Rnordman

Editor’s note: This is the fifth post in a new series devoted to helping new sales managers survive and thrive in their new role. For more essential tips and tactics, sign up for our free email course,The First 90 Days: A Sales Manager Survival Course.  

Last week Dave Brock shared the importance of creating an “ideal candidate profile” prior to filling a sales position. Further, he warned us about the grave danger and extremely high cost of hiring the wrong person. I could not agree more with his perspective, and in this installment I’d like to continue the challenge by asking you to take a long, hard look at how clearly you’ve defined the different sales roles in your organization.

A good percentage of the sales performance issues I observe in companies revolve around lack of sales role clarity and not having the right people in the right roles.

The truth is that a salesperson is not a salesperson. There are as many different types of sales roles as there are colors of crayons. We’ve got territory managers, sales engineers, big game hunters, BDRs, BDMs and BDEs, insider servicers, outside route guys, industry specialists, account managers, merchandisers, retail floor salespeople, and many more!

Yet most executives lack the insight, desire and patience to invest the time and energy to properly define the various sales roles in their company.

Take a few minutes to relook at the job description for the sales position in your organization. Then take it another step and list out everything you’re asking your typical “salesperson” to do. I mean it. List every task and responsibility you expect people in that role to handle – all the while keeping in mind that the primary job / objective of your sales force is to drive new sales (increase revenue).

My hope is that exercise causes you to pause. Quite often, executives are struck by two fresh realities:

1. They are asking way too much of their salespeople. How in the world can one person be expected to effectively prospect, follow-up leads, conduct discovery conversations, present, demo, propose, negotiate, close, onboard, project-manage, service, account manage, firefight, entertain, troubleshoot, renew, cross-sell, upsell, etc…?
2. No one person excels at such a wide variety of tasks. There is nothing similar about prospecting and managing existing business. Nothing. And most true sales hunters are awful when it comes to managing projects and details, while most zookeepers / account managers would rather clean the restrooms than push a prospect into a discovery meeting.

There is nothing radical or controversial about these two observations. In fact, most executives and sales managers wholeheartedly agree. Yet, they still default to a one size fits all approach to sales talent and are unwilling to do the hard work to better / further define sales roles.

My passion is new business development, and I’m convinced that one the biggest impediments to sales teams picking up more new business is management’s refusal to create “specialized” sales roles. Instead, they take the easy / lazy way out and stick with the standard catchall sales position used by most companies. And that easy way out not only produces less than optimal results, it also creates perpetual frustration for both sales managers and salespeople!

Think what might happen if you freed up the precious few true sales hunters on your team so they could double, or even triple, the amount of time dedicated to hunting for new business? Can you imagine how many more opportunities they’d find and how happy they’d be not having to deal with as many administrative details and service issues? And picture how much more fun sales management would be if you didn’t have to beg, cajole and threaten your farmers / zookeepers to pick up a weapon and hunt for new accounts (something they’re terrible at and hate doing)?

Are these really radical thoughts?

1. Define the sales roles more clearly
2. Put people with natural talent and affinity for those specific roles in the positions
3. Raise the activity and performance bar for what you expect from your people in these better-defined, best-fit sales roles
4. Reap the benefits of happier, more productive, and more effective salespeople (which includes your company acquiring more new customers and better serving existing ones)

Don’t settle for what’s easy or what everyone else is doing and be forced to live with sales management talent frustration forever. Go to the whiteboard. Start from scratch; look at your sales roles and talent requirements with a fresh perspective. I promise the effort will pay huge dividends in the future.

More Tips for New Sales Managers

Get caught up by reading any previous posts in the series you may have missed:

1. So You’re a New Sales Manager: The Biggest Change to Expect
2. Your #1 Priority as Sales Manager (Plus 3 Things to Stop Doing Now)
3. 10 Questions for Assessing Your Sales Reps (& What to Do Next)

The post A Double-Dog Dare to Relook at Your Sales Roles appeared first on OpenView Labs.

---

VB WEBINAR:

Join us for this live webinar on Tuesday, September 1 at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. Register here for free. 

The notion of big, hulking marketing campaigns that get released once a quarter, or even once a year, has morphed substantially. The digital world is responsible. It’s accelerated the pace for companies to stay competitive in a hyper-fast-firing world, using the digital toolbox to respond to increased consumer demand and rapidly shifting priorities.

Marketing: meet agile

Increasingly, companies are realizing that by integrating agile methodologies, they enable a speed to market — and ability to respond — that previously was unachievable.

“In terms of business goals, the most valuable aspect of agile is this idea of accelerating the cadence at which marketing operates,” said Scott Brinker, CTO of Ion Interactive and Chiefmartec.com — and one of our featured panelists in this upcoming webinar.

“Instead of these long quarter-long, half-year-long, or even year-long planning cycles being our primary cadence, we can get down to something that’s operating more in a matter of weeks.”

Agile provides a management mechanism that breaks things down into smaller chunks and enables marketers to try versions of things that are a little more lightweight — a way to test the waters, learn, and then refine and build on that in the next cycle. It’s what the agile community calls incremental and iterative deliverables, or continuous deployment.

“There ends up being a great benefit,” said Brinker. “It’s all too common to see, once we agree on a plan, everybody kind of goes head down into that plan — or worst case, they end up trying to deal with fire drills that disrupt the plan but nobody talks about giving up the plan and it gets ridiculously hard.”

He contrasted this with iteration cycles that are two, three, or four weeks in length that offer a built-in mechanism to react and pivot as things change. Perhaps the competitive threat has changed, or the audience response to a particular campaign wasn’t what was expected. Without being locked into a campaign that is months in the making, critical adjustments can be made.

“From a business perspective, it becomes by far the greatest material advantage that an organization gets [from agile],” said Brinker.

---

Don’t miss out!

Register here for free.

---

Transparency leads to recognition

Fundamental to agile is the notion of transparency. Borrowing from Kanban methodology, the idea is to map all the stories that marketing is engaged in, all the things that business wants the marketing team to deliver, and all the tasks required for those. From that master list, priorities are agreed upon and sprints are established.

“The beautiful thing is you have transparency about what those tasks are and what their status is,” explained Brinker. “Are they waiting to be tackled, are they in progress, who’s the person who has the ownership for that, is it now done and being queued up, is it ready for deployment, is it out in the field?”

And if that physical or digital board is shared among all stakeholders in the company, there’s a huge side benefit.

“Most people don’t realize all of the things that marketers are doing from 5 in the morning till midnight,” said Brinker. “And when you actually see all this activity captured and you see how it progresses, usually it’s a big boost of recognition for all the work that marketing is doing.”

High-level strategic goals meets iterative

However, as Brinker explained, not all marketing responsibilities are going to fit tightly into iterative tasks. One extreme example he gives is high-level strategic positioning for a company. Said company may determine that there are three strategic messages that are key to its positioning in the coming year.

“These become a higher level set of goalposts that you use to evaluate the iterations you’re doing,” said Brinker, “to evaluate against those strategic lenses.”

If you consider those Kanban-style visual boards that map the entire process, much of the time, people are moving along a horizontal flow, progressing from column one to column two and so on.

“But what I’ve seen a number of companies do is create a vertical categorization — I call them swim lanes,” said Brinker. “So I can say these are the three strategic priorities we we have with the marketing effort overall for the next year, so let’s put those swim lanes onto our Kanban board — and as we’re classifying the tasks we’re going to be working on, we put them in those relative swim lanes. We make sure things get attached to a strategic goal.”

Join Brinker, along with Stewart Rogers, VB Insight’s Director of Marketing; Philip Sheldrake of Euler Partners; and Dave Lesué, Creative Director at Workfront for an inside look at how to implement agile into marketing and creative teams — and reap the benefits.

In this webinar, you’ll:

* Learn how top-performing marketing teams win by planning work in sprints
* Understand how to organize priorities strategically
* Discover how to prove your value as a creative team with continuous improvement
* Find out why agile methodologies are the key to driving results

Speakers:

Scott Brinker, CTO of Ion Interactive and Chiefmartec.com
Philip Sheldrake, Managing Partner, Euler Partners
Dave Lesué, Creative Director, Workfront

Stewart Rogers, Director, Marketing Technology, VentureBeat

---

This webinar is sponsored by Workfront.

More information:

Powered by VBProfiles

As its economy slows and its stock markets whip violently up and down, China faces a brutal choice.

It can let the value of its currency, the yuan, fall and risk capital leaving the country.

Or it can maintain the value of the yuan as it has been doing and watch its exports fall quarter after quarter.

That was the key takeaway from China's July export data, which crossed the wires over the weekend.

Exports were down 8.9% in July from the same time a year before. Analysts expected exports to fall only 0.3% so this was a huge miss. 

That 8.9% July decline compares to 2.1% increase in exports for June of this year. 

"We think China faces a hard choice: a weaker yuan would support exports only at the risk of capital flight," wrote Bloomberg economist Tom Orlik in a note following the data release.

"Our calculations suggest a 10% depreciation of the yuan would boost export growth 10 percentage points, but risk more than $400 billion in capital flight."

Growth v. Reform

China is going through a delicate transition right now trying to reform its economy and move it from one based on investment to one based on domestic consumption. The problem is that domestic demand and purchasing power just aren't where they need to be to keep the economy afloat yet.

One way to address that is to have wages increase. That, however, increases the cost of production, making exports more expensive and therefore less attractive attractive to buyers. 

That has coincided with an appreciation in the yuan. The government had long kept the yuan pegged against the dollar, and as a result has seen the currency gain over the past 12 months as the greenback has strengthened. That too has made Chinese goods more expensive, and thus, less attractive on the international market.

The fall in exports is putting China in a difficult position, as domestic demand isn't yet at a stage where it can make up the shortfall left behind by falling exports. 

It's clear after this weekend that the government wants to support growth.

Chinese economist Wang Yiming, who works for the state agency responsible for policy research, said in an interview spread widely across state controlled media outlets that the country would keep to its controversial 7% GDP growth target come hell or high water.

Here's a snippet for you:

The Chinese economy will resist looming downward pressure to maintain growth of around 7 percent in future thanks to emerging favorable conditions, a prominent economist said on Thursday.

Already 30 percentage points below its peak, the growth will maintain its current level in the next period if nationwide reform and encouragement of innovation is successful, Wang Yiming, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told Xinhua. 

Getting China's mojo back

The government recently revealed that it plans to help the property sector and spend a few trillion yuan on infrastructure spending, which should help boost domestic demand. 

That doesn't address the international demand for Chinese goods though. 

"Forward-looking data on export demand is not encouraging. Both the official and the Caixin Markit PMIs point to an accelerating pace of contraction," Orlik pointed out.

More export data like the numbers we saw this weekend may push China's government toward depreciation, even if it means some financial instability due to investors pulling their money out of the country as it loses value.

Capital flight had started moderating in Q2, so watching more money leave the country would be a backward step for the country. 

 

SEE ALSO: Wall Street stopped believing in the most important thing holding China together

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: People doing backflips on a two-inch wide strap is a real sport called slacklining

The debate is over.

We’ve all bought our tickets.

Creating quality content is the most effective way to market a business.

Even the big retailers and B2Bs are on board.

But, questions of quantity and quality still linger.

How can I produce the right volume of valuable, sharable content? The truth is, you can pump out a ridiculous number of killer blog posts and still wind up with a poor conversion rate because you’re not answering your audience’s needs.

Your content has to be better. It has to stand out. And it has to strike a chord with your audience, and engage your influencers. You can’t write that kind of content consistently off the top of your head. You need research.

Here are some proven tactics that will build your knowledge base and help you write quality content your audience will love.

1. Monitor social media.

You’re probably already listening for your brand or company name mentions, which is great, but not enough. Expand your attention to pick up on trends, social cues, and weak signals. Industry topics, news, and even consumer ideas for new uses for your products.

A delicious collaboration in the works between @Oreo and @COOLHAUS!

2. Get to know your customers.

Customers are more than just faceless demographics. Chances are you’ve got a CRM chock full of information you’re not mining. Your sales staff should be entering every interaction (training may be necessary if they’re not).

Customer service notes, such as comments and complaints, are a rich source of inspiration. To spark their interest and earn their attention, get inside your customer’s head. Find service or product areas you need to address and questions you need to answer.

