We just released a brand new 15-minute webinar specifically designed for advertising, PR and Digital agencies that want to learn how to combine my Painless Prospecting approach to building a consistent inbound pipeline of highly qualified, self-educated buyers that are pretty sure they want to hire you before you ever speak with them directly with …
This week, the Wall St. Journal proclaimed “Business Travel Won’t Be Taking Off Soon Amid Coronavirus.” In the article, numerous CEO’s remarked they intend to maintain a smaller travel budget, field fewer face-to-face sales calls and in general, continue leveraging the efficiencies of virtual selling for the foreseeable future, if not forever. This shouldn’t come …
NEW Research strongly suggests that Social Selling and digital sales tools, which have been steadily becoming more central to successful sales prospecting over the last 10 years will continue to dominate post Covid-19 outbreak. Read More…
...Coronavirus has turned the world, especially the sales world, upside down. Traditional sales methods like face-to-face selling and in some cases, even phone sales, have been rendered pretty much useless. Increasingly sales reps are relying instead on email, social media outreach and video-conferencing. But while our tools today are somewhat different, our sales & marketing …
Are you a first time Zoom user? If you’re like any of my friends, chances are the answer to that question is YES. Or maybe your team has chosen Facetime Calls, or GoToMeeting or Google Hangouts or Skype or any host of other video calling platforms to meet during this time of social distancing. It …
Recently I ran across and interesting discussion on LinkedIn about the effectiveness of cold calls — or maybe better stated — lack of effectiveness. One comment in particular jumped out at me and really got me to thinking about a future where the cold call could again be an effective outbound sales prospecting tool. Every …
Marketing has always had its 4P’s, and now Sales has its 5P’s – a proven relationship first approach to consistently closing more deals with less work.
...The single biggest mistake sales teams make today is focusing exclusively on prospects and ignoring these social agents who will introduce you to prospective customers both offline and online.
...Is Patience simply a virtue or is there real profitability in a patient sales prospecting/closing approach?
...What are the 5 most important questions to ask on a first sales call in order to write a winning proposal?
...Are you properly prepared to develop stronger interpersonal relationships with your sales prospects to improve the effectiveness of your lead nurturing?
If not, read on…
...To Sell Greatly, a salesperson has to be relationship first. And the most important skill in building strong, enduring relationships is the ability to be a good listener. Ironically, most of us are terrible listeners. It’s like we completely understand the importance of listening well, but we just can’t bring ourselves to actually do it …
How does the Millennial style of communication hold up in the world of sales, which depends so much on interpersonal relationships and the soft skills that make sales happen? More on that here.
...Every year the Content Marketing Institute publishes a seminal report on the state of the Content Marketing Industry. This year, we thought we’d share it but through the lens of sales prospecting and using content to Sell Greatly. Content Marketing Still Focused on The Top of The Funnel. Few content marketers report they use it …
WARNING: If you are of the mindset that all prospects are leads, you’ll probably disagree with what I’m about to say. I’m a huge fan of online product demos and webinars because they let me easily self-educate about a product or service I’m considering. And as a business, you should love these tools as …
Today I had the honor of presenting at ContentTech. To a packed room of senior level marketers and a few sales people, we talked about the gulf between Marketing and Sales. Specifically, what causes it and how to fix it. For most marketing teams today, their role in the sales prospecting process is all about …
Over the last 10 years, content marketing has emerged as a powerful driver for effective social selling and inbound sales lead generation programs. And while largely heralded as a way to drive inbound leads there is another, even more powerful reason that ad and PR agencies should develop a consistent content marketing program. Let’s talk about …
Recently I participated in an interesting discussion on the #Digital360Chat Twitter Chat hosted by Bernie Fussenegger around the idea of sales & marketing automation, specifically about automating the connection process on social media. It’s hard to really go deep on a subtopic in a Twitter Chat, so today I thought we could explore this key …
Whenever you read about Social Selling, everyone spends a lot of time talking about creating content. It makes sense, because content is at the core of a successful social selling program. But you shouldn’t be paying your salespeople to create content. Instead, teach them how to properly curate content (maybe even give them the proper …
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, …
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? …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …