Matt on Marketing

Joining, talking and participating

2009-11-09T20:40:00.000-08:00

Want credibility with a set of prospective customers? Want to be accepted as one of them, as a part of their tribe?

It takes more than just joining their club. It takes more than just speaking their language, and talking at them.

To be accepted today, you have to participate.

Participation means two-way communication, in an authentic manner, on a regular basis. It takes more time, more effort, and more investment than what we used to be able to do – buy a list, get some PR, write a letter. In other words, talk at the prospect.

Today, prospects require and expect more. If you talk at them (in a letter, a blog post, an article in a trade publication), they expect to be able to talk and comment back. And then, in turn, they expect you to read their response and engage yet again.

It’s more work. And as long as your prospects keep responding, it doesn’t really end. But isn’t that awesome?

The companies you want as your customers aren’t just reading your stuff anymore. They’re responding, engaging, asking you questions, questioning your opinions. They’re getting to know you, and by participating back you’re earning their trust and respect. And if you keep participating, you can earn their business too.

Traditional media + modern tactics = compelling marketing

2009-11-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

Old-school media is far from dead. We’re watching more TV than ever before, and radio continues to be incredibly influential in local markets, especially during drive time.

As an advertising medium, traditional media such as television and radio aren’t quite as influential and powerful as they once were. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still make them work.

Davis Law Group in Seattle, for example, wants to engage potential local clients who may need help after an accident or injury. They’re using radio advertising as part of their campaign, in this case specifically targeting auto accident victims, but they’re doing two things in particular very well:

1. The voice-over for many of their spots isn’t a company spokesperson or even the desk-based drive-time news anchor. It’s the helicopter-based traffic guy, literally reading (or recording) the ad from the chopper. Where the message comes from (both the reader and the context) are highly relevant and attention-grabbing.

2. Chris Davis doesn’t just tell people to call him. He offers a free e-book to anyone who visits his site (or microsite, as he’s specifically promoting a site featuring the e-book that’s separate from the firm’s main Web presence). It’s a no-obligation, value-added offer that contextually relevant to his business, and focused on engaging potential clients before they get into that accident.

I’m not sure whether Chris is able to measure better performance for this campaign vs. traditional radio campaigns he may have run in the past (Chris, if you’re reading this, drop us a line and we’ll update this post). But he’s definitely using a traditional channel in a smarter way.

It's not who you know (why trust trumps volume)

2009-11-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

The assumption that a big network – thousands of followers on Twitter, an enormous rolodex, a really big mailing list – directly translates into influence and performance is ridiculous. Anybody can build a big list of names.

The more important question is whether those people care about you. Do they respect you? Do they trust you? When called upon, will they help you? Will they buy from you?

The trick is translating that big list into an army of evangelists, a group of individuals who respect and trust you.

That’s how to measure the value of your network. Not by sheer volume, but by trust.

Trust drives influence, and influence enables action.

Chris Brogan on being "them-centric"

2009-11-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

Chris knows that building relationships, trust and credibility means talking less about yourself, and more about others – their wants, needs, interests, etc.

In his weekly newsletter yesterday, Chris outlined three simple but important ways to be “them-centric” more often. Here they are:

Always ask about the other person first. In social gatherings, be quick to ask about the other person's interests, what's currently on their mind, whatever turns the conversation to them.

Look at your efforts through others' eyes. Now, in measuring your self-worth, your own eyes are the only ones that matter, but in trying to better understand how well you're serving people's needs, try to see it from their side. Are you quick to pounce? Do you have their interests at heart or yours? The more clarity you can bring to this, the better you'll do.

Accept that you WILL get a turn. I taught this to my daughter over the years, and she seems to really practice this. Sometimes, she is last to take her turn, but she knows that she'll get a chance. This rings true for how we approach our interactions with others. Take a breath. Relax. Know that your story will come out when the pause is just right. It's okay to be assertive if the other person failed their kindergarten lessons on sharing, but otherwise, go slowly.

