We’ve all been taught that you only get one chance to make a first impression. Which begs the question — why are so many people forgetting that on LinkedIn? This is the blocking and tackling of social selling my friends. But so many are doing it so wrong… so let’s talk about how to structure …
You can’t sell if you can’t persuade. We all know that. But what many sales people haven’t figured out yet is that digital content is often the most persuasive tool in the salesperson’s toolbox. In my 2014 Content Marketing World talk — Using Content as Your New Sales Force — I talked about this new sales & marketing dynamic. Since …
Everything you once knew about marketing and sales prospecting is wrong. Or at the very least, social selling is quickly rendering it obsolete. Once upon a time, companies treated information about their product as sacred. After all, information is power. The traditionally held belief was that a company’s marketing efforts should force prospective customers to call and …
Prefer to listen versus read helpful information on social selling and sales prospecting with social media and content marketing? Well today you’re in luck. Recently Tyler Anderson interviewed me for his Casual Friday podcast where we talked in depth about what social selling is and isn’t. Today I’m sharing that with you and for those …
The reason your sales prospects love all the free, helpful content marketing you create is because they end up using it against you. Self-educating buyers are using Google Searches and your (and your competitors’) digital content marketing efforts to do their homework. And they think they know what they need to know in order to …
Great design, stellar content and loads of traffic don’t mean anything without sales. And even before that goal is achieved, a step-by-step process of conversion is occurring as prospects move closer to customer or client. And if you want to achieve success, you need to understand and stay abreast of the latest thinking in landing …
Content marketing is a widely recognized driver for effective, inbound sales lead generation programs. While largely heralded as a way to drive inbound leads there is another, even more powerful reason that ad agencies should develop a consistent content marketing program. The Traditional Benefit of Content Marketing Content drives all digital marketing lead generation programs. …
This Thursday, March 27th, I’ll be talking about the 7 keys to successfully leverage your social media strategy to drive lead generation and sales prospecting efforts. If you’ll be at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego and free at 2:15pm on Thursday, please join me in Seaport C for a great social selling session. …
Last week I showed you a nifty trick to turn any presentation into an instant B2B lead generation tool to help power your social selling efforts. But that trick only generates as may sales prospect leads as people in the audience. So today I’m going to show you how to use that same file to generate …
Do you give presentations for living? Do you make sales calls, deliver conference presentations, or even just make internal presentations to your boss or peers. What do you do with these presentation decks after you deliver the presentation? If you’re like 95% of the people I know, you file them away on a hard drive …
The biggest hurdle to an effective B2B content marketing program is convincing the sales force to utilize the content in their lead nurturing process. Most B2B marketing departments incorrectly diagnose the situation as a lack of willingness, support, or desire to engage in social selling on the part of the sales team. But I would …
I’m convinced that 2014-15 will be the year we’ll finally see companies looking seriously at social media as a B2B sales tool. I’m seeing increased interest in and requests for our social sales training and I’m seeing a lot more social selling questions posted in my social media streams. So today, let’s start with the …
Today I read a piece in Ad Age where the CMO of a major restaurant chain said, “In the past, over 80% of the marketing plan would be executed the way you originally planned. Now, it’s like 20%,” so you better be agile.” I have to say – I completely disagree with this point-of-view and …
Inbound Marketing is overly focused on winning page one SERP (Search Engine Results Page) on Google and to a lesser extent Bing. Inbound Marketers preach that if your company can rank your website for your keywords, then leads, conversions and sales will follow. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t really want you to rank organically and that creates …
At a minimum, social media is the new phone. It’s both an inbound and outbound way to contact and communicate with sales prospects. Is it the best phone for all your prospects? Certainly not, but it does allow you to do more sales prospecting in a single day than you’d likely complete in a week …
Last week at #SoMeT13US, I had the opportunity to share my take on a key tourism sales and marketing strategy that I think all destinations should be deploying immediately. I talked about how DMOs and CVBs could find and win the invisible sales lead by leveraging proven social selling techniques. I thought you might find it …
That was the tagline of the last campaign I ever created at my former firm, Brandmarken, right before Hurricane Katrina destroyed a good bit of New Orleans and the entire company. It was fitting, because it was that attitude, that failure simply isn’t an option that kept me going and helped me put together the …
Normally we’d publish a helpful post about sales & marketing, digital insight or maybe a rant today. Instead, we’re interrupting our blogging for 10 days so that I can traipse across the country raising money for charity and creating awareness of my new book, The Invisible Sale. Along the way, I’m live blogging all the lessons …
Today is a special, Sunday Edition of the Converse Digital blog to celebrate my next big experiment — The #ivs4charity Book Tour. Sure it’s a book tour to announce my new book, The Invisible Sale and raise $10,000 for 10 deserving charities… but it’s more… it’s an experiment in the power of Propinquity to build …
If you’ve never heard the word Propinquity, then this is the book is for you. Why? Because that word, Propinquity, and the scientific research behind, it is the secret to creating more effective sales and marketing programs that turn conversations into customers. What You’ll Learn In The Book I wrote the book as a tool …
Every day I hear companies involved in B2B sales prospecting lament the shrinking sales cycle. Sales cycles that used to take six months, a year or even more — now routinely cut in half. These companies come asking for B2B sales tips to apply in a world where sales prospecting has to work in half …
But will you join me? That is the question I ask of you today. To celebrate my new book, The Invisible Sale, I’m planning a barnstorming tour across the central, eastern and southern United States. Over the course of 10 days, I’ll visit and co-host 10Â #ivs4charity cocktail, networking events to raise awareness of the book …
To find and acquire self-educating, invisible buyers your company needs to set aside your traditional funnel based sales mentality and sales prospecting tools and augment your current approach with social selling. Instead of seeing your selling process as a funnel to be filled at the top with unqualified prospects, picture it instead as a radar …
What do you do when you’re not getting as many leads from your website as you think you should? Should you advertise more? Should you activate PPC (Pay-Per-Click advertising) or should you focus on creating outstanding content marketing to drive inbound marketing leads? It’s a classic chicken and egg discussion — one that I just …
How do you prove the ROI of your social media efforts? For most people, social ROI is proved by measuring likes, follows, tweets, retweets and clicks because they don’t think they can link social media activity to sales conversions. And truth be told, for most of the inexpensive social media management platform options available click/follow/tweet …
The first step in developing a Propinquity Marketing Strategy is defining your key Propinquity Points. The technique varies by category, industry and prospect but here is a repeatable four-step process that can serve as your starting point. It’s the same process I use with my clients and we find it to be an excellent jumping off …
According to a 2012 Edison Research Study on the Podcast Listener awareness of podcasting has grown 105% since 2006 and the percentage of people indicating they have listened to an audio podcast has grown 163%. But access to a growing audience isn’t the only reason to consider adding podcasting to your social selling toolkit. Here are three key …
I love how my funnel optimized website helps invisible buyers become visible sales leads. This site, which was created by Copyblogger Media is built on the Genesis WordPress platform using a customized Streamline child theme. To enhance the site’s ability to power my social selling efforts, and serve as a never need a vacation painless …
Every day I talk to sales and marketing executives that lament their inability to convince their company to adopt social selling, inbound marketing and content marketing strategies and tactics. In fact I’ve gotten this question so many times that today I want to share with you the advice I give each of them. It’s a …
Studies show that self-educating buyers regularly download white papers and eBooks as part of their pre-purchase research. They’ll gladly trade an email address for good information that helps them make a buying decision or just makes them smarter. But far too many companies today are making a huge mistake with their white papers and ebooks. …