Content that provides in-depth answers is a powerful drawcard.

Just how powerful is customer knowledge?

According to Invesp, developing an effective buyer persona can result in a 238% increase in conversions. Understanding your customers pays off in a big way!

3. Check out your competitors

Competitive analysis is perhaps the strongest indicator of what works. By observing what resonates with the audience of competing businesses, you can better predict what your audience will appreciate.

A competitor content audit gives you a comprehensive overview of what is working in your industry, information you can use to improve your marketing strategy and SEO.

You can document best practices, discover what type of content is most likely to be shared, and identify influential bloggers and social media influencers.

Screenshot from Rival IQ

4. Do keyword research

Forget keyword optimization, long-tail keyword stuffing, and all the other word weirdness that used to work. It’s not only not effective, it might actively hurt your search engine rank.

That does not mean you should stop doing keyword research. Keywords reveal what people are talking about, responding to, and sharing.

Use popular topics for inspiration and find a new angle, or combine ideas to add depth.

5. Test your titles

When running keyword research for the screenshot above, Buzzsumo yielded “Marketing Is Dead, and Loyalty Killed It,” and I was hooked. I had to stop working and read it. That’s what your title should be, an irresistible lure.

Oh, and it should contain your primary keyword. That’s still a thing.

Screenshot from Co-Schedule

The Co-Schedule Headline Analyzer gave “Knowledge In, Content Out” a B+ (This was the original headline for this article). Perhaps I should throw in a puppy. Everybody loves puppies.

6. Read the research

Last year, Buzzsumo analyzed the social share volume of 100 million posts to determine what people share and why. The results are pretty enlightening.

Key findings: longer content is more popular, images are practically mandatory, and people are more likely to share based on emotional value.

Graphic courtesy of OkDork

Brian Carter and Marketo researched what people share on Facebook and why a few years ago, and offer practical advice on using the knowledge to better your content. (It’s super long, so it must be really good)

There are a ton of industry reports that will help you keep up, and a lot of them are free. Because industry reports are excellent content that get shared a lot. See how that works?

You can also base some blog posts on statistics. Reports can be a little dry. Blog posts written with added context to show how statistical information applies to your business are often wildly popular. Jeff happens to be really good at showing how to put statistics to use. Watch and learn!

7. Optimize your content

You did your homework and poured your heart into a killer post with a can’t miss title… and you’re still not done. Sorry. Now it’s time to optimize your work before publishing. That requires a different kind of knowledge, on-page SEO.

If your writing has focus, your post will have all the semantic keywords and concepts it needs to make the penguin happy. No real need to obsess over that.

For solid SEO and added interest you need:

• A concise and descriptive meta description
• Sub-headers containing keywords and variants
• Links to other internal pages (to keep visitors in your site longer)
• Outbound links (to authoritative sites)
• Images (preferably with descriptive ALT text)

Adding other visual media, like videos and slideshows, isn’t a must, but will increase interest and boost the share value of your posts.

There’s no way to predict how much attention your content will get, but you have a much better chance of earning attention with a knowledge-based approach. If you consistently churn out well-written, personable posts loaded with information and insight, your audience will grow. It may take patience at first; building momentum can be slow.

Content is, in essence, your brand. What you post drives consumer interest in your company and inspires your fans to become brand advocates. The trick is to build a careful library of knowledgeable, informative content based on industry topics people search for, and present it in an understandable way. Then spiff it up with graphics and whatnot so it looks pretty.

Knowledge, presentation, and promotion. That’s what makes great content.

Now that you know my process for developing content, tell me yours.

What methods do you use to research topics and develop content?

“I just feel like something is missing.”

That’s what a potential client told me on the phone recently. She was already blogging regularly, getting pretty good traffic to her blog, lots of likes and shares on Facebook — but it wasn’t translating into sales for her.

She felt like she’d done everything she was “supposed” to do to blog for her business, but something was missing: that integral piece of strategy that connects blogging to selling.

In other words, she wasn’t planning her blog post content to support her sales cycles.

What is a sales cycle?

In the most basic terms, a sales cycle is just the period of time in which you sell a product or service. It might look something like this:

• Start hinting around that you’re developing a new product
• Announce that you’re developing a new product and when it will launch
• Launch the new product (shopping cart opens)
• Promote heavily while product is available
• Last promotion before shopping cart closes
• Repeat

Now, that’s if you’re using a launch cycle, which are so popular on the Internet. But sales cycles also apply to businesses with evergreen products and services. A great example of a business with strong sales cycles is a tax professional. She knows that from January – April, she’s going to be CRAZY busy helping people do their taxes. But there are probably also other parts of her service she can promote at other times of year.

I worked with a personal stylist recently, and because of the way the fashion world works, she could easily predict that she would have strong sales in the spring and the fall, when new lines come out. But we could also build additional sales cycles for her — maybe shopping the sales in the summer and winter, organizing closets in the spring and fall, planning for special occasions like weddings in June and holiday parties at the end of the year, and so on.

Once you understand what your sales cycle is, you can easily build your blog posts to support and promote that cycle.

How to use your blog to launch a product or service.

The big thing to remember is that MOST people are not going to buy something straight from your blog. So the blog is the first step in your marketing “funnel.”

In these lean times, it helps to save a penny or two, never more so than on a cell phone plan. With the popularity of smartphones reaching an all-time high, the prices of plans are also going up and up, as the companies recognize a cash-cow when they see one. So we need to find some ways to trim the fat, and make our bills look a bit more attractive. And who better to advise you than a tight-fisted Scotsman allergic to spending money? Call Them Up & Ask For a Better Deal So here’s the first strategy. Call up your...

Read the full article: 10 Ways To Slash Your Cell Phone Bill

Some people have difficulty identifying their thinking talents, because as a society we have been conditioned to focus attention on fixing our deficits rather than maximizing our strengths.

Most training programs emphasize weaknesses that need to be improved.

Furthermore, some cultures, religions, and family traditions consider modesty a virtue, thereby eclipsing the ability to even admit one’s talents.

Therefore, we have developed an additional lens we call the “shadow attribute,” to make it easier to recognize a talent.

It’s a way of understanding what the hidden talent is behind particular behaviors.

For instance, the shadow attribute for optimism is “cheerleading.” Jamie, no matter how bad things got, always cheered other people on, to the point where they rolled their eyes and said she was denying reality.

The shadow attribute characteristically shows up when a talent is rough, excessive, or displayed in an unconstructive way.

In fact, once Jamie recognized this as a shadow attribute of optimism, she learned the best time and way for the talent to shine.

This is a very different outcome than if she had just thought of the opposite of optimism, which is pessimism. The value of recognizing the shadow attribute is that it can lead you to the hidden thinking talent that waits to be identified and developed.

In this chart, the left column lists the shadow attribute of each thinking talent. Review the chart, scanning for any attribute that stands out as very familiar.

Nadine, a marketing executive, also used the shadow attributes to uncover a thinking talent. She didn’t recognize that “having confidence” was one of her talents until she read the shadow attribute of “arrogant.” It had always worked against her.

In all her reviews, she was described as bossy and conceited. How could this be a talent? Once she understood that this attribute was really the thinking talent of “having confidence” in disguise, she learned to adapt her language and style to her benefit. This resulted in her being promoted to account director — a position where having confidence magnetized clients, who felt like they were in capable hands.

In order to make sure we are using our talents well and creating excellence as a result, it’s also important to look at when and where we exhibit a shadow attribute and then transform it. We are all naturally equipped with the most powerful tool to change habits — self-awareness — but we might not all have fully developed this tool.

To transform a shadow attribute, you need to name it, contain it, and aim it. Name it by identifying the thinking talent that it’s associated with; contain it by using it knowingly and wisely; aim it by engaging it on behalf of your goals. Repeat this practice with each of your shadow attributes — name it, contain it, and aim it until the thinking talent is readily apparent to you.

Jack is a perfect example of this. He is chief technical officer of a major film studio who has the talent of “thinking logically.” He needs to reason through an idea before he will buy into it. He endlessly questioned himself about data, paralyzing every new idea by analyzing it to death. His constant questioning would come across as annoying skepticism and resistance.

In his first session, Jack realized that skepticism is the shadow attribute of thinking logically. He learned to name this talent in conversation so people knew where he was coming from. “I tend to think logically, so I just need to ask a couple of clarifying questions ...”

He also contained it, by limiting the time he devoted to thinking logically and relying on other talents to develop ideas. And he aimed it by asking himself how he could use his logic to extend his influence and create blockbuster movies.

This is an excerpt from the book “Collaborative Intelligence” by Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur. Copyright © 2015 by Dawna Markova and Angie McArthur. Reprinted by arrangement with Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

SEE ALSO: There's a simple daily practice that can make you more successful, and it's easier than ever

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The way you write l, t, i, and y reveals a lot about your personality

---

Microsoft today released Shared Folder sync for all OneDrive and OneDrive for Business users. It’s now easier to see when someone edits shared content, to collaborate with others on one file or folder, and to search within the shared files themselves.

The first change, which is rolling out now and will be made available to all in the coming weeks, is probably the most interesting addition. There are two new ways to be notified when people edit your shared documents: notifications in the mobile app and daily email summaries.

First up, the OneDrive mobile app can now show real-time notifications of which document is being edited and by whom. In fact, you can even have these notifications show up on your Apple Watch (though we’re not sure why you would want your wrist to buzz every time a coworker edits one of your files):

The daily email summary is essentially a rundown of edits to files you’ve shared. Microsoft expects this to be useful when you are working on a group project and want to quickly see which documents have a latest version you might not be aware of. As before, any changes made will be saved in the document’s version history, so you can always go back and restore a previous version.

Previously, users could only access the content shared with them via the Shared list on OneDrive.com. Now, “Add to my OneDrive” lets users add shared folders to their OneDrive.

This means shared folders will show up in the OneDrive app on PCs and Macs, and they also can be viewed and edited in the OneDrive mobile app. Syncing shared content to your desktop gets even more powerful when working with others at the same time: The latest version of Office lets multiple people work on the documents at the same time, without forking the document.

OneDrive recently made it possible to search for text inside Office documents and PDFs. This feature has now been extended from just your own files to all content that has been shared with you as well.

None of these updates are massive on their own, but together they show just how willing Microsoft is to bring OneDrive and Office closer together. Whether that will translate to more users for each product remains to be seen.

More information:

Powered by VBProfiles

Foxconn is opening a $5B facility in Maharashtra; Huawei just got a green-light for a networking gear factory; Xiaomi already runs a phone assembly plant in Andhra Pradesh that will announcing new products today.

There are enormous economic, political and military resentments between China and India -- the world's two most populous nations. India accuses China of secretly financing the Naxol "Maoist" guerrillas and the two countries have long-simmering border-disputes.

More interesting is what this says about relative wages, labor availability and demographics in China and India. China's manufacturing center have thrived on a seemingly bottomless pool of cheap workers, mostly women from the provinces, who travelled to the Pearl River Delta to work in the factories that supply the world with its manufactured goods.

However, China has a looming demographic crisis, thanks to the "one child" policy that has now run for more than two generations. This, combined with increased longevity, means that the ratio of young, working-aged people to pensioners keeps tilting greywards, meaning that each productive worker is supporting more and more retired, long-living parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents.

Chinese wages have been creeping up for a decade, as the demand for workers increased and the supply stayed static. India's population, on the other hand, has a median age of 27 (to China's 36.7), and a huge supply of desperate workers, including members of "scheduled castes" who face systematic discrimination that keeps their wages low.

The government recently gave security approval to Huawei Technologies’ plans to set up a manufacturing facility for network equipment in the country, though the facility still needs final approval from the ministry of commerce as it is a Chinese company, according to sources close to the matter. India and China have a border dispute.

Foxconn and the government of Maharashtra have entered into a memorandum of understanding to build a large electronics factory in the state with an investment of $5 billion, which would create employment for at least 50,000 people, state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said after the signing of the agreement at which Foxconn CEO Terry Gou was present.

For the contract maker, India could present an opportunity to build products like smartphones both for the booming local market and for global customers, if it is able to iron out the country’s significant infrastructure bottlenecks.

Foxconn to invest $5B to set up first of up to 12 factories in India [John Ribeiro and Michael Kan/IDG]

(via /.)

