Follow the "now" or "future?"

Every industry has a Mount Rushmore of thought leaders that influence exactly how a business is run today.  With this Mount Rushmore of thought leaders comes boxes that are created from similar view points.

When you think of Content marketing, you automatically think of Joe Pulizi.

When you think of Sales prospecting 2.0, you automatically think of Aaron Ross.

When you think of Digital transformation,  9 times out of 10, Brian Solis comes up.

These people are instrumental to change in marketing and influencing how we all think and approach our marketing campaigns and results.  There's a lot of respect for these people and other people that have positively impacted their industry and/or profession.

On Twitter and LinkedIn, these people are at the top of the list that everyone follows.  Their word carries so much weight that some organizations would most likely stop what they were doing if they were told something entirely new.

I don't follow these people on social media.  It's not because I'm trying so hard to be "different."  The main reason I don't follow is them because there are other disruptors out there that could be changing and influencing what marketing looks like 10 years from now.  I like to be ahead of the curve.

"Who's next"

Back when I was in music,  I always made the effort to network and reach out to talented people I felt would be "next."  The next person to lead a trend or change someone's thinking.  The people at the top already had immense influence and were tougher to get a hold of so by introducing myself to the hungry talented people that were "next", I was able to build natural rapport and even learn from those people.  I apply the same concept to marketing thought leaders.  You can learn so much from marketing professionals with ideas that deserve an ear to listen.

"The future rehashed"

The future is hard to predict.  Marketing and technology change so fast that I'm not so sure a 5 year marketing plan is even as necessary as the ability to be flexible and adjust.  Stakeholders grow impatient and still confuse marketing and sales.  Ultimately, marketing is cyclical.  Over the last three to five years, I've head thought leaders bring up various marketing strategies that move in cycles.  When you think for a minute from the customers eyes, you notice saturation in one marketing channel creates opportunity voice in another.  By opportunity voice, I mean one channel becomes "the trend."

"What do you follow?"

I love blue oceans and clear skies.  I make sure I know where the "now"is but  I also follow where customers may not be going yet.  I can't personally predict the future in marketing but what I can do, is look at my industry and figure out where everyone is in their journey.  Once I know where everyone is, I can figure out other road maps some of those people may travel to.  We all capable of building on existing strategies and making them our own.

I read the past and present--I follow the "now." 

True value of Networking

You just never know where people will be in their careers.

Story time:  I've been going to the same bar for 6 years running.   One of the bouncers there made getting in one of the biggest challenges.  I don't know what happen but it took maybe the first year for him to see I wasn't going anywhere and I planned to keep coming back.

Let's fast forward to today,  This bouncer went from low on the totem pole to now Director of Security at a new bar.  The relationship and struggle I had with him, carries over into his new career where he gives me dap and is always glad when I make an appearance.  I also don't have to wait in line at this new bar either--Thanks to the relationship that was built with him.

Who knew?

We talk about the importance of networking for your personal development but it also works for your business.  It's got to be genuine though.  Many times I see like minded professionals give each other the proverbial "F off" because of "competition."  You just never know where people will be in their careers.  I've seen former co-workers from 3 years ago head into promotions where they can make decisions on if they want to do business with my employer or not.

"Who wouldda known?"

In prospecting, we are taught to target decision makers at the top and work with influencer's and gate keepers at the bottom.  That may be true, but most professionals try to get past the gatekeepers instead of keeping them in the loop.  My experiences has taught me some gatekeepers are always in the know with the business.  If you get on their good side, good things will happen for you.  Sometimes what you think is impossible becomes the possible from just being genuine.


Who whoudda thought?

Chasing appointments

It's been a while since I... posted some content.  I was almost tempted to recite lyrics to Staind. 

A lot of you can identify with this scenario.

Scenario

You've been talking with a prospect about why they should have a meeting with you.  You understand a base line about their challenges and you know you offer a solution that solves that problem.  The dialog reads in a very pleasant tone.  The only issue is they are busy and they want you to call them back same time next month...

You want to respect their time so you nudge one more time and then you set a reminder to contact them the same time next month.   Next month rolls around and now what was once an appointment, is now a pursuit.  The month keeps getting pushed back.  It's a trap, don't fall for it.

What's frustrating about this situation is every time you call, you find out more information and it leads you into a chase.  I always say embrace the chase, but to an extent.

Embrace that Waldo is in the room and you have to find him.  You have to find Waldo and point him out.  If the prospect had 0 interest, they usually would tell you flat out they are not interested.  There's something more going on...