How to build thought leadership and influence

2009-11-03T21:04:00.000-08:00

The steps to building trust & credibility w/ a growing network is relatively straightforward:

Engage new contacts somewhere, based on their needs
Provide some immediate value, based on the messages/competencies you want to represent
Establish a great first impression and initial reputation for those same messages/competencies
Continue passively reiterating that value/message through high-volume, high-leverage channels

Contacts in, influencers and pipeline out. The more you can start the process by reaching multiple contacts at once, the more efficient the model. If you have to engage people 1:1 at the start of the process, for example, it doesn’t scale well. If you can engage folks via speaking engagements, third-party published articles, attending well-targeted networking events, etc., you get lots of input into the process at once.

How you choose to execute the “passive reiterating” depends on what channels your audience uses most, and which you’re most comfortable with. Blogs, newsletters, Twitter, whatever. Could be just one, could be a couple, definitely doesn’t need to be all.

Thinking about it this way is a bit systematic and perhaps cold, but it works as long as the content and value you’re providing the individuals on the other side of the process is genuine, authentic and truly helpful.

Dunbar's Number works both ways

2009-11-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

Seth made a compelling argument last week that it’s extremely difficult to maintain quality relationships with more than 150 people. He postulates that, if we believe Dunbar’s Number and theory to be true, it’s impossible to maintain close, meaningful relationships with the thousands of followers we try to collect via Facebook, Twitter, or blogs, and so forth.

And he’s right. But Dunbar’s Number goes two ways.

If you’re building a following – for yourself, your brand, your cause, etc. – you’re creating value for your followers. And although you can’t possibly have close relationships with thousands of followers, you very well may be among the 150 people your followers include in their Number.

Put another way, if you’re creating enough value for your audience, in an authentic and sustainable way, you can earn your way into their 150. Into their inner circle, the influences they consider most important to their lives. And if you can do that with enough followers, then scaling your volume into the thousands, tens of thousands and beyond can be an incredibly powerful opportunity.

Seth himself is a great example of this. Tens of thousands of people worldwide read his blog and books, many on a daily basis. For those people, he’s in the top-tier of their marketing and general business influencers. He’s in their 150.

That’s a position of authority, respect and influence that’s reachable for more of us.

Think about you target audience, your target customer. What do they care about, think about on a daily basis? What do you have to offer that can earn your way into their 150? Then, how are you delivering value every day to keep that position?

Seven reasons why I joined the local Chamber of Commerce

2009-10-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

Last week I finally joined the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce. I’ve attended a few events over the past year, but it was time for me to become an active member.

I know in an age of Twitter and LinkedIn and all kinds of alternatives to business networking, joining the local Chamber can sometimes be seen like less of a priority. Many young businesses believe there are better uses of their time and money.

I disagree. It may have taken me longer than it should have, but joining the Chamber was an inevitable no-brainer. Here are seven reasons why.

1. Pipeline Development
For our clients, everything we do is about helping them accelerate sales & revenue. Everything is measured based on its contribution to sales & revenue growth. The way I operate my own business is the same. So reason number one for joining the Chamber is sales pipeline – meeting and acquiring new prospects and clients for us.

My pipeline already has businesses met both directly at Chamber events as well as referrals from Chamber introductions. Two weeks in, and if one of those clients converts, it more than pays for the Chamber membership. That’s already good ROI (and we’re just getting started).

2. Networking
Every business owner needs to devote a significant amount of time to marketing, and in my business that means a lot of networking. Networking with prospective clients, as well as fellow business owners who either might be clients or who know, work with, live with or otherwise associate with prospective clients.

Networking is a numbers game, in which you treat everyone equally. Everybody knows somebody (or is somebody), and the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. A big part of joining the Chamber is having more opportunities to network at a local level.

3. Peer Group
Other Chamber members are a lot like me. They have a business they’re trying to make a success, and grow bigger/better than it is today. We all do different things, but we’re struggling with many of the same issues – growth, operations, product set, sales channels, etc. Sometimes the best new ideas I apply to my business come from someone in an entirely different industry, selling to a very different customer. The more you spend with fellow business owners, the smarter you’ll be about how to operate, optimize and grow your own business.

4. Credibility
As a growing business, being a member of the local Chamber establishes credibility. It just does. It demonstrates to other businesses and prospective clients that we’re a real business, and willing to invest time and money to be an active member of the business community.

If I’m going to be a member of the local business community, I consider it an obligation to do what I can to foster health & growth for that same community. The rising tide will lift all boats. The health of the local business environment is a big part of why I’m in business today, so it’s my duty to both give back and actively contribute to that community.

