The common way to create a presentation or marketing communication piece is to write it in the order it will be presented or read - slide 1, slide 2, slide 3, etc. But this is not the most effective way to prepare a message to get the greatest response.

The best way to create a presentation or marketing message is to write the close first.

The close is where everything comes together. It is where you reveal your call to action and direct the recipient to do something with the information you have presented. It is the reason you presented or wrote the white paper, landing page, case study, etc.

What you should do is write the close first and then create the slides or information before it necessary to build overwhelming support and cause to heed your call to action. The purpose of all information before the close is merely to build momentum and give a compelling reason to act.

Writing from the call to action backwards is the technique I use to write copy of all types - sales letters, landing pages, websites, white papers, case studies, presentations, etc. This simple tip provides greater focus to your copy and will increase your response rate.

What do you think?

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10. Don’t wear the uniform. No matter how spiffy your company polo is you still look like you are running the fryer. Wear a suit and people will assume you are a VP and might be hesitant to approach you to beg for a T-shirt. High ranking attendees (if there are any) will inversely wait to speak with you and you might actually get a real lead.

9. Don’t walk straight at a person with your hand out and your eyes on their badge. Look them in the eye like you (and they) are a normal person and say “hi.” When they look away, glance at their name badge.  This works great for checking out other things, too (I’ll let you fill in what you like to look at on people that you meetJ).

8. Avoid being the demo dolly. Anyone that has a chance of being a real customer would want to drive the demo himself on the web, and it always works out that you are showing one of the Golden Girls how to use a mouse when a real customer happens by. 

7. Make sure you are in contact with the booth nazi well before the show so you can pick who you will be serving time with- or more importantly who you can avoid. You DO NOT want to be stuck with any of a ton of different character types, including:

- your sales manager
- your company founders- those guys all suck
- a group of people all less senior  (you will be de facto responsible and have to do everything)
- the aforementioned booth nazi who won’t let you drink a coke or go to the bathroom
- anyone who could be described as “bright eyed and bushy tailed”
- anyone who would describe someone as “bright eyed and bushy tailed”

6. Don’t give into the urge to drink the free beer at the Cheers booth (there’s one at every show). Either you stop at one and spend the rest of the time trying to pry your eyes open or you get known “at the place where everyone knows your name.” Only instead of “Norm” or “Cliff” it’s “conference booze bag.”

5. Stop by the booth early and commandeer a handful of t-shirts or the best chotchkies. You can hook-up potential clients (or “partners” if you are hard up) when everyone else in the booth has resorted to handing out the logo breath mints.   Or trade them for other booth’s schwag.

4. Make sure there is an extra web connection for your laptop. It is always uncomfortable IMing your friend “BigLeroy69” or checking fantasy baseball up on the big screen.

3. Form as many impromptu “meetings” as possible and insist that you have to leave the booth area for proper peace and quiet.  I’ve done this with people in the adjoining booth before- anything to break free.

2. Create an I-spy check off list for all the walking cliché’s you see at trade shows. One point each for lego style hair plugs, not-so-incognito recruiters, white sweat socks with a suit, dwarves, magicians, hairy chest with three buttons undone guy, power dorks cruising the Exhibit Hall on personal time, lurking competitors with fake badges, obvious job seeker guy, drunks from other booths, people of unknown gender(transsexuals count), CEOs with hired escorts (extra point if she yawns while in your booth), the small pack of asian execs who sit through your entire demo even though they don’t speak a lick of English… you know, the whole trade show gang.

1. Grin and bear it. At least you aren’t dressed as a cast member in a Broadway play- like the guys across the aisle. (If you are, quit on the spot- nothing is worth wearing tights.)

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week a dinner meeting near Open Oracle World at Moscone reminded me that an important time for sales people is upon us: Conference and Trade Show Season. All across the country vendors of every kind are banding together to co-sponsor shows around some inane topic (Web 3 dot 12, The Quickening) in hopes of luring “decision makers” from Corporate America to come take part in the latest trend in technology. I have spent a significant percentage of my sales life attending (or at least flying to and partying around) these conferences, so I plan to dedicate at least the next 2 postings to this time honored ritual.

Please don’t assume that I think big industry events are a waste of time for salespeople. In addition to being a great excuse to see a cool new city or resort, you can also scope out competitors and other companies where you might like to work in your next job. If you sell for a big company or are a remote salesperson then booth duty at a trade show it is a decent way to meet the internal people that might ultimately be critical for a sale down the road. (What better way to bond then being cramped into a 10x10 plastic box for 8 hours answering the same moronic questions from a bunch of back office troglodytes). If nothing else (be prepared for nothing else), you get a break from cold calling prospects yet don’t have to feel guilty that you aren’t ‘working.” And all the corporate logo breath mints you can handle.

But seriously, if you must attend a trade show, here are a few tips that might actually make it worth your while.

10. Take control of your time. Schedule every minute weeks in advance if you can. Fly alone and make sure the times work for your meetings, not your corporate marketing team’s agenda. Go on offense, not “with the flow.”

9. Avoid booth duty at all costs. Those slack jawed students or low level engineers wandering around Exhibit Hall A are NEVER going to become your customer. I’ll get into what to do (and not to do) if you can’t get out of your shifts (fake your own death if necessary) in my next post.

8. Research the hell out of the event venue, schedule, eating places, etc. Your prospects will want to be around you if you know the answer to every logistical question before it gets asked. I was like Julie, Vickie, Gopher AND Isaac at my best.