Sometimes it's not about the chase

Interrogation is never a good feeling for a prospect.  People naturally raise their defense if they are uncomfortable.  TONE is everything and remaining calm is key.  I like to feel that prospects "test" you with their personal evaluation of you..  Naturally, I like to be the hero of their problem and push my story.  My previous posts have always said there has to be a story with an antagonist (problem) and a protagonist (hero)


Well, sometimes there's no antagonist.  People just don't see their problem or want to realize it. Sometimes the fairy tale ending is not what people want. To paraphrase Steve Jobs,

" A lot of times, Prospects don't know what they want until you show it to them."

 Stop chasing but don't lose contact.  Don't ever lose the contact. Every prospect has something that makes them "feel."  By feel, I mean get out of their programmed responses and demeanor.  They care about something and it's our jobs to figure out what that is.

How do you define marketing?

If you were to take multiple professional marketers in B2B, their definition of marketing would vary. The term "marketing" leads to multiple answers and also, multiple concerns.  The one common denominators for them all would be: Growth and Revenue.

But how do you set your parameters for growth and revenue?  Is it just marketing involved in this conversation?

I'm not talking about marketing objectives or goals-Those should be clear and concise.  We should be SMART after all right?  What I am talking about is how you define marketing and how it supports sales.  There's a blurry line between sales activity and marketing activity.  I come across Marketing professionals with more experience with sales and they can't really define their parameters of how marketing impacts their business.

Story time

I had a recent discovery call with a Senior VP of marketing.  When asking him about what he did for marketing, he simply responded by giving me hundreds of salespeople on his team and briefly explained rudimentary marketing.   Marketing to him was having his small team create PDF's for email blasts. This prospect has a website with a lot of content.  He mentioned the website represented only 5% of their business.  He didn't seem comfortable explaining the effectiveness of their e-commerce site.  My team was able to see that  their marketing efforts go to supporting their sales people that send quotes and close deals.   Sales enablement was actually more vital than their E-commerce site.  Their industry relies on wo(man) power and the motivation of their sales people.  While it's questionable they do nothing with their e-commerce, they at least have defined what the value of marketing is for them.

IT has a loud voice

Some industries are behind when it comes to marketing and also, technology.  Technology is now a big part of marketing.  Data and insights are just as important to CMO's as overall brand recognition.  They actually work hand in hand.  Multiple articles have described the relationship alignment between CMO's and CIO's.   The digital side of marketing is making it a necessity for both Marketing and IT to define their success online. 

Marketers are tasked with understanding how they should define marketing.  It's not quite cut and dry as it used to be.  No matter what type of marketing you do, it has to translate to sales and growth.  How you do it only matters if it isn't working for you

The toughest words to say

When people get married and the priest says: "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"  The woman doesn't say Yes.  She says, "I do."

When you buy a product from someone and you both agree that it is going to help you, I'm willing to bet you rarely hear the word "yes."  The litany of responses will be: 
-Let's go with it.
- When can you deliver it?
-This makes sense.
-I'm on board.

In your professional life, you have so many people that are scared to tell people they can't do something that they avoid the "No" Response.

You know who will give you a straight yes or no?  Little kids.

When we all were little kids, if we didn't like something we weren't shy to say how we felt.  There were no filters.  A kid can "No I don't want to" and not feel pressure to be PR friendly.  Now these filters are important as we get older, but why is it so hard to elicit a simple yes or no?

I can only think of the medical profession where people are given a clear 2 options but even then, you're never given a yes or no.  It's positive and negative.  Positive can mean a bad diagnosis.  You're given suggestions. (Thanks to insight from my friend in healthcare)

No seems to scare people because it signals the chance of losing an opportunity.  Even if that person is not interested, the thought of saying No could mean never.  Saying Yes shouldn't be hard but if you say Yes too much, people question your backbone.  

People avoid situations where they have to say Yes or No.  If you were to google "Yes or No",  You will see blogs and articles with people giving advice on how to avoid saying Yes or No.  ( I did the homework for you- "Yes or No")

Who's got a problem? Everyone!

I had a marketing operations professor in college named Dr. McDermott (brilliant man) that would always challenge his students to up their critical thinking skills.  We would always talk about successful companies like Virgin, Apple, Nike, and others.  In these conversations we didn't talk about what made them successful.

We had conversations on what marketing challenges would they expect to have.

Salespeople that sell marketing services deliver a pitch and hear "We're good. Not interested."

