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It’s a good thing for Donald Trump that Canadians don’t get to vote in the States. Apparently, we don’t like him very much.
A recent poll from Nanos, which asked Canadians which presidential candidate would be best for Canada’s interests, shows that a healthy plurality (37 per cent) would prefer Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton to be the next POTUS. We could even live with Bernie Sanders, who came in with 26 per cent support. But The Donald? Only seven per cent of us want him to be the most powerful man in the world (assuming he isn’t already).
Now, I am quite sure Mr. Trump would not be ruffled by this news. He’s bigger-than-life, brash and bombastic — hardly cherished personality attributes among Canadians.
Yet with a big win on Super Tuesday, Trump has moved one step closer to the Oval Office. So it might be worthwhile, as investors, to put aside our “we’re too nice to like this guy” prejudice for a minute and ask what a Trump presidency might mean — if, as president, he manages to do all the things he says he’s going to do.
As conjecture goes, this is in itself a bit of a challenge, because Trump’s policy platform is hardly coherent, let alone comprehensive. What’s working for him among Republican voters is his anger, his frankness and his celebrity. Who knows what he would really do (or not do) in the big chair?
But for the moment, let’s pretend President Trump makes good on his inchoate promises.
One of the issues Trump talks about most is trade — or, rather, how the United States is routinely getting screwed by China (his favoured whipping-boy) and others because of the current administration’s gutlessness.
The Trump strategy on China is to be a tough negotiator — to show “leadership and strength at the negotiating table,” according to his website, donaldjtrump.com. By not taking any guff from Beijing, Trump will repatriate jobs, open Chinese markets and “make America great again.”
Trump insists this is about accountability, not protectionism, and maybe he’s sincere. But to other ears — notably, those of the Chinese — this will likely sound like a trade war.
For the American economy, a trade war with China would have a couple of obvious downsides. One would be more expensive imported goods. China is America’s largest trading partner, and the latter imported nearly half a trillion dollars’ worth of Chinese stuff in 2015. Trump’s right about the trade deficit — the U.S. exported US$116 billion last year — but China doesn’t sell what America doesn’t buy. About US$225 billion of Chinese consumer goods end up on U.S. store shelves every year. If tensions over trade with China escalate into tariffs and import restrictions, then consumers — who account for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity — will pay for it.
So might corporate America, which is increasingly global in its activities. U.S. companies with large interests in China — names like GE, Disney and Starbucks — could take a hit, not just from trade restrictions but also from the reputational impact of just being American. That would hurt corporate revenues, not to mention shareholders.
Hand in hand with Trump’s tough talk on trade is the other big plank in his platform: immigration, or rather illegal immigration. President Trump would thicken the border with Mexico to keep out illegals, and kick out the ones already in the States.
In theory, it’s hard to argue against cracking down on illegal activity. But there’s theory, and then there’s practicality. The practicality is that illegal immigrants are an important source of labour for the United States, and often fill jobs Americans won’t take. They also provide demand for goods and services just like everybody else, and there are a lot of them — nearly 12 million — though not all from Mexico. Kicking them out would not only be a logistical impossibility, but also bad for the economy.
These ideas could well be part-and-parcel to wider restrictions on trade. Trump plans to use the U.S.-Mexico trade deficit as ammunition in negotiations on immigration. If so, that could create similar challenges as his China stance, maybe even worse.
The U.S. exports heavily to its southern neighbour: 2015 total exports to Mexico were nearly twice those to China. In important industries (like automotive), Mexican goods feed American manufacturing. Any disruption to that close relationship could mean higher costs for companies and for consumers.
On a less troubling note, Trump has also vowed to cut corporate and personal taxes and simplify the tax code. The U.S. currently has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world, but the system is rife with loopholes. Trump would close them — one of the reasons he claims his reforms would be revenue neutral.
This is not a bad idea, in itself. Tax cuts provide stimulus, which may or may not be needed. But the trouble comes with actually getting it done. For these measures, Trump would need strong support in Congress – something that is far from assured, especially given the fractures in the Republican party. Then there are practical issues. If you think Barack Obama had a hard time with healthcare reform, consider that Wolten Kluwers’ CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter, a compilation of U.S. federal tax regulations, is now nearly 75,000 pages long.
The same goes, by the way, for many of Trump’s ideas: some are clearly unworkable. For instance, his plan to build a wall against illegal immigrants from Mexico involves getting Mexico to pay for it. That seems, um, unlikely.
That’s why investors should probably not get too riled up about a Trump presidency, at least not for now. Selling Mexico or China (if you have exposure there) or betting against the U.S. economy would probably be premature.
After all, campaign promises are fleeting. They tend to evaporate when presidents are confronted with the day-to-day realities of overseeing the world’s largest economy. President Trump would no doubt find that a much more daunting challenge than winning Super Tuesday.
VanHacks, a Vancouver “social good hackathon,” is aimed at solving problems for charities. (Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg/Getty)
Vancouver’s burgeoning technology community may aspire to become a nexus of money and talent akin to Silicon Valley, but it’s making an ever more deliberate effort to distinguish itself from the Bay Area’s uncaring “tech bro” culture. Ninety software developers have paid $25 each to compete in a 36-hour “social good hackathon” March 4–6 at the offices of social media company Hootsuite. What they will be working on is software solutions for charities including Big Sisters of B.C., Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, Ending Violence Association of B.C. and the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
“When we brought this idea forward, it resonated really deeply in the community,” says organizer Chris Hobbs, president of mobile development firm Two Tall Totems as well as ViDIA, a group of 2,000 iOS developers in the city. Tickets to take part (limited due to fire regulations) sold out in three days, before the early-bird pricing expired. Other sponsors include Slack, Microsoft, Lighthouse Labs, Mobify, Radical iO, Axiom Zen and Dynamic Leap. “I had Salesforce call me an hour ago to say they want to be part of this,” Hobbs says.
Another of the participants in VanHacks, as the event is known, is Knack by Potluck Café, a non-profit with the goal of building an online platform to help workers and employers in low-income neighbourhoods (starting with the Downtown Eastside) connect quickly and efficiently.
For years Vancouver’s IT scene has been known for reaching out to the community, for example putting on Canada’s first free coding boot camps. Hobbs says VanHacks sold itself; there is a strong desire among techies in the city to give something back. That contrasts with the tech industry’s often fractious relationship to its host communities in the Bay Area, where newly minted multimillionaires have been known to buy residents out of their homes on the spot and complain to municipalities about homeless people marring their views.
“San Francisco is a different environment from Vancouver. People live here because of the lifestyle. You’re not making millions of dollars,” says Hobbs, whose company has a branch office in San Francisco and who travels there regularly. In fact he thinks many young coders in Canada can’t afford to donate money to worthy causes—like San Francisco, Vancouver has a high cost of living—but would happily contribute their time and talents.
As for what will be achieved during the hackathon, Hobbs is hoping one or two of the participating non-profits’ problems gets solved. “It’s 36 hours. I’m not holding my breath,” he says. But extra points will be awarded to teams creating open-source solutions that not only the participating charity but their counterparts in other cities can eventually use. “I really want to ignite a flame, to see if this can expand beyond a weekend.”
MORE ABOUT CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND STARTUPS:
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Every time a social media network updates their timeline algorithms, it sends marketers in a tizzy.
The same is true now for the recent update Twitter made in their timeline algorithm. Now instead of showing Tweets in order, they will be displayed according to relevancy.
But don’t let all the outrage and #RIPTwitter hashtags frighten you.
Even though Twitter has reordered their timelines, you can still switch it manually back to the old chronological timeline view in your settings. Simply go into your settings and find the checkbox that looks like this:
Ensure it is unchecked and your tweets will be back to chronological order.
The recent “Twitter-A-geddon” is one reason why it’s important not to put all your social media efforts into just one social media platform.
While you may be “winning the game” with tons of followers and all your best posts showing in follower’s timelines, it only takes one algorithm shift that can change everything.
We’ve seen It happen with Facebook and it could easily happen on any social media channel that business owners use to help promote their business.
So what is one to do? Diversify your efforts.
Here are 7 compelling reasons why you should be focusing on more than just one social media channel:
Bottom line – limiting your business to using just one social media platform for your marketing platform is wasting an opportunity to reach more targeted leads.
If you find yourself in overwhelm trying to generate high-value content on a consistent basis for your business, we can help you get more followers and generate high-interest content to keep your fans engaged.
When we talk about consumers that are consistently dictating trends, there’s one group we turn to again and again: millennials. According to Forbes, there are 80 million millennials in the U.S. alone – about a quarter of the population. And they’re spending. A lot – totaling about $200 billion every year.
How can brands win over that coveted millennial affection?
For many brands, the challenge lies in the way millennials communicate – visual content is an imperative when it comes to connecting with this segment. Given the emergence of GoPros, the adoption of Snapchat, and an all-out obsession with Instagram, modern marketers are quickly learning that pictures speak louder than words. When brands use visual content to connect with millennials, they see a wealth of engagement. And when they connect visual content to products, it becomes a driver of revenue.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg. The power of millennials goes well beyond sales. For instance, millennials are more inclined than any other demographic to celebrate their purchases via social media. It’s no wonder they’re a target demographic for brands.
While millennials are a highly desirable demographic … they also exhibit very different behaviors compared to other spenders. Consider the following insights from a study conducted by Forbes and Elite Daily:
What this survey shows is that trust and authenticity are crucial components of the millennial mindset. An analysis by the National Retail Federation supports this well. In their words, “Millennials seek long-term relationships with brands that embrace change in ways that feel authentic, foster trust and are respectful of heritage and values.” In other words, brands are expected to be agile, without compromising their history or character.
So, which brands are making the grade?
To answer this question, I’ve put together a series of three blogs. Each one profiles a different brand across fashion (Converse), CPG (Coca-Cola) and publishing (Thrillist) – brands that are consistently loved by millennials.
To start, let’s put our best foot forward with Converse.
The Converse brand may be as old as the Model T, but even today, it is as timeless as ever. The company started way back in 1908 as a rubber shoe company specializing in galoshes. More than a century later, Converse stays fresh and favorable—especially among millennial shoppers—by adhering to the following standards:
Let’s dive deeper into each of these ideas here.
One thing we know about millennials – they don’t want to be told what to do. Conversely (see what I did there?), millennials embrace brands that value their input and evolve their messaging to fulfill those desires and needs. The brand’s About Us page conveys this flawlessly. As the story goes, the original Converse sneaker was designed with hoop dreams in mind, but by listening to their customers, the brand was able to unlock the true potential of what’s arguably their most popular product. Their messaging reflects this:
“We made them to sink jump shots on the court. You, however, saw them as something more … and started wearing our sneakers to do whatever you wanted. You played music, made art, skated the streets and kicked back. You wore them as fashion. You wore them to work. You customized them with your personal style. You did everything to them, and in them. You saw our sneakers’ unlimited potential. You define them. They’re made by you.”
This narrative complements Converse’s goal: to play up their tradition of quality and style, while encouraging individuality. In this way, their sneakers become blank canvases. This messaging is perfect for millennials; with unlimited access to social and community-oriented technologies, self-expression is highly valued.
While it’s important to establish a lifestyle and identity as a brand, millennials value diversity and transformation. As the NRF notes, millennials shouldn’t be forced into neat little boxes; duly categorizing these eccentric shoppers simply doesn’t bode well.
This is something Converse has mastered. The brand prides itself on defying stereotypes and prefers to shy away from any single customer profile. On social, for instance, they highlight and celebrate a diverse, multifaceted customer base. Whether you’re into skateboarding or high-end style, the message is clear. Converse could be for you.
A well-known brand with endless budget for marketing and advertising does not a millennial favorite make. Here’s what does motivate millennial shoppers: service, brand affiliation, your overall brand message and price.
One way marketers can appeal to millennials’ need to feel a strong connection with or affinity for a brand is through a blog. (Remember: As noted earlier, 33% of millennials will check out a company’s blog before purchasing from them.)
Here are some of the elements that make the Converse blog shine:
Converse also connects with their customers on the blog through features from their Rubber Tracks music studio.
The brand frequently holds events and concerts with popular artists, and features this content on their social galleries and in blog content. This allows them to promote their products and work on celebrity partnerships, while bringing some edge and personality to their brand through music. They also promote and share music events on the blog, which gives readers the opportunity to buy tickets or find a show in their community.
Like what you see? Stayed tuned for the second installment of this three-part series, in which I explore Coca-Cola’s millennial investment.
Florence Swanson has lived through every American car from the Ford Model T to the Tesla Model S. Now, at 94, she has stepped into what Google hopes will be the automotive future: self-driving vehicles.
After her painting of a guitar player won a Google contest, she became the oldest person yet to ride in a model with the company’s autonomous technology.
“You haven’t lived until you get in one of those cars,” the Austin, Texas, resident said of her half-hour excursion. “I couldn’t believe that the car could talk. I felt completely safe.”
Robots Are Taking the Wheel
Google is betting others will share her sentiment. With more than 43 million people in the U.S. now 65 and older, and 10,000 more hitting that mark every day, aging Americans are a natural target market for self-driving vehicles. Mobility needs — getting to the doctor or the grocery store, seeing family and friends — become paramount for seniors, especially since 79 per cent live in suburbs and rural areas.
“For the first time in history, older people are going to be the lifestyle leaders of a new technology,” said Joseph Coughlin, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s AgeLab in Cambridge. “Younger people may have had smartphones in their hands first, but it’s the 50-plus consumers who will be first with smart cars.”
John Krafcik, chief executive officer of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, featured Swanson during a January presentation in Detroit. His own mother is 96; both she and Swanson gave up their driver’s licenses, and the freedom that came with them, roughly a decade ago.
“A fully self-driving car has the potential to have a huge impact on people like Florence and my mom,” Krafcik said. “Mobility should be open to the millions around the world who don’t have the privilege of holding a driver’s license.”
Ford Motor Co. also sees autonomy “as a way to strategically address an aging population,” said Sheryl Connelly, the Dearborn, Michigan-based company’s in-house futurist. To help design vehicles for the elderly, engineers and designers have donned a “third age suit” incorporating glasses that impair vision and gloves that reduce finger control and strength.
In Japan, Toyota Motor Corp. is racing to bring autonomous cars to market, partly because elderly drivers disproportionately cause and are injured in traffic accidents. Some of this work is in the U.S., where the company hired Gill Pratt — former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and head of DARPA’s Robotics Challenge — to lead the Toyota Research Institute. The company is spending US$1 billion on artificial intelligence and robotics technology to eliminate driver errors and reduce traffic fatalities.
“We often talk about autonomy as if the goal is just to create autonomy in machines,” Pratt said last fall when his new job was announced. The focus is more on people having “the ability to decide for themselves where they want to move, when they want to move,” regardless of limits imposed by age or illness.
Baby boomers — who came of age in the suburbs and equate car keys with freedom — want to remain mobile. Older Americans are keeping their licenses longer and driving more miles than in the past, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. But advancing age often brings health problems, including poorer vision, memory loss, arthritis and other impairments that can affect driving ability.
Fatal crash rates are highest among drivers ages 85 and older, according to the institute’s analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That’s mainly because the elderly are more fragile and often suffer medical complications from crash-related injuries.
Autonomous cars could provide seniors with the safety and convenience they need, and older people are willing to use new technology “if it provides a clear value to them,” MIT AgeLab’s Coughlin said.
Fully self-driving cars are still years off, however. Automakers and technology companies are using artificial intelligence to help teach them not just to avoid collisions and read traffic signs but also to respond to different types and needs of passengers. Older people, for example, might have several medical appointments and want to tell the car to take them to a specific doctor.
Engineers at Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., are evaluating ways riders can interact with their cars, including by giving voice commands, according to spokesman Johnny Luu. The vehicles currently give verbal warnings about their intended path, including lane changes, he said.
The small white robot cars Google is testing seat two passengers. Swanson rode in a modified Lexus sport utility vehicle with the same technology. She sat in the back seat with her 70-year-old daughter; a driver and another Google employee were in the front.
When asked if companies will use older consumers as guinea pigs for autonomous vehicles, Coughlin said he doesn’t think so, partly because there are bound to be “transition problems.” Younger people “tend to trust technology without verifying it, while older people want to understand what’s happening.”
This may create a marketing challenge for manufacturers developing robot cars. Many baby boomers, in fact, wouldn’t buy a self-driving vehicle, according to a November 2015 study by MIT’s AgeLab and The Hartford, a Connecticut-based insurance and investment company. While 70 per cent of the 302 participants said they’d like a test drive, only 31 per cent would purchase one, even if it were the same price as a regular model.
“They’re still less enthusiastic about using systems where they have less control,” said Jodi Olshevski, a gerontologist and executive director of the Hartford Center for Mature Market Excellence, a unit of The Hartford.
June Raben, 86, isn’t ready to yield control to a computer, even though she has an iPhone, an iPad and uses WhatsApp mobile messaging with her granddaughter. She gave up driving a year ago after an accident totaled her car and left her deeply shaken. She now uses the ride-hailing service of Uber Technologies Inc., which is also working on autonomous vehicles.
“I have always considered myself a forward-looking risk-taker, but I am not ready for technology to be the only one behind the wheel,” said Raben, who lives alone in a Miami Beach condo and likes the social aspects of chatting with Uber drivers. As autonomous vehicles evolve, however, “I can guarantee you that my 15 grandchildren and 10 great- grandchildren will all be driving robot-driven cars, plus many other robot-driven objects, after I’m gone.”
Hillary Clinton is edging closer to breaking the great presidential glass ceiling, gaining critical delegates on Super Tuesday in her quest to become the Democratic Party’s first female nominee. But most eyes remain riveted on the Republican race. Donald Trump, the populist, so-called “outsider” candidate, roared closer to the Republican nomination with seven big wins on Super Tuesday—and now has the momentum to lock up the nomination. During Trump’s rambling victory speech, one-time competitor and current supporter Chris Christie stood behind him, looking lost in a political Twilight Zone, his dazed face mirroring America’s confusion. Is Donald Trump really about to win?
But still, it’s not over. Neither Ted Cruz, who won three states, nor Marco Rubio, who won one, are going away. Rubio was badly mauled on Super Tuesday and most expect him to eventually drop out. But maybe he watched Leonardo DiCaprio fight the bear in The Revenant or maybe, like so many other Republicans, he is blinded by a toxic loathing for Trump, because he insists he will remain in the race until the convention.
Related from macleans.ca: How Donald Trump happened
Trump, though divisive, is driving huge interest in the race and huge voting numbers. Now the question is: Will he end up shattering the Republican Party?
To get a read on the most unpredictable, vexatious political race in generations, and to find out if Trump is on his way to victory, Evan Solomon spoke to Colin Robertson, a former diplomat who served in the United States and is now the vice-president of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
The post Will Donald Trump shatter the Republican Party? appeared first on Macleans.ca.
LAGOS, Nigeria – Africa’s leading e-commerce platform Jumia says it has won funding of more than $325 million from French, German, South African and U.S. companies eager to invest in one of the continent’s fastest-growing online economies.
Parent company Africa Internet Group said the investment boosts its value to nearly $1.1 billion.
The investment announced Thursday comes from U.S. investment bankers Goldman Sachs, French insurance multinational AXA, German startup Rocket Internet and a long-time backer, South African telecommunications giant MTN.
Jumia was founded in Nigeria in 2012 to provide a platform for local African businesses to sell products online. It has expanded to 11 African countries while Africa Internet Group’s activities have grown to include online taxis, travel, real estate, and job and food delivery marketplaces.
The post Nigerian e-commerce company wins $325 million investments appeared first on Canadian Business - Your Source For Business News.
I recently stood in front of an executive team, allowing their unproductive to-ing and fro-ing to continue a little longer. It was a gold mine of examples I could use to teach them how not to have conflict. Within 10 minutes, they’d managed to take a routine issue and turn it into an all-out row, with yelling and swearing and more than a few hurt feelings and bruised egos. What they had failed to do was get to the root of the problem and get aligned around what they were going to do about it.
This type of situation is all too common on teams. Although productive conflict is a hallmark of high-performing teams, many teams struggle to communicate dissenting opinions without triggering resistance and defensiveness. They fall into unproductive conflict by invalidating one another as they argue. Do any of the following sound familiar? After someone speaks, you make no reference to what she said, instead jumping straight to your counterargument (or going off on a complete tangent). Your points become more polarized as the conversation goes back and forth. Maybe you question your coworker’s motives or his relevance, competence, preparation. Or you use a passive-aggressive approach, turning your body away from the person and toward all the other people in the room. Each of those behaviors sends the signal that you don’t value what your coworker has to say. You are invalidating him.
It may be difficult in the moment, but if you can validate your teammate’s perspective, expertise, and feelings, you will keep the conflict focused on the issue, avoiding the pitched battle that comes when you intentionally or inadvertently invalidate someone.
When you’re in the middle of conflict, how you can validate the person you’re trying to discredit is probably the last thing you’re thinking about. Rather, you’re likely sending strong signals that you don’t value the person. You’re not modeling openness and curiosity; you’re retrenching and focused on proving that you’re right.
There are many reasons why this happens. First, in service of our jam-packed agendas and back-to-back meetings, we often rush conflict. The more rushed we are, the more directly we get to our point and the less likely we are to use time to reiterate someone else’s perspective. Second, we’ve created organizational cultures focused on producing results, and along the way we’ve devalued empathy. We reinforce people who drive projects through (even when they drive them through other people). Third, we feel exposed in the face of opposing perspectives. As we worry about the merits of our arguments, we find it safer to shut down the debate than to leave room for a dissenting opinion. Finally, we’re human, and we still strive to be understood before seeking to understand, even 27 years after Steven Covey warned us about doing exactly that.
Notice that I didn’t include more sinister motives among the reasons for invalidating your coworkers in conflict. It’s not that everyone has good intentions; it’s that the vast majority of people do. The most likely reason you invalidate your coworker’s perspective is because you don’t want her to slow you down or to show you up, not because you’re trying to take her down.
So how do you approach a conflict by validating rather than invalidating?
Validating someone you’re having an argument with simply means giving credence to the debate and to the debater. Rather than negating the other person’s perspective, you accept two things: 1) it’s valuable to hear different perspectives and to ensure the team is thinking an issue through fully, and 2) the person you’re arguing with is adding value by presenting a unique point of view.
The minute you accept that the conflict is productive and that the person you’re in conflict with is worthy, the nature of the conflict will immediately change for the better. The tone will improve as the conflict becomes centered on the ideas rather than the individuals who are presenting them.
Small changes in the language you use will demonstrate that you value the other person and her perspectives. Try using one or more of the following in your next conflict:
You can also validate someone by repeating back to them what you heard them say:
The important thing is that your words and body language demonstrate that you value the conflict and the person involved. That doesn’t mean you agree with his point. It does mean that you’re listening and adapting what you think based on his contribution.
The next stage is to pivot the conversation to introduce your perspective. Any of the above options makes redirecting easy:
If you go first in validating the importance of the debate and the value of the person you’re debating with, you will reduce defensiveness, keep things issue-focused, and greatly increase the speed with which you get to a mutually agreeable solution. Give it a try in your next argument.
(Justin Tang/CP)
The proposed $3-billion purchase of Canadian drugstore chain Rexall Health by a U.S. health services company risks touching off another round of hand-wringing about foreign takeovers of Canadian firms.
In the wake of Wednesday’s deal between San Francisco’s McKesson Corp. and Edmonton’s Katz Group, a privately held company that also owns the Edmonton Oilers hockey team, commentators rushed to point out the cheap loonie, now worth about 72 cents U.S., was effectively putting Canadian assets on the block.
McKesson buys privately held Canadian drug store chain – Rexall. The U.S. dollar is such an advantage. We will see more of these deals
— Barry Schwartz (@BarrySchwartzBW) March 2, 2016
See what happens when #CAD is weak – foreign companies come shopping. Today, McKesson paying $1.9B U.S. for Rexall Drugs. $MCK
— Frances Horodelski (@fhoro) March 2, 2016
Adding to the consternation is Lowe’s controversial—in Quebec at least— $3.2 billion proposed takeover of home improvement chain Rona. The deal, announced last month, prompted the CBC to run a list of high-profile Canadian companies, from Alcan to Tim Horton’s, that were snapped up by foreigners over the past decade.
But must Canadian companies always play the role of sitting ducks? Not really, as it turns out. Data provided to Canadian Business magazine a few years ago showed that, between 2004 and 2014, Canadian firms executed more foreign takeovers than the other way around. Howard E. Johnson, the president of M&A International, which supplied the data, blamed the perception gap on a news media that puts foreign takeovers of Canadian firms on the front page, but banishes Canadian acquisitions of foreign companies to the business section.
The same perception gap seems to be alive and well in 2016. While the Rexall and Rona deals have captured headlines north of the border, Canadian companies have been on an acquisition spree in America. In fact, data from Bloomberg for the first quarter shows the volume of Canada-to-U.S. takeover deals was greater than the U.S. takeovers of Canadian companies—US$27.7 billion compared to US$7.1 billion.
For instance, Canadian Pacific Railway continues to jockey to buy a major U.S. railroad. CP has so far made a US$30 billion cash-and-stock bid for Norfolk Southern and has reportedly also talked to rival railroad CSX about a US$20 billion takeover. Other pending Canadian takeover deals include: Algonquin Power’s proposed US$1.5 billion purchase of Missouri-based Empire District Electric Co., St. John’s-based utility Fortis’s proposed $6.9 billion takeover of America’s ITC Holdings, and label and packaging-maker CCL planned US$422 million purchase of U.S. anti-theft tag company Checkpoint Systems. Even the U.S. toy industry isn’t safe from the ravenous Canadians—Toronto-based Spin Master recently purchased Etch-a-Sketch for an undisclosed sum from a Bryan, Ohio-based metal lithography firm that had owned it for more than 50 years.
That’s not to say Canadian companies aren’t attractive to foreign acquirers when both our currency and Canadian stock market prices are so depressed. “One of the new realities for Canadian businesses is the exchange rate environment,” Doug Jenkinson, a partner in consulting firm EY’s (Ernst & Young) transaction advisory services, said in releasing an annual survey of corporate and private equity executives. “The current situation means Canadian companies are ‘on sale’ for foreign buyers.” In fact, EY’s research showed as many as 56 per cent of Canadian companies were looking to take advantage of a favourable environment to sell non-core parts of their businesses over the next two years, higher than the global average of 49 per cent.