7. Strategically place your prospect meetings. Don’t ask your biggest deal CIO to meet you during the Jack Welch keynote. Breakfast or lunch meetings away from the hubbub in a quiet spot are perfect. Leave the Tainted Love concert for meeting large groups of people that are already customers - you don’t really want to talk to them anyway.

6. Resist the urge to get hammered in the first 24 hours of the trip (on the plane on the way to the conference with co-workers). Save that for the last night with people that you specifically choose. It has taken me forever to learn this one.

5. Hog the resources. Know every impressive person in your company (Hot Shot Exec, CTO, super tech guy, smarty pants product geek, hot marketing chick, whomever) that will be within a 100 mile radius of the conference and get them in front of your customer. Not in the damn booth!

4. Stay at the venue or at the recommended hotel. It’s where the customers that you care about are staying, and nothing says “I’m a schmuck working for a flailing company” like showing up late for a meeting because you couldn’t get a cab to pick you up at the Motel 6 in the barrio.

3. Have reasonable goals. Don’t try to complete the whole sales cycle from “Hi, I’m your account rep Shooter McGavin” to “Please sign this contract” in one show. Yes, it is exciting to be able to hang with a VP on consecutive days, but don’t wrap onto the guy like a cheap suit.

2. Partition off a couple hours to do something touristy or cultural. Beside the fact that your customer will be interested (and probably envious) in hearing about your local experience, you will take away something that you value and remember way after all the corporate dipshit stuff is over.

1. Travelling for work isn’t as fun as vacationing, but it’s still a road trip. Eat big. Check out all the freaks. Have fun.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

While watching late-night television this past weekend I fell prey to a barrage of ab machine type commercials, each showing an overly happy and well built spokesmodel extolling the gut flattening benefits of one machine, pill and potion after another. 

Each ad displayed small print low-lighting two critical points:  1) results in the ad were not typical 2) a sensible diet and exercise program was required to get results.

Marketing and lead generation programs are essentially the same.

As business people, we like the idea of revenue success being as simple as one sales training, copywriting, web design, brochure or print ad project away.  We like the idea there is a secret to attracting new business, but it just doesn't exist.  There is no magical format, training program or tactic that's a surefire success.

Please don't get me wrong, things like sales training, signage, well designed websites, and good ole' branding activities are valuable.  In many cases, retooling your business, sharping your staff, and getting greater exposure is the wise thing to do.  Just be aware these are the ab machine programs of business growth - they create untypical results and need the business equivalent of diet and exercise to be effective on a consistent basis.

While there is no secret to sales success, there is a formula that's guaranteed to grow revenue every time.  The formula is simply telling the right story to the right person at the right time.  If you do that, you're guaranteed sales success.  It's the diet and exercise of predictable and consistent revenue growth:

Right Story - The right story is the story the recipient recognizes as compelling - something they value as a benefit they're willing to invest in, both time and money.

The right story has two main elements:  format and content.  Format is the order, style, and skill in which the story is told.  Content is the story itself - the benefit, difference, reason to believe, guarantee, and offer.

When marketers speak of testing within a lead generation campaign, they most often mean testing the story, tweaking the format and content for best response.

Right Person - The right person is the recipient of your story who can act on the call to action you offer.  Depending on your market and complexity of selling environment, this may be the person to request, vote, direct, or organize a response to advance an opportunity.

Given your sales process and target market, the right person can be several different people over time - each requiring a matching offer and call to action that differs from the other.

Right Time - The right time is presenting your story within your prospective customer's window of opportunity to act.  If your offer arrives too late or too early your prospect will ignore your story.  This can be the case whereby you have a great meeting and a lot of agreement, but no action.

At different points of a purchase cycle, different calls to action and offers will be met with different levels of success.

As mentioned above, most testing of lead generation and marketing campaigns occurs around the story.  More testing should take place with the right person and right time.  The more we understand about our prospective customers, their interests, and their process - as it presents a window of opportunity and greater openness to specific offers - the greater our success in engaging with them in a meaningful way.

If you misfire on any three of these elements - right story, right person, right time - you're sure to under perform.  And all the sales training, web design, copywriting, and branding in the world won't make a difference.  It's like working yourself to death on the ab machine and then eating pizza and drinking beer every night.  Those six pact abs will look more like a keg.

What do you think?

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My previous post on cold calling led to a couple interesting conversations.  While it wasn't much of a post, just a thought to consider, a couple off-line conversations that followed were interesting.

A common objection to cold calling is rooted in it being a numbers game.  The thought being you call and call and call until you get a response - living through one rejection after another until you receive a Yes.

But isn't that how all marketing works?

All marketing tactics are rooted in a numbers game.  Cold calling is no different.

If you have a revenue plan or quota, every lead generation and sales effort you engage in is based on the need to engage with a particular number of people, buying an average amount of products and services, to reach a given level of sales.

Any sales manager who ever calculated sales cycles and close rations knows they're playing a numbers game - expose your lead generation campaign to a particular number of people within a given time to reach a certain number of sales opportunities within a reporting period.

Whether you're using direct mail, landing pages, AdWords, blog traffic, print advertising, etc. you are playing a numbers games - you're looking for a percentage of response to generate a number of opportunities, based on a number of eyes which cross your campaign, to close enough business to retire quotas and meet the company's revenue plan.

Cold calling is a numbers game, just like all other lead generation activities.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

• Fortune 500 computer security provider saw a 33% decrease in named account research across a pilot group of 20 inside sales reps over 12 months.
• An online personal assistant company saw a 200% decrease in pre-call research time over 12 months.