They aren't perfect.  Every company is facing a challenge that they can't quite figure out. Young companies want to figure out how to grow.  Mature companies worry about how to maintain on top, and everyone in the middle is just trying to stay afloat.  Why are some companies blind to their challenges?  The question of worth often gets in the way.

"If I ask for help, does that mean I'm not good at my job?

No.  It means you care enough about the business that you want to find ways to stop challenges before they happen.  Having a marketing plan is a no brainer, but how often do you change that plan?

The Harvard Business Review had an article dating back 1969 highlighting business executives and the fear to change.  Executives know there's a problem, it's whether that problem affects them personally in some way.  Maybe if it's technology, it could mean it removes something valuable from your every day operations.

It's amazing when you can admit, see, and be comfortable with being vulnerable to what your company needs to be stronger.

Content-we love a villain

I love reading original blog posts.  I really do.  Like a TV show, there's various villains that pop up on your posts and content.

I love when there's a passionate discussion going on within a specific post.  I've been on teams where people worry about when a poster disagrees with what the copywriter created.  I really enjoy when that happens.  It's not because I'm combative.  It tells me that people actually care about what is being written.

I've always believed it's better to be disliked or liked than someone having no opinion or feeling about you.   There's a villain for every hero-It's generated billions of dollars at movie box offices.  Why can't there be a "villain" for a copywriter.  Trust me when I say, a villain is not the troll that you see on random posts from people.  That villain does quite a bit of things.

They solidify our target 

Everybody writes.  Everybody has a voice.  Not everybody knows who their target is suppose to be. Target market means more than just gender and age-there's psychographics involved in it.  When you post content for review,  the villain creates dissension and that helps identify who our target could be.  There has to be a conflict and disagreement.  From there, we can actually find out more about the people that respond to our villain.

 They challenge us

Villain's challenge our views and how we write.  They help us become better because they offer a perspective that's foreign from our own.   As writers, we tend to look at what we write and sometimes forget how to make people feel and react.  The villain sparks that emotion in themselves and fuses it toward others.  Suddenly, our post that only received 5 comments, now has 50 with a serious internal debate going on.  If it weren't for the villain, that wouldn't have happened.  Every time someone disagrees with my content, I feel like I have gotten better writing and understanding people.

They help us "kill with kindness."

When people disagree with you about something passionate, it's hard to just smile and carry on.  There's always a villain who simply just wants you to slip up and lose your credibility.  Being diplomatic is a life skill that is also an invaluable work skill.    The way you respond to villains via your content responses shows how genuine and sharp you are to participants.  If the villain has a valid statement, there's no reason they shouldn't be heard and acknowledged. 

Whether marketing and sales respect expectations

Have you ever seen the movie "The Weatherman" with Nicholas Cage?  It was not intended to be a sales movie, but it follows life lessons that can relate to being a salesperson or marketer.  Cage plays a Chicago weatherman that is successful, yet constantly deals with problems outside of his work profession.  He's so immersed in his work that he becomes estranged from his daughter and father, who is dying of cancer.  He then takes an archery class and it becomes his therapy to cope with stress.

We've all had a "weather" moment.  In marketing, we make predictions on trends and we try to anticipate what the results will look like.  When the results aren't what people expect, we face criticism and credibility trust issues. Much like a meteorologist who's wrong,  there's various relationships that need to weather the storm.

Sales vs. Marketing

Scenario: Sales is upset with you.  You provide them "crappy" leads and the wrong collateral that won't get them the deal.  There's a strain between these departments and part of it is the perception each department has on the other.  You're ability to research leads that are warm help reduce the amount of "cold" they receive.  It's not the Sales departments job to understand the various challenges you face, they just want leads and collateral now.  Sales has an argument in that they are revenue generating and keep the lights on for your business.  You need them and they need you.

Advice to Sales: Be patient with marketing.  Don't be a fair weather fan.  They consistently have the attention of several departments and clients.  They are listening but tend to get caught up in campaigns and a deliverable that must be measured.  They may not face the monthly quotas you have but they have the pressure of consistently being consistent with brand messaging and ensuring campaigns are run without major hiccups. When you have a minute, talk with one of them to understand what goes on in their world.  At my company now, we have a scrum meeting where salespeople are able to talk with marketing on what they need to succeed.  

