How can you get introductions and references?

How much time do you have to spend even before starting a conversation with them?

The AI (artificial intelligence) can help you get introduced to 15 or more of every 100 senior contacts you want to meet. Fill in the top of your sales funnel using that so you can focus on critical relationships development.

The post Artificial Intelligence for Business Development appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

Synopsis

My quick summary of the article –  technology and data analysis tools can help you:

• Maximize focus on the core, high-value tasks while simplifying support activities for sales, customer service, and outreach.
• See insights from your operations using visual dashboards to learn, revise and grow using specific, actionable ideas.
• Create synergies between sales, customer support, and marketing communication.

priligy zkuenosti

Sales Funnel Definition for Automation

Leads summarized by confidence interval

The post Technology, Data Analytics for Customer Acquisition appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

Synopsis

My quick recap of this article:

1. LinkedIn can be an asset to discover quality prospects and get introductions.
2. You can use LinkedIn to capture insights about your competition and target market segments.
3. Stay up to date with your network that is constantly evolving.

The post LinkedIn for Business Development appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

When a sales process is clearly defined, and tools are in place to measure the data, interpret it, and see the visual dashboards, it can help boost the productivity of the sales team members.

This example shows information about the sales process defined in a CRM system called Nutshell. The image below shows a screen capture of sales funnels set for one of our customers. Each stage of the sales funnel in this example uses a confidence interval carefully defined to reflect progress in the sales process for individual leads. While working closely with the sales team members, we identified a list of associated activities for each stage of the funnel.

Defining the sales path or sales stages is very critical to improving the closing rate. We help customers determine the sales funnel stages, asking the right questions.

Sales Funnel Definition for Automation

We set up the CRM system so that sales team members can easily see the progress of an individual lead. The image below shows sales funnel status and update options for a prospect that the salesperson can manage.

Lead Management – confidence intervals

We export the data from the CRM periodically and import it in Tableau (a business intelligence software). The pre-set custom dashboards in Tableau show the summary of all leads for each salesperson. The image below shows a Tableau dashboard with LEADS INFO DETAIL for one sales rep. This view clearly shows the areas where information is still needed to move forward the projects through the funnel. It is clear that most of the projects in the 0 to 29% confidence still need quite a bit of information, but we can also see some nulls in the 40% confidence leads. All 40% of confidence leads are projects that have been quoted and ideally should not have any nulls in the data.

Leads summarized by the confidence interval.

With similar dashboards for each salesperson, the leadership team gets to see and understand the progress and activity level for each salesperson over time.

Sales team members also have a compact summary with a list of leads for each confidence interval. These summary tables make it easier for them to identify the next step for each opportunity, boosting their productivity and also saving time.

We created email templates in the CRM system for each stage (or confidence interval) of the sales funnel. With this, the sales reps can send a customized, pre-defined message in a matter of clicks directly from the system. The streamlined process to send emails makes sales strategy execution even more efficient for the sales team.

Stay tuned on my other two blog posts in this series on the Intelligent Sales Strategy – INSIGHTS, and STRATEGY.

The post Intelligent Sales Strategy: Part I of III – PRODUCTIVITY using Tableau appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

Do you want to develop content that would engage your prospects effectively? How do you discover potential changes that can bring maximum bang for the buck?

Landing Pages – Focus on Specific Market Opportunities

The above image shows the measurement of the effectiveness of different pages on the website of one of our customers. Numbers indicate year over year improvement in the engagement for several pages on the site. That is, how well do prospects engage when they start on specific landing pages on the website. We benchmarked a couple of goals in the above dashboard:

1. Number of users that visited more than two pages during a session
2. Number of people that stayed on the website at least for one minute

3SG PROCESS:

The 3SG partners quantified the market opportunity from the initial market research and strategy report.

3SG suggested a holistic approach to developing content on the website with these critical objectives:

• Develop search engine rankings
• Answer questions from potential clients about using the specific product
• Support sales team members
• Establish a competitive advantage to generate leads and capture market share

The content evolved using web analytics, feedback from sales team members, as well as performance benchmarking of specific email marketing campaigns.

