gender. About 50% of ads were determined to be feminine and about 18% were biased towards men. That’s 18% of companies that are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to finding the best candidate—and all before the hiring process even begins!
Confluent, the Big-Data startup created by the developers who built Kafka at LinkedIn, was one of the companies that ranked as extremely masculine. Take a look at their skills requirements section:
– Strong foundation in algorithms and application design
– Strong desire to work out hard technical problems and proven ability do so with little or no direct daily supervision
– Experience managing open source projects and working with third-party contributors
According to Textio, this ad will appeal much more to men than it will to women. While it is likely that Confluent chose this assertive language to show that they have high standards and are looking for the best workers, ironically, they aren’t reaching all of the best candidates—because they’re only appealing to the male ones.
Take a look at the masculine language they used to conclude their ad:
A simple rewording, however, can get the same message across without discouraging a big portion of the candidates before they even reach the starting line. Take a look at how this ad might be improved:
Confluent has tripled in size over the last 6 months, with aspirations of soaring growth across all functions in 2016. We’re looking for extraordinary people of all stripes, and we look forward to hearing from you!
The company is clearly interested in hiring “people of all stripes,” but a deeper analysis of their ad shows that they’re actually only attracting one gender, filtering out many excellent employees.
A Hewlett-Packard study revealed a few years ago that women only apply to jobs that they feel they are 100% qualified for while men apply to jobs that they are only 60% qualified for. But, as the founder of Unitive, Laura Mathers points out, “The good news is: White men still apply. They’re not turned off by inclusive words.”
That means that targeting advertisements towards women is a win-win. Appcues, a company that focuses on improving user onboarding and engagement for SaaS companies, is one startup that has taken this approach. As a company that is currently only 20% women, they’re actively trying to promote a more inclusive environment, so that more women consider applying for their software engineering positions. Take a look at their ad for a front-end engineer:
By emphasizing a positive community and transparency, Appcues has created an ad that will strongly appeal to women. And in case they weren’t getting their message across, further down in the listing they use feminine pronouns to describe their ideal candidate:
By going against the convention of deferring to masculine pronouns, Appcues is showing their inclusivity—how they’re thinking that the position could very well be filled by a female. This way, Appcues is sure to find the best candidate, because their ad appeals to both genders.
In the 2014 report released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, there were still 88,778 charges filed in the US, 29 percent of which were based on gender. But the EEO doesn’t just make gender discrimination punishable by law, it sets a standard for acceptable behavior. Any company that explicitly mentions the EEO is letting their employees know that they are not simply following the rules, but that they are committed to fair treatment of all employees.
In our analysis of the 50 ads on Textio, we had three rankings of the strength of the equal opportunity. “Weak” means that the ad had no statement whatsoever, “moderate” means that the ad had a short mention (e.g., “EOE AA M/F/Vet/Disability”), and “strong” means that they included a full statement.
We found that while a few startups did make it clear that equal opportunity is a core value to their organization, others make no mention of it all. In fact, the majority of them did not include any kind of equal opportunity statement, drastically narrowing the appeal of the job.
Based on a study surveying 140,000 people, Payscale discovered that 75% of men believe that there is equal opportunity for men and women in the tech industry while only 51% of women agreed. This means that it is likely that a hiring manager will underestimate the necessity of an equal opportunity statement.
And no matter who’s right—whether those biases exist or not—half of female applicants need to be assured that discrimination won’t be an issue at the startup they’re applying to.
SumoMe, a startup that focuses on growing website traffic, did not include an Equal Opportunity statement in their listing for a Javascript Developer Sumo. And while the failure to include the statement in the job ad might have been an oversight, they also neglected to include one anywhere on their website.
While young startups try to avoid corporate jargon, including an Equal Opportunity Statement is important to show that you are interested in promoting a healthy and diverse company culture.
The issue of the tech environment not being accommodating to women and minorities has been a sensitive issue. Slack software engineer Erica Baker wrote, “Friends of mine (who will remain nameless) have left Apple because they were facing the same struggles surrounding working there that I felt at Google, that boil down to this: they didn’t feel included and didn’t feel like Apple really gave a damn about that.”
In order to appeal to all people—including those that have felt the effects of a non-inclusive environment, it is crucial for a startup to include a statement stressing the importance of diversity.
The email marketing startup MailChimp, for example, makes it very clear that they value equal hiring practices. Take a look at the disclosure at the bottom of their job listing for an email developer:
MailChimp is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity at our company. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Not only do they remind the applicant that they are an equal opportunity employer, but they also explicitly say that they value diversity. This ad represents the attitude of the team and the company, and it’s a clear indicator of their values. This will increase the chances that great applicants will apply to this job without any reservations about how the company treats employees.
Software engineers are the most in-demand professionals in the world, so it is not surprising to see job ad boards filled with engineering positions. It’s a buyers market. So narrowing the appeal of an engineering position at your company is the last thing you want to do, if you want to get the cream of the crop. Not to mention, studies have shown that gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to financially outperform others in their industries.
Remember that a job ad is a potential candidate’s first exposure to your company. You are doing yourself and your team a disservice by alienating excellent candidates based on their gender.
So you might want to put more thought into your job ad next time around— you might be missing out on some great female employees, just because you’re set on using the phrase “world-class ninja.”
The battle of channel sales vs direct sales has been a long heralded debate, so I’m going to break down the pros and cons of each, as well as how to balance a combination of both for your sales strategy.
Finding the right mix between direct and indirect sales channels heavily depends on the product or service you are offering.
In this post we’ll take a closer look at each sales channel and ask some questions which will hopefully help you decide if it’s the right channel for your business at this stage.
On a high level there are two main sales channels: Direct and Indirect.
Within these main channels you may have different revenue streams – new sales (acquiring new customers), up-sell (selling more of the same type of products or services to existing customers) and cross-sell (selling different products or services to existing clients) that will require different tactics.
Now let’s look into the pros and cons of channel sales and direct sales.
Channel sales is the process of distributing a product to the market, typically by segmenting sales operations to focus on different selling vessels. For instance, a company might implement a channel sales strategy to sell a product via in-house sales teams, dealers, retailers, affiliates, or by direct marketing.
Channel sales can include any type of third party that offers your product or service to the end customer. Selling your product or service through a network of channel partners can provide great leverage to your business.
Re-sellers, distributors, value added providers and other types of channel partners can provide a wide reach for your business and get your product or service in front of many prospective buyers.
It is also a very cost-effective way to enter new markets as it spares you the costs of maintaining a local operation.
Here are some of the pros and cons of a channel sales:
Direct sales is selling directly to consumers away from a static commercial or physical location. In today’s modern world of direct selling, deals can be closed via personal arrangements, in-person demos, and of course online direct sales.
A direct sales channel requires building and managing a sales team. The sales team needs to be close to your target markets so if you plan to sell in multiple markets you will likely need local sales teams which may add an additional cost and management overhead.
Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of a direct sales team:
Finding the right sales channel or mix of channels often takes time and experimentation. Different markets may require a different approach for the same product or service offering. It’s also likely that some channels will be more or less effective at different stages of the evolution of your company.
When you’re a smaller organization you may need the reach of partners but as you evolve and expand your reach you may have the ability to reach your clients directly and optimize your sales and distribution costs.
The post Channel Sales vs Direct Sales: Pros, Cons, and Balance appeared first on Sales Hacker.
There are many challenges that come with any part of a sales process — and prospecting is no exception. Weathering relentless rejections and spending hours pursuing a prospect just to find out they aren't actually a good fit for your product or service can be annoying at best and soul crushing at worst.
The amount of time put into content creation, emailing, cold calling, and other lead generation activities can seem tedious. Especially when results created by these activities lean towards the lower end.
That’s probably why 42% of sales professionals say prospecting is their least favorite part of their job. So when a potential customer responds to your efforts, all the pain and stress of the process can seem worthwhile. But even though finding a prospect who appears to be a good fit to your offering might feel like a slam dunk, there's no guarantee they're willing to buy.