Internet law troublemaker James Grimmelmann (previously) has released the fifth edition of his $30 DRM-free casebook ($65 for print) of Internet law, "a fast-moving casebook for a fast-moving subject."

I love Internet law, and since the day I started teaching it, I’ve tried to share my enthusiasm with my students. The fifth edition of the casebook is the culmination of eight years of work. I designed it from the ground up to help law students thrive in the face of the constant ferment of the Internet itself. Internet Law: Cases and Problems combines clear organization, classic cases, and a focus on the doctrinal fundamentals with challenging questions and problems that bring students face-to-face with the challenges facing the Internet and Internet lawyers today.

Thanks to Semaphore Press and its innovative business model, I’m pleased to be able to offer Internet Law: Cases and Problems for a fraction of the price of a major-label casebook. Semaphore casebooks are sold as PDF downloads. There’s no DRM, so you can read the book and annotate it on your computer in your regular PDF reader, copy it to your portable device to read on the go, and print out as much or as little of the book as you want. If your computer crashes and you need to download the book again, you’re always welcome to.

The all-digital format means we cut out the middleman and pass the savings on to you. Unlike casebooks from the major publishers, which can cost $150 or more, the suggested price for this casebook is just $30. Think of it as my contribution to keeping the price of legal education down.

Internet Law: Cases and Problems [James Grimmelmann]

(via Kottke)

Pity today’s corporations: They keep trying to win over the Millennial generation, but most aren’t getting very far. No matter how persistent they are, companies have trouble selling stuff to this important new demographic when they use traditional, time-tested marketing techniques, such as cleavage and lying.

Experts say companies need to alter their approach. Why? Because Millennials respond to campaigns that “inform and involve them.” This surely comes as good news to beer companies, many of which already go to great lengths to inform consumers about that young lady’s rear end. You’re halfway there, bros.

The Millennial generation is defined by many as those born between 1980 and 2000. It’s a huge group—more than 75 million in the U.S. alone, invariably described as “fickle” in its tastes. In the words of one brand expert, Millennials possess a “unique sense of self”—unlike the rest of us, who apparently share custody of a self, leaving some without a personality on Wednesdays and every other weekend.

According to one report, the pursuit of this new generation has unleashed “24/7 micropandering, psychographic analysis, [and] a high-priced shadow industry of consultants.” Yet Millennials continue to stray from established brands. J. Crew and Abercrombie & Fitch are underperforming. The Gap is closing hundreds of stores. McDonald’s seems pretty desperate in pushing the whole “Not everything we make will instantly murder your colon” strategy.

So few Millennials are shopping at high-end supermarkets that Whole Foods is going to open a new line of stores “geared to Millennial shoppers,” with a streamlined design, new technology and lower prices. One question, though: If this new chain is going to offer “high-quality fresh food at great prices,” why would anyone shop at a traditional Whole Foods, which offers high-quality fresh food at prices that make money cry? What slogan do they plan to direct at Boomers and Gen-Xers? “Whole Foods: We know you’re not a Millennial, but we’re hoping you are an idiot.”

Everyone wants a slice of Millennial pie. Even the United States Potato Board commissioned a study entitled “Understanding Millennials: How do potatoes fit into their lives?” The organization devoted months of study to discovering that, among Millennials, “potatoes are primarily consumed for dinner at home as the main component of a side dish.” Whoa. Crazy kids.

(FYI, the potato board website indicates nominations are open for new board members. If you’re on the fence, consider this observation from current member Ken Burback: “Potato people are pretty cool people.” Not like those squares at the onion board.)

And then there are Tic Tacs. A story in the New York Times chronicled an 18-month effort to make this half-century-old mint appeal to a whole new generation of people stuck in checkout lines. The result: a “revolutionary” product called Tic Tac Mixers—dual-flavoured mints that morph from cherry flavour to cola, or from peach to lemonade.

If you think it’s weird to spend more than a year conducting “extensive qualitative and quantitative research” into Millennial candy preferences, well, the people at Tic Tac were pretty weird to begin with. Consider how they describe the experience of consuming one of their dumb little mints: “A Tic Tac transforms from a mint to a playful toy in your mouth . . . Enjoying a Tic Tac is a uniquely sensual experience.” Listen, guys: If you believe that sucking on one of your sugar pebbles is a “sensual experience,” then I’m pretty sure you’re doing sex wrong.

Besides, you’re just going to get hurt again, Tic Tac. Any Millennial fascination with your freaky mutant mint is likely to be fleeting. A single change of flavour will lose its novelty. Millennials will demand a candy that transitions from orange to watermelon to melancholy: WE WANT TO TASTE OUR SADNESS.

After all, research shows Millennials are prone to demanding more. A chocolate bar can’t satisfy only as a snack. It must also deliver what marketers describe as “emotional rescue.” It must entertain and help Millennials briefly escape the tedium of life.

That’s a lot to ask of a Snickers bar. Or maybe, as a child, I failed to put enough pressure on my candy. Clearly, I should have been asking: Why are you only one thing, Fun Dip? Then we might have Fun Mindful Reassuring Dip.

The post Scott Feschuk: How to get a slice of that Millennial pie appeared first on Macleans.ca.

What started as a fun project for two techies on Vancouver Island more than 25 years ago has now become an industry leader in robotic crawlers.

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch certainly understood the power of utilizing knowledge and data to stay ahead of the curve and grow a business. During his 20-year data-driven tenure, GE’s total value increased by an amazing 4,000 percent, making the company the most valuable corporation in the world at one point.

Welch’s analytical and technological approach set an example that some businesses and entire industries have been slow to follow. They fail to realize the great competitive advantage a strong, evolving business intelligence practice affords them.

BI is a set of technological systems, applications, and practices that transform raw data into meaningful, valuable, and actionable information. When companies evolve traditional BI to maximize their data collection efforts, they’re provided with clear paths toward improving multiple aspects of their businesses. These companies always come out ahead in the end.

Unfortunately, many industries still underutilize the wealth of data available to them — often because they stick to traditional BI.

The Challenges of Traditional BI

BI is a complex technological concept, and, like most things that fall into this category, its traditional uses have created a plethora of misconceptions that scare companies away from tapping into its power.

The infrastructure for traditional BI stacks is so rigid and hard to scale that changes to the data needed require massive resources and heavy IT involvement, which many companies don’t have.

Traditional BI is also difficult to muddle through in order to get what the company needs — it’s not evolved to deal with the large volume and complexity of data that now exists. However, there are new solutions that will consume a large volume of data in a meaningful way.

Options like Platfora, ClearStory Data, and my company, Metric Insights, allow businesses and their employees to easily access and analyze data. These BI tools break down mounds of data into digestible chunks and provide a truly competitive knowledge advantage to companies.

What’s preventing companies from succeeding is that they’re trying to make traditional BI work, and the old way is simply no longer valid.

Putting BI Into B2C

Not everyone is missing out on big opportunities to improve customer relations and increase their bottom line. Here are four industries capitalizing on — and evolving — the data available to them:

1. Automotive: Through BI, automotive companies can better predict supply and demand for parts, easily know when to follow up with customers for scheduled maintenance, and provide helpful information to customers, like indicating which speeds optimize fuel economy on specific vehicles. All of these perks translate into better customer service and, ultimately, increased profit.

2. Retail: BI’s primary perk to retailers is its ability to help hone inventory practices. Stores can study sales trends for individual items and know exactly when they need to spike or stop the purchasing of products. Too much or too little inventory can make or break a store; BI ensures that customers will always find the items they need and extra inventory won’t gather dust while rotting away in the stockroom.

3. Restaurant: It seems like the restaurant industry is constantly plagued by employee fraud and billing irregularities. This could be due to its cash-based nature, but regardless of the reason, BI provides restaurants with the ability to accurately track employee billing and monitor potential cases of fraud. This helpful oversight system will not only improve the overall work environment, but it will also increase profit by identifying and eliminating dishonest (and illegal) financial activity.

4. Insurance: BI could help insurance companies with virtually every aspect of their business. One way is through service-level agreement monitoring, which alerts companies about new leads and shortens response times. BI technology can also track pricing trends and help providers offer competitive rates. As a whole, it helps enhance companies’ loss prevention practices, improve customer relations, and boost profit.

Regardless of the industry, evolving BI for a company’s needs is clearly the best modern resource for improving business practices and overall revenue. Long gone are the days of squeaking by on gimmicky advertisements and slick salesmanship.

Today, it’s BI or bust.

Wind energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a new report released by the U.S. Department of Energy and prepared by Berkeley Lab. The prices offered by wind projects to utility purchasers averaged under 2.5 cents/kWh for projects negotiating contracts in 2014, spurring demand for wind energy.

HTC's stock has sunk so low that its entire market capitalisation is now worth less than the cash it has in the bank.

In layman's terms, what that means is that if you could theoretically acquire all the shares of HTC, it would cost you less than the cash HTC holds — meaning that HTC would effectively be paying you to acquire the entire company. In investors' terms, it means that people think the company is essentially worthless.

That seems counter-intuitive. HTC isn't a market leader by any stretch, but it makes one of the best Android phones on the market, the HTC One M9, which has gotten across-the-board good reviews. It has a 3.4% market share in the US. Again, not massive, but the phone business is huge and 3.4% is a decent enough chunk to build a business with. 

So why has HTC's stock crashed so low that the company now look ripe for a hostile takeover by investors who simply want that cash?

This one statistic tells you all you need to know about why the Android business is so brutal: Android manufacturers make an average profit of only 1.2 cents per phone.

A penny per phone!

That number comes from LG, which reported results in July. HTC's numbers will be slightly different, but they won't be much different. HTC runs at a loss, which means that ultimately it costs more for HTC to make a single phone than it can get by selling them. HTC is basically paying people to take its phones right now.

That has had this effect on HTC stock:

It won't get better soon, either.

Android manufacturers are in a price war against each other. Androids are only getting cheaper. Google, for instance is relaunching Android One in India at just $50.

Samsung has the exact same problem as HTC.

The Galaxy S6 (and S6Edge) and its upcoming Note 5 look like some of the best phones ever made. Yet Samsung's Q2 results looked like this: Sales dropped 7% from 52.35 trillion won in Q2 2014 to 48.54 trillion won today.

All the Android makers are struggling with this basic problem:

Android represented by number of different devices 

That is a ridiculous number of different Android devices. Nobody needs that level of choice.

If you go to OpenSignal, the site that published this chart, you'll find it is interactive. Wave your mouse over the little squares and it will tell you which device each square represents. Some of these units are bonkers: HTC sells the HTC One, HTC One M8, HTC One X, HTC One XL, HTC One Mini and so on and so forth. Nearly 50 different models, of which 49 are also-rans. 

And it's competing against Samsung, which has even more models you've never heard of.

Android makers seem to think that the best way to succeed is just to make as many different types of slightly incrementally different devices as possible and hope for the best.

So one way to interpret HTC's fortunes is to say that there is an obvious level of overcapacity in the Android business, and it is time to see some consolidation. Some of these companies need to die. About 90% of all their brands need to be killed. Android companies need to concentrate on making one or two really excellent phones and tablets and let the devil take the hindmost.

It looks like HTC might be the first to go.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to clear out a ton of space on your iPhone superfast

Do you own a business? Are you interested in selling it?

If so, Warren Buffett and his team at Berkshire Hathaway might interested in buying it.

However, it must at least meet these six criteria. (verbatim from Berkshire Hathaway's 2014 letter to shareholders):

(1)    Large purchases (at least $75 million of pre-tax earnings unless the business will fit into one of our existing units),

(2)    Demonstrated consistent earning power (future projections are of no interest to us, nor are “turnaround” situations),

(3)    Businesses earning good returns on equity while employing little or no debt,

(4)    Management in place (we can’t supply it),

(5)    Simple businesses (if there’s lots of technology, we won’t understand it),

(6)    An offering price (we don’t want to waste our time or that of the seller by talking, even preliminarily, about a transaction when price is unknown).

That's pretty straight forward.

Buffett offers a little more color in the types of pitches he's looking for. For one thing, he's looking for big companies.

"The larger the company, the greater will be our interest: We would like to make an acquisition in the $5-20 billion range. We are not interested, however, in receiving suggestions about purchases we might make in the general stock market."

And he's not interested in picking fights.

"We will not engage in unfriendly takeovers."