But there’s also a drawback for U.S. companies that buy Canadian firms at today’s exchange rates: the sales generated by the Canadian assets will be worth less once they’re repatriated back across the border, assuming the loonie trades at a discount for a prolonged period. By contrast, Canadian firms who pony up the extra cash to buy a U.S. company can look forward to more valuable U.S.-dollar denominated profits over the coming years (not to mention more exposure to the healthier U.S. economy). Add to that the fact many Canadian companies have been sitting on massive cash hoards, and it’s just as likely many Canadian CEOs still see themselves as the hunters, not the hunted—even with the loonie below (U.S.) 75 cents.
The post In foreign takeovers, Canadian companies aren’t just the hunted appeared first on Macleans.ca.
Good morning! Here's the technology news you need to know this Thursday.
1. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is now on a military advisory board for the Pentagon. It's aimed at bringing Silicon Valley innovation and best practices to the U.S. military.
2. Yahoo is ready to talk about a deal and is asking potential buyers to sign confidentiality documents. Yahoo reportedly plans to have a traditional auction, in which buyers submit bids, rather than engage in direct, one-on-one deal talks.
3. Uber racked up huge international losses during its 2014 expansion. The international business lost $237 million (£168 million) in 2014.
4. LinkedIn's CEO gives his $14 million (£9.9 million) stock bonus back to employees to make up for the stock plunge. Share prices recently fell by more than 40%.
5. A security expert said he could hack into San Francisco's $35,000 (£24,800) police drones from a mile away. Security researcher Nils Rodday revealed a number of flaws in the city’s advanced, police-grade unmanned aerial vehicles.
6. Uber has launched its standalone UberEats app. It's starting the service in Los Angeles but will expand to the rest of the US later this month.
7. VMware announced on Tuesday that its President and COO Carl Eschenbach is leaving the company. A top-level exodus has been going on for a while.
8. Slack is in talks to raise $150 million (£106 million) in new funding. The new funding round could value Slack as high as $4 billion (£2.8 billion.)
9. Google is now banning ad blockers that prevent ads from being served in other apps from the Google Play Store. An update to the developer policy makes it clear.
10. Estonian job-finding startup Jobbatical has raised $2 million (£1.4 million.) Saul Klein said that this is the second startup he and his father have publicly backed with their new £45 million venture capital fund.
Join the conversation about this story »
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"Flattery will get you everywhere." - Mae West
Salespeople are usually too eager to talk about themselves. They are eager to give presentations all about their company and product. They are eager to talk about features and benefits on their first phone calls. They are way too eager to pitch their products over email.
Unfortunately, every time a salesperson does this, a kitten dies and Mae West rolls over in her grave. Not just not her sultry eyes rolling, but her whole body in disgust because you thought pitching might be fetching.
Really, though. Double entendres, idioms, analogies, and sexy starlets aside, talking about yourself -- unless what you’re saying directly addresses a prospect's challenges -- is usually a waste of breath and everyone's time. Prospects have the internet if they want information. They need salespeople to consult and guide them as they navigate their unique challenges, goals, and situation.
So, when a salesperson sends their first email it shouldn't be about them or their company. It should demonstrate that they took an interest in the prospect's business before offering to help. And one of the best ways to do this? Flatter the prospect -- genuinely and honestly.
I recently had the opportunity to help a sales team transform their old prospecting templates into ones Mae West would be proud of. As part of my duties as an advisory board member for Grapevine, an influencer marketing platform, I'm helping the sales team improve their sales processes. As users of HubSpot's sales software, we could see they were getting a high open rate with their current templates, but response rates were not where they should be. So, we collaborated on a few new email templates they could test.
In a short amount of time, we've increased their response rates considerably. I've included three of the templates below and a sample response that we've received from each one.
But before I dig into the new templates, let’s start with the old one. While the sales reps were using many different templates before we rolled out new alternatives, most looked something like this:
Hi [Prospect],
I think there is an opportunity for us to help you run some amazing campaigns that can increase sales, generate buzz, and enhance brand awareness through our network's YouTube videos.
Our platform has completely revolutionized the way beauty, fashion, and lifestyle brands partner with YouTube Influencers by providing easy access to thousands of creators, by facilitating end-to-end conversations from campaign inception to completion, and by providing real time analytics across many more performance metrics than any other platform. Would love to tell you more about the ROI we are currently getting for our brand partners. You can also check out our media deck.
If interested, I find it’s best to learn more about your needs over a quick call -- so let me know your upcoming availability.
Looking forward to connecting :)
Best,
[Rep]
This template and others like it were actually performing fairly well -- garnering around 80% open rates and 30% click rates. But, although I don't have any evidence of this, I'd credit the open and clickthrough rate success to two factors:
However, the major issue with this template is that it is all about them. While the information is all true (the platform is awesome and it does drive real results for brands), prospects weren't replying at a high rate.
The team observed that response rates rose when they customized the templates by referencing something the prospect was doing. So, it wasn't difficult to convince the reps to start doing more research for each prospect, as well as test some new approaches that talked more about their prospect and less about Grapevine.
Lead by one of Grapevine's top performers, we brainstormed a few new ways to reach out. The three revamped email templates below are getting much higher response rates -- not to mention much more enthusiastic replies.
Grapevine reps are always asking their friends and contacts which products they use and why, because this helps them identify opportunities to pursue. Whenever they can, they also sign up for anything the brand offers like a beta notification about a new service, or a blog, newsletter, YouTube or Instagram feed.
This email template makes it clear how much research the rep has done:
Hi [Prospect],
A friend of mine just introduced me to [Brand]. He had such high praise that I immediately signed up for your [product] beta launch notification.
He also told me that I'd be impressed with your influencer marketing. He was right! Looks like you're getting some great traction with the [hashtag] Instagram posts and I really loved this YouTube video: [link]. Great choice to work with [YouTube creator] as they always seem to drive great results.
Are you seeing a measurably higher customer acquisition rate from these [hashtag] posts and YouTube videos compared to other marketing efforts?
Best,
[Rep]
Here's a response this email garnered:
Sorry. Somehow I missed this email. That's awesome that your friend recommended you and even better to hear that you're considering [product]. We would love to have you. I could actually give you a discount as well if you'd like :-)
Influencer marketing has been great for us. As a startup it's probably the most efficient way to help organically grow your base. That being said, it's a mixed bag when it comes to ROI based on conversions. Some bloggers/YouTubers etc. are awesome from a brand awareness standpoint but aren't as effective in conversions. We've had some big wins and others that are just okay. All in all, it works out, but it's sometimes tough to predict results. As as startup with limited resources, the hit or miss nature prevents us from doing a lot more of it.
Part of Grapevine's value proposition is that brands can track conversion by creator and campaign. The Grapevine team can also use historical conversion data to help brands pick creators for future campaigns. So, this is clearly a great opening for a follow up call or email where the Grapevine rep can ask, "Would you like to find more creators who have proven they can drive conversions for brands like yours?"
In this way, this email template kickstarted a valuable conversation that will likely lead to a sale.
Here's another template we've been testing:
Hi [Prospect],
I've been really impressed with your influencer marketing on Instagram and YouTube. I shared your YouTube video with my friends on Facebook and reposted a photo from [creator] on Grapevine's Instagram page as an example of great influencer marketing. I felt she really brought your brand aesthetic into her amazing photo. You can see yours and other great examples of influencer marketing at #GrapeFinds: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/grapefinds/
I can see you're getting great buzz based on the number of likes. Are you happy with the increased engagement you're getting compared to the spend?
Best,
[Rep]
This template requires about two minutes of effort from the salesperson. You can see how much the compliment resonated in the response below.
Hi [Rep],
Thanks for your interest in [Company]. I’m glad to see that our YouTube videos and instagram work is having a good impact! I did some research on Grapevine and would be interested to learn more about the platform. We are currently using a YouTube influencer service that I am not super happy with, so I would love to learn more about Grapevine. Can you please send through some information, case studies, minimum spend info, etc?
It's nice when prospects say they're unhappy with a competitor and then ask buying questions in their first response. Jealous? Keep reading.
Here's a third template we're testing:
Hi [Prospect Name],
I was speaking with [creator] the other day and she said that she's basically lived in your [product] all winter. She's a huge fan of [Brand] She specifically loves X about [product].
I'm also a huge social media nerd and love your Instagram page. It looks like there are a number of influencers with strong followings who are sharing your products.
With this kind of success, campaign coordination via email and social channels usually becomes frustrating and time-consuming. Sometimes, it becomes almost impossible to track who you are working with, let alone the results from each campaign. How are you keeping yourself organized?
Best,
[Rep]
Once again, here's a real response from one of the prospects who received a customized version of this template:
It’s such a pleasure to connect. Love that you’re hearing such great things about [Brand] and glad [product] was a hit. I’m still wearing it myself.
I love the idea of Grapevine and would love to schedule time to chat about the platform. Sounds so amazing!
In this case, the challenge of manually managing so many influencers hit a nerve with this prospect. After realizing her company had the challenge mentioned in the email, the prospect did some quick research and realized Grapevine might be able to help.
We also devised a follow up email template to send if one of these three first emails didn't elicit a response. The rep forwards the original note along with the below when they follow up.
Hi [Prospect],
Not sure if you saw my note below? Reason I'm asking whether the campaign has been successful is because I'm always looking for ways to help my clients do better campaigns. Yours looks like a good example.
Would you like to swap notes or ideas re: influencer marketing? I have 100s of examples that I can share too.
Best,
[Rep]
-------------------
[original message]
This message accomplishes a few things. First, it puts the original message at the top of the inbox in case the prospect missed it or forgot to respond. Second, it tells them that Grapevine is an advocate for their clients, always trying to share best practices. Third, it sets the tone that the Grapevine rep is an expert resource -- more of a peer sharing best practices than a salesperson pitching a platform.
And just so you believe me that all of these responses are authentic, here's a real response with an objection:
Sorry for the slow response! It's nice to meet you, and thanks for getting in touch. :) Right now, my digital marketing budgets are already committed for the year but I will definitely keep Grapevine in mind should anything open up.
Enjoy the rest of your Thursday! xx
As we all know, any response is better than none.
How are the new templates performing overall? It's still early. Open rate is a bit lower at 70%, which is likely due to the fact that the reps weren't customizing the subject line until halfway through our test. But the click rate is significantly higher at 50%, although most of the time, the prospect is clicking on a link to their own YouTube video or Instagram post. The key difference between the old templates and these new ones, however, is that they're getting a higher response rate -- 25% to be exact!
Why do these templates get a higher response rate? They spark curiosity in the prospect. Curious about the potential improvement the emails allude to, each of these prospects indicated they went to Grapevine's website to check out the system. Finding it interesting and relevant, they then responded to the salesperson enthusiastically. Because the salesperson provoked the introspection, the buyer believes that the salesperson is a credible expert who can potentially help them overcome the challenge introduced in the original email. And finally, because the note started with a compliment, when the prospect responds, they feel they are talking to a fan who cared enough to learn about them before offering to help. This initiates a very positive relationship which paves the way for a great exploratory conversation.
Do you want to get positive responses like these and response rates in the mid-20% range? Use the instructions below to construct your own flattery-based templates. It is a simple formula. All three templates I shared include only three elements.
The compliment gets the prospects to drop their guard. As sales legend Tom Hopkins explains, the purpose of a compliment is “to warm them up to you. You’re being friendly and likeable. If they have a certain pride in whatever you’ve commented on, they’ll start to relax in your presence rather than keeping their defense barriers high."
The first step is to find something to compliment. In face-to-face sales meetings, that's pretty easy as you can give a compliment about something in their office or their home. But if you are doing inside sales, you'll have to do research about your prospect beforehand in order to give a genuine compliment.
Grapevine’s reps can easily find a way to compliment their prospects because they can see exactly what brands are doing on social media. Determining whether or not their prospects are doing good influencer marketing is just a social profile visit away. HubSpot enjoys a similar situation, as we can inspect prospects’ websites and find something to compliment them about, or even run a website grader report to find things they're doing well.
But even if you can't inspect the things your service helps prospects improve, you should be able to formulate a compliment through other research. For example, you could read the company’s press releases, what they're posting to social channels, and online reviews, or talk to one of their employees, vendors, or customers. If you're still having trouble coming up with something after investigating these channels, broaden your search. Don't limit yourself to things that are related to your service. I've even complimented people on photos of their dog I’ve found on Facebook. As more and more companies and individuals share things about themselves online, it's becoming increasingly easy to learn about prospects before ever speaking with them.
The second step is to formulate the compliment, which has an important caveat. While it is true that almost everyone loves a compliment, it is critical that the compliment is genuine. Your prospect must believe you are being completely honest and sincere when you are giving the compliment. So, keep your bar high. Don't compliment someone who is not doing a good job. Don’t make something up if you can't find something to praise them about. As Lori Pendleton explains, "Insincere compliments can turn off the customer instantly. After all, who wants to start a relationship with someone whose compliments sound contrived?"
At Grapevine, most of the sales team members are female millennials who just so happen to be the target market for most of their prospects. Sincerely complimenting the health and beauty product companies they're calling on is natural for them. However, if you're worried that your compliment will look insincere because it's wrapped in an email from a salesperson, just send it without a question, or ask and wait for a "thank you" response. You can always probe for challenges later.
The key to prospecting is to get a response and initiate a dialogue. Genuine compliments are an easy key way to get someone's attention.