Over my career spent as a lead generator, I have come across several different kinds of campaigns. Here is a breakdown of the easiest and hardest campaigns I have taken part in to book sales appointments with various clients. This information is compiled from my time at TRO Lead Generation and Cobalt Iron using email marketing, social media, digital ads, and other strategies to book sales appointments.
As far as sales is concerned, no potential customer is easier to close than someone you have already sold to before. Ideally, you have already built trust and loyalty with this prospect. This means getting an appointment should be as easy as a quick call or email.
If your relationship is really strong, you might just be able to instantly upgrade them on the first call or email simply because they trust your expertise.
If you’re in the B2B services space like me and you do weekly check-ins, try upselling your clients while recapping your work. You’re already talking to them and any opportunities can be discussed right then and there. You can check out some other ways to upsell current customers by checking out this blog post.
If current and past customers are the easiest to book appointments with, then their recommendations are easily the next best thing. This is why word of mouth is one of the most powerful and cost effective ways to generate new customers.
When it came to acquiring new clients at TRO, a larger percentage of referral clients would convert to customers than customers that never heard of us before. This trend is aligned with metrics that say referral customers convert at about 13%.
Not only do referrals convert at a higher rate, but a lot of the outreach is done for you by your customers giving the referrals. If you aren’t utilizing referrals or a referral program you are missing out on a great opportunity.
Prospects who haven't interacted with your business are tougher to register with. These are targets that are typically worked by a sales or marketing person to bring into the sales pipeline.
Your product or service might be something a decision maker needs, but for some reason you can’t get in contact with them. Even though they might understand your offering, they aren’t the ones ultimately using it.
On top of this, they most likely have other activities they have to prioritize over considering new offerings. They might be managing their teams, interacting with vendors, determining budgets, or taking on other similar responsibilities. If you are encountering prospects like this, it might be easier to reach out to direct end users that have some influence on the decision-making process.
This is because your offering impacts them directly. Additionally, since they don’t have decision making authority, they are less likely to be preoccupied with tasks and responsibilities unrelated to your offering.
A real-life example of this was a software campaign I ran while at TRO. We had a client who offered property management software that automated maintenance alerts as well as the assignment and cancellation of job tickets.
Our first approach was to go after decision makers directly by targeting building and real estate company owners. However, lead trickle was slow. To fix this problem, we started to target end users directly by engaging with the property managers themselves. Instantly, our sales appointments increased for this client.
We achieved 5 times the average appointments we were getting within the first week. This helped create a steady lead flow for our customer, enticing the end users to bring the real decision makers on a follow-up call. At one point, we even had to turn off the campaign just for our client to catch up with the demand for appointments.
Examples of these prospects include property managers, assistant managers, business development managers, recruiters, and architects.
These are the last of the relatively easy prospects to get sales appointments with. Small business owners with few to no employees and no middle management are great customers to go after.
They might take a bit longer to get to because of all the hats they are wearing, but they are also more likely to tell you yes or no and not waste your time. This is because small business owners with no middle management don’t have to consult with others in their business to make a decision.
These business owners know the ins and outs of their businesses. They don’t have to drag out the sales process by bringing in others like a CFO or CIO for input. This means you can often get an appointment by repeatedly asking or having killer ad copy to book a demo or consultation.
At TRO, these were the primary people I would target. Using one simple email campaign, I could often book 2-3 appointments per email. The best part? I only had to send to about 200 prospects to get these appointments.
Examples of these types of clients include consultants, personal accountants, public speakers, business coaches, and mom and pop shop owners.
Small businesses with multiple owners face the same challenges as small businesses with one owner. However, you now have to take additional steps to repeat the sales pitch you already did for the first owner.
It can be rare to get both decision makers to agree to an appointment at the same time. One can take the time to go to the meeting while the other takes the time to run the business while the meeting is taking place.
Worse yet, the business owner that you do end up booking an appointment with will often say they will just relay the information onto the other owner, lowering your chance to convert and increase your sales cycle length.