If you have his ear, things will move quickly.

"We can promise complete confidentiality and a very fast answer – customarily within five minutes – as to whether we’re interested. We prefer to buy for cash, but will consider issuing stock when we receive as much in intrinsic business value as we give. We don’t participate in auctions."

"Charlie and I frequently get approached about acquisitions that don’t come close to meeting our tests: We’ve found that if you advertise an interest in buying collies, a lot of people will call hoping to sell you their cocker spaniels," Buffett added. "A line from a country song expresses our feeling about new ventures, turnarounds, or auction-like sales: 'When the phone don’t ring, you’ll know it’s me.'"

Don't wast the oracle's time. But if your business meets the criteria, shoot him a fax!

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Nationwide's Super Bowl commercial about dead children is about corporate profits ... in a way that we can all appreciate

Dear Josie and Mollie (my daughters),

Everyone hates you. I mean, I don’t hate you. Most of the time.

But teachers hate you. Your future boss hates you (he bribes you to work extra hours and then makes a pass at you. Trust me on this one).

Your colleagues hate you (if you are demoted, they avoid you. If you are promoted, they want to take you down).

Your government hates you. Not in this quasi-socialist way. I don’t care what politics you have. But simply: they take taxes from you and give it to corrupt foreign governments or buy guns with the money and give them to other kids just two years older than you.

That’s really enough to say about them. But you two are women. This country wasn’t even a place you had a voting say until less than 100 years ago.

Every dream you have, has people in the way who hate you. Trust me.

One time I wanted I pitched a real good idea for a TV show. We made two episodes. It was a hidden camera sort of thing – spying on people who were on real dates.

Repulsive, right? But they loved it. Then they stopped returning my calls.

How come? Because I had offended someone in another division because I didn’t pitch to her division. All politics.

“I’m sorry man,” said the guy who loved it who was told to reject it.

I always tell you, “it’s not you, it’s them” if someone says something that bothers you.

But now I’m saying bad things about people. So it’s me. It IS me. I’m afraid.

I’m afraid of these gatekeepers in my own life. I’m afraid of them in your life.

You have such a glow now. In a dark room it’s like I’m looking at two lightbulbs when I look at you.

I don’t want that glow to go away. I don’t like how you stop drawing and reading and singing once the school year starts.

I don’t like how you think a piece of paper (a degree) is required to have a job.

I don’t like the thought that one day you can be giving a gun and told to shoot other little kids. Even if they don’t draft (there is no draft) I can guarantee they will call you and make it sound enticing.

I don’t like how there are people who have never done anything in their lives but can still say “no” to your creativity. Simply because they don’t want you to be better than them.

And yes, it is about me. I have fear. I don’t want you to have that fear.

So here are the gatekeepers who will block you and destroy you that you have to look out for. These are the ones I have seen with my own eyes. There might be more.

By the way, just because someone’s a gatekeeper doesn’t mean they are evil. They are scared also.

The key to dealing with gatekeepers is this:

A) AWARENESS. Once you are aware of them, that’s 80% of the battle.

B) THE WORK-AROUND. Figure out ways to work around the gatekeeper. A simple example: you don’t need a publisher to publish a book. Just self-publish on Amazon.

“But people hate self-published books!”

No they don’t. Hugh Howey has done some nice analysis on his blog showing that self-published books are actually higher rated by readers than traditionally published books.

The gatekeepers will fill you with myths every step of the way. That’s part of AWARENESS.

C) ASK FOR FORGIVENESS. NOT PERMISSION. Do the work-around. And then ask for permission. This doesn’t always work (don’t run a stop sign or you end up with scars like me). But it usually works.

WHO ARE THE GATEKEEPERS:

EDUCATION

Someone asked me the other day if I was against the “American Revolution” since I am against all wars.

I asked “what group did the American Revolution benefit?”

He had to think for awhile. He couldn’t really come up with an answer. “I guess I don’t know,” he said.

I’m not saying I’m right. All I did was ask a question.

Education feeds you facts. It never feeds you questions.

The way to avoid the Education gatekeeper is to be aware when you are being force-fed facts and they give you some excuse (“so you can get a good job later”. or “it’s on your record”).

Science and art and business and innovation is about asking questions first. One out of 100 questions might have an answer.

ADVERTISING

Why do we spend more than 25 cents for any drink in the world? Even water is over $2 in the store.

Because of advertising. People complain about “inflation” as if it’s caused by some government strategy.

Maybe it is. But maybe it isn’t.

Without advertising, almost everything in our lives would be cheaper.

Otherwise why would companies spend trillions to put 2700 advertising messages or more in front of our eyes EVERY day.

Advertising puts the word “should” in your head. I “should” buy this instead of this because it’s “better”.

But somehow you don’t know why it’s better. It’s “high quality?”

Really? Were you there when the 8 year olds hand-crafted it so you could see for yourself?

Having nothing is much less stressful than having everything.

THE MESSAGE GATEKEEPER

Everyone has a message they want to say. A dusty book never finished. A song they would like to write. A movie they’d like to make. A painting they want to show you.

Not everyone. But many. And many would like the chance. But it’s hard to get through to a publisher, or a TV studio, or an art gallery, or a department store, or whatever.

The “Message Gatekeepers”.

You have a message. Focus on that. Make it better. Every day work on it.

Then do the work-around.

Hugh Howey (Wool), Andy Weir (The Martian) and EL James (50 Shades) all did the work-around and originally self-published.

Casey Neistat, the Green Brothers, Mimi Ikonn, Miranda Sings all did the work around and posted directly to YouTube and now you are fans.

They NEVER would have made it through the Hollywood system.

Mac Lethan and Macklemore turn down the record labels. And now you dance to their songs.

I thought I had to be an artist and work with DC or Marvel to make a comic book. Instead I wrote the script and outsourced the drawing and made a comic book (the worst selling comic of all time).

There’s always a work-around to a powerful message.

MONEY

Money is a secret gatekeeper. “I need money to start a business”.

One time I started a business (Vaultus) when I had no money at all.

I called up 30 companies and offered to buy them all. One said yes. I offered them $20 million. Ericsson had just offered them $17 million.

They took my offer.

I had no money, but now I had, in my hand, an accepted offer that was exclusive. I had six months to raise the money.

I raised $30 million (including (I didn’t realize) $2 million from Yasser Arafat that he had stolen from the Palestinians). Bought them. Bought another company. And suddenly I had a company with $40 million in revenues.

And now it costs less money than ever to start a business. Sites like Fiverr, Freelancer, TaskRabbit, even Craigslist, makes it possible to start businesses for almost nothing.

Learn how to sell and that’s the best workaround on the money gatekeeper.

PARENTS

I’m your worst gatekeeper. You should decide at what point you need to stop listening to me. Maybe today.

People write to me and say: my parents won’t approve of me marrying this man, what should I do?

Or, my parents think I should be a doctor but I want to be an artist and I don’t want to make them upset. What should I do?

Parents often have to put their stamp of approval on education, spouse, where you live, career, health, etc.

My answer: how much of your life have you pledged to your parents in slavery.

Mozart eventually had to break free from his father in order to become the composer we know today.

When the parent period is over (and it could be today) then do what you want.

It might be ugly. It might be confrontation with people you love.

But don’t let them be your gatekeepers until the day they die. Because then you die soon after. And what’s left?

GOVERNMENT

Again, I’m not an anarchist. I’m not an anything. I don’t think about government.

But they do take a lot of money out of my pocket every year to pay for wars.

They do tell me where I should Stop my car. (Check Makkinga, in the Dutch province of Western Frisia, for a counterexample – Google it).

With one hand they pay for an education and with the other hand they will seize all of your assets if you don’t pay them right back.

They do force me to “register” my love for Claudia in order for Claudia to get medical insurance if she gets sick.

They force me to register with them if I start making money on my own.

To be honest: I’m mostly scared of the government.

Picture this: you get a mail from the government today. It’s stamped “URGENT”. It’s a Friday and you can’t call back the number you HAVE to call. It’s too late.

Wouldn’t you be scared all weekend? I would be.

True story: One time the FBI visited me to find out what I knew about Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts. I won’t get into why.

I had no idea why they wanted to come up to my apartment at first. Maybe they wanted to give me an award for some reason.

A plaque or a medal. Or maybe make me a colonel or a general.

But I was so scared, that without any knowledge, I almost slipped down the back stairs while they were coming up.

I don’t know why I’m scared. I just am.

CORPORATIONS

Your boss wants to pay you less than the value you bring.

They want you to live close so your commute is easy. They want you to fight it out for promotions where they pay you a tiny bit more for a lot more responsibilities.

And they can get rid of you whenever they want, no matter how much you contributed to their success. The “corporation” is a legal shield to protect the people who started it who now have control over much of your life.

They also specifically don’t want you to have another source of income. There’s a name for it: it’s called “moonlighting”. Like “moonshine”, the lowest form of alcohol. They shame you into having no other passion than being a cog in a factory machine.

Meanwhile, the average multi-millionaire in America (there are 10,000 of them and income data is easy to gather) has over seven different sources of income.

Then corporations outsource you the second they can.

This is an overly bitter view. I loved the one corporation I worked at.

But still…

FRIENDS

Scientific fact: If you make a million a year and your friends make $500,000 a year then you are happy.

If you make a million a year and all of your friends make $2 million a year then you are miserable.

There’s a ton of studies. Google is really great at finding them.

Your friends support you and support you and love you…until maybe one or two of them don’t.

When you have a vision that breaks out of the comfort zone you have created with your friends, some people will ALWAYS be unhappy.

Doesn’t matter what they were like before then. They can’t even help themselves. They will try to keep you down.

Get back to the first step: Awareness.

When you have a vision that changes the world, focus on that part. Not on what your friends think. I’ve seen it happen too many times. They will stop being your friends the second you see something they don’t or can’t.

—

As an aside, all of this makes me seem bitter.

Maybe. I have no way to judge that.

BUT I do feel that I am able to pursue the things that make me grow my competence.

BUT I am able to keep improving the relationships that are important to me.

AND I have total freedom in my choices and decisions. And this was hard-earned.

I don’t want to be bitter. I just want to be aware. And then do the work-around. And then ask for forgiveness but not permission.

—

EDUCATION (part 2)

My daughters think they need a “college education” to get a job. Or to at least, “have something to fall back on. A safety net.”

Every year, fewer jobs require a college education. Even Google has said they will no longer require that.

More 22 year olds than ever before have college degrees.

And yet why has average income for people age 18-35 gone from $36,000 to $33,000 in the past 25 years despite student loan debt going up 1500% in the same time.

I don’t actually know the answer. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a fact.

Meanwhile, Mark Messick, who I spoke to on my podcast, is 16 years old, dropped out of school at age 11, and makes $4000 a month writing books (so he’s clearly getting educated somewhere).

Scott Young got a full four year MIT computer science degree for just $2000 and in ten months because he followed their online curriculum.

When employers were later surveyed who would they rather hire: the guy with the MIT agree or Scott Young, they said Scott because he had the initiative.

And an education doesn’t even inspire the creativity to solve difficult problems.

Remember, true innovation comes from questions. The answers come later.

Francis Crick was a physicist. James Watson started as an ornithologist. They somehow discovered DNA despite their educations.

Another woman, Rosalind Franklin, actually developed the experimental data that led to the discovery of DNA.

But she couldn’t put all the pieces together. She had the right facts but not the right questions.

They took her data (without her permission) and then won the Nobel Prize with their discovery.

Real education is asking questions, then reading, then taking a walk, then playing catch, then doing a little bit of stealing, then coming up with the one solution among thousands that is in the haystack.

GOALS

“I wanted to figure out my purpose by age 26 and now I’m stuck”.

“I wanted my business to have a million in revenues and now I don’t know what to do.”

“I wanted to publish my first book by age 30 and I can’t start because I get writer’s block.”

Goals will kill you. Goals are all about the future. It’s ok to want something. To want to write a book.

But to staple your happiness to an event that is totally unpredictable is not sane.

If you truly want to do something, learn how to do it in tiny tiny steps.

Then take one today.

If you don’t really want to do something, then go back to AWARENESS above. Then take a walk and find beauty in everything.

Then you will know what to do.

Do the work, but surrender the results.

If you do that every day, and have no expectations on the results, then all of your expectations will be exceeded.