5. Introductions
My participation with the Chamber has already created introductions for myself and our business to community, government and business leaders I otherwise would have either never had, or taken much longer to gather. Those new relationships are with influencers, “connectors” as Malcolm Gladwell would describe them, people who can open up huge new doors and opportunities for our business.

If what you’re doing or selling as a business has value, and you can clearly & succinctly articulate what that is, others who get it and need it (or know people who need it) will help you identify new opportunities for growth as well. That’s what influencers and connectors can do. And you’ll meet them through the Chamber.

6. Belly to Belly Relationships (“LinkedIn is not enough”)
I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn and other social networking tools. They make creating and fostering a network faster and more efficient than ever. But they’re no replacement for getting out there and meeting people live. They never will be.

Some of the smartest social media people in the world make a point of telling their followers to step away from the computer and get out to actually see people. They know that networking, at its core, is about people meeting people. And there’s simply no better way to do that than belly-to-belly, looking at the whites of another person’s eyes, and demonstrating in real time the value, credibility and trust you (and your business) represent.

7. Opportunities I can’t even think about yet (but will discover and create)
I mentioned above that networking is a numbers game. You meet some great contacts and occasionally some clunkers. Inherent in that belief is the knowledge that enough contacts will net you revenue-producing opportunities. Also inherent in that belief, I believe, is the knowledge that completely unexpected opportunities will come your way when you seek them out, keep an ear open for them, and explore them when they materialize.

If I’m not a member of and active in the Chamber, I’m missing an opportunity to discover something I can’t even fathom yet, an opportunity that could significantly change my business and my life.

I can’t afford to miss that.

Keeping sales demand high during the holiday months

2009-10-28T13:14:00.000-07:00

We hosted a breakfast roundtable event this morning with several B2B sales & marketing executives, focused on sharing best practices for how best to keep sales and customer demand high during the holiday months.

The handout at this link summarizes many of the points made and discussed during the event.

A couple excerpts:

Focus On Demos: So maybe your customers don’t want to make a purchase decision until January. Even if that’s true, you can focus November and December on getting your prospects as far down the purchase cycle as possible. Focus on doing as many demos as you can. Answer objections, get executive sponsors involved, send out proposals and begin negotiations on terms. Move prospects forward so that you’re set up for a big beginning of Q1.

Help Them Kick-Start Their Own New Year Goals & Results: If what you’re selling can benefit your customers and their own goals & objectives, isn’t it better to have that in place on January 1, vs. waiting to buy and onboard later in the month, quarter or year? Build a sense of urgency that this is exactly the time to make a move and get a head start on next year’s goals.

Get the full one-page PDF here.

Nurturing prospects into customers

2009-10-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Terry Miller, managing partner, CRM Group

It’s a familiar refrain among B2B marketers – “We’re generating all kinds of leads but our sales team doesn’t have the resources to follow up on them in a timely manner.”

Problem: Finding an efficient way to further qualify leads in order to help prioritize sales’ follow up activities.

Solution: Create a nurture campaign utilizing email to get prospects to further self-qualify themselves as they respond to a series of calls-to-action featuring differing bars to entry.

The benefits of an effective nurture customer contact strategy are many:

Develop more qualified leads
Drive increased revenues
Reduce the sales cycle
Improve the ROI of your marketing programs
Improve the efficiency of your sales team
Expand the awareness and usage of your products and services

Developing an email nurture program is easier than you think.

Step 1: Evaluation – take a look at your current communication stream that leads receive and evaluate based on objectives, form and frequency

Step 2: Analysis – engage in a data mining exercise aimed at understanding sales cycle duration, conversion rate and value

Step 3: Implementation – develop a new, multi-part lead contact strategy that delivers your unique value propositions while further qualifying leads based on the commitment required by the call-to-action (click through vs. white paper vs. webinar attendance, etc.). Be sure to take into consideration the length and complexity of the sales cycle when determining number and frequency of contacts (shorter sales cycle, fewer contacts and less time between them).

Terry Miller is the Managing Partner of CRM Group, which helps companies acquire new customers, retain existing customers and improve their customer service. He can be reached at terry@crmgroupusa.com .