For this type of business, make it clear that all decision makers need to come to the meeting at the same time to equally hear your pitch. This way you can have an equal chance to answer everyone’s questions and not risk something important being left out.
Here is the thing about middle management — they often have experience with the problem you fix but aren’t actively dealing with it on the same level as lower employees. They also don’t have decision making authority, but they can still be influencers to ones that do. This poses two possible problems.
The first problem is that if you go after decision makers directly, they will pass you off to middle management as a way to get rid of you. This means that, because they most likely don’t directly deal with the problem you solve, you have to try that much harder to convince them to see why what you're offering matters enough for them to take the appointment.
The second problem arises when you try to go directly to the person that feels the pain of the problem you solve. Instead of just two levels of appointments — the end user and decision maker — you now most likely have to convince at least three levels of involvement to listen to you, the end user, middle management, and finally the decision maker.
This means you’re adding an additional layer to your sales cycle. This makes the close take longer with a chance you might not get to even book the needed appointments to close. Expect sales processes like these to be on the longer end of the spectrum.
As you grow in company sizes, you can get more specialized with your departments. For a salesperson, you would think this would make things easier. After all, if departments are specialized, that means you just have to find the title of the director that handles the problem that you solve, right?
The problem is, job titles are often vague, and multiple directors and VPs can have the same job title. This means not only do you have the problems associated with middle management, but your prospecting process takes longer simply to find the appropriate contact or department.
This means, if you don’t have appropriate targeting, you can spend a good amount of time chasing the wrong prospects, which wastes everyone’s time and gets expensive.
We have come to the hardest of the hard to book sales appointments with. C-level executives of enterprise companies have a lot on their plates. Connecting with them offers all the difficulty that the previous examples listed:
All of this amounts to the longest sales cycle of any prospect — with a good majority of the time spent just trying to get in front of them. And when you finally do, they can easily pass you off to one of their subordinates to start the process all over again
If your product or service requires you to go after executives like CIOs, CFOs, CEOs, or presidents of large organizations, understand you're in it for the long haul. Expect needing multiple touchpoints from both your sales and marketing team to be effective.
In my experience, it can take several months — sometimes even years — just to get in front of these decision makers to simply set up a first meeting. That's why when you do finally set up that meeting, be prepared with a tailored solution that fixes their specific problem.
For Cobalt Iron, our value proposition talked about how we made data backup easier to manage with automation while simultaneously cutting costs. Additionally, we would attach case studies that were relevant to the target company’s industry and have a brief pdf description of our offering.
We would then highlight three to five individual snippets from this material in the email response or landing page to make it easier to read.
The key factor to reaching these prospects is persistence. Keep trying and experiment with your marketing and sales tactics to see what works best. Here are some tactics and mindsets I have used to get in front of these prospects.
Mindset is a key factor to success. When reaching out to C-level executives of enterprise companies, it can be easy to feel intimidated. After all, these prospects could have hundreds to thousands of people directly under them and can influence a company’s direction with one email.
You might be thinking: "Somebody with that level of authority won’t talk to me." You’re wrong. C-level executives are people with problems — just like everyone else — and they are looking for ways to solve them. If you happen to have a solution to what they are looking for, they will talk to you.
This doesn’t mean they will buy from you, but they will at least listen. The reason these conversations aren’t happening though usually arises in the pitch to these prospects. A bad opener is what gets 99% of sales people ignored.
When it comes to pitching to decision makers, we tend to think they already know everything. Salespeople think that if they just pitch the problem they have without listing details, that the executive is just going to ignore them. This is what salespeople think C-level execs are like:
“I already know what my problem is and how to solve it, tell me your features so I can see if it fits the solution I’ve already thought up.”
From my experiences let me tell you, very few if any executives think like this. They are constantly bombarded with different fires to put out every single day. Do you really think they want to take the time to dissect your offering right off the bat?
They don’t. Instead, pitch a simple solution while highlighting outcomes of what your solution has done. Additionally, you can use audience segmentation to talk about specific insights related to your prospect.