HISTORICAL EQUALS HYSTERICAL

Raise your hand if you have this:

Someone in your family has “the list”. Everything you’ve done wrong over the past 20 years.

They keep reminding you of it.

Or maybe you are that person. Or you are incensed by that person.

Either way, you’ve just been gatekeep’d

THE ESTABLISHMENT

• Nobody wanted to believe Charles Darwin on evolution. Didn’t God solve this problem?
• Nobody wanted to believe Ignaz Semmelweis that handwashing in a hospital will save lives even though he had the data. He ended up being put in an insane asylum.
• Nobody wanted to believe Georg Cantor that there were numbers greater than infinity even though he had a proof. Of course, he also ended up in an insane asylum.

We have come up with less than 1/1000000 of a 1% of the true facts that exist.

If your idea is close to ideas that are already acceptable, then you might be accepted by the establishment.

If not, then you are put in a crazy house.

Charles Babbage is a great example. He invented something called a computer. But about 150 years before his time. So he was crazy. Now there’s a computer in my refrigerator.

If you want to go against the gatekeeper of the establishment you have to build the bridge.

You build the bridge with superior communication skills. But that’s another story.

YOU

I am my worst gatekeeper.

I think of resentments, which prevent me from thinking of fun things. I think of anxieties.

I have to make sure I’m healthy because if you’re sick, you won’t get past the gatekeepers (they are extremely healthy and strong).

If you are angry, then you are immediately stopped by the gatekeepers. You might even be put in jail.

If I have excuses, then that puts an instant hold on my dreams. All excuses have workarounds. But most excuses are never worked-around.

If I say “if only” (“if only” I had a connection. “if only” I lived in Silicon Valley. “if only” I was more handsome (my typical excuse) ) then you just met a gatekeeper.

Take away the “if” in “if only” and you will be only left with “only”.

—

You don’t have to break down all the gatekeepers today.

They are strong. They are trained.

Often you have to surround them and persist and break them down and weaken them.

They will fight you everywhere. They will fight you until your heart bleeds because they are sure they are right and they will put doubts in you.

But eventually you will drain them of their food and oxygen. They will lay down their arms.

You will walk through the door and take over the kingdom.

But before that, Josie and Mollie, I hope you packed your bags. We’re going on vacation today.

---

Read More: How To Be The Luckiest Guy On the Planet in 4 Easy Steps. 

The post Who Are Your Gatekeepers? appeared first on Altucher Confidential.

Did you know that after the headline section LinkedIn is the second most widely-read section on your profile? Furthermore, studies show readers spend more than 90% of their total time focused solely on this section.

THE BOTTOM LINE? If you don’t hook the reader with a persuasive Summary Section your chances are slim the reader will feel compelled to take a deeper dive and read about your job history, education, certifications, and awards.

MY RECOMMENDATION? LinkedIn gives you 2000 characters worth of space in the summary section…use them to their full advantage. Here’s how:

#1 MIND YOUR TONE

Unlike a resume that is formal in tone, the tone on LinkedIn is more conversational. This allows you to tell your story in your voice and even use the word “I” without the reader frowning with disapproval.

#2 INCLUDE A VALUE PROP

No doubt you bring something to the table professionally that is unique – this is your value proposition or your brand. Make sure to spell out your value and explain how you stand out in this section.

#3 ENTICE WITH HIGHLIGHTS

Once you’ve outlined your value proposition, what better way to back it up and prove your worth than to include a handful of highlights?

Remember that numbers often speak louder than words, which is why I recommend selecting highlights that include measurable or quantifiable statistics.

#4 INCLUDE SKILLS

Including a list of job-related skills serves two purposes. It’s an ideal place to include keywords that enhance your profile’s searchability and also allows the reader to quickly skim to see that your skills align with positions of interest.

#5 MULTIPLE POINTS OF CONTACT

Make it easy for people to connect by including several options for people to get in touch. While people can always send you a connection request or direct message you, including an email and a mobile number makes it easy for folks to reach you without the hassles of character or word limitations.

STILL STRUGGLING? Check out my LinkedIn summary section at linkedin.com/in/virginiafranco, where I’ve incorporated these points and attained status amongst the Top 1% of viewed LinkedIn profiles.

What would happen if you were to “like” everything you saw on social media?

The developer Rameet Chawla found out when he built a script that liked every photo that passed through his Instagram feed.

• He grew his followers by about 30 a day
• He got invited to more parties
• He got stopped on the street by people who recognized him from Instagram
• He got message after message from friends encouraging him to post more. He said it was “almost like they were frustrated, like they were longing for something to like in return.”

The likes, comments and posts we share on social media can often seem inconsequential, but they matter. They tap into some of the very elements that make us human, our addictions, desires, anxieties and joys.

What if we could understand the psychology of social media and use that knowledge to bring customers closer, give them more of what they want, and create better relationships?

Last month I had the supreme privilege of talking about just that at Mozcon, a super fun and crazy informative marketing conference put on by our friends at Moz.

I’d love to share some highlights with you here, in case it could be handy for your own social media efforts!

Social media biology: Dopamine and oxytocin

The pull of social media addiction isn’t all in our heads. It’s quite real, thanks to two chemicals our brains produce: dopamine and oxytocin.

Dopamine

Scientists used to think dopamine was a pleasure chemical in the brain, but now we know what it actually creates is want. Dopamine causes us to seek, desire, and search.

Dopamine is stimulated by unpredictability, by small bits of information, and by reward cues—pretty much the exact conditions of social media.

The pull of dopamine is so strong that studies have shown tweeting is harder for people to resist than cigarettes and alcohol.

Oxytocin

Then there’s oxytocin, sometimes referred to as “the cuddle chemical” because it’s released when you kiss or hug.

Or … tweet. In 10 minutes of social media time, oxytocin levels can rise as much as 13%—a hormonal spike equivalent to some people on their wedding day.

And all the goodwill that comes with oxytocin—lowered stress levels, feelings of love, trust, empathy, generosity—comes with social media, too.

As a result, social media users have shown to be more trusting than the average Internet user. The typical Facebook user is 43% more likely than other Internet users to feel that most people can be trusted.

So between dopamine and oxytocin, social networking not only comes with a lot of great feelings, it’s also really hard to stop wanting more of it.

Social media actions: Why we post, share, like and comment

Next, let’s look at some of the major activities we do online and find out what psychological strings are being pulled with each of them.

Why we post

It’s not news that we love to talk about ourselves.

Humans devote about 30–40% of all speech to talking about themselves. But online that number jumps to about 80% of social media posts.

Why? Talking face-to-face is messy and emotionally involved–we don’t have time to think about what to say, we have to read facial cues and body language.

Online, we have time to construct and refine. This is what psychologists call self-presentation: positioning yourself the way you want to be seen.

The feeling we get from self-presentation is so strong that viewing your own Facebook profile has been shown to increase your self-esteem.

What’s also interesting for marketers is that the most prominent way we tend to work on self- presentation is through things—buying things and acquiring things that signify who we are.

Think: Clothes, games, music, the logo on your laptop right now.

The intensity of emotion people can feel for their favorite brands as a result of this is incredible. An experiment showed volunteers two types of photos: the logo for a brand they loved and pictures of their partners and closest friends.

Their physiological arousal to the logo was as intense as the arousal of looking at a picture of their closest friend.

Things—and by extension, brands—are a huge part of who we are.

What I take away from this is to work really hard to figure out what is aspirational about my brand that my customers can identify with.

Brands that can create aspirational ways for their community to interact with them not only create social media opportunities but also the chance to move beyond likes into something lasting.

Why we share

If we like talking about ourselves so much, what would make us share something of someone else’s?

Passing information on is an impulse that we’re hard-wired with. Just the thought of sharing activates our brain’s reward centers, even before we’ve done a thing.

Self-presentation, strengthening relationships

First, it comes back to our own self image: 68% of people say they share to give others a better sense of who they are and what they care about.

But the biggest reason we share is about other people: 78% of people say they share because it helps them to stay connected to people.

Experiments have shown that the best predictors of contagious ideas in the brain are associated with the parts that focus on thoughts about other people.

This means content designed for social media doesn’t need to appeal to a large group or an average group. it just needs to appeal to a specific person.

Social currency

And when we share the right type of content, we gain social currency—our stock goes up. 62% of people say they feel better about themselves when people react positively to what they post on social media.

How can brands create social media currency? By having something interesting to say.

Jeff Goins wrote on our blog about this little-known research paper from the 1970s that attempts to create a unified theory of what makes something interesting.

The author, Murray Davis, says all interesting content is “an attack on the taken-for-granted world of their audience.”

Like “the dress,” things that are interesting deny our assumptions in some way; they shake us up.

Why we like

44% of Facebook users “like” content posted by their friends at least once a day, and 29% do so several times per day.

We do this because we want to maintain relationships. When we favorite and like each other’s posts, we add value to the relationship, and reinforce that closeness.

We also create a reciprocity effect. We feel obliged to give back to people who have given to us, even in a small way. We want to even up the scales.

A sociologist sent Christmas cards to 600 random strangers and received 200 in return. That’s the power of reciprocity.

You see reciprocity in Snapchat, where receiving a snap makes you feel compelled to send one back. And anytime you receive a like, you’ll probably feel a little pull to reciprocate in some way, whether it’s by sharing something in return, signing up for an email list, etc.

Why we comment

Most marketers tend to think conversations with customers are hugely important. That engagement—interacting as much as possible—is what builds long-term advocacy.

So it’s surprising to find that customers don’t feel the same way. A survey of more than 7,000 consumers found that only 23% said they have a relationship with a brand. Of those who did, only 13% cited frequent interactions with the brand as a reason for having a relationship.

Consumers said shared values were a much bigger driver for a relationship than lots of interaction with a brand.

This is not to say that comments aren’t powerful. In fact, they can be incredibly so—there’s a phenomenon known as shared reality that says our whole experience of something is affected by if and how we share it with others.

85% of us say reading other people’s responses on a topic helps us understand and process information and events.

This means comments actually have the power to change our minds, and science backs this up.

• A study on news sites showed that comments that simply attack the author, with no facts at all, are enough to change our perception of a topic.
• On the other hand, polite reviews – even when they’re negative – cause a brand to be seen as more honest and wholesome. Users were actually willing to pay about $41 more for a watch when they saw polite negative reviews than when the reviews were removed.

Basically, any comment about you, anywhere online, is to a consumer a reflection of what kind of company you are. It’s not exactly logical, but that’s how our brains work.

This means being actively engaged in the comments section of your blog and with the customer reviews of your product is crucial, not so much to the person you’re responding to but for everyone participating in the shared reality of comments and reviews.

Social media phenomena: Selfies, emoji and nostalgia

So far we’ve just scratched the surface of what’s interesting and unique about social media. Let’s dive deeper into a few intriguing phenomenon for marketers.

Selfies

Historically, portraits have been about status, and controlling the way our image is perceived.

Today, they’re a way to figure out who we are. The “looking-glass self” is a psychological concept that says that we can never truly see ourselves—we need our reflection from others in order to understand who we are.

Selfies also work because we pay more attention to faces than we do to anything else.

• The profile picture is the first place the eye is drawn to on Facebook and other social media sites.
• On Instagram, pictures with human faces are 38 percent more likely to receive likes and 32 percent more likely to attract comments.
• Eye-tracking studies show that online, we follow the eyes of the people we see on screen.

Viewing faces can also create empathy. An experiment added headshots of patients into doctors’ files, and found that seeing photos of patients improved the way they treated patients.

For brands, there are many ways to harness the power of selfies—we’ve got a full breakdown here!

Emoji

Most of us are not aware of it, but we mimic each others expressions in face-to-face conversation. This is emotional contagion, and it’s a big part of how we build connectedness.

Online, we recreate that crucial element of empathy with emoticons and emoji.

Today, 74 percent of people in the U.S. regularly use stickers, emoticons or emojis in their online communication, and 6 billion emoticons or stickers are sent around the world every day.

And there is a strong link between emoticon use and social media power.

• An analysis of over 31 million tweets found that emoticons were a common factor among influential and popular social media sharers.
• And a study that had participants chat online with various types of experts found that participants rated the experts friendlier and more competent when they used emoticons in their communication.