Six reasons why your sales suck

2009-10-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Special thanks to the team at TechFlash for giving me an opportunity to share these ideas over the weekend.

There’s no question the economy has softened buyer demand and sales cycle velocity, but in the majority of buying & selling environments, there’s far more at play creating weakness in sales pipelines.

Take a read and let me know what you think. Let me know especially what I may have missed, and what you may have already discovered (and overcome) this year.

Stop telling prospects what you do

2009-10-19T16:36:00.001-07:00

Your prospects don’t care what you do. They don’t care how it works.

They’re only thinking of themselves. And can you blame them? Their butt is on the line if they don’t deliver results, cut costs, delight their own customers. They have their own problems, their own pain, their own priorities.

Your prospects don’t care what you do. They will only care about you if you can solve their problem. Ease their pain. Make their job easier. Make them look like a hero.

Your prospects don’t care what you do. They care deeply about what you can do for them.

There is only demand for your product is there’s more demand for the solution it represents.

Sell that way.

Build stronger customer relationships by selling the way your customers buy

2009-10-17T05:46:00.001-07:00

Guest post by Norman Behar, CEO, Sales Readiness Group

Last month, I attended the Sales 2.0 Conference in Chicago and took note of two major trends to improve sales.

Aligning your sales process with your customer’s purchase process
Collaborating with customers to solve their needs

While aligning your sales process with your customers purchase process seems pretty straight forward, it is easier said than done. Customers have complex and often competing priorities and do not always make their decisions in a linear fashion.

By doing some very basic research upfront, sales professionals can more effectively plan for sales calls and get a sense for overall company priorities. Sales professionals also need to gain a clear understanding of the approval process and who they should be selling to. Budgets have been severely constrained, and more decisions are requiring “C level” approval. As an example, we heard from one senior executive whose approval authority had been reduced from $1 million to $10,000.

It is also essential to realize that customers have access to more information than ever before. They can quickly search the web and gain a clear understanding of both your and your competitors’ offerings. They can also check a variety of sources to get a sense for how well your “solutions” are working. As a result, sales professionals need to bring more that just “solutions” to the table. They need to engage in collaborative conversations that allow the customer to serve as the co-architect of solutions that addresses their specific priorities.

By engaging in this dialogue, sales professionals will forge a deeper understanding of their customers needs and co-create differentiated solutions that are based on value as opposed to being driven by price. Most importantly, they will develop a trusted relationship that will allow them ongoing access to the customer and position them to earn more business as the economy recovers.

Norman Behar is a proven sales leader with over 20 years of CEO, COO and senior sales management experience. Prior to co-founding Sales Readiness Group, Norman served as a Managing Partner at Linear Partners, a boutique sales consulting firm focused on providing sales effectiveness solutions to emerging growth companies.

Five ways to stay focused, get more done & be more successful

2009-10-15T12:45:00.001-07:00

I recently asked several business and executive coaches what they do for their clients. I wanted to know more about their process, their approach, and generally how they create value for the people and organizations they engage.

Although each had a slightly different take, it all boiled down to one thing – focus. Each successful coach produced results for their clients by helping them get the most out of themselves and their teams, in every case by focusing time, talents, resources and values.

What I heard generally fell into five distinct areas of focus:

1. Focus on what’s important. It’s easy to feel successful in a day that’s busy. Filled with putting out fires. Getting things done. But often, we don’t get the right things done. By stepping back and focusing on what’s most important (not necessarily what’s in front of us, or what’s easiest, or what’s screaming the loudest), we make far better forward progress (and often in less time).

2. Focus on what you’re good at. Know your strengths, and lean into them. Compare that to what your organization needs, and ensure that others are doing everything else for you. Yes, there’s a cost to delegating, but the results will far outweigh the investment when you have more time for your strengths, and others are accelerating your cause by leveraging theirs.

3. Focus on fewer things. Most of us take on far too much. Even if those are all things that are both important and speak to our strengths, there’s not enough time in the day to get it all done. Make the hard trade-offs for what’s going to drive the most value, and make the hard decisions to put other projects on the back-burner.

4. Focus on the basics. What’s most important to your business? What’s fundamental? What got you where you are now? What are your values? Getting back to the basics of your business can oftentimes be the simplest and most effective way to accelerate growth and productivity again.