For example, at Cobalt Iron, we use a combination of cloud and automation to provide backup. However, if I was to simply state that to a prospect, chances are they are going to ask me “Okay, so what?”
Instead, I have seen success pitching how, using automation, we have helped cut backup times for companies by upwards of 90%. Now instead of providing just a feature, I’ve established a cause and effect, which will resonate better with prospects.
Making yourself stand out from the crowd is critical. If you want to get through the barrage of noise that plagues C-level executives, it would be wise to tackle a specific piece of information related to that target.
Mention seeing them in the news in an email or LI Message. Target your ad copy for specific landing pages prospects looked at using a web pixel. Follow up with webinar signups addressing specific points in the presentation they deemed important.
What you don’t want to do is spend more time researching than doing. Perfection is the enemy of progress here. Why would you waste your time researching a prospect for hours at a time, only to find out they aren’t qualified when you engage with them?
Using email, I was able to book a meeting with the head of infrastructure at a Fortune 500 — just by talking about the problem I solve. Sure, I could have done a bunch of research on the company and talked about the specifics. The problem with that approach is that it's hard to scale, and most of the time, it can run the risk of turning into fluff.
Get to the point as quickly as possible to make sure they get what you’re offering as soon as they can. Otherwise you risk losing their interest. So, try and narrow the company insight down to less than 15% of your copy.
For instance, If I saw that a CIO was on a TV interview, I wouldn’t mention the interview and then talk for 2 paragraphs about the specifics of the interview. Instead I would pick one topic point and address it, then go into my pitch.
Each business is different and has unique approaches. Company size, product offering, location, and price can all impact the likelihood of closing prospects. If you take the time to know the kind of prospects you should be going after ahead of time, you can save yourself future headaches and wasted time.
I get this question from fellow salespeople — both inside and outside my company — all the time:
How do you reach out to prospects for the first time? What’s your best prospecting email template?
I always feel a little funny when someone asks me this question because I actually find email templates to be a hard thing. I don’t like using templates all that much because I love to personalize my emails based on my research and what I have learned about the company I am working with and the person I am reaching out to.
With that being said, there did come a point when I realized my process could use some streamlining. When HubSpot originally released HubSpot Sales — its free email tracking and sales automation tool —I decided to give it a try, and started to create base templates that I could personalize.
If you want to speed up your sales cycle while still incorporating research and personalization, I would suggest automating your email prospecting with templates like the following. While the email structure won't change much from one company prospect to the next, the email content changes dramatically — and that’s the key to great prospecting.
However, before we go any further, some ground rules:
Never write a prospecting emails unless you have a reason to reach out. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not great at calling or emailing a prospect and saying “Hey, yeah, I'm calling for no reason … but this is what we do.” I'm a big believer in trigger events and use them as the basis of my outreach.
In your email, you should answer the core questions you would cover if you were to connect with the buyer on a call. What would you say on a call and why? Incorporate the main elements in your emails.
Before deciding to work any lead, ask yourself two questions: 1) Why are you working the company?, and 2) What do you think you can help them with? If you don’t have answers, you haven’t done enough research.
Now, let's discuss the email templates. I queue these up to send as a Sequence, so I can set it and forget it.
Hi [Name],
Whenever I reach out to someone I have to have a reason. That reason needs to be timely and helpful based on research that I have done on [Company].
Here's why I think HubSpot can help:
[Research-driven reason #1 here]
[Research-driven reason #2 here]
[Research-driven reason #3 here]
[etc.]
Here is what an exploratory call looks like with me in case you are interested in seeing if we can help.
Do you want to talk and learn more? You can book a time on my calendar here [link].
Ali
Hi [Name],
I called you and wrote to you X days ago about some of the research that I have done on [Company] that leads me to think we could help you improve your marketing.
Those reasons didn't get a response so I knew I needed to dig further.
[Example of something I think we could improve, complete with specific ideas]
[Additional idea(s) to help their company]
Is this intriguing or interesting at all? If so, book a quick exploratory call with me here. I promise not to waste your time.
Ali
[Name]:
I have reached out to you a few times and haven't heard back. I don’t want to give up on you without getting a yes or a no.
Please hit reply, type one of the following three numbers into your response, and I’ll take it from there:
Thanks anyways Ali, but there isn’t any interest.
I want to talk — let’s schedule a time to chat.
Timing isn’t right but I am interested in talking at a later time.
I really believe that I can help [Company], but I don’t want to be that pesky, annoying salesperson that keeps reaching out.
Thanks for your response!
Ali
Generally, I send a couple more emails between attempt #2 and the final "break-up” email, but these are one-off messages that can’t and shouldn't be saved as templates (there are a few examples you might want to lean on, though, for direction in this blog post).
I have always prided myself on personalization. I don’t want to reach out in a generic, spammy kind of way to every company I am prospecting — and I attribute my success in sales to this rule.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2016 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Setting up a successful channel sales and marketing strategy is key for your partner relationship management (also known as PRM) efforts. It’s well-known that you have to bring buyers along on a journey and persuade them to buy, but what about partners? Given that 86 percent of solution providers are planning on adding a new vendor or technology practice to their business in 2016, it’s crucial to promote a strong appearance to potential partners so that they choose you over your competition. So what are you doing to promote and strengthen your partnerships? Here are some suggestions on the ways you can guide your partners throughout their journey with your business!
Finding the right partners:
How visible are you to potential partners? The first step to identifying new partners is ensuring that your company is presenting an attractive appearance so that potential partners can find you and start thinking that you would be a viable partnership option. It’s also important to, in the case that another company does approach you, have set criteria that establish what kind of partners you’re looking for. This will allow you to immediately eliminate some possible partners, without having to waste your time in deliberations. Once you’ve begun considering partners- or once a potential partner has approached you- it’s important to ensure that the channel partners you choose are able to reach out to the customers you need- and, furthermore, that they’re reaching out to a market you might not necessarily be able to reach yourself.
Creating a strong relationship:
Once you’ve decided to work together, communication is key. Both sides should be open about their objectives for the partnership, and about the ways in which you’ll be able to work together. It’s at this time that a culture fit with both your new partner and the customer base will be established, so that you can determine the ways in which your message will be communicated and the materials to use. It’s at this moment that it’s important to start sharing resources and training your partners so that they know how your company’s sales and target market operate. It’s also the time to establish KPIs that will ensure both sides know what is expected of them. Possible metrics to measure include, for example, lead close time and number of relevant leads identified. This onboarding could also incorporate eLearning modules so that all training can be done virtually.
Once you’ve forged a partnership:
It’s vital to provide your partners with the right tools so that they can help you leverage your strengths and diminish your weaknesses effectively. One such tool is the partner self-service portal. It provides modules such as leads and opportunities, so that partners can register their new deals, and can synchronize bidirectionally with your CRM systems so that all your information stays up to date. Developing the right partner portal also removes reliance on email, so that you can communicate more efficiently and provide them with all the services they need in one location. Such social business platforms allow both you and your business partners to simplify your operations as well as showing your partners that you trust them by opening up a greater degree of collaboration and communication in planning your new sales initiatives.
If such large and well-established companies as Dell are planning on expanding their partner networks, the time is clearly ripe for establishing partner sales channels and creating strong, mutually beneficial relationships. Investing in a partner portal is a great way to help solidify these partnerships while streamlining communications and closing deals more quickly- so check out our solutions today!
For a company, success hinges on the way it carries out marketing activities. But, with the passage of time, it has changed a lot. Constant technological advancement has changed the aspects of modern day marketing.
The world, we are living in is a digitally-connected world. Therefore, companies have started to rely on B2B content strategy for doing their businesses effectively.
In the world of digital marketing, content has become the core of different marketing function. Every business dreams to increase their revenue, and they could achieve it through by the creating meaningful user-oriented content. Thus, this one goes without saying that the notion “More you tell, more you sell” is unquestionably true in today’s context.
Companies create content in the form of eBooks, whitepapers, blogs, articles, etc., and promote it through different channels and sources to build brand loyalty. Therefore, you need to create a proper content marketing strategy because poor content can hit your business badly, just take a glimpse at this quote:
“Our research shows poor content cuts the likelihood of a vendor making the shortlist by 30%.”
Bob Johnson, Analyst at IDG Connect
Let’s check out the reasons why companies need B2B content strategy:
To create an effective content strategy, the very first thing that you need to do is to identify your audience first. You win half of your battle if you succeed at recognizing your target audience, and above all, it will save your valuable time and efforts.
Besides this, by knowing your audience, you would become definite about the kind of content you have to create. You could easily identify your buyers, by finding out some answers to these questions:
If you successfully find answers to these questions, then undoubtedly, you have won half of your battle.
Once you identify your buyers, you would be able to create and publish content as per their intent. You will know what kind of content your customers are looking for. The tone should be buyer-centric not product-centric, it shouldn’t be like you lack at something, so, you should buy our products/services.
You have to highlight the consequences of the problems your buyers currently facing. Try to demonstrate some real-life examples, so that they could feel connected with your content.
Every business primarily publishes content for two purposes:
You have to obtain the trust of your target audience by making them realize that you want to help them. If you publish content as per your buyers’ intent, you would be able to boost your engagement rate dramatically. Remember, engagement increases the chances for lead generation and conversion.
Boosted sales increase revenue, and that’s what every business want. However, we all know that every business organization is dealing with the same issue, the problem of creating content that can boost sales.
In most of the companies, sales team often complains that they are not getting the content they want so that they could positively impact sales. Additionally, you can’t deny the fact that sales and marketing people don’t have the idea of content creation.
So, be a smart marketer and choose a less-traveled path to get assured success. To make your content worthwhile for your sales team, you need to understand the requirements of your sales team first.
You have to look into the problems your team faces while dealing with buyers (with queries). If you do so, you would be draft a strategy to produce content that can align with the needs of your sales team. Apart from this, you have to provide proper access to your sales team so that they could use your content.
For lead generation, you sales team send bulk emails to countless people, but rarely got any response from them. There is only one reason behind this, and that is the relevancy.
Sales reps related to personalized content and once you identified your customers and requirements of your sales team, you prepare a content strategy to produce the most relevant content. It will let your sales team use that content for retargeting customers more effectively. Thus, it is important to understand the sort of content your clients need as it will help you to take your potential prospects more close to your business.
If you are dreaming to skyrocket your sales, then you need to create effective content. Doing this will soar potential leads, and rest depends on you, how you turn those prospects into regular buyers.
Therefore, remember the simple rule, you will sell you products/services only when you produce “Effective Content” to attain excellent “Engagement Rate” that will “Generate Leads” for your business.
Every business wants to skyrocket their sales to generate high revenues. But, it can be possible only when you create a content strategy to support sales. Thus, proper alignment is pretty crucial to get assured success.
Above all, if you draft an excellent content strategy, you will probably save your valuable time and efforts to re-work on your content marketing.
This blog unveils the importance role of creating a content strategy to increase sales. To witness its outstanding benefits, you should start creating a content strategy. Discuss with your sales team and create a content strategy to align your sales for the benefit of your business.
Crowdfunding has been growing explosively, with over $2 billion raised via equity and reward crowdfunding in the United States in 2015 alone. (This video explains the different types of crowdfunding.) However, crowdfunding is more than another way of raising funds. In connecting creators and entrepreneurs directly with customers and funders, it transforms the opaque and oligarchical market for early-stage fundraising into a more democratic, open one. Rather than relying on venture capitalists and marketers to try to project nascent demand for new innovations, creators can directly reach out to customers and communities to refine ideas and gauge interest. Crowdfunding acts as a platform, matching innovators with those who need innovation, and thus is reshaping which ideas come to market.