• Closed More – Overall close rate increased 200%
• Sold Higher – Deals involving VP/SVP increased 80%
• Sold Faster – Average sales cycle decreased 10%

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What do you do with leads or inquires once you generate them?

This basic question is overlooked by so many and yet it’s the leading cause of failure in what would otherwise be effective lead generation programs.

The common-sense answer to this challenge is easier said than done: Have your best people respond to them quickly and consistently in order to qualify them into sales ready leads.

The need to better manage leads and inquires has given rise to a slew of new software companies offering a variety of lead management or marketing automation solutions.

An interesting conversation was started recently by Laura Ramos on the Forrester Marketing blog about lead management software. I’m really glad to see an analyst giving their opinion and I look forward to more insights. Ramos’ post, B2B Lead Management Market Heats Up is definitely worth checking out.

According to Ramos, there are four primary buckets of technology solutions aimed at solving the “how do I make lead generation activities more effective?” They are:

1. Web analytics
2. Database services
3. Marketing automation
4. “Pure play” lead management

With that said, I think it is important to realize that lead management software and marketing automation tools are only one part of an effective process.

Software will not spontaneously generate collaboration between sales and marketing, nor will it create solutions that match your processes and it certainly will not generate sales-ready leads on it’s own. However, for many the allure of easy execution and fast results are difficult to resist. It’s easy to overlook that these systems require a great deal of hands on input and maintenance to be fully appreciated.

My company has spent well over a million dollars and years to develop our lead management software that we use as part of our services and learning what works through continual testing and refinement. That said, I can say from experience that developing a good process always takes more time than you think and developing people to execute the process consistently is even more difficult.

I regularly encounter organizations that invest in expensive software before they fully understand the fundamental operational processes that it will be supporting. This was and still is true of CRM and SFA systems. Lead management software has turned out to be no different. If you want to fully leverage your lead management software, you’ll first need to develop operational discipline and focus on good execution.

Start by understanding your lead generation requirements and design a suitable process to support it and insert the software into the process where it will be most effective and actually used. Most importantly, don’t under estimate the need for a dedicated team of people that will drive the process and make the inputs into the system.

Begin by mapping out a clear process. At InTouch we use process flow and data diagrams to collaborate with clients when designing lead management programs. Make sure you involve and collaborate with everyone who will be part of the process. Their buy-in will be key to the programs success. Then identify if there are still any gaps in staffing. Finally, once people and process are mapped out, select the tools or systems that will help your people efficiently manage the process.

Lead management is the bridge between sales and marketing that connects the beginning and middle of the customer acquisition process. It requires engaged people to execute the right process, which is then supported by the right software.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend asked me to review a letter last night – a three page sales letter a partner of their company wants sent to my friend’s customers. It’s a letter offering a service of the partner – part of a joint referral program between the two companies.

I read the letter, laid it down in front of me, and sat there silent. “What do you think?” I asked.

“I can’t read past the first page.” replied my friend. “The font changes six or seven times, the language has a funny tone….it sounds manipulative. It’s the ginsu knife of sales letters.”

My friend was right on every point. The letter read like a late night infomercial:

• Mr So-n-so here with a big offer…
• I think so highly of (fill-in the blank) I had to make this offer to you…
• But wait, there’s more…
• Here’s the best part…
• Act now, we can only make this incredible offer for x days…
• PS
• PPS

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Salespeople (or, I should say, order takers) who are used to taking calls all day are still having a hard time adjusting to the email-driven business world we live in now. The same is true of many small business owners.

The phone is no longer the "instrument of choice" for today's busy buyers. Their preferred way of contacting companies when they are interested in a product or service is via email. And yet, too many salespeople and entrepreneurs are still treating email as an intrusion into their busy day. Because they get so much email and spam, and because they don't want to spend all day typing notes to people, they just aren't giving incoming email buyers the attention that they deserve.

If your salespeople are struggling with this issue - or ignoring it - it helps for them to see the email scenario from the buyer's point of view. It will help them understand how just a few minutes spent responding can make the difference between closing a sale or losing a customer for life.

If you aren't responding to emailed leads within 15 - 30 minutes, you're not succeeding in today's email-centric environment. It doesn't really matter how small or large your business is, or what you sell. If you want to cash in on your email leads, you have to find a way to make absolutely sure that those emails will be responded to appropriately and immediately. Here are some tips.

1) Use templates. Create an appropriate set of templates for immediate response. Make sure that there are sections that can be personalized, and always use that first email to interact with the customer. Don't just provide information; ask questions, too. They should be specific - so the buyer knows that it was typed by a real human being responding to their concerns, not a nerdy response robot.

2) Use a first responder. If the "knowledgeable" people are too busy to create the first email response, have someone do it who can get the conversation started, then turn the lead over to a "knowledgeable" person once the customer has responded.

If you want to make more sales during a recession, this is one of the key places where a relatively small investment will pay off in a big way. It's criminal to ignore incoming email leads when the economy is roaring along; it's suicidal to do it when the economy slows down.

3) Keep track. Know exactly how many emails are coming in each day. Know the sources. Know who was assigned to those emails and what happened afterwards. Publish the results every day, in an email that all the sales agents and managers receive.

4) Set a standard, and help your salespeople to meet it. All first emails should be responded to within 15 - 30 minutes. If this just isn't possible now, because all your salespeople are on the phone, figure out how to make it happen. Use the first responder, or send all new calls into voicemail for the last 15 minutes of every hour, so salespeople have a time that is dedicated to emails. Or, train them to take a call, then do an email.

5) Have a tickler system. First response is critical, but so is follow-up. Each salesperson should have a system that ensures they will follow up with the customer at the appropriate time. Send the first email, wait five hours, then send the second, for example. Your timing will depend on the length of your sales cycle and the complexity of your product.

Email has become the main method for buyers to contact vendors and start the buying process. Too many companies are not giving email the attention - and infrastructure - it deserves. Plus, I can't tell you how many times I have used a "webform" to send an email to a company, and have never received a response.

Hellllllllllooo!!! Customers who send you an email are ready to spend money with you. If you refuse to engage - on their terms - you are walking away from revenue.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Historically, database marketers expected to increase results by up to 8x when following up a direct mail or email campaign with a telephone call. However, did you know that stopping at a single touch leaves anywhere from half to substantially more business on the table for your competitors to grab?

Intuitively, most marketers would agree that a series of touches, consisting of quality outbound calls, emails, voicemail messages and direct mail over a period of time is the most effective way to reach and convert your market to revenue. The number of touches, combination of touch types and number of cycles necessary to optimize contact against any given market might surprise you.

For years, through our sales lead management programs for clients including Ingenix, D&B, CenterBeam and Microsoft, we have been tracking the number, frequency and type of touches necessary to adequately cover its clients’ markets. Based on this data, we have determined that unless you are touching contacts within your target market with at least 9 individual touches including a minimum of two email messages you are not generating the results you could.

But you shouldn’t stop there. Our data also shows that the initial contact cycle; the first time you touch the market with those 9 individual touches, will yield only 40%-50% of the total opportunities. The other opportunities existing within the market can only be identified by continuing to touch the same prospects, with the same multi-media, multi-touch strategy on a regular basis.

Point of Diminishing Return
You should expect lead rates from the second and subsequent touch cycles to generate anywhere from 120% to 210% of the initial lead rate. Our data across all market segments shows that lead rates decline after the fifth contact cycle. At that point, a prospect has received an average of 41 different touches over a period of 15 months. The most effective way to cover prospects after the fifth touch cycle is via periodic email and/or direct mail – leaving the door open for the prospect to make contact with you when they are ready.

Size Matters
As would be expected, reaching senior level decision makers within very large companies requires more individual attempts (quality outbound calls, voicemails, emails and direct mail). Our benchmarked data shows that it takes about 1.6 times the touches to generate a lead in a large company as compared to a mid-market or smaller company.

Be Prepared To Respond
As basic as it seems, you need to be prepared to field responses from your multi-media, multi-touch campaigns quickly, as failing to appropriately handle inbound calls and/or email responses substantially reduces the rate of conversion to a qualified sales opportunity. Contacts responding to a voicemail or email comprised over 20% of all the leads PointClear generated for clients in 2007. Somewhat surprising, though, is that the most frequent responders to voicemails or emails are senior level decision makers. In fact, nearly 2½ times more leads are generated from a multi media, multi touch, multi-cycle approach against senior level decision makers in large companies as compared to lower level line of business decision makers in larger companies or all levels of decision making at mid-market companies.

Reaching your market
The overriding indicator of the appropriate number of touches and the blend of media (calls, voicemail, email, direct mail) is company size and the level of the decision maker. Other factors such as a cold versus a warm market segment, brand awareness and industry or solution maturity do not impact attempt types or cycles.

“One and done” does not work
Using the “one and done” approach, common in database marketing campaigns historically generates just one out of a potential 100 opportunities that are possible with multi-media, multi-touch strategy, multiple cycle campaigns against the same market.

Summary
While there is a lot of attention on marketing automation, scoring algorithms and electronic marketing today (and rightfully so), there is still not enough focus on building highly qualified databases and measuring ROI or ROMI based on the cumulative impact of multi-media, multi-touch and multi-cycle campaigns. Almost 30 years ago, direct marketers knew that the success of any given campaign broke down as follows: 60% list, 20% creative and 20% offer. The more things change the more things stay the same.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Carrying on the theme of my recent post on lead nurturing as trusted advisors with the  human touch, I came across Mike Volpe's post over the HubSpot Marketing Blog. I thought he did a nice job of showing the human touch in action as part of the lead nurturing process.

The goal of lead nurturing is to maintain a relevant and consistent dialog with viable future customers - regardless of their timing to buy. It’s about relationships. As you read Mike’s story, you'll notice how he helped “Kristen” move through her buying process not by selling but by seeking first to be a relevant resource to her.

Lead nurturing requires a shift away from the traditional marketing mind-set to a new way of thinking centered on the following tenets:

• Companies don't buy - people do. Don't ever forget the human touch. 
• Build relationships with the right people and companies regardless of their timing to buy.  Engage these people early in their buying process (preferably before) and you can co-create and influence their vision.
• Trusted advisers win more sales than slick brands.
• More ROI is reaped from the patient tending of future customers (relationships) over time. Think: customers for life.
• Lead nurturing is a conversation, not a series of disjointed campaigns. 
• A multi-tactic and multi-touch lead generation portfolio will always outperform marketing tactics that stand alone.
• Generate relevant content that engages the right decision makers/influencers.
• The first impression matters.  So does the second.  So does every single touch after that.  Consistency and relevancy is key.

If you keep these ideas top of mind, the way you nurture leads will naturally go beyond just e-mail. You’ll start thinking about how you and your sales people can be a relevant resource. When you do that, you don’t have to sell to people. They will come to you first when they are ready. Again, it’s about relationships.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You’re on the trade show floor, ready to make the most of the time and effort it took to get there. People drift in and out of your booth throughout the day and you’ve got to quickly judge who’s hot and who’s not.

The trick is to start a conversation that will help you determine if a visitor is a qualified sales lead. The best way to do that is by asking questions.

Typical closed-ended questions such as “May I help you?” get you useless answers like “No thank. Just looking.”

So start off with an open-ended question like “Out of all the places you could be today, why did you choose to come to this show?” or “With all the exhibits you could visit this afternoon, what brought you to ours?”

Then keep the conversation going by turning your typically closed-ended questions about budget, authority, need and timing into open-ended questions. For example, ask “How does this kind of purchase get funded at your company?” and “Who all is involved in the decision process, and what are their roles?” and “What problems are you trying to solve?” and “When do you think you’ll be making the decision to go ahead?”

And one last tip…

If you have determined that a visitor to your trade show exhibit isn’t qualified, but he continues to monopolize your time, end the conversation quickly but politely. How? By handing him a brochure while saying something like, “Here’s some additional information about our product that you can review back at the office.” Next say “Thanks for stopping by.” and shake his hand. Then turn and walk away.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here’s a marketing formula that’s created solid leads for large, medium and small companies, regardless of their business focus. Finding, nurturing and qualifying sales leads using marketing will increase your bottom line when you’ve got the right process.

Build a clean database
Not every business can or will buy from your company. Gather all the miscellaneous lists of suspects, prospects and customers at your company and have a third-party list service to help you merge them, purge duplicates, update postal addresses and append information such as industry and company size. The list service can add companies and contacts similar to your best customers and those in the specific vertical or niche markets you’ve identified as targets. Your goal is to determine which companies appear to have a need for what you’re selling, are receptive to working with your kind and size of company, and have the ability to buy when the time’s right. Then aim your marketing at them.

Keep in touch on a regular basis
You should use the database to drive regular direct marketing campaigns via direct mail, e-mail and telemarketing. Aim to use direct marketing to touch prospects at least once a quarter, but monthly is better. Even if you don’t make it every month you’re still ahead.

This approach also works well for nurturing longer-term prospects. And they are worth it! My research shows that the short-term buyers — those who buy within six months — represent only a quarter of the sales that will happen. The other three out of four sales occur between six months and two years later.

Optimize your website to lead prospects through the sales cycle
Instead of scaring prospective customers away with confusing or out-of-date information on your website, consider re-focusing its content to help your prospects determine that your company is their best choice. Provide clear choices of navigation to help visitors self-identify where on the path they are and what step is next.

Involve the sales team when creating sales tools
If your salespeople turn more of your marketing-generated leads into sales, you won’t have to generate as many leads and you will get a higher return on both your marketing and sales investments. So what tools do they need? Start by asking them, or ride along on sales call and see for yourself.

Yes, this is a pretty basic formula. But I’m always surprised how many marketers go off the deep end on fancy or expensive marketing tactics that don’t get results. Instead, I recommend you start with this basic, but proven, formula. Add fancier and more expensive marketing ingredients to the mix later, when you can afford to experiment.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

All businesses share the challenge of finding new business. We recently conducted a survey of 700 small businesses. 43 % of them needed to add over 10 new clients a year. It should come as no surprise that $90 billion is being spent by businesses in the U.S. to grow (American Marketing Association). $20 billion is being spent in online marketing alone.

The common marketing portfolio for a company includes advertising (online and offline), public relations, event marketing (tradeshows), client marketing (referrals) and telemarketing (cold calling). An effective marketing strategy will employ multiple initiatives under these areas targeting their customer/prospect segments. Each of these items is important (in different varying levels) to achieve marketing results. But, is there a way to achieve consistent marketing results without having the budget of a Cisco or a Microsoft?

Having been in technology marketing for nearly 20 years, I have seen various marketing methods emerge and some fall to the wayside. The Internet has also provided alternative marketing methods by establishing new channels to targeted customers. Our survey pointed out that most small businesses are not only concerned with getting good results from their marketing campaigns, but are also concerned with the high the upfront costs of these campaigns.

With this in mind, here are ten low-cost and low-risk ways to drive new clients for your business. By the way, it goes without saying that you must have a clean website that provides enough of a user experience regarding your service and easy links to the appropriate calls-to-action.

My Top Ten

1. Client Referrals. Your path of least resistance to new customers is often from your existing client base. Assuming you are delivering quality work, getting a client to refer another client often happens without even asking. So why not ask? Put together a campaign to drive new client referrals offering incentives to your existing clients. Perhaps make a donation to their favorite charity, or discount on your service or even cash! Be prudent in tracking client referrals as it is likely that your best referrals will originate from the same set of clients. Always send thank you note, although I recommend David’s Cookies or Dale and Thomas Popcorn (a real office pleaser).

2. Blog yourself. While I know I am merely inviting you to join the myriad of people out there who are sharing their views, opinions and thoughts via the web, it really is a good way to get the word out there. Blogger and Wordpress are two free Blog sites that make it really easy to set up and publish your blogs. Blog regularly and more importantly make sure you publish your blog on your social network pages. Blogs are often tapped right into the search engines so even by doing nothing you are getting the word out there. (Check out Fastpitch Networking Blog promotion tools)

3. Inverse Public Relations. Have you ever read an article online and seen a trail of comments and responses to the article? Well, why not do that yourself (assuming you have something interesting to add)? If you are a subject matter expert (and even if you are not) why not add your two cents to topical articles. Include a link to your Blog or your web site in the response. Of course it is self promotion but it is promotion nonetheless (think about what this piece is for my company).

4. Socialize yourself online. Word of mouth is always a great way to drive new business. Working ones Rolodex was often the terminology for the art of taking out ones Rolodex and “dialing for dollars” – reaching out to your contacts to see who might be able to refer some business. Social networking and moreover professional networking has added a whole new dimension to managing ones Rolodex. Networks such as LinkedIn and Facebook as well as niche professional networks such as BizNik and Fastpitch make it easy to establish an online profile and provide good tools for reaching out to your network. Join a group on Facebook or set up a live event on Biznik.

5. Face-to-face networking. Although there is a fee for the more popular networking groups, they are a great way to meet other professionals all of whom are not interested in sharing photos or videos but in growing their businesses. There are online versions of these groups such as Network for Professionals and a number of Meetup groups. Start a Meet up or join one inviting everyone to happy hour (on you of course). You’ll be certain to draw a nice crowd of like-minded professionals.

Ways 6-10 in Part 2.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This post continues my efforts to bring you the content that we present in our live "mini sales training" events.

In Part 1 I discussed how a Sales 2.0 sales process puts most of the emphasis on the early parts of the sales process. In Part 2 I described that preparation in the sales process is key and that preparation for prospecting breaks down into "what are you going to say?" and "who are you going to say it to?" In this installment I want to say more about "what are you going to say?"

The first part to figuring out "what are you going to say?" is figuring out "what you do". Sounds easy right? Well not quite. Let's add some constraints:

1. Answer the question "what do you do?" in seven words or less (well maybe you can have ten but not more)
2. Say "what you do" in words your grandmother can understand
3. Focus on your clients. Say what you do for them

I've worked with a lot of technology companies over the years and most of them have sucked at saying what they do. Generally they violated all these rules and had long-winded statements full of technical features that no prospect cared about, had the time to listen to or could understand.

When you first contact someone they are not interested in investing their valuable time in figuring out what your product of service can do for them. The only way you will gain their interest is by telling them what you can do for them, quickly and in words they can instantly understand.

Here's some examples of good answers to the "what do you do?" question from Richard Fouts (who usually gives this portion of our live sales training):

> We help you comfortably retire. (Fidelity)
> We protect companies, lives and reputations. (GE Insurance)
> We help companies do business online. (IBM)

So the first part of figuring out "what you should say" when prospecting is figuring out "what you do"...in a way that a prospect can hear.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 09:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Imagine that you have a business problem and are evaluating companies to help you solve it. You can choose a generalist that claims to do everything for every scenario or an expert that focuses on solving exactly the kind of problem you have, for companies just like yours, with a track record of success.

I’ll bet you pick the expert, which demonstrates the advantage of vertical or niche marketing.

If you’re a general service provider or reseller, whether you like it or not, your company is probably perceived by prospects as one of a large group of possible suppliers, perhaps one of thousands. This makes it a struggle to break through the noise. Prospects will find it difficult to determine whether your company may be their best choice.

The answer is to position and communicate your company’s expertise within particular verticals or niches. Rather than try to market to the whole world, pick particular industries, applications, geographies or companies of enough size that you are best suited to serve–then focus your marketing.

Get familiar with your market
Find out where decision-makers, recommenders and influencers from these companies hang out. What trade shows or conferences do they attend? What associations do they belong to? What newsletters or magazines do they read? What websites do they visit? Use what you learn to determine the best lists, databases and marketing tactics for delivering your lead generation messages to these key people.

Speak directly to your market’s needs
Next, create one-to-many marketing messages and one-to-one sales materials that directly address the vertical or niches you intend to pursue. Mention the specific problems and business pains they face. Use lots of key words and images in your materials to let these prospects know you are speaking directly to them. Even your slogan should speak to your target market. Examples include: “Specializing in accounting services for small and midsize retailers in the greater Chicago area;” “Software Solutions for the Restaurant Industry;” “The Healthcare Supply Chain Experts;” and “Retail Displays for the Wine and Beverage Industry.”

Use a variety of offers
Be sure to include lots of offers in your marketing materials, designed to elicit a response and start the sales process. Educational offers such as how-to guides, buying guides, white papers, case studies and invitations to events on relevant subjects are the basic tools for eliciting responses from prospects.

Consider multiple stages of the buying process
Consider tailoring your lead generation offers to appeal to people at different stages of the buying cycle. This could mean offering a white paper or executive information kit for prospects who are early in the process vs. a seminar invitation for those in the middle and a free consultation or needs assessment for those who are closer to being ready to buy.

Demonstrate your niche expertise
Leverage your certifications and other credentials, your client list and case studies that specifically address your vertical or niche market prospect’s industries or applications. And liberally season all your marketing and sales materials with testimonial quotes from happy customers in specific situations your prospect faces.

Vertical marketing will help your company be perceived as the right solution that your prospects need. The result will be a competitive advantage and more sales.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Would you buy this business card? When you buy a list of names, you are basically buying business cards on a list. But there is no such thing as buying the perfect list, especially if you have a complex sale.

A study by John Coe and the Sales & Marketing Institute showed, “70.8% of business people changed one or more elements on their business cards each year.” My experience has been been around 45%. But in either case it's a big number.