The next step in creating a template like one of the above is to introduce a challenge your prospect might be facing. This can be done as a statement like in template #3 above: "With this kind of influencer marketing success, campaign coordination usually becomes frustrating and time consuming. Sometimes, it becomes almost impossible to track who you are working with, let alone all the results from each campaign."
Choose the pain point based on what you know about your prospect and the typical challenges they face. For example, Grapevine wouldn't introduce this “organizational” challenge to a prospect who has only worked with a few influencers. Nor would they talk about tracking conversions if the brand didn't have an ecommerce storefront. Over time, you should compile a table of challenges and which types of prospects usually struggle with them.
After you've introduced the pain point, the final part is easy. Just ask a probing question.
A probing question is one that challenges a prospect to think deeply about a specific topic, and possibly consider something they may not have considered previously. These powerful questions get buyers to stop and think critically about their situation.
In template #3 above, the rep asks, "How are you keeping yourself organized?" which alludes to the challenge of hiring and communicating with multiple creators and tracking multiple campaigns. This question prompts the prospect to think about the time they’re spending on these tasks. It also gets them to reflect on if they’re dropping balls, or if they could be doing things more easily with a system in place.
In order to prompt this type of introspection, probing questions are typically open-ended questions. But they don’t have to be. If you can take a very educated guess about a challenge the prospect might be having, a closed-ended question can be just as provocative. For example, in template #1 above, the sales rep wrote, "Are you seeing a measurably higher customer acquisition rate from these [hashtag] posts and YouTube videos compared to other marketing efforts?" Since many brands don’t know they can track, aren’t able to track, and/or can’t predict customer acquisition rates, the question implies they are missing out. Once they realize they’re missing out, the prospect thinks, "Huh … I wonder if Grapevine can help me predict and improve my ROI?"
Typical salespeople send emails that ask the prospect to get on a call. But, this type of request rarely gets an affirmative response. The problem is that by asking for time before a challenge is uncovered or an opportunity becomes obvious to the prospect, salespeople are broadcasting their intention to sell. Asking for time on the phone is a big commitment from someone who doesn't know you or isn’t aware of what you can help them with. Prospects’ guards go up when salespeople are too eager.
By asking a question and provoking introspection, prospects drop their guard. An answer to a question is an easy ask to oblige (and almost impossible to ignore), especially if it makes them fear they're missing out on something. But, most importantly, a question implies that the salesperson is trying to help, not sell.
Finally, asking a question gives the prospect a feel for what a call with the salesperson will be like -- a real dialogue as opposed to the premature pitch they are used to getting from most salespeople. As you can see from the real responses Grapevine is getting from these new templates, this approach gets prospects to request a call, instead of the salesperson hounding or begging for one. Instead of suggesting 15 minutes on a call, flattery and a good question entices prospects to request time.
Are you using flattery to improve your prospecting email response rates? If not, I recommend it.
Hopefully by now you realize that Mae West knew what she was talking about when she said, "It's better to be looked over than overlooked."
Tracking sales data is a lot like dieting.
You know you should do it. You know it’s good for you. You might even know how to do it. But do you?
Probably not.
You’d rather be calling, emailing, or visiting customers—literally anything other than tracking numbers. Besides, most salespeople don’t track their sales data.
But most salespeople don’t produce extraordinary results.
Here’s why you need to track your data.
Human beings are biased, and our bias leads us to generalize, delete, and distort information. Because of this, we rarely see the “truth” in any situation.
We get attached to our ideas and let our emotions influence our decisions (and that can have serious consequences).
We need data because it has no bias, emotion, or motive. It simply is.
Data is the great truth teller.
Most salespeople don’t track their data because they don’t know where to start, and they don’t know the difference staying on top of data could make to their sales career.
Tracking your sales data does not have to be complicated.
I’m going to show you a three-metric system that will transform your sales performance.
But before we get there, let’s get clear on where you are in the sales process.
Are you in sales exploration or sales execution?
To track your data in a meaningful way, you need a sales model that is predictable and scalable. Here’s a quickstart guide to building that model.
Who is your ideal customer?
If you said something like, “Any technology company with up to 2,000 employees,” you’re in trouble.
That's not narrow enough.
In the beginning, your criteria should be so specific you struggle to find qualified prospects.
If you find yourself saying, “But that only leaves us four companies,” good! Go get those four!
How are you going to get to those customers? Will you rely on inbound leads or outbound prospecting?
If you go with outbound prospecting, and you decide to buy a list, make sure you do a quality assurance test. Always assume 30–40% of the contact information in a database is outdated. Sample a portion of the list and track your results.
How are you going to sell to these prospects? Should you be knocking on doors? Making 100 cold calls? Sending 1,000 cold emails? The only right answer is the solution that works for you.
Give different strategies a try. Keep up what works and ditch what doesn’t.
You have a sales model that is predictable and scalable.
You’re recruiting, training, hiring, and, most importantly, selling. This is where you find the highest quality data. Now you’re ready for the three metrics I mentioned earlier.
How many cold calls did you make? How many cold emails did you send? How many storefronts did you visit? Knowing your activity will help you track how your time is being invested and provide a foundation for the following two metrics.
How many decision makers did you reach? Of those, how many were qualified for your product? Use this to determine whether you’re pursuing the right prospects and to test the quality of your lead list.
How many of those qualified decision makers moved on to the next step (demos, trials, or purchases)? The conversion metric is great for pinpointing the strengths and weaknesses of your pitch and close.
The key to effective data tracking is consistency. If you don’t make it a daily habit, your data is meaningless.
It’s better to track one of those metrics for a week than all three for a day.
Most people think of sales as the act of closing deals.
When performance is suffering, the first and only place they look is the pitch.
If you aren’t making sales, you’re obviously either a crappy salesperson or your presentation sucks. Right?
Maybe. Maybe not. There’s no way to know for sure without looking at the data.
Let’s look at a few scenarios and some data driven solutions.
You’re calling 100 prospects, reaching two, qualifying two, and closing one.
Activity: 100 cold calls
Quality: Reached two (2%), qualified two (100%)
Conversion: Closed one (50%)
Although you have a qualification rate of 100% and a conversion rate of 50%, you’re only reaching 2% of the customers you’re calling. You don’t need to improve your pitch, you need to speak to prospects! Figuring out how to do that is your number one priority.
Potential solutions:
You’re calling 100 prospects, reaching 15, qualifying two, and closing one.
Activity: 100 cold calls
Quality: Reached 15 (15%), qualified two (13%)
Conversion: Closed one (50%)
Your reach rate is better and your close rate is still acceptable. However, the problem is that none of your leads are qualified. Either your lead list is outdated or you are going after the wrong customers.
Potential solutions:
You’re calling 100 prospects, reaching 15, qualifying 10, and closing one.
Activity: 100 cold calls
Quality: Reached 15 (15%), qualified 10 (66%)
Conversion: Closed one (10%)
Now you’ve got great reach and qualification rates, but your conversion rate is bad. If you can only close one qualified prospect then your pitch needs some serious work.
Potential solutions:
If your sales aren’t bringing the results you want, optimize from the top down. Ask yourself:
Use the framework below to benchmark your performance against successful campaigns.
Good campaigns typically average between 25–35%.
If your reach rate is below 15%, change your cold call approach.
Good campaigns typically have a qualification rate over 50%.
If your qualification rate is below 30%, you need a new lead list.
Good campaigns have a close rate near 100%.
If your conversion rate is below 50%, you need to work on your pitch.
If your open rate is below 30%, then you either have inactive email addresses or weak subject lines. Remember, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy.
Good campaigns have a rate closer to 50%.
If your response rate is below 30%, you don’t have compelling calls to action. Get your readers to respond.
Good campaigns have a rate near 100%.
If your conversion rate is below 50%, there’s a problem with your follow-up pitch.
This is the messy reality of startups: You will not have enough time to gather data for a perfect decision. You need to optimize for speed, not perfection.
I’d rather be wrong three times in a row really fast than be right really slowly.
Here are some basic guidelines:
Cold calling: 100–200 calls/day for three weeks
Cold emailing: 25–50 emails/day for two weeks
It won’t give you perfect data, but you don’t have the luxury of waiting around. Billion dollar companies can afford to have data scientists on staff to make sure that they only deal with statistically significant sample sizes. But even they get it wrong sometimes.
For a startup, aspiring to have 100% accurate data is a waste of scarce resources that could be put to better use.
Tracking your sales data doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it’s almost effortless if you’re a Close.io user. We've automated the majority of the process; all you have to do is tell our software what you want to track.
Still feeling a little dataphobic? Try tracking your data for two weeks (which just happens to be the length of our free trial), then share your results in the comments below.
I’ll personally take a look at your data and offer my feedback
Sound good? Great. Now get out there and crush it.
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Want to increase your open rates? Don't follow the widespread advice you find on the net. Here's what really gets sales emails opened ...
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Cold email templates for sales professionals. Cold calling 2.0 approach as well as direct sales approach templates.
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People say cold calling is dead because they work the phones like it's 1995. Here's how fast-growing companies cold call to drive revenues in 2015.
Securing customer meetings, whether to demo your product or meet with decision makers, is one of the first critical steps towards closing a deal. However, with changed B2B buyers, getting that customer meeting can feel more elusive than ever.
Here are 7 simple tips that can help you proactively drive more customer meetings:
According to Joanne Black, referral selling can help shorten your sales process, lower sales costs, and convert prospects into clients more than half of the time. Ask existing customers if they’re willing to provide referrals. As you finalize deals, include a referral request as part of your closing process. Remember, sales is built on relationships. If you build trusted partnerships with your customers, they are your best resource for new business.
Engagement analytics help you uncover the interest level of your prospect. By measuring the level and type of activities, you know what’s needed to get to a customer meeting and can set a repeatable process for your team.
Analytics help you by measuring what’s needed to get to the customer meeting – combine that with automation and it will help you get there faster. Data shows that a multi-touch strategy is key to getting a customer connect. With automation, you can speed customer nurturing with scheduled email and calling tasks. Nurtured leads can increase sales opportunities up to 20%, according to Demand Gen Report. With advanced automation, sales teams can speed processes yet still have the control to personalize the process for more efficient and effective nurturing.
Of Forrester’s four seller archetypes, only the sales ‘consultant’ is poised for future growth. According to Forrester, consultants operate more strategically and are astute at pinpointing buyer problems – sometimes even before the buyers themselves. How can your team become more like consultants? Reps must focus on selling a solution that addresses the business problem. Selling product features doesn’t create long-term value for the buyer. Just as important, sales leaders should encourage and strive to instill a sales culture where sales reps become motivated by customer success.
Integrate a combination of touch points in your outreach. Don’t rely solely on email to try to set up a meeting. Sales teams that use a combination of email, phone, and social media outreach are more effective. Be sure your team leaves voicemails as well.
As your team engages with prospects, be sure that the engagement is meaningful and offers something of value. Do reps understand prospect pain points? Do reps understand how to personalize their outreach to the buyer? If you don’t have insight into a prospect’s interests or interest level, use buyer-side analytics to help increase your understanding. Advanced technology can help reveal what areas interest prospects the most, so your team can personalize outreach.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Don’t wait around for the customer to ask you – close all of your prospect interactions with a specific call to action. Also, pay attention to the language that you’re using – in emails and on voicemail. What sounds better to you: “I hope to hear from you soon” or “Are you available for a quick phone call tomorrow or early next week”?
Customer meetings are essential to close more deals and increase your chances to make quota. Make sure your team understands everything that needs to be done to make them happen faster and more frequently – and avoid missing any opportunity.
Want more great expert advice? Check out our free e-book to get 100 tips sourced from our awesome network.
What does it take to grow your company?
Your first thought was probably along the lines of more and more and more clients. You think about generating more leads, networking more, and selling more.
But if you really want to grow, you might reconsider how you treat your current clients. Harvard Business Review found that an increase in customer retention by 5% results in an increase in profit by 25% to 95%. Engaged consumers spend more, are more profitable for the company, and have more growth potential.
In addition, it can be extremely expensive to win a new client. Consider the time and expenses incurred during the new business process -- from researching and writing a proposal to practicing and pitching to meetings to spec work.
Increasing your company’s retention rate and the loyalty of your clients can help your company become more stable and improve the profitability of your company. And even if your work is mainly project-based, there is still an opportunity to increase your client return rate or lifetime value with these tips.
Before you begin to even consider a retention strategy, you need to understand what your current retention rate is. (I wish I could save the math until the end, but that’s just not how this works.)
You’ll first need to define a period of time -- whether that’s quarterly or yearly. Then, follow this formula:
Customer Retention Rate = ((# Customers at End of Period - # Customers Acquired During Period)) / # Customers at Start of Period)) X 100
For example: You start the year with 20 clients, gain 5 new clients in the first quarter, and have one client churn.
((24-5)/20)) x 100 = 95% retention
Here’s another example: You have 44 clients, you gain 12 new clients, and 13 clients churn:
((43-12)/44) x 100 = 70% retention
Once you know your rate, you should consider doing an audit of your lost clients to determine similarities in reasons for leaving or types of clients that leave, say clients with an overall marketing budget of less than X amount always churn. Consider if you can add qualifying questions to your sales process or revise your ideal client profile to better reflect the attributes of loyal clients.