5. Focus on what you want. It’s amazing to me how many people let the day and its myriad influences direct not just day-to-day, but larger directional decisions that affect personal and professional success. When’s the last time you took 30 minutes to reflect on what’s most important to you? What will make you happiest and fulfilled? How do you map those priorities back to your life & your business?

Of course, achieving one or many of these areas of focus is far easier said than done. If you have the discipline to address and stick to these on your own, you’re in the minority. For the rest of us, finding a coach (or even just a mentor) to keep us accountable and help unlock the full potential of our focus can reap significant dividends personally and professionally.

Help your customers buy more

2009-10-14T15:50:00.000-07:00

Your current customers love you, but they still may need a little push to buy more (or more often).

Andy Sernovitz (the godfather of word-of-mouth marketing) offered three simple ways recently almost any business can make it easier to buy. My favorite is below, but click here for all three (worth the fast read).

Make it easy to upgrade

One the fastest ways to earn more sales is to make it easy to upgrade your product. Anyone who’s ever bought a domain from GoDaddy knows how enticing a few helpful upgrades can be. From the online shopping cart, GoDaddy offers tons of opt-in upgrades — often with special coupons. You can try adding more sales on top of existing ones with some helpful upgrades, a great extended warranty, or some relevant accessories.

The Lesson: Earn more sales not by creating new products, but by giving fans the chance to upgrade what they already love.

Direct marketing & the sales process

2009-10-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Guest post from Howard Sewell, president, Connect Direct

Choosing the right audience and the right message are two of the three most important factors (the other being a compelling offer) in the success of your direct marketing campaigns.

For some companies, particularly in B2C markets, these choices are more
intuitive. For others, particularly high-tech companies in emerging B2B
categories, the audience decision in particular is a difficult one. For example, if
you're marketing a new breed of enterprise software, is the best target:

- The IT manager who approves technology choices?
- The relevant line of business (LOB) VP?
- The finance director looking for savings and ROI?
- The end user most likely to be “feeling the pain?”

In the absence of hard data or test results from past campaigns, marketers
often make these decisions based on the sales process. They examine 1) where
the sales force is having the greatest success penetrating accounts and/or
closing sales, and 2) what messages are achieving the greatest traction with this
audience - and then construct their campaign accordingly.

However, sales success doesn't always translate into direct marketing success, for two reasons:

1. The individual that buys your product, or the person who has primary
influence on the selection of your company, isn't always the person most
likely to respond. Your most likely respondent is someone who feels the pain
that your product can solve. That could be the decision-maker, but more
likely it's someone further down the food chain.

2. "Reasons to buy" and "reasons to respond" are very different animals.
Example: how your product or service differs from the competition may help
you win sales – but is unlikely to cause someone to respond to your
campaign, unless that person is in the process of actively evaluating vendors.

By all means listen to your sales force – their input can often help optimize your
marketing strategy. But unless you're in the mail order business, the goal of
your campaigns (generate a response) is not the same as that of your sales reps
(close deals), so be wary of attempting to duplicate a winning sales strategy in
its entirety.

Instead, test your assumptions. Pit key benefits against each other in competing
subject lines or headlines or envelope copy. Split lists based on company size,
job title, gender, age group, etc. to find out precisely the group that responds
best to your message.

For a free copy of Connect Direct's free Direct Marketing Handbook, click here.

People are talking behind your back (and that's good)

2009-09-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

Guest Contributor: Scott Neilson, CEO/Founder of FundBunch

This is the second in a two-part series from Scott on word-of-mouth marketing. Read part one here.

By now, you’ve given people something so interesting about your organization and easy to articulate that people want to talk. It will happen naturally, but there are things you can do to speed up the process.

Find the Talkers
Certain individuals love to talk. Many are often well connected. In Malcolm Gladwell’s amazing book, Tipping Point, he describes them as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Find these people and give them the white glove treatment.

Send them product samples. Give them advance copies or previews of your product. Surprise and Delight them. Thank them for their business. Trust me. They will talk. You will most likely know who these people are. If you need help here are some tricks.

Are you part of a social network, like Facebook or LinkedIn? These are the folks that have twice as many ‘friends’ or ‘contacts’ as you. Their wallet is stuffed with business cards and they are always handing out theirs. You have now found the talkers.