Let's say you want to invite, via e-mail, a specific group of individuals in your database to a webinar or webcast. Or perhaps you’d like to do a targeted, direct-mail campaign to a select group of people on behalf of their salesperson. Could you do it with confidence? Most of the time, I’ve found the answer is "no.”

The goal is not to try to buy the biggest list possible, but instead build the most relevant list possible based your ideal customer profile.  The best list is one that you have diligently created and rigorously maintained over time with excellence. So where should you start?

I have found marketers often overlook the lists and data they already have in search of new contacts rather than building upon relevant conversations. 

Companies don’t buy; people do. The goal of a well-developed lead generation strategy, therefore, is to evolve relationships between people through dialogue that positions your marketing effort as a conversation (not a compaign) to identify, initiate and nurture productive selling situations.

Related Article: BtoB Magazine: Unisys gets boost from good data

I recommend you start by collecting all of your existing in-house marketing lists into one place. These are lists that you may already have on hand, from sources such as:

• Sales team – key accounts and collected business cards
• Strategic partner or pooled lists (cooperative opt-in)
• Inbound phone, email and web inquiries
• Past events - trade show, webinar, and seminar attendees
• Newsletter subscribers
• Marketing campaigns, such as direct mail or teleprospecting lists
• Past customers

Note:  Bring your database administrator in on the list build project as early as possible.  You will most certainly need their expertise in massaging and de-duping the data.

Marketing and sales can also work together to build a list from inactive accounts in your sales team's CRM data and business cards from industry conferences and networking events.

Utilizing existing in-house lists is the best place to start building your framework. Once the in-house lists are collected and combined, they can be evaluated for compliance with your ideal customer profile (target market). You’ll find at this point that that your list needs further enhancement.

At InTouch, we recommend that clients acquire a basic list that has the main attributes of their ideal customer profile and overlay that with their internally compiled data. Then use additional third party list sources to fill in missing companies and contacts.

There are many external list sources available, and each has its benefits and drawbacks. When buying data from an external source, you need to consider the following:

• Are you renting or buying the list? Many list companies only rent a list, which means you are only allowed to use them for a specified time period, a specific number of times, or for a specific marketing campaign, such as a direct mail piece. This type of list does not work well for an ongoing lead generation program.
• What data is included? Lists should include basic demographic data. Some lists, intended for direct mail, do not include phone numbers or contacts. Those lists would have limited value for lead generation.
• Usually, I have found that the best company level data lists come from data companies like Dun & Bradstreet or InfoUSA Business Information. These lists include all of the demographic data typically needed, and have extended contact information. The drawback, however, is that they are general business lists; so in some cases, you’ll need to cast a wide net to get records that fit your ideal customer profile and if your goal is to reach anyone other than top executives you will have to add additional contacts yourself.

Other sources of names or lists:

• Trade associations
• Trade shows
• Trade conferences
• Standard Rate and Data Service (SRDS)
• Public libraries like HillSearch.org
• New social networking tools or community based contact information sharing tools such as Spoke, LinkedIn and Jigsaw.

Even with these expanding options in list building sources the drudgery of careful research is sill the most productive course of action, because you best understand the nuances of your ideal customer profile.

Your database will become one of your most valuable assets if you treat it like one. Keep your database it current and you won’t have to worry about buying more questionable business cards and you'll see better ROI from your lead generation investment.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"What was the #1 strategy you used last year that significantly impacted your sales?" asked Jan Visser of Sales Team Tools.

Now that's one good provocative question! Almost immediately, an answer popped into my head. Then the next moment, another response emerged and then another. Before long, I was in a full-blown argument with myself with six different strategies vying for the top spot.

But after a rigorous analysis, I finally decided that the best results came from the strategic relationships I established with other firms who sell to my targeted decision makers.

These companies leveraged my expertise (in the form of ebooks, podcasts & webinars) as a part of their lead generation campaigns. Essentially, they "blessed" my work, telling their prospects and customers that I was a well respected thought leader in the sales field.

As a result, my ideal clients learned how my company could help their salespeople crack into corporate accounts and shorten sales cycles. In short, I leveraged their database to create more opportunities with minimal extra work.

The key to this strategy is LEVERAGE!

Have you ever stopped to think how you could achieve the same or better sales results with less effort? Mmmmmm?

I bet not! For some odd reason, most of us feel we need to slog it out by ourselves. Each morning we get up with a humongous list of "to dos" we need to accomplish in order to grow our business. And it seems like we can never get ahead.

So I'm going to challenge you to step back from your normal way of working for just one day to see if you can come up with a leveraged approach to increase your sales. 

The first thing you'll want to do is identify potential strategic alliance partners. Think about who else calls on the same decision makers you want to reach. I'd suggest looking at companies that have related, but not overlapping products or services. Also, talk to your customers to find out which companies & individuals they respect.

Once you have some names, set up a time to explore the concept of strategic leverage. Be creative! There are so many things you can do together. You can share leads, focus on developing your business at specific firms, bring each other in as trusted resources and more.

Here are two examples of alliances that turned out to be extremely profitable for all involved.

• The top salesperson for a company that sells to the automotive industry established an alliance with other sellers who call on the paint shop. This enabled him to keep on top of new developments, thus ensuring that his customers didn't experience any line-stopping problems. Even though his offering is pricey, his sales are growing at the expense of the competition.