There are plenty of fun ways to incorporate emoji into your marketing campaigns. Brands like Ikea, Coca-Cola, Burger King and Comedy Central have even created their own branded emoji for their fans to share.

Evan Wray at Swyft Media, which has worked on many of these branded emoji campaigns, says users see these in a really unique way–as self-expression, not advertising.

Nostalgia

Sometimes social media—and life—moves so fast that we want things to slow down.

This is where nostalgia comes in, and this longing for the past can be an amazing strategy for modern social media marketing.

Nostalgia is universal across all cultures and it gives us a sense of social connectedness, feelings of being loved and protected.

That feeling makes us think different about money. When people are asked to think about the past, they’re more likely to give money to others and they’re willing to pay more for products.

These days we’re speeding up nostalgia and creating a bigger and bigger appetite for it.

So you don’t have to have hundreds of years of history to use nostalgia in your marketing. All you need is a time period that your target market is going to feel nostalgic about.

Urban Outfitters is now selling vintage Lisa Frank stickers and notebooks from the ’80s and ’90s. (Yes, the ‘90s are vintage—that’s how fast nostalgia moves now.)

You can use Facebook insights, demographic and persona information to pick the period and then weave nostalgic references through your writing or social media posts.

Social media emotions: The dark and light sides

If we’re going to talk about the psychology of social media, we can’t ignore the studies about its negative effects. Some say it’s making us more lonely, more isolated, more depressed.

And the science behind this is very real—with the caveat that social media doesn’t change us itself; it’s just an extension of our human tendencies. It turns it up a little.

Like social comparison: we all have a tendency to assess our worth by comparing ourselves to others.

This can lead to feelings of insecurity—especially on Facebook, where we go to share our happiest, braggiest news. We’re constantly comparing ourselves against a stream of new babies, engagements, new jobs.

This isn’t just a Facebook issue; it happens on Instagram, where Instagram envy runs rampant, and on Pinterest, where a survey of 7,000 U.S. mothers revealed that 42 percent have “Pinterest stress”—they worry that they’re not crafty or creative enough.

But social media can also unite us. If you’ve ever shared about a loss or a personal challenge on social media, you may have experienced the resounding support that can come from friends and even those you might not expect.

• When we’re feeling insecure, turning to Facebook offers more comfort than any other type of self-affirmation activity.
• And spending time using social networks is correlated with virtual empathy, which carries over into the real world.

Have you ever wondered why animals are so popular on social media?

An interviewer asked the Buzzfeed editors who work on these stories why animals go so viral, and they said it’s because these stories are often not really about animals at all. They often show humans at their best — rescuing, fostering, caring.

They said, “Our empathy for animals is us at our best.”

Social media can gnaw at our insecurities and suck us in, but at its core, it’s about the good in the world: seeing it in ourselves, recognizing it in others, passing it on.

It allows us to get a little closer, a little more empathetic, a little nearer to who we truly want to be. Brands have the opportunity to connect with us if they’re willing to be human along with us – with all the messiness, anxieties and joys that comes with that.

Over to you!

I really enjoyed digging into the psychology of social media for Mozcon and for you here! I’d love to hear any thoughts this brings up for you in the comments. Meanwhile, you can check out the full presentation here:

The Psychology of Social Media (Mozcon 2015) from Buffer

Please take a moment to reflect upon your fondest memories in college. Now, try to remember that one psychology course most institutions require of you. Even if you were able to float through college without having to take an intro-to-psychology course, I would bet that you have heard the name, Socrates. Modern historians and philosophers argue whether Socrates was real, or if he was just a creative outlet for Plato to convey his ideas to others. However, many of Socrates ideas still hold tremendous value today. The specific theory I would like to connect to modern day technology sales development is the “Socratic Method.”

For those of us who may not recall the Socratic Method, below are a few definitions preceding my own interpretation.

“The method of inquiry and instruction employed by Socrates especially as represented in the dialogues of Plato and consisting of a series of questionings the object of which is to elicit a clear and consistent expression of something supposed to be implicitly known by all rational beings (Merriam-Webster).”

“( 469–399 bc), ancient Athenian Philosopher. As represented in the writings of his disciple Plato, he engaged in dialogue with others in an attempt to reach understanding and ethical concepts by exposing and dispelling error (the Socratic method)…(Oxford Dictionaries).”

My Definition for the Socratic Method of Sales (SMS):

“The process through which a sales development representative asks a prospect well-thought-out questions designed to trigger organic thought, and realization of potential challenges that the prospect may face in their day-to-day operations.”

When a sales development rep, at any stage in his/her career is capable of employing this technique, it will provide their prospects with realization, illumination, and organic thought.

Organic realization is far more profound and meaningful than simply stuffing your message down someone’s throat. If you try to force a message upon a prospect, most will respond in a combative and defensive manner. However, if you are able to guide a person towards realization, they will be far more confident in their belief of that opinion. This technique will help build trust with your prospect, as you are demonstrating your own understanding of the situation by asking the most meaningful questions. A sales development rep should be itching for the opportunity to be able to relate with the prospect, display empathy, and genuinely have a solution to help them.

At the end of the day, the aim is to stimulate organic thought within your prospects. By employing this technique and asking the right questions, the prospect will ultimately come to the realization that your product may be a potential fit to overcome their business challenge. This is the polar opposite of regurgitating information at a potential prospect and blasting out product/service features with no context. Surprisingly, doing that is not what will sell your product.

Innately, this concept is archaic. Now a days, sales and marketing professionals need to relate their product features to specific areas of interest for their clients, providing a benefit. What’s even better is if a prospect can see that fit for themselves without being forced to listen to an overbearing earful. For a long time, SMS has been defined as “Short Message Service.” QuotaFactory would like to redefine that acronym as, “Socratic Method of Sales.”

Are your landing page optimization efforts actually killing your conversion rates?

If you’re stuck in low single digits and celebrating every .5% increase as a big win, I’m inclined to say yes. But what I told you that you could increase your conversion rates … without doing landing page optimization?

Check out these 5 conversion hacks that can boost your conversion rates by 3x, 5x or 10x without touching a landing page.

1. Use Call-Only Campaigns Instead of Landing Pages

Call-only campaigns are a game-changer. The normal desktop conversion funnel requires four steps minimum: see the ad, click on the ad, visit the landing page, and convert to become a lead.

With click-to-call extensions in a call-only campaign, you can get rid of the leaky landing page altogether. Users see the ad, call the business, and you capture the lead. In fact, calls to businesses are worth at least 3x more than clicks to websites.

Call-only can help you dramatically increase your call-in and conversion rates. Don’t even display the URL in your ad; just point people straight to your business with click-to-call:

You can use click-to-call on Facebook, too, which makes a lot of sense since 86% of monthly Facebook users are accessing the site from a mobile device.

This way, you’re only paying for calls to your business – no more budgeting for a ton of ad clicks that don’t end up converting on your landing page.

Of course, click-to-call doesn’t make sense for everyone, all the time. It’s a great thing for businesses where a prospect is likely to want to speak with someone. But you might also want to…

2. Use New Ad Formats and Ditch the Landing Page

AdWords, Facebook and Twitter all offer lead capture ad formats, and when you put these to work, you can skip the landing page altogether.

Twitter’s Lead Generation Cards, for example, display your offer and CTA to users, with their contact information already pre-populated on the form.

One click sends their name, email address and Twitter handle to you for export to a CSV spreadsheet. Alternately, you can integrate with your CRM system if you use one of their approved providers.

Again, this enables you to get rid of one whole stage of the conversion funnel. Why send people from an ad to a landing page when you can convert on the ad itself?

3. Compel More People to Convert with Ninja Ad Tricks

OK, “ninja” might be an exaggeration, but these ad types are crazy super effective. Here are three awesome features you can use to compel more people to convert:

1. Use Shopping Ads or the new industry-specific ad formats for hotels, automotive, mortgages, local service providers like plumbers and so on. if applicable. Depending on the ad format, there are some crazy awesome features, like pricing info, image carousels, one-click directions or booking, local inventory integration, and more.
2. Use Ad Customizers to create urgency and FOMO. Ad customizers let you do things like countdowns: “Only X Days Left at 40% Off!” You can even use them to run perpetual sales, over and over, always tapping into that psychological need not to miss out on a deal. Urgency has a huge impact on conversion rates, and in client accounts, we’ve seen increases in conversion rate up to 3x as the sale comes to a close.
3. Use Similar Audiences to find visitors more likely to convert. Focus on getting the right people to your site in the first place. Facebook and Twitter both allow you to upload a list of emails and phone numbers (for example, your customer list) to find more people with traits like them. It’s using the power of Twitter and Facebook to find the needle in the haystack for you! Getting in front of people similar to your existing customers and subscribers with relevant messaging increases the likelihood they’ll be interested in what you have to offer. (I wrote about four more powerful Facebook ad targeting strategies here.)

4. Convert Abandoners with Remarketing

Getting people to your site – even getting them to place items in the shopping cart – is no guarantee you’ll win a customer. In fact, 70% of carts with items in them are abandoned, 1 in 5 calls to a business are abandoned, and 96% of website visitors will leave without taking the marketer’s desired action. So what can you do about it?

I am a huge fan of remarketing – HUGE. If you aren’t investing in remarketing, you’re handicapping the effectiveness of all of your other marketing efforts. Think about how much you budget for PPC, content creation, social media … and then you get in front of a person once and give up?

No! Once a person has expressed that initial interest in your business, they’re more receptive to relevant messaging. Remarketing allows you to get in front of them again on social channels, with display ads all over the web, in their email, wherever they are at the time.

And here’s the thing: People don’t actually hate remarketing.

I know that’s what you’ve probably heard over the last few years, but it’s just not true. Check out this chart:

They’re not turned off. People are actually more apt to convert, the more they see an ad. Truth! This is probably subconscious; it’s unlikely that they even notice the ad the first few times they see it.

So be bold. Set your membership duration for 3x the average length of your sales cycle, run multiple ads per campaign and make your impression caps unlimited. Most importantly, run awesome ads! Get creative and be relevant; good remarketing makes people think, “Oh yeah!” instead of, “Ugh, not again.”

5. Change Your Sign-Up Flow

OK, you might need to touch a landing page for this one – but forget about mucking around with button size and font color. Those might get you some tiny movements, but they’re never going to move the needle in a big way.

Instead, try a totally new sign-up flow. Think about your ask: is it too much, too soon?

Consider the typical software trial sign-up form, for example. Almost without fail, companies say hey, please register here for your free trial. You’re just a step away! Give me your info and something awesome will happen, I promise.

The problem is that your visitor isn’t yet invested in the offer. They haven’t yet received anything of value from you – just the promise of value. For a lot of people, that’s not enough to compel them to put the effort into signing up.

So change the flow:

In this example, a company decided to let users get into a free trial immediately. After they had already played around in it for a little while, they were asked to register. This flow shows the user some value before asking them to do the work of registering. It performed exponentially better!

Another way to seriously switch up the flow is to give users a choice. This is even more compelling if the choice has an emotional element to it, like this:

You can also increase the number of steps instead of requiring one lengthy one. Try breaking up the form onto three pages. When people can see they’re making progress, they are often more likely to complete a few smaller, consecutive asks than one big one.

Key Takeaways

Here are my three key takeaways to remember for increasing conversions with minimal landing page optimization:

1. You have the power to change the funnel. You can completely bypass entire stages of it by using smarter ad formats and extensions.
2. Big changes produce big results. Changing buttons, fonts, spacing, etc. might make you feel like you’re busy optimizing, but that’s about all they’ll do. Re-examine your offer and flow for meaningful improvements.
3. Average isn’t good enough. Puttering along doing the same thing as everyone else will never result in your rising above. Forget about .5% increases. Aim for exponential improvements and focus on the tactics with the potential to improve your conversion rates 3x, 5x or even 10x. Be a unicorn in a sea of donkeys!

Editor's note: This post originally appeared on HubSpot's Marketing blog. For more content like this, subscribe to Marketing.

[Cue Twilight Zone Music] There is another dimension beyond which is known to most marketers. It is a dimension that is vast and chaotic and as timeless as the sales process itself.

It is the middle ground between the introduction and the close, between engagement and disengagement, it lies between the deepest of our marketing fears and the heights of our marketing knowledge. This is the 4^th dimension of the sales funnel. It is an area which we’ll call … The Sales Continuum.

We all have a concept of the sales funnel. It fits nicely into a very linear framework of time. The human mind loves this concept. We can easily process things that have a beginning, middle, and end. We attach these ideas to the sales funnel and imagine perfect scenarios where our top, middle, and bottom of funnel content is consumed in perfect order leading up to a sale.

Submitted for your approval: Five scenarios about what happens, and what to do, when your prospect has taken a strange turn in the buyer’s journey.

1) The Time Element

Your prospect first came to your attention on a Monday. They downloaded all of your content on one of your top offerings. They requested a demo that same week and had a successful first call with your team. They asked for a proposal, it was sent out by the end of the week, and then … nothing.

You reach out to them and they’ve lost a bit of their initial interest. Was this the same prospect from the previous week? Were they under some form of mind control?

You find out that the project has been de-prioritized. They won’t be making a decision for six months. So what do you do? 

• Reach back out and talk to your prospect
• Map out a communication strategy
• Ask if you can send them a reoccurring calendar invite to check back in
• Provide them with content or articles that they might find useful
• Connect with your prospect on LinkedIn

On your follow up calls, see if things have shifted again. Ask them if you can provide them with anything else that would help them in their decision-making process. Make sure that you take every opportunity to ask about other potential projects where your organization might be able to help. 

2) Where Is Everybody?

Your prospect has vanished from the face of the Earth. Well, not literally, but they’re not answering your calls. You’ve tried to email them, and you’re not getting an out of office message. You’re pretty sure they’re still around. They’ve been receptive to your messages in the past, so what do you do?

• Vary your approach – If you’ve been talking to them in the afternoons, try reaching out to them early in the morning or vice-versa.
• Reach out beyond – If you’re in B2B, then your prospect is likely not the only person who works at their company. Reach out to other people at the prospect company who might be involved in the deal and try to get a read for what’s going on. See if there might be others who are interested in your offerings.
• Change your mode of communication – Depending on your relationship with the prospect, maybe you have options to tweet or text. If it’s not too old-school for you get out a pen and paper and send them a handwritten note of follow up.
• Relax – There is a good chance that they’re not ignoring you. People get busy and your priorities aren’t always theirs. Don’t risk the relationship by inundating them with constant and potentially desperate sounding messages.

3) Spur of the Moment

Out of nowhere you get a request for a product or solution demo. The prospect has never been on your radar. It’s as if they’ve just arrived from another planet. They’re looking to make a decision very quickly. They’re also evaluating other options. It’s time to jump into action. Here are some rules for this kind of encounter:

• Keep calm – They’ve done their research and have potentially been observing you from a distance for a while. Now it’s your time to prove to them that you know what you’re doing. Help them find out any additional details they need to help seal the deal.
• Determine the size of this Unidentified First Opportunity – Get an understanding of the time and resources you want to devote towards this new potential customer.
• Get to know these strange new beings – Dive in and do your research. Find out who your competition is. It’s time to play catch-up and get a better understanding of their needs and pain points.
• Take them to your leader – Depending on the size of the opportunity, you may have to get your sales leaders immediately involved to try to close the deal.

4) A Nice Place to Visit

A prospect keeps downloading different top-of-the-funnel offers, they’ve subscribed to your blog, they follow you on social media, but they’ve never taken their engagement to the next level. They don’t seem to be interested in your middle-of-the-funnel or bottom-of-the-funnel offers.

They seem like a perfect fit for your services, but some unknown force is holding them back. How do you take them into the next dimension?  

• If they’ve shown enough interest and you feel like they’re a great prospect, then assign them a dedicated contact.
• Have your team reach out via personal email and phone. Let the prospect know that they have someone to contact if they need any help.
• Try to find out what might be holding them back. Ask about their initiatives and see if they have a need or are just a tire kicker.

Your job here is to guide them between the prospect world and the customer world. Do what you can to help them on their journey to the end of your sales pipeline.

5) A Thing About Machines

Much like our last scenario, your prospect has entered into your sales funnel. Unlike last time, they are responsive to various email workflows. They have downloaded your middle-of-the-funnel content. But the aim of your marketing automation system is to get them to sign up for a demo, an in-person meeting, or your no-cost assessment.

These are the next logical steps, but they just aren’t taking those actions. You’ve done the next level outreach. They’ve even attended your webinars and taken phone calls with your team. What gives?

You’ve let machines do all of your talking for you up to this point. Don’t wait for your prospects to take action and only follow the programmed path. Take these two steps: 

1. Build them personalized content – Even the best and most narrowly-focused, persona-driven content may not be speaking directly to your prospect. Build out a case that speaks specifically to this particular industry, company, and role.
2. Take the engagement to the next level – Take that specific content that you just built and work to set up a face-to-face meeting with them to review the information and make your case.

Your marketing machines -- computers, phones, software, email -- helped you get the prospect’s attention. Now, this person may require a more direct approach, a more human approach. Work to get a meeting set up, and put one of your team members in the same room with the prospect. Don’t over-rely on your marketing automation tools to convert your prospects into customers.

Conclusion

There is a message to these stories and it is this: The Sales Continuum happens every day. No buyer is the perfect persona and no workflow can totally capture the nuanced relationship that a prospect has with your brand.

Once upon a time, there was a thing called inbound marketing and a thing called outbound marketing. In the end, it’s all about people marketing. Every story here combines the power of people with the service of machines. Until the sales robots write content, react to situations, can talk (and listen) effectively over the phone, or walk into a room, you’ll need smart, talented, and human sales and marketing professionals. They’ve always been the ones that help organizations like yours address the strangest turns in the buyer’s journey.

If you want to better understand the convergence between inbound and outbound marketing and why humans matter so much in the sales process, then download our ebook, How to Create a Love Story Between Inbound and Outbound Marketing.

By Melissa Hereford, VP of product marketing and sales enablement, Corporate Visions

Casinos: You either love ‘em or hate ‘em.

Some tout them as job producers, economic engines and consistent providers of flat-out good times. Others demonize them for fueling addictive behavior, preying on the vulnerable and driving up crime.

But, it turns out that the polarizing nature of casinos doesn’t end with just the proponents and naysayers. There’s even a growing divide within the gambling community itself between those attracted to games based on luck—think casino mainstays like slots and roulette—and those looking for skill to be a factor.

This divide is largely generational, according to a Planet Money report by David Kestenbaum, citing data that suggest only two percent of people playing slots are under 35.

While the virtue of luck may be on the downswing in the gambling world, it appears to be holding its ground in sales. Our latest survey, detailed in this infographic, found that many companies are essentially leaving their sales conversations to chance by failing to ensure their salespeople are proficient with their message. Polling more than 500 business-to-business marketers and sales professionals, we found that:

• While 85 percent of respondents say their sales team’s ability to articulate value messages is the single most critical factor to closing deals…
• Only 41 percent of companies ask their salespeople to practice their message using either stand-and-deliver or role-play scenarios. The rest have no expectation that salespeople will actually demonstrate proficiency with the story…
• And, just 9 percent have any requirement to capture practice presentations on camera for coaching and certification purposes.

Like a big bet at the casino, there’s a whole lot riding on your sales conversations. So what can you do to ensure your team relies on skill instead of luck to communicate value? Here are some pointers to help your team excel at the three value conversations that appear in every sales cycle:

• Tell a powerful “why change” story (Create Value): Telling a story that vividly and convincingly shows prospects why they should do something different is vital to defeating arguably your most staunch adversary—no, not your competitors, but your buyer’s status quo. By delivering the right types of insights, and by introducing prospects to their unconsidered needs, you’ll be able to topple the status quo while creating distance between you and the competition.

• Make your business case (Elevate Value): Research firm IDC found that 80 percent of business-to-business decisions are made by decision makers with vice president or higher titles. Once you’ve got that ideal, executive-level buyer in front of you, you have to deliver a business value conversation—not a product presentation—that demonstrates the business impact of your solution, frees up the budget for an opportunity and justifies customer investment.

• Exchange value—don’t give it away (Capture Value): Believe it or not, your pricing doesn’t just take a hit at the end of the sales cycle. In reality, the perceived value of your solution has been leaking out all along, as buyers ask for things (demos, early price concessions, meetings, etc.) and you give them away. A better approach: Try executing “pivotal agreements,” or milestones that you can use to exchange value as your deals advance. These agreements can give you leverage for preserving the value of your deals, and they’ll help protect your pricing from the value leaks that erode your margins.

With so much on the line, you’re going to need more than a little luck on your side. To guarantee that your team articulates value at the level you need it to, it’s going to come down to power of your skills—practiced, coached and certified by qualified messaging experts.

Consumers are ditching their fitness trackers for the added functionality of smartwatches. And as smartwatches become increasingly easy to use and affordable, they will capture an even greater share of the wearables market, driving down demand for fitness- and activity-tracking bands, like the Fitbit. The fitness-band category will make up 42% of total wearables shipments in 2020, down from an estimated 48% share this year, and a 53% share in 2014.

To win over nontech buffs, smartwatch makers are also offering models that cater to health and fitness enthusiasts. The Apple Watch Sport model, for example, has basic materials like an aluminum case with a rubberized band, similar to the material on popular fitness trackers like the Jawbone Up or Fitbit Force.

In a recent report, BI Intelligence takes a closer look at how smartwatches will siphon market share from fitness trackers in the wearables market, and how Apple's smartwatch might impact the market for luxury watches. We also forecast shipments for both Apple Watch and the broader luxury watch market over the next five years, and examine the pricing and design strategy behind the Apple Watch, the new retail distribution opportunities with this device, and the wider opportunity among tech-savvy consumers.

Here are some key points from the report:

• Potential smartwatch buyers are interested in notifications and health and fitness apps. Apple has the advantage among these buyers: three times as many people are interested in a smartwatch from Apple, over one running the Android platform, according to our BI Intelligence global online survey on smartwatch adoption and purchase intent.
• A significant 27% of respondents interested in the Apple Watch said they already wear a watch and that the added functionality of a connected watch appeals to them.
• Fitness bands have more limited functionality and will cater to a more niche, health-focused audience.
• Fitness bands are aiming to widen their reach by offering designer brand versions of their devices.  For example, Nordstrom carries a Tory Burch-design version of a Fitbit fitness tracker for the more fashion-conscious consumer.
• By 2020, Apple Watch shipments will be equivalent to about two-fifths of the luxury-watch market. Assuming a lower-bound price of $350 for the luxury-watch category, and including Apple Watch in that category, traditional wristwatches would account for ~60% of total shipments in 2020, while Apple Watch would account for ~40%.

In full, the report:

• Looks at the market for fitness trackers, and examines how smartwatches will pose a threat to this device category.
• Forecasts the markets for wearables overall, smartwatches, and luxury wristwatches through 2020.
• Estimates Apple's tiered pricing strategy for its three Apple Watch models.
• Examines the opportunity for Apple Watch to resonate with consumers in the traditional luxury wristwatch market.
• Discusses the new retail distribution opportunities for Apple Watch through apparel and jewelry retailers, including department stores.
• Reviews proprietary consumer survey results that give insight into what consumers are looking for when choosing a smartwatch.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally.» Learn More Now
2. Purchase & download the full report from our research store.» Purchase & Download Now

Join the conversation about this story »

Ring ring!

Some days you walk into the office and the phone doesn’t stop ringing. You can’t get anything done and what makes it worse is that many of those calls are annoying sales calls.

Face it, sometimes people just want to sell you something. But there are salespeople that genuinely want to help you better your business, too. The latter cares about your success, the former cares about their success.

It’s time to cut through the B.S. and talk to the person that’s going to help you. Here’s some helpful ways to see through an annoying sales pitch.

They’re Asking One-Sided Questions

Have any of those daily phone calls resulted in a barrage of questions about you, your business, or your struggles in your business? If that round of questioning ends with “Okay great! Now let me talk to you about X, Y, and Z,” you’re being squared up for a sale, and the rep is barely listening to your answers.

This line of questioning is usually a rehearsed list, a script given to the sales team if you will. It’s aimed to get you talking to see if your company’s a potential lead or not.

Instead of asking one-sided questions, a good salesperson will ask you open-ended questions. These questions will result in a two-way conversation that helps the sales rep see the needs of your business. Then, they can address those issues with their products (if it’s a good fit), versus trying to persuade you to see the connection.

They Spout Off Products They Have

A good salesperson will take the time to understand the problems of your business, and offer you a worthy solution. They want to understand the goals of your company and will pre-qualify you with open-ended questions. Then, they’ll use that information to determine if their product will help you succeed.

A poor salesperson might recite a company catalog or only speak of themselves and their products. When you receive a call like this, it’s best to walk away from the phone. They aren’t really interested in your needs; they just want the sale.

A good salesperson won’t waste your time with pointless questions. Instead, they’ll try to understand your business model to pitch the product that’s right for you. As any sales manager will tell you, successful salespeople don’t just sell their product. They know, and believe in, their product. That’s why they won’t waste your time (or money) on services that aren’t going to help you reach your goals.

Their Pitch Is Too Vague

Spouting off products could be a sign that a pitch isn’t tailored to you. The sales rep may have a quota of calls to make, or they may not have researched your company at all. The bottom line is: they don’t know enough about your business to pitch a product, let alone care about your company or your success.

Our Director of Sales, Eli Martin, advises: “Don’t just tell someone about your company. Show them how your company will help their business grow. Pitches should be customized to the potential client you are meeting.”

So how do you craft the perfect pitch for a client? With research; “Cold calling is 90% preparation and 10% execution,” after all. A good sales rep will have already scanned your website, giving them a background of who you are and what you do. Like any good boy scout, a good salesperson is always prepared. They never go into a meeting without a plan. That helps them make the sale.

They’re Using Way Too Much Jargon

“Synergy” and “partnership” don’t sound like part of a sales pitch, right? Wrong! In fact, these words are tell-tale signs that you’re being sold to. Jargon is a crutch sales reps use because they think it makes them look like an expert, or more knowledgeable than they really are. But, it often leaves potential customers confused instead.

A good salesperson doesn’t need to hide behind big words. Instead, they speak with confidence because a good salesperson don’t just sell a product, they know the product.

They’re Calling To Set Up An Appointment

Remember the hype men for early ‘90s rappers? (Think Flava Flav.) They weren’t the main event, but they got you warmed up for the star of the show. That’s how some sales pitches happen. They get you on the phone, and start asking you questions about your business. After moving you down the sales funnel, they ask if they can set you up with an appointment with someone else.

You’ll agree, but hang up the phone and think “why didn’t that guy just call me in the first place?” That’s because the company only wants their sales reps to be on the phone with bonafide leads. Someone else will pre-qualify the lead (think intern, call center, or sales rep-in-training) and, once they see a fit, they’ll bring in their closers.

Unfortunately, some companies are set up this way. They want their top salesperson on the phone with quality leads all day. But don’t worry; not every company works like this. Companies that truly value their customers will have a sales rep be your first (and hopefully only) contact with the company. Yes, even after they nab the sale.

Conclusion

Don’t hang up on every sales call you receive. Instead, separate the good apples from the bad.

When you’re on the phone with a good salesperson, they make it look like it’s not a sales pitch. Sales is about relationship building and taking the time to get to know you and what makes you tick. They’ll ask questions that are relevant to the success of your business, and what you want to achieve.

I have a unique perspective about sales and marketing alignment having worked on both sides of the table. Sales perspective is that marketing isn’t working hard enough to fill their pipeline and marketing thinks sales is lazy. It’s true. Just ask about any salesperson or marketer and they will tell you the same.

Instead of living in mutual dissatisfaction, try these 3 steps for sales and marketing alignment:

1. Set Expectations

Initially sales and marketing should define their buyer personas, together, not separately. A clear understanding of personas and ideal sales targets will lead to less frustration later on. There will be no squawking about unqualified leads from either team if personas and sales targets are mutually identified and agreed to.

Identify what a Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL) and Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) are. There is often disconnect between sales and marketing teams about when a Lead should be converted to a MQL or what exactly happens when a Lead becomes a SQL. Define the process, draw out a workflow, and agree to it just as you have done with buyer personas.

2. Align Goals

Miscommunication is unfortunately the downfall of many relationships – sales and marketing included. Save yourself the grief and nip it in the bud. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot simplifies this process and communicates the advantages of marketing, specifically when it comes to desired outcomes.

Next, marketing and sales should create a Service Level Agreement (SLA). A SLA is an agreement between the two teams on what leads marketing needs to produce to reach a sales goal. A SLA isn’t a contract. It’s a working document. It should be looked at, updated, and refined continuously.

The process of working together on results is sometimes more important than the results themselves. This especially is true in start-ups. I mean neither sales nor marketing understands how the pipeline will develop. As long as both teams are striving for the same goal – more sales, then the middle and top of the funnel will come into focus. Here is a link to a great article that discusses a framework for startup marketing effectiveness.

3. Close The Loop

Email Communication is a simple yet effective method to communicate with the sales team about pipeline development. HubSpot has a great feature for this. Marketing can trigger an email to sales once a prospect reaches a certain stage in the email nurture sequence. Regardless of the action sales takes next, email will keep the sales team in the loop about what marketing is doing to generate a pipeline.

Closed loop reporting is such an important step in defining marketing effectiveness that if a marketer is not closing the loop in today’s marketing automation world he is walking himself out of a job.

If you work in sales or marketing and your teams are not aligned, step up and take action!

Let’s face the hard truth: In sales, you are standing all by yourself on a lonely island. At the end of the day, achieving your quota is totally up to you. You have to decide how you are going to allocate your time to the various avenues available to you to achieve this. If you are provided leads but complain that you don’t have enough prospects, then you need to reexamine your follow-up process.

Here are four essential strategies that any salesperson can easily employ to be the first with the answers, stand out from the competition, and maximize the conversion of inbound sales leads into orders.

1) Follow-up on 100% of inbound sales leads.

In my book Zero-Time Selling, I described how every sales lead is like a scratch-off lottery ticket. You don’t know what you have until you scratch the wax off the face of it. How many people buy a lottery ticket and then wait until the next day to see if they have a winner? None. Your sales leads should be treated the same way.

What this means is that every sales lead needs to be followed up. Make sure that all inbound sales leads are entered into your customer relations management (CRM) system as soon as they are received and that each one is assigned to a salesperson for immediate follow-up. Use your CRM system daily to check and make sure that 100% of your sales leads are being followed up.

2) Follow up all leads in less than 60 minutes.

How much time should it take to follow up a lead? Less than you think. Research cited in the Harvard Business Review states that you are seven times more likely to qualify a lead if the follow-up occurs in less than an hour. Think how many more prospects will move into your pipeline if you respond to 100% of your leads in an hour or less.

Leads have a short shelf life. Every minute that follow-up is delayed, the value of that lead drops. And if your competitors swoop in to provide the prospect with answers while you’re sitting on your hands, then you are suddenly fighting for second place.

I worked with one client to streamline its sales lead follow-up process to reduce response time to inbound sales leads from 24 hours to 30 minutes. The immediate result was more qualified prospects in their pipeline. The medium-term result was a doubling of their sales with the same number of salespeople.

3) Provide complete answers quickly.

A sales lead is nothing more than a question. Being responsive to prospects means that you are providing complete answers to their questions in the least time possible. The best way to do this is to position your deepest product knowledge closest to the customer. It’s not enough to be the first to respond. You must also be the first to answer the customer’s questions. The first seller to respond to an inbound sales lead with the complete answer in zero time will build trust and credibility, dramatically increasing the chances of winning the order. 

4) Measure, improve, and measure again.

You must continually work to improve your sales lead follow-up process. As the old saying goes, “You can’t improve what you don’t measure.” So keep it simple to start with and measure the following:

• How many sales leads do you receive each week?
• How long does it take to respond to each sales lead? (That’s the time between when the lead is received and when a salesperson talks to the prospect for the first time.)
• What percentage of your inbound sales leads are converted into qualified prospects?
• What percentage of your inbound sales leads are converted into orders?

Set goals for these metrics, and then check each month to see whether you are achieving them. If you are, set more aggressive goals and fine-tune each element of your lead follow-up process to achieve the new goal. If you aren’t meeting your goals, examine each element of your process in detail, and implement steps you can take to improve it. Then check your performance again in a month, and set even more aggressive but achievable goals.

Editor's note: This is an excerpt from the book Amp Up Your Sales. It is published here with permission. Purchase the book on Amazon.

AMP UP YOUR SALES: Powerful Strategies that Move Customers to Make Fast, Favorable Decisions by Andy Paul. © 2015 Andy Paul. All rights reserved. 

Published by AMACOM Books www.amacombooks.org. Division of American Management Association 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

You work hard to generate leads for your sales pipeline by sending out cold emails. But your cold prospects don't respond. Do you know what your best follow-up strategy is?

How many times should you follow up with a cold prospect? When should you follow up? What specifically should you write in these emails? When should you stop following up?

In this post, you’ll learn how to put a consistent cold email follow-up strategy in place that will help you fill your sales pipeline and ultimately close more deals.

You send out a cold email and don’t hear back. What do you do?

What I’m sharing here aren’t rules but general guidelines, and it’s your job to turn these general guidelines into best practices for your own startup. That said, here’s what I think will work best for most people.

The follow up formula:

1. Send out first cold email.
2. 1 day later, at a different time of the day: Follow-up 1
   This email should be a modified version of your original email. It should communicate the same message, just in a different format. For example, if your initial… email was several paragraphs long, make this follow-up email just two sentences long. If your initial cold email was just two sentences long, make this email several paragraphs long.
   Don’t write something completely different. Don’t add attachments.
3. 2 days after your second email: Follow-up 2
   Don’t even explain anything. Just succinctly restate your call to action. You can ask your prospect to introduce you to the right person in their organization, to schedule a call, or to respond to your email—whatever your desired call to action for your initial cold email was. For example, you could say: “Hey, when would be a good time for you to discuss this on a quick 10-minute call? How about Tuesday or Wednesday 10 a.m. Pacific?”
4. 4 to 5 days after your third email: Follow-up 3
   The break-up email. It’s an email in which you say goodbye to the prospect, betting on their loss aversion - a psychological principle describing people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains.

Optionally, you can add another follow-up email before the break-up email, but I wouldn’t recommend following up more than four times.

For a systematic approach, it's best to create a Close.io workflow so that you don't have to set this up manually with each of your prospects.

 

 

Workflows become especially powerful once you scale your sales process and are dealing with a high volume of leads.

Setting individual follow up reminders

If you are following a more customized, low-volume approach, we're happy to let you know that Close.io now does that too. (It's the latest feature we've added to our CRM software!)

Simply click the day when you want to get a follow up reminder in your Inbox and Close.io will take care of it. We've also got response detection built in - so you won't be innundated with superfluous reminders and only get notified of the prospects that need your attention.

If you're not using Close.io yet... give it a try! Start your free trial now! (You don't even need a credit card and can get rolling with our sales platform in just a couple of minutes).

What makes cold emails work?

Most people falsely assume the reason why they get a response to a follow-up email is because they’ve sent a better email or said something smarter.

In most cases, the real reason why people who don’t respond to your first cold email respond to your follow-up email is very simple: timing!

It just so happened that the recipient saw the original email when they were too busy or distracted by something that prevented them from taking action. That’s why it didn’t register on their radar.

Then they got a follow-up email from you, which was sent at a better time, a time when the recipient had the attention, mental bandwidth, and time to consciously process and respond to your email.

If your prospects read your initial email and decide they’re not interested in your offer and don’t want to do business with you, then nothing you say in a follow-up email is going to turn that around and convert them.

So you shouldn’t even try to optimize for those people.

Instead, optimize only for those people whom you have a realistic chance of converting from a cold prospect into a hot lead. These are the people who are somewhat interested but either didn’t have the time to respond or didn’t connect the dots— all they need is just a little bit more nudging.

You win deals in the follow-up

I say this all the time: The follow-up is where winning really happens. It’s when everyone else stops running, and you’re the only person still in the race. It doesn’t matter how slow you run—you are going to win because everybody else stopped running.

If you’ve had a positive interaction (be it an email, a phone call, or a meeting) with someone in which they showed interest in your solution but then stopped responding to your calls and emails… keep following up indefinitely. Forever. Until you get a result. Either a yes or a no.

If you haven’t gotten any response to your cold email, stop at three to four follow-ups, and move on to more receptive prospects.