Advice to Marketing:  Remove the stigma you have of sales professionals.  They are not all jocks and reckless.  All the secondary research you analyze can pale in comparison to what your salespeople can say about specific customer targets.  Leverage the sales departments ability to talk to prospects and figure out what challenges you are not privy to know.  Communicating with your company's sales team will help in audience persona, inbound lead nurturing campaigns, and also cohesiveness.  

"Being a weatherperson"

Sometimes when it rains, it pours.  Sometimes, it's a dry spell.  Leads come and go.  It's a rinse and repeat process.  Sales and marketing need each other to weather the storm.  Campaigns are learning experiences and both sides should become better after every single one.  Let's not be fair weather fans.

Marketing Sandwiches..yum

Question: If you could have the gift of either having all industry information or the ability to see the buyer journey, which would you choose?

My mentor in marketing has been instrumental in helping me apply the old adage of "marketing mix." We often complicate the simplest concepts and lose sight of the purpose of marketing.  Marketing has become so broad but through it all it's always about..

Being in the business to  promote our service and research prospects.

I'd like to speak more so on B2B marketing and how aspects of marketing are sandwiched.

"Email marketing is not enough"

There used to be a time where all you had to do was write great copy and send it out via automation tools.  That's still important but we've upped the ante!  Emails that follow a template for every single customer are no longer as effective.  There are useful email tools that track open rates and click-throughs which is good, but they don't effectively measure who responds to the mails.  There's more layers being added for effective email marketing that addresses deliverable objectives. 



Answer: I'd hope you choose the second option.  Companies from 20-30 years ago had the ultimate advantage in controlling information that their customers couldn't see.  The leverage B2B companies had is dwindling and lately, the focus has been on truly understanding their customers path to purchase.

"If you are talking digital now, you're already behind"

It's simple.  Older industries like manufacturing are just now realizing the benefits of leveraging "digital" resources to get more appointments, revenue, and sound strategy.  They are also behind and by the time they get caught up, there will be another wind of sound practices they will need to implement.  According to a survey from Gartner, CMO's do not use the term "digital" as much anymore.  8-10 years ago SEO was the buzz term (that made a lot of marketing companies money). Then everyone remembered how "Content is king."  Now you have all these tools and practices that sandwiched together, create validity and end results. 

"Sandwiches with various ingredients"

I LOVE sandwiches... ice cream sandwiches...BLT's, chicken sandwiches, etc.  The point is there are so many different ingredients in each sandwich but the end result is something tasty and filling. All the marketing strategies discussed have various ingredients added that create something so good and authentic.  Results from marketing can come from anywhere.  There's no need to complicate an already complicating process.  Think of marketing as a sandwich created by a sandwich artist.  If you appreciate a good sandwich, it never hurts to look at how others make their sandwich.

S&M: Are you a Liger on defense and offense?

Cheesy sports analogy  aside,

Are you?



 Some people love to score and create plays.  Some people can't score  but excel at stopping others.  We have rare Ligers(my term for "unicorn") that can do both. As business professionals, we all have been involved in the process of gaining a customer.  The presentation can be nerve wrecking-especially when you meet the C-suite decision makers that can give the simple yes or no.  Even if you are in a completely different industry from the next person, we agree that:

1. You have had to sell yourself and your services to that prospect.
2. Chances are your prospect needs a final sign off for approval of your services.
3. There's a final showdown(meeting) where your fate will be determined.

In your first meeting presenting your services/solutions, you will have to play offense and defense to win the client over.

Offense (Presenting, selling the value)

Offensively, you need to show what you think is important to them and magnify it with valuable information.  You will most likely deal with more than one person and each person has motives or drivers that trigger saying yes.    Think of your PPT, voice, and references as the offense needed to weaken their defense.  If you need a good reference for the do's and don't of PowerPoint slides, look here-amazing examples.  

Defense (Answering tough questions, negative responses)

In an ideal situation, we get to play offense all day and receive a yes.  Not so fast...

It just doesn't work that way.  Typically the prospect will let you play offense and then will be ready to test your defense.  By testing your defense, they are looking for how you handle situations they fear could happen.  They could also want to see if you press when stressed, or if you show calmly how your service/product can help them.  Objections and disagreement are their defense mechanisms prompting you to defend your reputation and product/service.

"Offense wins games.  Defense wins  championships"

When I refer to winning the game, it means getting the meeting and attention.  For them to agree to the meeting obviously shows they respect you enough to use their time to listen to you.  The more games you win, the higher the chances you have of getting to the 'ship!  If you can address their concerns and handle their attempt to trap you, you will win in the big picture.  Being a two-way player is good because sometimes you will have to play defense(especially if the offense isn't good enough.)

Operation bootstrap

You ever had a plan to be the biggest, best, number one product or service around?  Sure you have. We dream big and those dreams can and will come true(with preparation and a little opportunity luck)

Unfortunately, it takes money to make money.  It takes a lot of money to make a lot of money. ( or lose from gambling)   Keeping costs down is something we all aim to do and with lean marketing, it can happen.  If you are starting it at the grassroots, you're just trying to officially have customers.

I speak from experience.  Every advantage I've ever had was not always with a sales program or intelligence tool-It was my brain and resourceful thinking.  If you are a start up company, it's debatable if sales intelligence tools are worth the initial cost for you.  While they may give you great and valid insight, this comes at an expensive cost.  There are quite a few ways to find your target utilizing google and "bootstrap methods."  I found ways to find leadership and their contact information. Tips below..

Tip 1: Google is your friend

No Seriously..Google is your friend.  This is the most rudimentary tip but get stronger at searching on google.   There's a certain way to find executives that you want to pitch your service/product toward. Just googling their company and title, I was able to find those key people that make decisions.

Bootstrap Tip: I've found that when I type an executives name and "trade-show" or "PDF", I sometimes am able to find out out their direct phone number and email.  VP's of Sales and Marketing become easy to find because of their involvement with various events.

Tip 2: Take advantage of "Free trial" SI

Sales intelligence tools have amazing data to help you close deals and find your customers in a more efficient way.  While they can be an operational cost, the advantages of using the trials are:

• Seeing what's out there on the market.
• Getting several "free" accounts to conduct searching for leads.
• Identifying lead patterns to see consistency of each SI company.

Tip 3:  Contact the Sales department

In my professional career, I've gotten a few "nuggets" of information by contacting someone in sales. Sales people can be the biggest help to finding out who the VP of Sales and Marketing are.  They may not give you direct contact information, but are a good source for figuring out the chain of command.  Besides, if you have information they need,  you've entered into a networking relationship.

Tip 4:  LinkedIn 

LinkedIn is slowly becoming a favorite of mine.  LinkedIn offers "free" sales intelligence on key decision makers.  While their sales navigator is helpful and affordable, you can find quite a bit of information on connected contacts from just their LinkedIn profile.   Who knows, you may have a contact in common that can give you a warm introduction.

Tip 5: They tell two people..and so on..

Cold calling is not completely dead.  Decision makers receive so many emails lately that calling them is still a good way to reach them.  The issue you may not have their direct contact line.  By being sincere with what you can offer, people will at least give you an email or name that is the decision maker (Unless you are in IT security..whole nother ball game)

Make the most of your resources.  If any of you can think of other ways you "bootstrap" sales, I'd love to hear them.

Race to the best question to ask!

It's your 10:00 AM regular weekly meeting.  The person in charge of the meeting is providing insight and findings that would benefit everyone.  This isn't your normal status meeting where people inevitably get off track, or fall asleep- A special guest speaker is in the room. (Influential)

While they present, there's a serious race going on.  It's the race to ask the perfect question.

There's always 2 (sometimes 3) people in a meeting that are secretly battling for the title of "Best question asker" (incorrect grammar. I know.)  Sales meetings consist of various degrees of competition and when these 2 people battle for asking the best question, it's like a buffet line, you pick what works for you.

Person 1:  Asks an otherwise well thought out question.
Presenter: That's a great question!
Person 2 (feeling slighted) : Asks a question that's considered "deeper" than the previous question.
Person 1: Now feels the pressure, it's an official battle.  They start to use superfluous words to sound "better."

Has anyone ever experienced this before?

Hey! They know who you are already

I love reading content and what other people intelligently write.  By intelligently, I mean people that have some kind of story or expert opinion.  I believe they call it: Thought leadership.  Different brands have various methods to gaining viewership and listeners.  You can learn a lot from others on how they connect their brand to their target.

Let me tell you, I absolutely dislike name dropping in the beginning of a content post.  There was an article I read that was well written and very relevant to today and it gave me a sour taste in my mouth.  It began as:

"As the CEO of _____,  I attend seminars and collect business cards from leadership of all industries.."

To some, this won't bother them. To me, I became disengaged.  I understand the importance of having people know who you are and what your company does.  This is an information age where you can find where people live, work, and what they do for fun.  The issue is the lack of authenticity in helping customers with what they want or need.

If you are going to commit to a thought leadership piece, name dropping who you are is very much a sales message that can be ignored by prospects.  Your target can find out who you are after deciding if they want to even work with you.