Now, the most important part of client retention is the quality of your company’s work. Without great work that delivers ROI or meets the client’s goals, you will find yourself on the other side of the table hearing the words, “You’re fired.” But delivering great work isn't the only thing that matters. Here are a few tips for improving your retention rate:
A significant portion of the sales process should be focused on determining if your company and the prospect are the right fit -- from both a relationship standpoint and how you will work together.
Share previous case studies that reveal your company’s style of communication and collaboration, your processes for executing on and delivering work, and the results you achieved for clients. You could also share testimonials from current customers.
It's similar to researching purchasing any big buying decision. You want to know if and how it will work before you purchase. If the client truly understands this, they will be more likely to have properly set expectations and be happier with the experience once they sign on.
If you don’t set expectations and communicate these clearly, clients can easily become upset. They might believe you can deliver on X results, while in reality, those results are only seen in month six or with additional projects.
In addition, your clients are coming from very different businesses. One client might feel that your fees are high, and therefore, they expect an extremely high amount of expertise and "white glove" client service, while for another client, you might be one of many different company partners, and the client cares more about your ability to collaborate than care for their brand.
Understanding these points of view and communicating deadlines, progress toward goals, what’s included in a project, your process, your communication style, etc., is essential for making sure expectations are met. This, in turn, will keep clients happy with the relationship for longer.
Clients are more likely to stay with your company if your firm is delivering results and ROI. If a client can point to the fact that your company has influenced or increased leads, MQLs, SQLs, lifetime value, retention, etc., then it will be much more difficult for the client to say goodbye.
That means you need a good system for tracking and reporting on the metrics that really matter to the client, which should relate to the SMART goals you established together. Be transparent about the activities you executed on last month, the results you saw, where you see opportunities for improvements, and what you will work on next month. In addition, use a project management tool so that the client can easily see how far along the team is in a project.
Many people compare the client-company relationship to dating. This isn’t that far off. And it’s especially true when you consider the lifecycle of dating. At some point, one person in the relationship wants to know that this is “going somewhere.” He or she wants to know what the “plan” for the future looks like.
This desire to know that you are working toward a “next step” can also be applied to business relationships. It can be easy for the client-company relationship to fall victim to routine –--everything is going great, you know what type of work the client wants (and will approve), and you understand what works to reach their goals. That gets boring quickly though, and it’s easy for the client to wake up one day and realize how uninspired and unmotivated the company team is.
Your account executives should create and revise on a regular basis a relationship roadmap. Build in steps for new projects and levels of commitment. Both parties should be able to look forward and be excited about the current and next stage of the relationship.
You should also have a process for ending a client relationship -- this is inevitable. But when you end the relationship in the right way, you leave open the possibility that you might be called upon again.
According to research, people remember negative events more vividly than positive ones. Even if there are more positive events overall, the bad occurrences may be the longest lasting memories.
So agencies need to consider how they can create better, more memorable experiences around positives and successes. When something negative occurs -- a goal or deadline is missed for example -- the company team overly communicates, discusses plans for fixing the issue, apologizes, etc. But when something truly great happens, how much of an emphasis do you place on the event?
You can’t improve client retention without first understanding why clients leave your company. Once you know the reasons and the correlating signs, you can work to prevent client churn by proactively dealing with issues.
Ask for regular feedback from the entire client team, including the decision-maker. Use a client feedback tool, such as CLIENTpulse or Client Heartbeat to track trends by either the client, the individual, or the project. For example: By tracking by project, you could identify if client happiness drops after every website redesign project. If you identify this trend, you could work to improve processes or ask for more qualitative feedback on what exactly is contributing to the fall in satisfaction. You could also identify if a specific account manager's clients have all reduced their satisfaction scores. Maybe the person has become too overwhelmed and you need to reallocate work? Maybe a personal matter is affecting his or her work, and you should encourage the person to take a few days off work?
Being able to identify and address these issues as early as possible will help you to prevent clients from leaving you.
Consistency builds trust with clients. They know what to expect (See #2) and can rely on your team to get the work done and deliver the results they need.
Without this, most interactions are a surprise, and in reality, clients don’t like surprises -- even if they say they want to partner with a more “innovative, fun, risk-taking company.”
Build out processes for onboarding new clients and kickoff meetings. Have set agendas for meetings. Build workflows around projects and share these with clients. That doesn’t mean you have to become a factory of creative output; you can still customize according to the specific needs of the client. But let’s be realistic: Your company typically executes on similar project types. Having a process for each of these activities will make your team more efficient, and the client will have insight into what needs to be done and when. You can save the surprises for when you share the great results of the project.
Have you considered what the communication from your company looks like once a client signs on? Yes, she emails and works with her account manager, but how often does she hear from the new business director who convinced her to work with your firm or your CEO/owner?
Consider creating a monthly newsletter sent from the company CEO. Have the new business director be involved in quarterly account check-ins. Consider if there are education or training needs of the client you should address. Come up with interesting, light touch ways to continue to build up the credibility of your company’s brand with the client.
Your company’s culture, leadership, and business practices all contribute to retention, but another way to prevent disruption in changes in personnel is by adopting a CRM system where you can store notes from meetings and phone calls, ongoing issues, personal preferences of the clients, etc.
With detailed notes and a complete history of the relationship recorded, a new account manager will be ready to be a true business leader to the client much more quickly.
Reciprocity is a social construct that has been found to increase loyalty. Acts of kindness create a feeling of obligation in the person who instinctively wants to repay the kindness.
There are two kinds of reciprocity: surprise and trumpeted. Both of these can be used in client service to increase loyalty.
Surprise reciprocity is obviously a surprise gift or gesture. An example of this would be when your company sends over tickets for a game the day of or when a project is completed a day early without warning.
Trumpeted reciprocity is when the person giving or doing something beneficial does so in a way that reveals that they are going above and beyond. It doesn’t mean you document and put all the great things you do in a monthly report, but it is obvious to the client that what you are doing is outside the normal scope of the relationship. This could be as simple as taking behind the scenes photos at a video shoot and packaging them in a memorable way as a gift for the client team.
Typically, clients mainly communicate with their account manager. These individuals form a bond during hundreds of meetings, phone calls, and emails. They know each other’s favorite restaurants, what sports their kids’ play, and other seemingly inconsequential details.
This becomes a problem for a few different reasons: 1) When the account manager leaves or is promoted, the relationship is at risk. If the relationship is extremely friendly, the client might not be happy with anyone else. 2) The account manager becomes too engrossed in the client’s needs and wants. This leads to the account person pitting herself against the company when something goes wrong so that the client feels understood. 3) The client’s sole connection to the company is based on one person.
This is a risky place to be in in terms of retention. Your company needs to make it a goal that clients build relationships with multiple members of the team. When the account manager talks to the client about a project, she should use the name of the person actually doing the work. Send the client pictures of the entire team working on the latest project, or whenever there is a client lunch, make sure there is another member of the team present.
Inbound marketing isn’t just about the marketing team. It directly affects the sales team and the lead generation process. Therefore, it’s extremely vital that your sales & marketing teams are aligned.
I recently read an article entitled, “3 Ways Inbound Marketing Can Give Sales a Helping Hand,” and it offers up some good tips on how inbound marketing can help the sales team; however, it’s not just about helping the sales team – it’s about the sales and marketing teams working well together. Unfortunately, many organizations keep the two teams separate; they haven’t fully grasped the changing roles caused by evolving technology.
Below are tips from the article along with my thoughts on the importance of alignment between sales & marketing for each point.
Define Clear Targets – Ensure both the sales & marketing teams have a clear understanding of who the target audience is. The content the marketing team creates needs to speak to the right audience. Marketing needs to work with the sales team to develop buyer personas and develop content that attracts the attention of those buyer personas.
Warm Up Leads – It’s much easier to get a warm lead to buy than it is to get a cold lead to buy. So, the sales team needs help in getting cold leads warmed up. A great way to do this is to have sales reps provide useful and educational content to potential buyers. When sales reps provide feedback to markers about prospects’ pain points, the marketing team can provide content that will be helpful and relevant to sales reps and their prospects.
Create Content – As we’ve already discussed above, content marketing plays a big role in of how sales attracts and warms up leads. The majority of buyers today do most of their own research before even considering talking to a sales rep. So, it’s vital that marketing creates the right content to drive traffic and leads to the website. It’s critical that the content provides valuable information that attracts the right prospects and keeps them there.
“Over half (57%) of the selling process is completed for consumers before a company even has a chance to interact with them.” (Hubspot)
As the statistic from Hubspot demonstrates, more than half of the selling process is completed before the sales rep ever speaks to the buyer. So, ensuring your company is putting the right content out there to attract the attention of potential buyers means having your sales & marketing teams aligned and working towards the same goals.
Sales and marketing go hand in hand. Without effective marketing, there are no prospects to sell your product to. Without sales people to convert those prospects into customers, your marketing efforts are wasted.
In a small company, sales and marketing functions are often the responsibility of one or two people with blended roles—so communicating goals and priorities is often simpler and clearer. But as an organization grows and teams begin to form, the lines of communication often begin to break down.
It’s not uncommon for marketing teams to have very little knowledge of the sales process, and for sales teams to be clueless about the effort required to generate the leads they’re following up on.
Before you create a marketing strategy, it’s important to involve your sales team. Among other things, you need to make sure your marketing activities are designed to:
Here are three things your marketing team needs to give your sales team to help them achieve their goals.
Questions for your sales team: What are the characteristics of our ideal customer? What makes one prospect more qualified than another? What information about a prospect is vital to the sales process?
Answers from your marketing team: Work together to create an ideal customer profile that clearly defines the types of customers you’re trying to attract. Then identify and document the personas of the individuals you typically interact with during the sales process—their characteristics, pains, questions, and motivations. Make sure your branding and messaging are designed to attract the right people to your business, and that you’re giving them the information they need at each stage of the buying cycle.
Identify what types of information your sales team needs, and figure out how marketing can capture and pass along that information to sales. As you focus your marketing efforts on educating prospects, your sales team will spend more time talking to sophisticated buyers who are ready to purchase.
Questions for your sales team: What information do you find yourself repeating to prospects? What questions do your prospects ask at each stage of the buying process? What are the emotions they feel (and what do you want them to feel) during their journey?
Answers from your marketing team: First, start by mapping out the stages of your buyer’s journey (Awareness, Consideration, Decision) and make a list of the questions the buyer has at each stage. Then create content that answers their questions and helps them move to the next stage of the process.
For example, create a downloadable eBook or checklist that can be posted on your website and can also be used by your sales team to educate potential customers. Or, host a monthly webinar that allows you to showcase your expertise and educate a number of prospects in a single educational session.
Before long, your sales team will be spending their valuable time nurturing relationships and closing sales instead of answering the same questions over and over.
Questions for your sales team: What factors cause us to lose customers to our competition? What makes our products and services better than those of our competitors?
Answers from your marketing team: Look at what your competitors are doing. Is everyone talking about their low prices, great service, and high quality? Talk to your customers—why did they choose your company over a competitor? Create materials that specifically address your competitive advantage, and make sure your messaging is unique.
Think about creating an eBook that addresses “The Acme Corporation Difference” or create a tip sheet that talks about the “Top 10 Reasons Our Widgets Will Blow Your Mind.” Your sales team can then use these materials to educate prospects about why they’ll love doing business with you instead of your competition.
In the end, your marketing and sales teams have the same objective: to attract the right clients to use and purchase your services. It’s up to these two teams to communicate with each other to address problems on either end. From the sales team’s perspective, making the sale should be easy if the marketing team attracts the right types of clients while maintaining a competitive edge in the market. If both teams are able to be successful, then your company will be successful.
Don’t know where your latest deal is in your sales pipeline? Not even sure what a sales pipeline is (maybe something to do with plumbing?) If this sounds familiar, chances are you’re using the typical go-to piece of tech that most people turn to when they are not quite sure what they’re doing or looking for: an Excel spreadsheet.
Sure, these spreadsheets can be useful for some stuff (college projects, basic math), but they’re not up to the job when you have to tackle something as important as pipeline management (which, by the way, shows you what stage your deal is at – eg ready to close, researching, etc). The good news is that there are many cloud-based Excel substitutes that can transform the way you manage your sales pipeline, which not only saves sales staff a lot of time on manual data entry, tracking, and reporting, but also allow you to better manage the sales process, and connect with your customers at the right time in the right way.
We’ve put together a list of 10 Excel alternatives for managing your sales pipeline that will make you ditch those spreadsheets for good.
SalesforceIQ is the first of the Excel alternatives for managing your sales pipeline on our list due to the sheer amount of reviewers who mentioned this on GetApp – more than with any other app. SalesforceIQ’s sales pipeline management features include robust reporting that provides data on the percentage of deals that are converting through each stage of the process, the win rate of each member of your sales team, and where deals might be getting held up in the proces.
GetApp reviewer Eric Chen says: “After I started using it for a couple of weeks, I started to gradually optimize my deal pipeline and how I move things through the funnel. Ultimately this is the unquantifiable value in RelateIQ … avoiding a missed opportunity!”
Josiah Filler, director of business development and operations at tour activity operator Peek.com, says: “I use it religiously every day for my BizDev pipeline and can’t imagine a world without it now!
The name says it all: Pipeliner is a cloud app that is dedicated to helping you manage your sales pipeline. It has all the usual pipeline management features such as a drag-and-drop, customizable interface, the ability to create multiple pipelines, and sales forecasting functionality, but it also includes a 3D view to give you a more visual representation of what stage your deals are at. Pipeliner’s 3D view means you can set trackable dimensions – sales stage, expected time to close and size of deal – with the bigger the entry on the dashboard representing a more lucrative opportunity.
