January 30, 2019
Have you ever received a LinkedIn Cold or Warm Message like the one above? You know, where someone makes a sales ask via LinkedIn’s Messaging system either as a first or second touch? Arggg. I hate those. Folks just don’t realize that you only get one chance to make a LinkedIn impression. But beyond that, …
January 23, 2019
So what do you do for a living? We’ve all heard it. The question. The simplest question that every one of us should be able to quickly, easily and succinctly answer. But how many times have you been asked and then recited back some long-winded, mumbo jumbo answer that really didn’t answer the question asked? …
January 16, 2019
Companies today live and die by the KPI (Key Performance Indicator) metric of their choosing. They become slaves to the data based sales & marketing approach. And there is nothing wrong with that until there is, especially with consumer engagement KPI’s. Because what at first, seems to be a positive, could actually hide a huge …
January 9, 2019
I read Gary’s missive this week and to be fair, I love the tactic he suggests but hate everything else about his recommendation because if you blindly follow it, you’ll fail. Let me explain. Conversations Become Customers I couldn’t agree more with Gary’s recommendation to create proximity with your sales prospects using events as a tool …
December 27, 2018
Everyone loves digital advertising for its tracking capability vs traditional advertising. It’s easier to prove digital marketing ROI vs traditional advertising because digital makes the invisible buyer visible. But is this focus on clicks causing you to miss conversions? Let’s talk about that today. You Can’t Sell To Invisible Buyers In our zeal to prove …
December 17, 2018
Are you asking yourself, WTH is he talking about with that headline? Well today’s post is all about making a point that in my not so humble opinion needs making – success today is more about conversations than content. This post is an effort to provide a bit of context so that you can evaluate …
December 12, 2018
A few weeks ago Tom had a chance to sit down with Luke over at Toucan Advertising to talk about how ad agencies, pr agencies and frankly anyone in the consulting world, can turn conversations into customers. The podcast, Briefly, is about 30 minutes long and they covered a number of topics including:How the worst day …
November 27, 2018
Every day you find another article about some new Social Selling tip, trick or tactic to improve your sales prospecting success. So you read, follow and try. But that’s a recipe for sales prospecting failure. Everyone is asking themselves the same question – “What’s going to change in social selling or sales prospecting?” “What’s going …
November 13, 2018
Do you remember the story of The Trojan Horse? In the story, the Greeks constructed a huge wooden horse and hid a select force of men inside. The Greeks pretended to sail away and the Trojans pulled the horse into their city as a victory trophy. That night the Greek force crept out of the …
October 16, 2018
This morning I read an interesting research study indicating that 57% of B2B Marketers felt “Getting targeted prospects to engage” was their #1 challenge in generating new leads. Following closely on the heels was “Finding leads that convert” at 55%. “Finding Qualified Names,” usually considered one of the biggest challenges was a distant third at …
April 25, 2018
Social Selling, like most things in life, is a marathon, not a sprint and you should act accordingly. Social Selling Techniques are about making an investment today that will generate sales in the next month, quarter or year. But for companies or people just starting out, let’s talk about how to begin and where should …
March 21, 2018
How do you track social selling and content marketing success in a world where 65% of all content sharing is invisible to your data analytics software? What does sales prospecting success look like? What social selling KPIs do you track and report? Here is a simple solution. Dark Social Is Growing The chart from GetSocial …
January 9, 2018
Have you ever woken up one day with zero sales prospects in your sales funnel? I have. It was a pretty horrific day. Thankfully, I was able to fix the problem in under 48 hours because I focused on connecting vs converting. Today, let’s talk about what you can learn from my experience.A Day With …
December 20, 2017
We all want the Google Juice. We’ve been told it’s the silver bullet to inbound marketing success. But we’re wrong. The only way to truly Google Proof your website, and your online marketing efforts, is Propinquity. Today we’ll talk about why propinquity marketing is a better long-term strategy vs the classic Google/Inbound strategy for most …
November 28, 2017
Do you struggle with connecting your sponsorship sales leads and attendee leads lists? Leveraging people on each to help you create qualified sales prospects for the other? If so, this post is for you. A friend of mine produces large conferences and she struggles with leveraging the folks on each list, whose colleagues present sales …
August 24, 2016
According to just released data from Pew…. YES… Millennials are far more likely than their elder brethren to be searching for God via the Internet. In fact, they’re almost 5 TIMES more likely to seek the Almighty on the web then Baby Boomers and this might be the most important marketing stat you’ll read all …
August 16, 2016
You can’t sell if you can’t persuade. We all know that. But what you probably haven’t figured out yet is that digital content is the most persuasive tool in your sales & marketing toolbox and you’re not using it correctly. In my 2014 Content Marketing World talk — Using Content as Your New Sales Force — I talked about …
July 27, 2016
How often do you make a purchase that you don’t fully understand? I know I do all the time. If my house needs a new roof, I have to hire roofers who will provide the materials and complete the installation. But I know nothing about roofing! How do I make an informed decision about who …
June 21, 2016
Not only do podcasts offer numerous benefits over text- and video-based content—they are easy to create, convenient to consume, and they can expose new audiences to your brand— but by using an interview-based show format, your podcasts can also be fantastic social selling, networking and sales prospecting tools. Why Do Interview Podcasts Work? Think about …
April 12, 2016
A typical salesperson starts his day with a database full of unqualified prospects—a database that was populated by buying advertising, attending trade shows, purchasing prospect lists, or other networking activities. So, who do you call first? How do you know where to start? Here’s a proven way to help your salespeople find the prospects that …
February 3, 2015
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 …
November 5, 2014
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 …
September 23, 2014
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 …
July 29, 2014
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 …
July 2, 2014
Last week while driving my six year old son to camp, he asked me an interesting question. “Dad, how do you become famous?” I responded that you do something notable and worthy. He then went on to ask me to define worthy. Which I defined is doing something meaningful for the world. Something that made …
April 9, 2014
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. …
March 26, 2014
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. …
February 26, 2014
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 …
January 29, 2014
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 …
November 19, 2013
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 …
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