It’s no secret that I think Twitter Chats are an excellent social selling opportunity. If you’re not sure about this social media tool, check out the simple video I created, Twitter Chat Explanation Video. Now take the power of Twitter Chats (TweetChats) and Webinars (with supporting hashtags) and Twitter Hashtags and add the new Nimble’s Smart Contacts App and you …
Back in 1950, psychologists Leon Festinger, Stanley Schachter, and Kurt Back launched a study to investigate how friendships developed among students at the new Westgate Complex at MIT. They found that the strongest friendships developed between students who lived next to each other on the same floor. Where friendships developed between students who lived on …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 can’t tell you how excited I am to finally be able to tell everyone this incredible news — my first social selling book, The Invisible Sale is finally available on Amazon and B&N. A recent BtoB Magazine survey of US B2B marketers found that in 2013, 60% of respondents cited generating more leads remained their top challenge. And …
Lately I’ve been getting a lot more requests from to conduct LinkedIn Networking Workshops for B2B sales teams. It seems companies and organizations are finally waking up to the fact that LinkedIn is so much more than an online resume collection. At the same time I’m seeing an uptick in really bad LinkedIn networking attempts. …
Ever have a salesperson claim they don’t have time to play on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+? If you answer no, then you’re either a liar or not listening closely because it’s the most common thing social media consultants have been hearing from sales organizations for as long as social media has been around. And …
The single most important thing to think about when crafting your  website or blog — is not how beautiful it is but how well it functions as a lead generation machine. Probably the single biggest mistake companies and people make when crafting a website is that they focus entirely too much on the physical beauty …
Research from Google shows that now more than ever, Woody Allen was right – Showing Up is 80% of social selling success. Today’s self educating B to B buyer is increasingly turning to sources other than salespeople for information. Number Of Sources Buyers Consult Google’s ZMOT Research, released in 2011 revealed that consumer shoppers consult …
Somewhere in heaven there is a magical phone. Each time a salesperson picks it up to dial a prospect, the person on the other end answers and is actually highly qualified. In fact, she wants to talk about buying what the sales person is selling. What if that phone existed? What if instead of working your …
Earlier this week I had a chance to talk with a bunch of Realtors about how they might consider using Social Media and digital tools to sell more houses by leveraging social selling techniques. During the course of the talk I mentioned how social media helps them to painlessly prospect. A few seemed to take …
I’m learning to love LinkedIn more and more as a B2B sales prospecting tool. But the more I use it, the more I wish someone at LinkedIn would get off their ass and make the platform what it could be versus what it is. Right now LinkedIn is a great tool for networking but leaves …
If you’re spending time in the social media space strictly for the joy of conversation, you can skip the rest of this post. BUT if you’re spending time on social networks with the goal of building a tribe of Social Agents that you can activate to grow your business, help a cause you care deeply …
I know it’s all PC and cool to say that numbers don’t matter. Number of fans, followers, readers of your blog — none of that matters. It’s all about just writing and sharing great content because that is the core of social media. [dramatic pause while I hug myself] Personally, I disagree. I think it’s …