For example, the hot technology of the moment, virtual reality (VR), was largely ignored by traditional funders after the disappointment of VR technology in the 1990s. (Watch a bit of Lawnmower Man if you want to cringe at the 1990s version of VR). In 2012, Palmer Luckey, a member of a VR community message board, mentioned that he wanted to launch a Kickstarter project to raise crowdfunding for a new virtual reality headset he had been tinkering with, the Oculus Rift. He asked for help from his community members to support the campaign (for which he said he “wouldn’t make a penny of profit”), but also to assist in developing logos, creating sales pitches, and refining technology. Based on this groundwork, the Kickstarter campaign, launched a couple of months later, was a huge success, raising millions. Suddenly, virtual reality was no longer a forgotten ‘90s trend but had become a hot area of technology. Not only was Oculus soon bought by Facebook for $2B, but the field of virtual reality has experienced explosive growth, with Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, and others announcing major products.
This would not have happened without crowdfunding.
My surveys of successful crowdfunders show that crowdfunding serves to validate demand and build communities of support. In the case of Oculus, crowdfunding acted as a platform that allowed Luckey’s enthusiastic community of VR hobbyists to directly support one of their own, making Oculus a reality without needing to go through traditional gatekeepers. In a variety of research projects, I and my co-authors have tried to understand what this more democratic world of fundraising looks like, and what it means to use the power of platforms to transform the early-stage funding of ideas.
One result of raising money over a platform is that it establishes a direct connection between the project creator and the funder. The community owning the project often comes to feel a sense of ownership for the projects that they support. This ownership is often quite positive, as it can lead to communities creating complimentary products (such as apps that use a new crowdfunded technology) and promotional support.
The pressure of community support also instills a sense of obligation in project creators as well. As a result, despite there being limited ramifications from project creators failing to deliver on their goals, failure is remarkably rare in crowdfunding. Only around 9% of projects fail to deliver, and creators can go through extraordinary efforts, such as spending their own money, to fulfill promises to backers. In a setting where money is given as an impersonal investment, there is still a substantial cost of failure, but it is much less personal. A founder whose first startup fails due to factors outside their control may still receive VC funding in the future, but a project creator who does not deliver to their backers is likely to find a less forgiving audience.
The dynamic between project creators and backers goes beyond just obligation, however. The fact that there are so many backers (over 9 million on Kickstarter alone), means that crowdfunding platforms can create many more kinds of matches between project creators and backers, increasing the diversity of ideas that get funded. Most forms of traditional fundraising rely on personal networks and rules-of-thumb to assess the quality of a founder. Due to (often unconscious) biases in these approaches, fundraising tends to favor certain individuals, such as white males from a few top universities. Women, for example, are much less likely to be funded than men, so much so that less than 8% of all VC backed companies have female cofounders.
In crowdfunding, however, women outperform men. My research with Jason Greenberg of NYU shows that, all else being equal, women are 13% more likely to raise succeed in raising money on Kickstarter than men. Further, we find that this success comes from the support of other women, and especially when the female project creators are operating in a male-dominated space, such as technology or video games. Since crowdfunding operates like a platform, backers can have all sorts of reasons for supporting projects, including the desire to help a community or advance a cause.
Despite the diversity of backers, research I have conducted with Ramana Nanda of HBS shows that they are often at least as good at making decisions as experts. Crowdfunding has eclipsed the National Endowment of the Arts as a source of funding for the arts, a subject of considerable concern to critics who worried that crowds would favor low culture crowd pleasers over serious theater (more musicals about dancing cats, less experimental work). Together, Ramana and I examined whether the crowd and experts agreed or disagreed on what to fund by asking professional critics to evaluate projects on Kickstarter. We found that the crowd and experts largely agreed, and, when they did not, the crowd was more likely to take a chance on projects than experts. Further, the projects the crowd (but not the experts) supported ultimately produced a higher number of critical and commercial hits than the projects that the experts approved of. This suggests that platform-based allocation of resources can supplement more traditional expert-based decision making.
Consumer-oriented platforms are often associated with the “gig” economy – connecting customers to suppliers for short-term contracts. Crowdfunding, however, shows that platforms can also serve as the basis for lasting businesses and important innovations. Moving from an expert-centered process to a platform approach increases diversity, leads to high quality results, and generally results in successful outcomes.