• Several years, I joined forces with four other firms to put on a seminar about new product launches. We co-marketed the event to our combined databases. Then, at the workshop we each talked about our areas of expertise. The event paid for itself, but more importantly, everyone netted new clients.

Have I got you thinking? I sure hope so, because it doesn't have to be so darn hard to get sales and grow your business. 

When I realized that strategic leverage was my #1 growth factor, I took a long lunch with myself to rethink my own plans. Within two hours, I came up with a couple knock-your-socks-off ideas that will take my business to a whole new level with less effort.

You can do the same thing! Figure out your own top growth strategy and do more of it! Or borrow mine. What matters is that you act with deliberate intent, analyze your results and focus on strategies with maximum impact.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Waylon and Willie and the boys sang a poignant country ballad about wanting to get back to the basics of love—by going to Luckenbach Texas. Maybe it’s time those of us in sales and marketing got back to the basics of our business—by taking a close look at common but non-productive approaches to revenue creation.

Here are the top ten myths—or tall tales as our cowboy friends might say—of revenue creation, and what can be done to turn them around.

10. Adopt a shotgun approach and let ‘er rip
Myth: Broad targeting ensures maximum coverage. And it takes too much effort to test programs.
Reality: Your prospect universe is probably smaller than you think. Inside your prospect universe are segments that are substantially more responsive than others (some by as many as 9x). Segmentation and testing identify high value segments that allow you to increase ROI on marketing and sales investments

9. Concentrate on generating as many leads as you can
Myth: The more leads you generate, the more you’ll close.
Reality: This would be correct if all leads were high value, ready buyer sales opportunities. But programs typically deliver large quantities of raw, unfiltered and unqualified leads that clog pipelines. Sales actually needs fewer, more qualified opportunities—effectively managed to ensure a return and delivered at the right time. (See: http://www.pointclear.com/fewer-leads.pdf)

8. Use inside resources for qualifying and nurturing leads
Myth: Sales should be qualifying and following up on marketing’s leads.
Reality: Occupied with delivering as many leads as possible at the lowest possible cost per lead, marketing doesn’t have resources to filter, augment and nurture opportunities. Sales reps are paid to close short term opportunities and not pursue the flood of low value non-leads. The solution is a dedicated “lead farm” group charged with qualifying, nurturing and delivering ready buyer opportunities.

7. Don’t waste time on market intelligence
Myth: You can’t combine demand generation and market intelligence in the same program, and we know our market anyway.
Reality: Gathering, analyzing and reporting on marketing intelligence from a demand generation program is straightforward and helps pinpoint future offers, targeting and programs. This simple step can more than double your return on future marketing and sales investments. Market intelligence also positions your sales executives as knowledgeable and helps elevate them to a trusted advisor position.

6. Keep contacting the original target market
Myth: If they aren’t qualified now, keep marketing to them until they are.
Reality: Clearly there are always companies on the cusp of potential value. However, at least half of the investments in most marketing programs are wasted on ongoing contact of unqualified prospects. Efficient pre-qualification cuts suspects out that don’t meet minimum firmographic requirements or have recently acquired competing solutions.

5. Pick your best medium and stick with it
Myth: When results from one medium look good, throw more money and resources at it.
Reality: Success lies in a well planned and coordinated multi-media approach. C-level executives have never been busier or harder to reach, and the key is to engage them personally and directly using a combination of telephone calls, voice mail messages and emails.

4. Hit them one time and move on
Myth: If prospects are not involved in an active evaluation, they’re not worth pursuing.
Reality: Between 5 and 10% of the market has a need for your solution at any given point in time. Priorities can shift quickly, and implementing a multi-touch contact strategy is a critical element in uncovering pain and initiatives as prospects move into an evaluating mode.

3. Ignore mid-term and long-term opportunities
Myth: With the pressure to make numbers this quarter, the only focus should be on short-term opportunities.
Reality: Mid-term and long-term leads can be as valuable as near-term opportunities. A successful multi-touch, multi-media strategy features cost effective resources nurturing and educating prospects until they become ready buyers. Many so-called “long term” leads can actually be accelerated into short-term buying cycles if managed correctly from the start.

2. Don’t worry about the gap between marketing and sales
Myth: Marketing’s focus on high lead quantity and low lead cost is generating the opportunities sales needs.
Reality: The disconnect between marketing and sales results in high quantities of low value non-leads. Corrective action means affirming the missions of marketing to generate demand and sales to close and adding a dedicated lead farm group to qualify, nurture and deliver ready buyers.

1. When it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
Myth: We have been doing it this way for years.
Reality: Shotgun targeting, volume over quality, incorrect resources and the rest… they make for a marketing and sales merry-go-round—with all parties hesitant to change. The tendency is to be afraid of jeopardizing short-term sales by doing anything differently. But take a good hard look at all of your planned programs, and apply the realistic, high return approaches described above. (For a deeper dive on program, access our recent report titled Five Silver Bullets For Revenue Growth.)

We reckon Waylon and Willie and the boys were feeling no pain with their wine, women and song approach. Unfortunately, without a back-to-basics look at sales and marketing approaches, many of us with revenue responsibility could find ourselves in the opposite situation. Until and unless we dispel the tall tales that prevail in our profession, we’ll find ourselves a long way from Luckenbach—and farther than we need to be from our revenue generation goals.

Posted by Sales 2.0 at 05:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sales cycles are getting longer. There's no getting around it. Corporate buyers are involving more people in the decision - and it takes forever to get them all together. Urgent fires and pressing priorities pop up, further delaying or derailing your sales efforts. It can be so