GetApp reviewer Jon Torrens says: “I used to use Excel to keep track of where I was with my customers on the sales process, which became very time-consuming. Pipeliner cuts out a ton of time each day with a drag and drop interface for moving my customers along the process. Each customer exists as an account (with its own list of contacts and notes) from which I create each opportunity (piece of work). Integrated social media slots for each contact allow me to get a complete picture of each account, and I can see all my accounts (there are about 70) on one page.”
Another app where the clue is in the name, PipelineDeals aims to provide excellent visibility into each stage of the sales pipeline. What makes PipelineDeals a good Excel substitute is that it allows you to customize not only the deal stages you choose, but also the metrics you want to measure. The pipeline management app’s reports measure data such as win/loss ratios, pipeline volume and the speed sales are taking place. Each deal also gets a dedicated page where you can record tasks, events, communication, add documents, and see who is involved.
Amy Robb, owner/publisher at bimonthly magazine Edible Northeast Florida, explains why you need to find an alternative to Excel: “Pipeline is the only product I’d recommend to other small publishers — and for two of us on staff, it’s a life-save. If you’re using six Excel spreadsheets to track information and punting it back and forth between multiple contributors — for heaven’s sake. Stop. Do a trial. It’ll speak for itself.”
Infusionsoft provides a specific module within its marketing and sales management software for managing your pipeline. By creating what Infusionsoft calls “sales stages”, Opportunities allows you to track where your deal is in the pipeline, as well as tracking the next action date and time so you can more easily manage follow-up tasks. It can also automate stages of the pipeline, for example when you move from one stage to the next and the task is to email a client, Infusionsoft will automatically do it for you according to the pre-defined template you have created. This frees up a sales rep’s time to focus on selling.
One of GetApp reviewers had this to say about the benefits of Infusionsoft: “With InfusionSoft we were able to stream processes such as email marketing, sales pipeline, CRM and customization of our customer email marketing program.”
Pipedrive is a CRM for small businesses that has a built-in pipeline view that allows sales team to get a quick overview of which stage their deals are, as well as delve in for a more in-depth view. Much like a digital Kanban board, these deals can also easily moved from column-to-column in a drag-and-drop fashion depending on where they are in the pipeline. No more copy and paste nightmares with this Excel substitute.
Karlis Andersons, general manager at Blue Bridge Technologies, says: “We were using Excel to keep track of our sales pipeline. Once we started using Pipedrive we quickly understood how it works, it was easy to import our existing deals and in a day or two we were using world class software solution that made our process transparent so everyone knew what was happening and how well we were doing.”
Another CRM and sales management tool that has a built-in pipeline view is Teamgate CRM. This Excel alternative makes managing your sales pipeline more straightforward with its filterable and customizable pipeline management view. With Teamgate, you can manage more than one sales pipeline at once, drag and drop depending on the stage, and add forecasting information such as estimated deal closing day or win/loss percentage. This CRM also highlights areas where your sales team need to apply extra attention.
One GetApp reviewer highlighted the pipeline view as a major pro after switching from Microsoft Dynamics CRM to Teamgate.
Base CRM is a sales pipeline management tool that prides itself on offering a wide range of analytics to help you keep a hold of where your deals are and produce useful reports to inform future decisions. Base CRM also offers highly rated mobile apps – scoring full marks in the mobile category of our GetRank quarterly sales management rankings – as well as personalized notifications, meaning key information reaches the right person to allow them to make decisions in a timely manner.
Per Egnerfors, CRM consultant at IT company Beguine, says that Base CRM’s data reports, “give sales managers total control of their sales teams.”
As Insightly is both a CRM and a project management app in one, you can either choose to create sales pipelines or milestones, depending on the needs of the team. You can then apply this pipeline to a project, and create a set of activities that is associated with each step of the pipeline. Insightly also offers the ability to send configurable reports scheduled at a time of your choosing, and provides smart alerts. If you need help on setting up a Pipeline, the company has drawn up a useful guide.
GetApp reviewer Oliver Lee says that Insightly is: “Great for small businesses, and better than an Excel spreadsheet.”
You Don’t Need a CRM is a no-frills sales management solution that aims to simplify your sales activities. Its Pipeline View offers a wide range of filters to help you quickly access the information you need, and its drag-and-drop functionality makes moving to the next stage of the process quick and easy. Pipeline View is visible from the app’s main menu, and allows you to switch from here to Extended View for a comprehensive look at your sales activity, or Compact View for a quick overview.
One of our reviewers – a creative director of a design company – had this to say about You Don’t Need a CRM: “I finally have a place to store all my leads and view the sales pipeline. I also love the fact that is syncs with Freshbooks, so I don’t have to enter a new Customer each time.”
Tracks is a tool that is completely focused on pipeline management. Its selling point is it ease of use, as well as its low price point – you pay a flat price per month no matter how many users you have. Tracks advocates a more simplistic approach to managing your sales pipeline, being aimed at smaller companies that have a more slimline portfolio of products.
Experienced business consultant Geoff Brandt says: “In its present incarnation, Tracks is a very functional and flexible pipeline tool (and nothing else) that your sales team will immediately incorporate into its workflow. The learning curve is literally minutes. The cost is very low. Perfect for micro to medium sized businesses that don’t want to navigate expensive training classes or hire a consultant to “integrate” a tool into the company.”
The apps above are what we at GetApp think are your best bet to manage your sales pipeline, but if you know of something that should be on the list, let us know in the comments below. If you need more information about certain features in your sales management software, check out GetRank, our quarterly ranking of the top apps for your small business.
Your finances matter, but there are much more important things in life, and some decisions should be about more than money. That said, those decisions can change your financial situation, so it helps to be prepared. Investopedia breaks down three decisions with huge impacts on your finances.
It’s easy to think that good business ideas come in a blinding flash of inspiration to some lucky entrepreneur (probably in his/her garage somewhere), but this is almost never the case.
A great idea is generally a destination – a series of interrelated steps that take you from where you are to running a profitable enterprise.
Now, most articles you read will tell you that a great business idea meets a demand. That you have to look around you to see what problems can be solved, then find a way to solve that problem in a way that generates profits.
That’s right. But I don’t think it’s the whole story, which is why this article is going to give you a few handy tips and pointers about how to find the right problems – without driving yourself mad trying to force a moment of blinding inspiration.
Here’s what Steven Johnson says about where good ideas come from:
Think of a great business idea as a jigsaw puzzle. It’s one idea, but it is created from many different parts. Those parts are everything from the bits of information and knowledge/skills you have, to literal parts like a car, garage, tools, Internet, and so on.
How you construct a business idea depends entirely on the parts you have available, and more importantly, the parts you know about. It’s pretty difficult to complete a jigsaw puzzle when you only have half the pieces, right?
What makes a good idea then, is something that meets a demand or solves a problem elegantly using readily available stuff. Coming up with an idea for a faster than light spaceship is fantastic – but essentially useless because we probably can’t manufacture the parts we need to build it right now.
Often, a good idea isn’t completely new. It’s something that has been done before. But, you may come up with a slightly different, cheaper or better way to do it.
Come up with your idea yet? If not, keep reading…
What do you have to offer the world in terms of providing a product or service? If you don’t know the answer to this, you’re probably not ready to get started just yet. After all, if you don’t know what value you bring how will anyone else?
Get out of routines. Do different things. It can be anything you like – but preferably stuff you love.
Don’t feel guilty about pursuing things you enjoy. It is often those things that you are most passionate about that will reveal great new opportunities (most likely because you are simply more observant when it comes to stuff you love).
Spend a bit of time pushing the envelope. Go to networking events. Force yourself to meet new people, and find out what they do. Find out what drives and motivates them. What problems and obstacles did they have to overcome (or are still experiencing).
Every new person you meet can, amongst other things:
There is incredible value in seeking out productive, like-minded people. This brings with it the chance to learn new things and find new opportunities. You might find that your ideas come half-way through chatting with someone interesting.
There are also some great online resources for gathering new ideas and inspiration – especially when they’re packed full of pictures and video clips showing how other entrepreneurs are converting ideas into profits.
Let’s say that when you first wanted to come up with a new idea you had 20 distinct puzzles pieces – some family members willing to help, a PC, Internet connection, etc. After spending some time in step 2, you might have doubled or tripled the number of puzzle pieces available to play with.
Now’s the time to lay them all out on the table and start playing around to see what type of picture you can make. Perhaps several people you spoke to mentioned problems they were experiencing. Others talked about cool new things they had heard about. Whatever you have, try combine and recycle what’s there to come up with a viable idea.
Reach out to family and friends, colleagues, or go and speak to established business owners or industry experts. It’s amazing what insight and advice you can glean for the price of a cup of coffee.
Here’s the nice part. If you can’t seem to come up with a great idea, it’s not because you can’t do it. It’s because you don’t have enough pieces of the puzzle. Go back to step 2 and gather more pieces before trying again.
Eventually, you will know everyone and everything about what’s going on. And when that happens, you’ll be able to see opportunities you never dreamed about.
The alternative is to work alone and not expose yourself to all the great possibilities that are floating all around. I tried that. It didn’t work well.
If you’re looking for inspiration to help come up with an idea of your own, it’s worth checking out our small business ideas page, which has plenty of unique and interesting ideas over a range of categories, complete with picture and clips of how other entrepreneurs are making things happen. You can also help others and make new connections by sharing your own ideas there.
So what do you think about this strategy for developing new ideas? What would you do differently?
RnordmanGreat book
I’m delighted to share February’s “The Scribe – Sales Leadership Book of the Month” featuring sales expert Mike Weinberg, author of Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team.
Mike is the type of person who calls it like it is. In a straight-forward and candid interview (similar to his book’s style) Mike told me why he wrote the book and why sales leaders need to read it. He didn’t hold back any punches in holding management accountable for sales team performance – and telling how they need to change. Read the below QA to hear what he had to say!
We’re also giving away 10 free copies of Mike’s book. You can sign up here.
Q: Why did you write Sales Management. Simplified?
Mike: I felt compelled to write this book out of utter frustration with senior executives and sales managers. I wanted to tell the truth that they needed to, but maybe did not want to hear – that their company “sales” problems were often more of a leadership and culture problem than an issue with sales skills and the sales team.
I regularly get called in by companies to help increase sales and can work inside an organization for months – consulting and coaching, as well as getting to know the people and observing the culture.
I saw:
I came to realize that you don’t transform the sales organization by coaching up the salespeople. You can only transform and create improvement if you change the culture and the leadership mindset – and that’s why I wrote the book.
Q: Where did you see most of these problems occurring?
Mike: The majority of sales problems came from senior management. For startups and smaller companies, this could often be the founder of the company or the CEO. In larger companies, this could be a senior sales executive under so much pressure from Wall Street and the Executive Board that they’ve lost sight of their high value activities.
Q: What will sales leaders learn from your book?
Mike: Sales leaders are working up to 70 hours a week – but they’re not leading anybody, anywhere. Sales managers are distracted and they’ve lost control of their calendars – and they’re not doing the high value activities that they need to do to help lead their team and drive their revenue.
It’s time to stop pointing the finger at the sales team. My book helps leadership to take a good look in the mirror to see their contribution to the sales issues – and then provides them easy and practical ways to fix the problem.
Q: What are the top two takeaways that you’d like to share with sales leaders?
Mike:
Q: What message from your book do you think will be most shocking for sales leaders?
Mike: There are really two things. First, they’ll be shocked that they’re the problem.
Second, they’ll be shocked at how simple the solution is – there’s no rocket science in my book.
Q: Can you describe your book’s style? How does it differ from other sales and business books?
Mike: It’s blunt and simple in equal parts. You can read it in a few hours in one sitting. It’s easy to read with lots of case studies. I didn’t create any algorithm to talk about sales management. The first half of the book is the problem. The second part is the solution – walking the reader through examples and real-world stories based on my own experiences.
Q: What was the worst/best part about writing this book?
Mike: The worst part was the fear of offending people because I told true stories about real leaders in real companies. It’s scary calling out the very people that hire me for my services. The book may end up costing me some business, but I felt strongly enough that the truth had to come out. And salespeople everywhere are applauding that someone had the guts to shine the spotlight back on the executive suite.
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Sign up now to get a chance to win a free copy of Sales Management. Simplified.
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from Building Your Customer Success Strategy, an eBook discussing the ins and outs of Customer Success. Access your free copy here.
While customer success helps you improve in many key areas – both tangible and intangible – the five most important business elements it drives are:
Renewal decisions are based on perceived value. By focusing on customer success you will help customers realize more value in your products and services which will lead to increased renewal rates and longer customer tenures, both of which increase a customer’s lifetime value and help you drive growth and profitability.
The number of available options out there combined with low switching costs have commoditized many markets. By adding value to customer relationship beyond product and service you can alleviate some of the pressure on product delivery and introduce a buffer for errors that will be acceptable to customers.
As Mitch MacFarlane, SVP of Customer Success, Instructure, puts it, “You’re not perfect. You may not have all the features, but you can inspire customer loyalty (retention) by aggressively supporting customer success. If they love working with you, and they feel like you’re invested in their success, they will commit for the long-term.”
According to a Totango study, 70%–90% of a customer’s lifetime value is generated via renewals, cross-sells, and up-sells.Customer success provides better visibility into customer goals, making it easier for you to identify and convert valuable up-sell and cross-sell opportunities. And, by keeping you actively involved with your customers’ goal fulfillment, success creates an intrinsic association between your customers’ success and your product, which makes them more likely to extend and expand their relationship with your company.
Customer success increases customer predictability by giving you insight into developing issues. Without a customer success perspective, you are just looking at an outcome. With a customer success focus, you can uncover drivers of that outcome, which will help you with recurring revenue predictability and capacity planning.
An effective customer success strategy turns customers into evangelists who are willing to recommend your product, refer customers, and provide testimonials. This good will and third-party validation helps you accelerate acquisition velocity, grow market share, lower overall CAC and sometimes helps you open the door for new market development. Customer advocacy and a good reputation will get you in front of prospects and drive higher win rates while reducing CAC by increasing the pace at which referred prospects move through the sales funnel.
A customer success strategy clarifies the corporate vision, creating a strong focus for the entire organization. Cross-functional goal alignment reduces the number of intracompany investments by consolidating efforts around a few key areas that create value for the customer, making the entire operation more efficient and effective.
The nature of the SaaS model means that there is a very direct relationship between your company’s ability to achieve its corporate goals and your customers’ ability to achieve their goals. You cannot have one without the other.
The post Exploring the Top 5 Benefits of Customer Success appeared first on OpenView Labs.
Blogging is difficult. Finding the time, brainstorming ideas and, most importantly, maintaining a consistent approach to posting can lead many business owners to neglect this essential marketing tactic.
If that sounds familiar, you may have fallen into a common trap of trying to do it all yourself. Well, good news: you don’t have to!
Content marketing is huge. It represents the perfect opportunity for businesses to lessen their reliance on pay per click (PPC) advertising and instead generate more website hits from organic search listings whilst building a loyal following of soon-to-be punters.
Sounds complex? It doesn’t have to be. All you need is a little help from your friends in the office.
Let’s look at some ways to get your staff blogging.
Interview them
Short on blogging ideas? Why not pick a topic (a recent product update, perhaps) and interview two or three staff members on the subject. Get their angle on it and turn the interview into a blog post. Better still, video the interview and post that up, too.
Implement a monthly blog spot for staff
Your staff probably have a lot to say, so why not give each one the opportunity to contribute to a ‘monthly staff blog spot’? You’ll probably find one or two staff members who enjoy writing and who will jump at the chance. For those that need a little extra encouragement, read on…
Offer an incentive
Even if your staff do have a lot to say, they may feel nervous about doing so on the company blog. Reassure them that it is an open forum – within reason, of course – and that they won’t be judged on what they write. Better still, offer them an incentive for contributing. Something which is a small investment for the company but represents high value to the employee; a trip to the cinema, perhaps.
Get them working in teams
If you’re finding it difficult to get your staff blogging, suggest they do so in teams. A pairing is usually sufficient and, with two heads collaborating on one piece, you’ll start to see some impressive results. People will often let their guard down when they have another shoulder to lean on, so it’s a great way of breaking down the ‘I don’t want to write a blog post’ barrier.
Remind them they are capable of blogging
‘I can’t write, so you won’t want me contributing to the blog.’ I bet you’ve heard that retort plenty of times. In reality, some of the most prolific bloggers in the world aren’t super competent writers. They just have brilliant ideas, fascinating opinions and a good editor.
If your staff are worried about the quality of their written work, remind them of the above fact. What you want from them is what’s inside their head – grammar, spelling and the formatting of their posts can be fixed by you or the marketing team.
Your staff could be the key to realizing the latent potential of your dormant company blog. Get them involved today!
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Ever since she was little, Jaime Masters wanted to be a millionaire.
It wasn't until she was 24 years old, over $70,000 in debt, and in a job she hated that she made the effort.
"It was under these conditions that I took the first major step toward building a new, fulfilling life for myself," writes Masters, who wrote under the name Tardy, in her book, "The Eventual Millionaire: How Anyone Can Be an Entrepreneur and Successfully Grow Their Startup."
She worked extra hours at her job as a project manager for a company that installed cable equipment, sold her almost-new car, and drastically cut back her expenses. She paid off her debt in 16 months.
But Masters is not a millionaire. She's an "Eventual Millionaire."
According to her definition, "Eventual Millionaires" want to be millionaires, but on their own terms with an enjoyable life and an enjoyable business. They put the process of making money into perspective and are usually overachievers who are willing to work hard, but not sacrifice their daily lives for their goals.
In her quest for $1 million, Masters began to study and interview people who had already reached that goal. (You can read some of her case studies on her website.) Soon enough, she started to come across commonalities that she realized influenced their success.
No one can predict the future, but Masters found answering "yes" to more than half of the following questions may indicate you have a mindset similar to those who have earned $1 million already — which says good things for your chances of doing it yourself.
Masters suggests you ask:
Of course, the "Eventual Millionaire" mindset is only a piece of the puzzle.
Ultimately, earning a million is up to you.
SEE ALSO: A woman who wiped out almost $24,000 of debt in 15 months shares the 3 things that helped her do it
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NOW WATCH: 9 phrases on your résumé that make hiring managers cringe
More than 2 billion adults worldwide, in both developed and developing countries, lack adequate access to banking services. Of this group, the majority isn’t excluded by choice; rather, cost, distance, need, and other variables make it challenging or impossible to access banking services.
Historically, banks and financial institutions haven’t seen this population as a lucrative group, because they tend to be low-income, drift in and out of the banking system, and don’t adopt high-value products, like credit. However, these populations are now becoming easier to access and, as a result, more attractive to financial institutions, because if products are scaled appropriately, they could represent a massive revenue stream.
In response, financial institutions, mobile network operators (MNOs), and card networks are using digital technology like mobile phones and payment cards to access these populations in the hopes of building new streams of revenue in an increasingly competitive banking system. By leveraging phones and cards to build out financial ecosystems, hand financial access to broad swaths of people without it, and expand the range of services available to large populations, these firms have the opportunity to profit immensely.
In a new report from BI Intelligence, we take a close look at who the un- and underbanked are, the way financial institutions are using mobile phones and payment cards to access these populations, and whether there’s a profit opportunity for these stakeholders.
Here are some key takeaways from the report.
In full, the report:
Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:
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NOW WATCH: The biggest security mistakes people make when buying things online
True story: I just got home from a long day at work and I’m tryng to make dinner for my kids. While I’m juggling a hot pan and a pot of boiling water, my dogs need to be fed and let outside, and I need to go through the mail that was delivered today. In the middle of it all the phone rings. It’s “Mai” calling and she wants to know how I’m doing – how I’m really doing. The problem is that I don’t know Mai and I don’t know why she is calling, so I’m not quite sure why she would think I would interrupt my evening routine to have a conversation about how I’m really doing. Instead, I ask where she is calling from and before answering, she repeats her entire opening monologue which I now realize is clearly scipted. Then, instead of telling me where she is calling from, she goes on to say that she can help people like me get out of debt and asks if I feel like I could use her help.
For real, sister?
First of all, I don’t know you. Second of all, I’m not in debt. And third of all, does this kind of pitch ever really work??!!
This might be an extreme example but the reality is that there are examples of pushy salespeople and poorly executed pitches all around us. From the salesperson at the mall who keeps trying to get me to buy a dress that I know doesn’t fit well, to the guy who keeps calling me at the office to try and sell me software I don’t need, to the kid at a well-known chain store who continues to push a “purchase protection plan” after I’ve declined it, salespeople can be downright annoying.
When you think about it, this approach to sales is broken. There has been a massive shift over the last two decades in how people buy. It’s well documented and there is plenty of data to support it. With more information available online, we as buyers start our purchasing process on Google and don’t want to talk to a salesperson until we are 70% of the way through our buying process.
Why?
We don’t trust salespeople.
We’re afraid to enter into a conversation with a salesperson without doing our research, so we go onto Google and learn everything we can about that thing we want to buy, from what it costs, to what the problems are with it, to what others think about it. Our goal? To ensure that we are armed with plenty of information so that we don’t feel we can be “taken advantage of.”
Think about that.
There is something fundamentally wrong when the assumption of a buyer is that the salesperson they are dealing with will take advantage of them, especially when you consider what that implies over the long term. If we as businesses start our relationship with new clients on a foundation that lacks trust, what does that say about the longevity of the customer relationship, or even our ability to build a relationship in the first place?
The good news is that not all salespeople are obnoxious and annoying. There are some out there who take a different approach and see the value in not just forming a relationship with prospects, but actually helping prospects by solving their problems and answering their questions. These are the sales reps who sell the way people want to buy, and they are the ones who will be most successful in not just selling, but also building relationships with prospects and customers that stand the test of time.
The best salespeople use an inbound sales methodology that emphasizes education over persuasion, and partnership over pressure. They get that buyers are skeptical and know that their job is to be helpful. They don’t hound prospects and they don’t use pushy tactics or boilerplate scripts. They DO create helpful content and offer prospects educational information, and they do work together with them to develop solutions that are win-win.
The best salespeople are already using this approach, but unfortunately, they are in the minority. I believe – no, I hope – that we’re in the early stages of a major shift that will see more salespeople changing their approach and using inbound methods. The only way this will actually happen is if research proves this approach to be more successful and we follow up the research with comprehensive training that supports salespeople and gives them the tools needed to succeed.
Success. That’s what its all about.
For salespeople, success means closing more deals, so getting them to adopt inbound selling practices will require proof that inbound selling can help them do that
I would love to hear what you think about the state of sales. And what was your worst encounter with a salesperson? Share in the comments.
It’s long been common practice for Americans to head north for bargains whenever the Canadian dollar falls meaningfully below the greenback. During the current slump, they’re doing so from the comfort of their homes by shopping online from small-time Canadian merchants.
The Canadian dollar — the loonie — has fallen about 18 per cent against its U.S. counterpart over the past two years after flirting with parity several times in the last decade. At the same time, spending by U.S. shoppers using PayPal on Canadian websites jumped 20 per cent in 2015 from the year before.
“The recent drop in the Canadian dollar presents an exciting export opportunity for Canadian businesses selling to American buyers,” Cameron Schmidt, PayPal Inc.’s Canadian general manager, said in an e-mail.
As the energy and mining industries struggle under the collapse of a decade-long bull market for commodities, Canada is turning to exports and tourism for growth. The expansion of online shopping allows that to happen without requiring Americans to dig out their passports.
We see a lot of customers buying from Canada because of the strong dollar — the product is just cheaper
Shopify Inc., Bigcommerce Inc. and Shoptiques Inc., which provide websites and services for small and medium businesses from multiple countries to sell online, all said they’ve seen an increase recently in U.S. consumers buying from Canada-based merchants.
“Across our customer base, Canadian businesses saw strong growth among U.S. shoppers in 2015,” Brent Bellm, chief executive officer of Austin, Texas-based Bigcommerce, said in an e-mail. Sales at Canadian Bigcommerce stores during the holiday shopping season rose 39 per cent from the same period a year earlier, while the number of actual stores only went up 2.9 per cent, he said.
There’s a high bar to entry for cross-border e-commerce into the U.S., one reason the country has one of the lowest percentages of online shoppers who buy abroad, according to eMarketer. When a customer purchases a foreign product online, getting it delivered is considered importing and the package is subject to examination from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
That means that the buyer might have to pay extra duties and fees depending on the kind of item and its value. There may even be extra paperwork involved and bank processing charges.
Despite all that, some Americans are finding the lower prices worth their while. Americans spent US$3.2 billion on Canadian websites in 2015, part of a total cross-border spending spree of US$27 billion that is expected to grow 10 per cent in 2016, according to a study from PayPal and Ipsos SA.
The top two reasons U.S. digital shoppers cited for buying cross-border were better prices and product availability, according to a report published in February from eMarketer. Of all the things Americans buy from Canada, the biggest category of goods is auto parts, according to PayPal, followed by fashion, then Web services and software.
Nicole Papasergiou, a 26-year-old from Brooklyn, is one of those shoppers. She stumbled onto Canadian deals through a pair of vintage-style earrings she bought on Shoptiques from a Vancouver-based boutique. She then started filtering her searches for Canadian stores and she’s since found a top, a pair of jeans and a winter hat she wants to buy from the country.
“I’m in my 20s and living in Brooklyn — life is expensive,” Papasergiou said. “Price definitely is a huge factor in my purchasing decisions.”
Papasergiou estimates she saves around 10 per cent on her purchases from Canada.
“We see a lot of customers buying from Canada because of the strong dollar — the product is just cheaper,” Olga Vidisheva, founder and CEO of Shoptiques, said in an interview.
Her customers are finding deals even when accounting for extra trans-border costs. And to make things even easier, Shoptiques provides shipping labels to its sellers that include all the information needed to get across the border.
Ottawa-based Shopify is seeing similar growth in U.S. digital shoppers checking out Canadian stores, according to Chief Operating Officer Harley Finkelstein. He declined to give any details.
Larger retailers are also feeling the benefits, even though they maintain separate websites for the different countries they operate in. The number of U.S. consumers using Amazon.com Inc.’s Canadian website doubled to 1.3 million in December compared with the same period a year earlier, according to data from ComScore Inc.
PayPal’s Schmidt said cross-border commerce will keep getting bigger and merchants would be wise to learn how to sell internationally.