Make it easy for people to talk
On your website, place a ‘Refer a Friend’ link and a newsletter sign up prominently. These are two of the easiest ways to let the talkers do their work.

Send out an eNewsletter to your customers (but only if they have opted in). In the newsletter, invite them to forward it to colleagues who may be interested. Better yet, include a nice story or joke within the newsletter so it will be forwarded.

When you mail anything to your customers, include not one, but multiple business cards or brochures. I’ve even gone so far as to include two offers in a single Direct Marketing piece. The additional offer typically ends up in the hands of a friend or family member.

Lastly, include your web address in the signature of your email. Do you know how often your emails get forwarded and to whom? Now they know about your organization and how to find you!

Join in the conversation
Don’t sit on the sideline and be passive in letting Word of Mouth to happen. Engage in it. People are probably already talking about you online. It’s easy to find out.

Just setup a Google Alert or check Technorati for the latest blog posts. If people are saying nice things, thank them. It only reinforces for everyone to see the great things they heard. If someone is less than flattering, you have the opportunity to publicly fix the problem and show the world you are proactive in addressing customer issues.

Don’t be afraid to blog or use social networks as well. Keep conversations open and involved. But remember, you are an organization that treats customers with respect. So when engaging in online conversation, always be open about who you are and who you represent. The Web Community is very savvy. If you are spoofing people, they will find out and the results won’t be pretty.

You now have a great foundation to engage in Word of Mouth marketing. It’s time to put together a plan, make it easy for the conversations to take place, and get them started!

For additional resources, I encourage you to visit:
www.heinzmarketing.com
www.guykawasaki.com
www.gaspedal.com

Read: Word of Mouth Marketing, by Andy Sernowitz. (AKA the Bible of Word of Mouth)

Scott Neilson is the CEO/Founder of FundBunch, which provides tools and services to allow individuals and organizations to be more effective in their online fundraising efforts. You can reach him at scottn@fundbunch.com or visit his site at www.fundbunch.com

Social lead generation

2009-09-29T21:40:00.000-07:00

Let’s face it, the term “social media” doesn’t mean much. It’s passive, and speaks more to the channel vs. the intent or objective of what’s actually happening there.

Your customers are talking to each other. They always have. Only now, they have tools to do it faster, in real-time, and in front of everybody else. That’s social media.

But social media, as we know it now, is really the new PR. It’s your best channel to reach prospective customers in their current environment. You have less control than you used to, sure, but make no mistake – social media is at the top of your sales funnel.

So let’s stop calling it social media, and start calling it social lead generation. At least amongst ourselves.

Today’s buyers are presenting themselves to you like never before. They’re sharing their interests, their needs, their feelings, their pain. They’re telling you, in front of everybody else (including your competitors), exactly what they want.

It’s a perfect opportunity to meet them, engage them, earn their trust and respect, and give them exactly what they’re asking for.

That’s social lead generation.

Don’t treat it like lead generation. That runs the risk of ruining its authenticity. But as a core component of building credibility, attention and respect for your products and services, know that – in the end – what you do with this opportunity is measured by its value in engaging and creating new customers.

Stop selling (and help customers to buy)

2009-09-28T15:15:00.000-07:00

Want to help your sales team successfully and quickly migrate to a customer-centric sales approach?

Eliminate the term “sales process” from your vernacular. It doesn’t exist as you once knew it anyway.

What we have today is a buying process.

As sales and marketing professionals, we may still define sales stages, generate leads, cold call, and work prospects through our pipelines and processes. But make no mistake, the buyer is in charge.

They’ve always been in charge of how and when they buy, but in a 2.0 world with unprecedented access to other buyers, peer reviews, competitive information and more, your sales process needs to be completely buyer-centric.

The right prospects for your product or service want to buy what you’re selling. They need it. The easier you make it for them to discover, learn, research and decide on their own, the more buyers you’ll win to your side.

You’re not selling. You’re helping customers to buy.

The Case for Cold Calling

2009-09-28T13:56:00.001-07:00

Guest post by Steve Richard, co-founder, Vorsight

Salespeople grease the wheels of the economy. Having a person to person conversation dramatically improves the likelihood of a business transaction. Cold calling matters because you cannot possibly know all of your potential clients. You need the ability to reach out and connect with more prospects that don’t yet know they want to be talking to you. Add value with each interaction. Marketing leads begin the process in many cases, but you still need a quasi-cold or warm call to advance the sales process.

Most people hate the idea of cold calling, not the actual activity. Salespeople tend to be a gregarious bunch by nature. They love meeting new people, telling stories, socializing – so long as it’s done face to face. What’s so different about making these introductions and building these relationships via the phone? It’s really not different at all when you stop and think about it. Cold calling, quasi-cold calling, and warm calling are all essentially the same thing: approaching someone who doesn’t currently know you and saying hello. Once you get good at it, you have a fantastic new channel to find potential buyers.

So if that’s the case why do so many people still struggle with it? Simple – because they were never given the right tools and shown how. If you are a plumber trying to fix a sink you need wrenches, right? Most organizations teach their salespeople everything about their products and services and tell them to get on the phones. But what about the sales skills training, the tools, tips, tricks, tactics, and techniques? It’s like trying to fix a sink without a wrench.

Bottom line = cold calling matters for your business.

Steve is the Co-Founder and Head of Training at Vorsight. Over the past 2 years he has provided sales training workshops to over 1,000 attendees.

Two minutes or less? Do it now

2009-09-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

When I think about procrastination, I think first of bigger projects. I have a column to write, a proposal to finish, a report to publish.

The real time-suckers are the much smaller projects. If you read an email and don’t take action right away, you’re procrastinating. If you see an interesting article or blog post and don’t do something with it right away, you’re delaying action – and you’re procrastinating.

I fight this type of mini-procrastination all the time. It doesn’t mean I have to actually do everything right then and there. It just means I need to decide what to do, and move on.

But if the task takes two minutes or less (respond to an email, set up a meeting, quickly scan an article), I try to do it right away. With such a short time period required for action, delaying that activity (and reviewing the request or task again later) is pure wasted time. Add that time up across a day of emails, blog posts, phone calls, etc. and it’s a ton of wasted time.

Simply acting on those two-minutes-or-less tasks right away will work wonders to clear your inbox, get things done, and keep you moving more productively throughout the day.

What happens after the lead

2009-09-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Leads alone mean nothing.

Leads don’t equal revenue. By definition, leads are just prospective buyers who haven’t yet bought a thing.

Marketers get upset when their executives think of them, and their budgets, as a cost center. But those same marketers often focus on generating leads, and that’s it. They don’t hold themselves accountable for the sale.

What happens after the lead is what’s really important. So you have someone who qualifies as a prospective buyer. Maybe that prospect has even shown interest, shared a pain that you can ease.

They still need to buy. They will still have objections. Some may buy on their own, but most need to be walked through the sale.

Smart marketers know that leads are just the beginning. They know that their job isn’t really done until leads buy.

Successful marketers go beyond setting a common definition for qualified leads with their sales counterparts. They also work with sales to define stages of the sales process, and develop tools to help sales reps sell, and make it easier for buyers to buy.

The best B2B marketers think, work and execute like they’re in sales, not marketing. Because your sales reps know that generating the lead is at the top of their funnel, not the bottom.

Add Twitter content and followers quickly (without writing a thing)

2009-09-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

If you’ve decided to get started with a Twitter strategy, here are a few simple steps to start adding content and followers to your Twitter feed. These require a little work, but don’t require a single piece of new content. This isn’t a long-term plan. But if you want to get started and build a strong, relevant foundation for a longer-term Twitter execution, this is a great place to start.

Adding Content

Start doing searches by hashtag for keywords relative to your business, brand and/or industry; save these searches with TweetDeck, Tweetie or similar
Review these search results a couple times a day, retweet articles and links that are interesting related to your target keywords
This will start to associate the right keywords and content with your Twitter stream, and will start to accelerate organic followers of your Twitter account directly
By doing this, you’ll be publishing and associating yourself with relevant content without having to publish any of our own primary content (at least not yet)

Adding Followers

Easiest way is to start following others
Use the search results above to see who's writing about the same topics and keywords you care above (check their bio, etc.)
Add them to your followers; most will follow you back
There are automated tools that can seek even more Twitter users with either the right keywords in their bio, or in their streams

(Relatively) Easy Next Steps

Design a quick custom background as a JPG to reflect your logo and brand (see www.twitter.com/heinzmarketing as an example)
Let your employees know you’re getting active, and ask them to follow the feed (they'll likely start retweeting stuff from your account, which will also increase followers)

Give them something to talk about

2009-09-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Guest Matt on Marketing contributor Scott Neilson, CEO and founder of FundBunch, has a lot to say about word-of-mouth marketing. In the first of a two-part guest post, Scott briefly discusses internal, cultural and value-based requirements to make word-of-mouth successful for your organization.

Take it away, Scott...

Word of Mouth. It is the holy grail of marketing. It’s effective and inexpensive. Everyone dreams of achieving it, but few organizations are able to truly make it work. Most likely it’s because they are not ready for Word of Mouth.

Before you get started on this journey, it’s time for a look in the mirror and ask yourself a few questions. Answer them honestly because if you don’t answer Yes to these questions, you may need to address some internal challenges first.

Question #1 – Is there something unique or interesting about your company?
If you do not have anything interesting to say about your products or service, why would you expect others to talk about you? Find what is interesting about you. It could be a revolutionary product or technology, your extraordinary customer service, the culture of your company, a need in the community you are meeting, your amazing prices.

There has to be something. Even if it is a just a Joke of the Week at the bottom of your customer newsletter. If not, you need to figure out how you will differentiate yourself. Not only for Word of Mouth, but to survive in this competitive environment.

Question # 2 – Can you easily articulate your unique value?
I tell everyone that I love my Honda Odyssey. It is the most family friendly vehicle imaginable. Costco is my favorite place to shop. Not because of their prices, but because their return policy and customer service is second to none.

It’s easy for me to share why I love these products. I’m not going to tell people about something I can’t put my finger on or can’t explain.

Question # 3 – Do you treat your customers and employees with the highest level of respect?
For Word of Mouth to work, you have to focus on doing what is best for your customers (or donors in the non-profit world). Always. That is giving them the best products and the best service to go with them. If your customers don’t love you (or at least really, really like you), don’t expect them to talk about you. Unless you want the Word of Mouth we aren’t looking for.

The same level of respect and focus should be given to your employees. Odds are very good they will be one of the best sources for Word of Mouth. Value them and make them proud to be a part of the organization.

So you answered yes to the above? First of all congratulations – your business is doing a lot of things right. If not, work on getting to Yes.

In the next segment, I’ll look at how to accelerate Word of Mouth.

Scott Neilson is the CEO/Founder of FundBunch, which provides tools and services to allow individuals and organizations to be more effective in their online fundraising efforts.

Bias for Action

2009-09-16T12:03:00.001-07:00

Should one of your company, department or individual core values be a bias for action?

What does that mean? It means you take action. Get projects, products and campaigns to market quickly. You test. You spend more time executing, learning and improving.

You let the market help you make decisions vs. doing it in isolation. You test quickly instead of debating via PowerPoint, email or endless meetings.

You’re OK with constructive failure, as long as you can learn, improve and avoid the same mistake twice.

You encourage, demand and/or require those around you (peers, direct reports and superiors) to think strategically, but act quickly.

Bias for action does not mean acting without forethought. Execution without strategy is just guessing, and prone to high error and failure rates.

Instead, bias for action means having an idea or premise, and understanding quickly what that market thinks of it. The faster you take action, the faster you execute, the more quickly you will deliver innovation, results and growth.

How important is a bias for action to you individually? How about for your department and/or company?

More importantly, how do you put that into practice on a regular basis?

Helping your customers get buying approval

2009-09-14T21:02:00.001-07:00

Most of the time when you're selling something, your buyer needs approval to move forward. If it's a big-enough consumer ticket item, that approval may need to come from a spouse, signifant other, or even a parent. In a B2B environment, it's often the buyer's boss.

So what are you doing to make it easier for your buyer's boss to say yes?

How are you arming your buyer with tools to help him/her sell the purchase upstream?

Check out these examples of some awesome ROI tools salesforce.com has created to help their customers justify a trip to this year's Dreamforce conference in November. Their package comes complete with an already-drafted ROI letter for "buyers" to send directly to their bosses.

Could your customers use a similar ROI letter? What would that look like?

Might be worth thinking about…