While the image above shows the effectiveness of website pages, the number and range of project inquiries also increased in the comparable proportion.

The post Marketing is Measuring: Part III – Focus on Specific Market Segments appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

How do you realize that potential?

Content Strategy for Market Exposure, Leads Cultivation, Sales Support

The image above shows the benchmarking of two simple and yet powerful goals:

1. How many website visitors went to at least a couple of pages?
2. How many visitors stayed on the website for at least a minute?

The image shows the results for two different groups of website visitors for one of our clients:

1. People that landed on the website pages while searching for answers to their questions on Google. The increasing trend over the period of a couple of years led to new leads, and project opportunities from totally new market segments.
2. People that visited website directly from their browser. Analysis of this traffic source measured the effectiveness of relationships development, cultivation of leads acquired from different channels, answering questions, and also sales support.

 

The search engine traction was developed organically by strategic content development and other proven search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.

As a partner in execution, 3SG developed content for the customer using 3SG’s industry knowledge and clear articulation of product value prop for prospects engagement. The content strategy evolved hand in hand with market research and competitive analysis, close collaboration with customer projects/support team, as well as the active feedback loop from sales and business development initiatives.

The post Marketing is Measuring: Part II – Leads Generation, Cultivation appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

 

Keys to success with it:

1. Quality educational content
2. Right messaging to connect with prospects
3. Feedback loop to measure, learn and refine over time.

 

Marketing is Measuring – Email Marketing and Business Development Opportunities

The Image above shows email marketing performance for one of the 3SG customers in the year of 2018.

3SG provided an integrated ability to measure and analyze performance at several levels.

1. Measure and understand email marketing performance statistics.
2. Measure and analyze web analytics to understand engagement. 3SG was able to identify website visits from every email campaign using unique tagging, and then measure conversions of three goals:
   • Number of people that visited more than one page
   • Number of people that stayed on the website at least for a minute
   • Number of online support tickets requested from potential clients
3. Measure and track lead cultivation in the sales funnel using Nutshell (CRM) and Tableau (BI software)

3SG developed the required web content, email marketing campaign designs, segmented reports in website analytics, sales process set up using Nutshell, and visual dashboards to streamline the sales funnel execution.

The post Marketing is Measuring: Part I – Email Marketing Case Study appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

We here at 3SG have a fun, productive work relationship with Advanced Architectural Stone (AAS).

We started with a mission to answer two questions:

1. Where are the opportunities for the company to grow?
2. How to pursue those opportunities?

 

The 3SG team learned the business operations of AAS and combined that information with its knowledge of the architecture, construction and manufacturing industries.

While working closely with the AAS leadership team, we came up with the following:

• An effective way to articulate the core strength and differentiators of the AAS products, technology, manufacturing and customer support capabilities.
• A plan of execution that would achieve the business objectives.

It has been a fun journey implementing the strategy while actively coordinating with the AAS team.

Key components of the on-going execution:

1. Positioning the company in a way that would leverage its core strengths.
2. Design and implementation of the company’s website, blog, video channel, a number of AAS project stories and case studies, email marketing campaigns and sales support tools.
3. Extending the market reach of AAS using 3SG’s network and industry knowledge.
4. An effective feedback loop to measure and understand customer’s behavior using analytics, and to continually refine the positioning.

AAS business grew considerably within the first year of engagement. See more in this 3SG case study….

3SG AAS Case Study | IMAGE of Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame | Image by AAS

The post 3SG Case Study: Advanced Architectural Stone appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

Probably not …

Where is the art and genius of painting?

Think of your social media and other external communication channels as canvas for your business.

What paints the pictures of your offering, relationships and credibility on this canvas?

IT IS WHAT YOU SAY.

“Now, do I need social media for my business?”

The answer is a question : Do you need to develop relationships in order to develop your business? If yes, the social media provides tools to do just that. The world is evolving where these tools are in use more than ever, and they bring advantages of easy content distribution and active participation from the audience. Put them to use.