“If businesses are willing to invest the necessary time and effort to build up an international presence and foster customer trust — cross-border trade can provide a lucrative growth avenue for 2016,” he said.
Sometimes it pays to be an early adopter of new technology. But other times, jumping on the bandwagon too soon can spell disaster when things take an unexpected turn.
Social selling is by no means a new phenomenon, but adoption among sellers is still the exception to the rule. Why research a prospect on LinkedIn or Twitter when a rep can simply pick up the phone and find out everything they need to know? And the last time I heard, people still read and answered their emails. Maybe incorporating social media into the sales process is just an overblown fad, and those who hop on the social selling train too soon will regret their actions sooner rather than later.
Well, technically anything's possible, but the data sides in favor of social selling. If you haven't yet started to weave social media into to your day-to-day sales processes, check out the following infographic from Sales For Life which features six eyebrow-raising statistics on the forces behind social selling.
Not sold on social selling? Consider that buyers who engage on social media have far bigger budgets than those who don't -- 84% bigger, to be exact. Or that sellers who use social far outpace their non-social selling peers in terms of quota attainment. It's not too late to climb aboard the social selling train -- get started today.
When businesses start publishing, they’re always concerned with hitting a certain quota. But whether you put out one story a day or two stories a week, that cadence is irrelevant if you’re not driving a tangible ROI with your content marketing.
In the world of B2B marketing, quality dominates quantity.
“Of course the quantity helps for getting your name out there,” said Alessandra Ceresa, marketing director of GreenRope, a customer relationship management platform. “But that doesn’t mean those [readers] are qualified leads.”
Using content for sales enablement—the process of integrating sales and marketing in B2B companies—is all about increasing sales efficiency. Instead of asking salespeople to cold call, content does much of the job for them.
After six months leveraging sales enablement content, Greenrope’s conversion rate doubled from about 20 percent to 40 percent while product cancellations decreased.
“The right kind of content can continue to move that lead down the funnel so when sales calls a lead, they are really close,” says Jennifer Burak, vice president of marketing for interactive video firm Rapt Media. “They are almost ready to buy.”
(Full disclosure: Rapt Media is a Contently client.)
And that’s not a working theory. Content’s power to drive sales has already proven its value for many B2B organizations.
Take GreenRope, for instance. After six months leveraging sales enablement content, the company’s conversion rate doubled from about 20 percent to 40 percent while product cancellations decreased.
Michael Passanante, marketing director at BESLER Consulting, echoed that point: “We make sales from these campaigns. It’s not just a matter of trying to get appointments or getting people to download things. We’ve taken people from not even being aware of us to closing significant deals with them in a relatively short period of time.”
Successful sales-enablement content comes down to who it’s developed for and how it’s distributed. Audience targeting is critical for all content marketing, but that’s especially true for B2B sales enablement. Not only do marketers need to reach the right business at the right time, but they also need to target the right person within the organization.
“Are they sales managers? Are they business owners?” Ceresa said. “Each of those roles wants to learn different things about the software.”
GreenRope develops segmented drip campaigns to address the concerns and interests of each individual person within a company. These engaged readers, in turn, are more open to talking to salespeople.
For Passanante and BESLER Consulting, audience targeting gets even more granular. Since the firm offers consulting to only a handful of hospitals that use a particular inpatient payment systems, its sales team targets a single person—usually the CFO—at each hospital.
“We put together a focused program that includes both marketing and sales touchpoints to establish contact with those targets who tend to be firewalled a bit,” he said.
In many cases, the people BESLER wants to reach are hidden behind assistants who read and filter their emails and phone calls. However, the company’s research-backed thought leadership has helped the company get the attention of high-level decision-makers in a way that cold calls never could.
Although some people misinterpret sales enablement as a one-way street toward sales, the process, when executed successfully, is symbiotic. It’s the partnership between content marketing and sales from beginning to end. Sales helps marketing know who to target, while marketing creates and distributes content that drives those qualified leads back to sales.
“What we’ve created is a program where marketing is not just saying to sales, ‘Here’s your campaign,’” Passanante explained. “What we’re doing is working with them in a very orchestrated way to say, ‘Here’s how and when we’re delivering content to prospects,’ and they agree to be an active participant.”
Many enablement campaigns are set up to alert salespeople when the lead is ripe for contact. But with the right analytics in place—like knowing who clicked on a link, how much info they read, and whether or not they visited the company’s website recently—marketing teams can gauge if their content is effective.
At GreenRope, Ceresa sends targeted emails to leads, giving them a chance to sign up for a demo or trial. When the leads request more information, they’re included in a separate drip campaign that supplies valuable content to the reader.
“We are really strict about not spamming our users and ensuring they want the content that we provide,” Ceresa said.
Delivering that useful content serves two crucial purposes. In addition to qualifying leads for sales, it gives the marketing insight into audience behavior. “I can see what they’re most interested in,” Burak said. “We can see how much of the content they got though.”
Most great sales-enablement content starts with planning. Marketers, who may be unaware of customer needs, sit down with the sales team to learn about the pain points and desires of the target audience.
“I work a lot with our sales team, which is important to make sure what we’re doing is actually going speak to [the customers’ needs],” Ceresa said, “as opposed to just throwing content out there and hoping people like it.”
As for what to create, content generally ranges from broader thought leadership pieces at the top of the funnel to more specific product- or service-based information toward the bottom, such as why a particular service works well.
At Rapt Media, Burak maps out her strategy in advance using a 70-20-10 breakdown. Seventy percent of content relates to practical advice, 10 percent accounts for high-level thought leadership pieces, and 20 percent of the output deals with mid-funnel activities like licensed reports and webinars that go over company products.
“Even if you don’t know the specifics about the content you’re going to produce, you can arrange and allocate your resources to support those content bunches,” Burak said.
Though this type of content may not lead to skyrocketing traffic, the B2B benefits that come in the form of qualified leads, higher conversion rates, and greater sales efficiency are more valuable than a viral hit.
“We’re finding that the leads are coming to us more ready to purchase,” Burak said.
And that’s content worth its weight in revenue.
Did you know that your lack of content on your website could be costing you some serious business?
Think about how your business functions: you spend valuable time convincing potential clients that they should hire you through proposals, meetings, emails, etc. A percentage of those potential clients will hire you for a project, and eventually you get paid.
You spend an awful lot of time thinking about how to do the best job possible on your current projects, how to keep your clients happy, how the heck to file your taxes, and where to find your next client.
You’re probably not thinking about how your website is converting.
What does that even mean, anyway? You’re a freelancer. You want to get hired for projects. What do website conversions have to do with that?
Well, a lot.
Imagine if every potential client you contacted already thought you were a good fit and had you on their short list of freelancers.
How much easier would it be for you to secure jobs? How much less time would you spend on client acquisition?
How nice would it be to skip over repeatedly explaining yourself, your experience, your process, and your work preferences and just jump right in with a client who was totally on the same page as you?
Your freelance business can start operating that way if you start thinking about conversions.
Q: So, what would a website conversion look like for a freelancer?
A: A potential client makes an inquiry about your services after viewing your website.
Q: What’s the key to making these conversions happen?
A: Targeted content marketing.
In this article I’m going to talk about how to identify your target clients and write content that both appeals to these clients and moves them through your sales funnel to a conversion.
I’m also going to show you how effective content marketing drastically increased my rate of being hired, reduced the time I spent hunting for clients, and increased my bottom line. Since I started focusing on increasing website conversions with content, I’ve been hired by every single client that’s inquired about my services.
To make this content-marketing-magic happen you have to first get to the very root of who your potential clients are.
You probably already have an idea of what types of clients you prefer working for, which of your past projects have gone well, and what your dream type of work is.
But to use content marketing to your fullest advantage, you have to be ultra-specific. You have to truly know your target client and appeal to their specific needs.
Break out a sheet of paper and create a profile that describes your ideal client – the type of client you dream of working with:
Now that you have a basic understanding of what your ideal client looks like, you have to dig a little deeper and figure out how they tick:
This information should help you bring focus and clarity to the messaging, content, and copy that you publish on your website.
Ideally, your content should be so focused that your website actually turns off clients that don’t fit the bill. This will also increase your view-to-inquiry conversions of appropriately matched clients and drastically increase your likelihood of being hired by those clients.
To know how to use content marketing as a sales strategy, you also must understand the process behind how a client decides to commit to a freelancer.
There are 5 different stages of deliberation that a potential client must go through before a conversion happens:
A client isn’t going to make a decision or move forward on a project until she’s moved through each of these stages.
Your content should be able to take a potential client at any of those stages, and move her through to the last one: the inquiry.
Let’s use the example of Bill.
Bill owns a store selling widgets. He has a website that was made about a decade ago, back when clip art was still cool, and it’s pretty ugly. It’s not doing him any favors, but Bill’s business is an in-person, brick and mortar type of business so he doesn’t really care.
Bill owns a store selling widgets
Your job, through targeted content marketing, is to help Bill realize how much better his business could be after you – and only you – build him an amazing new website. Your content should move Bill from not even recognizing how a new website could help him to being desperate to hire you.
Guess what? Most freelancers aren’t doing this. Most freelancers only have a basic portfolio site that gets limited attention in their busy schedules.
Most freelancers use time-wasting proposals and project bids to try and appeal to a wide range of potential clients with a small percentage of success.
Most freelancers are not thinking about content, their websites’ messaging, or increasing their website conversion rate at all.
But thinking about all those things – and then making them happen – is the perfect way to differentiate yourself from every other freelancer out there.
Face it, freelancers are a dime a dozen these days. Websites are commodity. Basic HTML and CSS are becoming common knowledge. You can’t appeal to clients with just a splashy portfolio anymore.
You need to start talking about value. You need to start focusing on moving people through the stages of deliberation. You need to appeal to people’s business needs and then quell their fears. That’s how you stand out. That’s how you stop being a commodity.
The good news is that you don’t need to be publishing new content all of the time to make an impact on your website conversions.
In fact, a few pieces of evergreen content can do most of your heavy lifting.
Evergreen content is long-form content, usually between 1,500 and 2,000 words, that is highly searchable, instructs or educates, and remains relevant and useful as time goes on.
You should strive to create a few stand-alone pieces of evergreen content that meet your target clients at each stage of deliberation.
Ask yourself, for each stage, what information will help move your client closer to a conversion. Since you’ve already identified your target clients and understand who they are, this part should be easy.
The key is to simply tailor your content as much as possible to your ideal clients – respond to their needs from your point of view. That’s how you create a match that leads to a conversion.
For clients in this stage, you should create content that addresses questions like: How are other businesses in your client’s industry seeing success with new technologies and websites? How is staying with the status quo hurting this client’s business?
Clients in Stage 2 should be educated on the types of technologies or solutions that are appropriate for their businesses. Do they need a CMS? Would they benefit more from something completely custom? What are the costs and benefits of each of these potential solutions?
This type of information is perfect for generating shareable content that will lead potential clients right to your doorstep.
Create pieces of content that reflect the amazing work you have done in the past. Case studies on past projects are an excellent way to appeal to clients in the third stage. Documenting evidence of past successes not only introduces clients to your work style and accomplishments but also helps them visualize how your services could impact their own business.
This is the stage in which most projects get stuck: Wanting a project to be completed is very different from being ready to commit to it.
Content pieces like “How You Know You’ve Hired a Good Web Developer”, “What You Can Reasonably Expect from your Freelancer”, or “How Will My Business Be Disrupted If I Upgrade My Technology” written explicitly from your point of view, with your unique take on the market, can help calm your client’s trepidations or concerns.
At this point, you’ve won the game. Encouraging inquiries with an easy to use contact form, friendly messaging, and a personal photo will take your fifth stage client all the way through to the conversion.
Seems pretty simple, right?
By deliberately creating content that appeals to your ideal clients in all different stages, you are priming them to work with you. Through your targeted, educational, and effective content, you’re creating a sense of trust, awareness, and personal familiarity that shoots you to the top of the client’s list.
Plus, by getting that website conversion, you’ve already fought and won 80% of the battle. Impress them in your follow up conversations and you’ve got the job.
The reason I recommend using a targeted content marketing strategy in your freelancing business is because of how successful it really is.
Since I optimized my website for conversions I have been hired by every potential client that inquired about my services. I don’t get inquiries all the time – two to three a month – but two to three major website projects a month is plenty.
By increasing conversions on my website I cut out 5-10 hours a week of time spent researching potential clients, cold-calling, pitching work, and applying for gigs on the freelance exchanges. That time saved can have a big impact.
Earlier in my career, when I was still charging hourly for website projects, the non-billable time I spent just trying to find work was lowering my effective hourly rate by around $7/hr. That’s a significant amount of money, and it also doesn’t reflect additional non-billable time I spent on other aspects of the business like bookkeeping or skill development.
You can see how automating parts of your business can have a serious positive effect on your bottom line.
Additionally, when a client contacts you because they already want to work with you, you have immense leverage and negotiating power. Think about it: When you really want something, or know the return on your investment will be high, the cost of that investment starts to matter considerably less to you.
That’s how I was able to increase the price of my website packages by over $2,000.
Content marketing and website conversions are just a small part of how I operate as a freelancer. I invite you to learn more about optimizing your freelance business, stabilizing and growing your income, and winning better clients in my new course Be a Freelance VIP.
As a primer to this course, I’ve also got an awesomely comprehensive free checklist that outlines some of the great things you’ll learn in my course over here.