 

How do you go about adopting these tools?

Step One: Define and Tune into Your Marketing Strategy

Use a systematic framework to analyze your business, and articulate the value you create for each product and/or service.

Use market research and competitive analysis to benchmark your position against your competition.

Do your homework and discover target market niches that are attractive for your business. Have a clear idea about how to capture these.

Identify target persona; clearly define what the needs are of each persona, and how you can meet them.

Clear strategy is a key to success of any marketing initiative; leave alone the social media channels.

Step Two – Clearly Identify the Role of Social Media

For example –

1. Connect with people that would bring synergy to your network and relationships. Expand your network.
2. Understand what kind of questions people are asking. What are their needs that you can meet? Use ideas and conversations that would pull them to you. That will generate business leads.
3. Cultivate relationships and credibility with prospects in your sales funnel.
4. Use social media for customer support.
5. Communicate with your target audience.
6. Support your other marketing and sales initiatives such as email marketing, advertising, trade shows, sales prospecting, etc.
7. Show your thought leadership with quality ideas. Build credibility.

Every business is unique, and so is the role of social media.

Clearly understand how social media channels work, and use them to your advantage.

For example –

1. When you have a product update, a press release may not directly reach all prospects in your sales funnel. It might be too much for your sales team to call every prospect and get them up to speed. Social media can come to the rescue, as you can disseminate information to all using the viral nature of the tools and automated distribution.
2. Do the market research, identify target prospects, and pull them to you using social media conversations. This may not be as easy as it is with other tools. Social media opens up your options and abilities here.
3. Answer questions and build your knowledge base. Use it to service your customers and build community support around your offering. Phone conversations are lost once you hang up; email conversations remain trapped in an email thread that you can’t use for others. Social media content, on the other hand, can help you cultivate an asset that can serve customers, cut down your support costs, and pull prospects.

Brainstorm all ideas before you start diving into social media. Always revisit the options and possibilities on an on-going basis, as well.

Step Three: Define Your Content Strategy

There are two steps:

1. Think of a range of questions you have to answer in the sales cycle and that will also serve your customers. Think of topics that would be relevant to your prospects. What would add value for your prospects? Sometimes it may be providing a tool or building a knowledge-base they can use.
2. Do online research to find topics you weren’t aware of. There could be a lot of use cases and questions that will help you help your customers. You don’t what you don’t know. Online research helps you learn what you didn’t know.

Create a system to capture these ideas and add to the list of possible topics.
Where and how will you find the information that will add value for prospects?

The answer could/should be your website, as well as your blog that you update consistently. Industry sources and links that provide contextual information for prospects are also very relevant. For example, when your product is helping to cut down energy consumption and earn LEED credits for your customers, it helps to keep them up to speed about the LEED options, where/how to get the credit, etc. For that, government resources and sites might be very insightful. Keep your prospects up to speed on those.

Maintain a comprehensive list of resources and develop a system to see the updates; share these with your prospects. A few ways to see/get updates are to subscribe to email updates, subscribe to RSS feeds on blogs, follow on Twitter, and keep your tabs on LinkedIn conversations and updates.

Step Four: Create a system for conversations

What does this system consist of? Two things:

One – Automation for content distribution: Examples –

Create RSS feeds for different categories of your blog. “Wire” them to your FB business page and LinkedIn page, so your blog content gets distributed to those channels automatically.

Keep valuable industry sources on your radar, and have ways to tweet about important topics automatically.

Implement social media plug-ins on your website so the content can easily be shared on networks your website visitors use.

Embed social media into your email marketing.

Careful analysis of business sales cycle and marketing objectives show opportunities for content syndication. Once that is in place, use the technology tools to automate as much as you can. You will be surprised how much of this can be automated. That is one of the advantages of social media.

Two – Consistent support to maintain social media conversations

At the end of the day, relationships develop because of consistent contact and conversations. Clearly identify people and roles to post new ideas, and engage in conversations where required. When you look at how much time you are spending traveling, how much effort you are investing in industry events, the number of emails you write with ideas and answers that are repeated over and over, how much it takes for you to generate business leads – you will see that the social media bandwidth you have to invest isn’t bad at all. Apple to apple – social media, when used right, does give you optimum bang for the buck.

This doesn’t mean you stop all sales and marketing, and get hung up only on social media. A little discipline can go a long way in getting this in your “system.”

There are so many tools that help you streamline this, as well.

If there is no gardener, there is no garden.

Step Five: Measure

Clearly define the role of your website in the marketing strategy. Use analytics to measure and understand.

Google analytics for example can show you clearly how social media is contributing in achieving desired goals. There are ways to understand prospect behavior across multiple channels – your email marketing, LinkedIn conversations, direct website visits, search engines, off-line marketing channels, etc.

See more on analytics in these blog articles –

1. Web Analytics – Is my Marketing Working?
2. WISE Series Part I: Business Outcomes and Website – What is a WIN for me?
3. Expand Your Reach – Part Four – Use your Website

Another key part of measuring is “listening” to conversations on the social media. If you are in sales, this is your goldmine. Once you are attuned into this, you will see who to call and when and even what to talk about in conversations. Your sales system and leads generation process becomes much more intelligent when you use social media.

Plan and prepare for your social media strategy. After that proper execution will complete the circle in your business strategy.

Another post on business strategy that you might find very relevant –

How do I realize my potential – Five Questions…

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The post Canvas of Social Media – Be Picasso of Your Business appeared first on 3SG Consulting.

Looking for a low hanging fruit for your business?

Go no further than your current customers and pool of prospects.

Are you maximizing their potential?

Where do you start?

Retain your current customers. Grow your relationships with them. Expand your engagement.

1. Convert your existing pool of prospects.
2. Develop a database with all your contacts.

As Seth Godin explained in his book Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends, and Friends into Customers, such a database is the most important asset a business can have. Implement a system to follow through and track your contacts.

How can you achieve that?

Think about how you can add value for your contacts. Educate them and establish your leadership and credibility. Cultivate interactivity.

Does this sound like a lot to do? It doesn’t have to be – if you organize your business and use the right technology and tools. When done right, this actually can cut down your marketing budget and free up resources that you can leverage for other business initiatives.

Email marketing

Email marketing is the most effective and the least expensive marketing tool, when used in the right way.

How can it help?

As a channel to introduce new ideas. Test new products and concepts.

1. As a guide for your customers and prospects with answers to frequently asked questions. This will cut down your support costs, as well.
2. In creating synergies with other marketing channels such as trade shows, promotions, social media channels, and other off-line marketing channels.

Social media channels

Social media channels help create synergies and cultivate interactive relationships.

How?

1. They provide cost-effective, automated channels to distribute information that can go viral. They help pull prospects to you – and also convert them.
2. They bring down customer support costs while using the same content and channels to build branding and credibility.
3. By interacting with your customers and prospects directly. You can use their experiences and feedback for business insights.

Some of the channels you can use right away include YouTube, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SlideShare, and Squidoo.

Maximize returns from other marketing channels.

Create opportunities for synergies among your ongoing marketing initiatives. Get more out of them. The internet and social media provide unique opportunities for that. Stay tuned for more on this in another post in this series.

Measure, test and learn

With web analytics and testing, you have a system to understand what works and what doesn’t in your customer service, marketing, and business development. It shows you ways to delight your customers and improve the way you sell.

Use that information to refine your business strategy and get more from the investment.

Nurture your nature.

You have so much going with your current customers. You are working hard to get leads for your business.

Why leave the value from this effort on the table? Capture it.

 

1. Expand Your Reach – Part I – Who is Eating my Pie?
2. Expand Your Reach – Part II – Where is my Target Market?
3. Expand Your Reach – Part III – Target Market Niches
4. Expand Your Reach – Part IV – Use Your Website
5. Expand Your Reach – Part V – Value on the Table?

 

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