Scratch that..your target knows who you are because they see your name and title in every content piece that's attached to your collateral.

So much to do...do nothing

As a professional balancing your work and personal life, there's certain priorities that we as people place on certain tasks. Going back to what you know is a comfort zone.  Even if it's no longer effective, you say to yourself, "it's the strategy that achieved company success." Sometimes we simply have so many problematic issues, that we do the easiest thing.

Nothing.

We do nothing.  We see the problem and we do nothing.

One of my favorite comedians, Jim Gaffigan always jokes about having to do so much that you simply take a nap.  There's a proverbial nap you take when you notice numerous challenges to overcome.  We all have set a "danger" level system that ultimately prevents us from being proactive to challenges.

Marketing- Deliverables are constantly set to deadlines.  Sometimes you compile data that gives you more work and it becomes a bigger challenge.  With facing the creative and analytical side of marketing, it's easy to blur what's important to do.  Still the decision to do nothing brings much worse consequences than being complacent.

Sales- You've noticed that each quarter the sales target is not going to be hit.  You also realize there's internal struggle within your sales management teams. You also forgot about the competitors that's consistently beating you every quarter and slowly taking customers from you.  There's so much to do, the easiest thing is to do nothing.

The best time to seek out help for so much work, is at the beginning of that work load.  Playing "catch up" is not fun and it forces you to always have to come from behind.  If you can anticipate issues and keep an open mind, you can stop a lot of the road blocks from hampering your success.

It's cold outside..All you need is a good book

Baby it's cold outside....

It's cold outside and the last thing I have wanted to do is go bar hopping in the snow and 20 degree temperatures.  I've always been a sporadic reader.  It's something I need to work on and I'm fully aware of it.  When it's cold outside, it brings the opportunity for me to read books in their entirety.  Most of my reading seems to happen from Jan-April.

Coincidence? I think not.

I've had the chance to read some useful books via the Amazon Kindle store.  There's some really great "free books" that offer excellent sales and marketing insight. While there are "award selling" books, I love to read from lesser known people on how they obtain their success.  Here's a book with highlights that makes it worth reading!

1. Booked: The digital marketing and social media appointment setting system.... By Josh Turner.

Premise: On amazon kindle you can read this book for free.  It's a valuable book that shows the landscape of today's prospecting world.  The only negative is for grammar police, the book is written in a very loose conversational tone.  If you are looking for a formal book, it's not for you.  If you approach sales like an entrepreneur, it's a good book to read.  Josh takes us through a bit of his history and how he leveraged social media to grow his business.  The biggest takeaway in his book is how he used LinkedIn groups to establish himself as a thought leader.  The plan results in him setting up easier appointments  and eliminating having to cold call.

Content marketing..forever changing

Bob Dylan had a song called "Times are a changing."

Also a phrase we constantly hear every year.  The times are certainly changing for content marketing and it's becoming more important than ever to be relevant and fresh.

You see content marketers have had to think like TV show producers because producing content is a demanding job that takes understanding your target and being original.  Content is more than just, "putting a meme together."  It's about anticipating what people may want to read about and guiding them along the way for their final decision.

Each piece of content has to have meaning and unfortunately, I see a lot of "irrelevant content."  Here are some signs you're content strategy should change.

"It takes you under one hour to produce content"

If it takes you less than an hour to create, edit, and post content, there's a good chance it's not as polished.  It's also probably not very focused and worth the time for your target.  Inbound thought leader Hub Spot, states it takes 1-2 hours to produce a 500 word blog post.  I tend to agree. Companies get wrapped up in gaining attention that they forget unpolished content can damage credibility.  

"Lack of original images, and visuals"

One of my personal weaknesses is I've never been a visual creator with images.  I barely can take pictures with a camera (sad I know)  I realize this weakness of mine and am in the process of finding someone to handle that side of my blog.  There's so much content being "plagiarized" that those who offer original images and visuals on their content will become more noticed and credible.  While there are "free image" websites, if everyone uses the same images, it's easy to become less noticeable. The company that invests in original visual resources, will see their content stand out from the pack. 

Disclaimer: If you are a company using "Meme's" always think about your target and how they will interpret that meme.  Meme's are funny but sometimes but have become a "cheaper" way to ramp up content efforts. 

"Constantly changing your voice"

Building an audience to view and read your content takes a lot of time.  It's not over night success so it's easy to "doubt" your ability to connect with viewers.  I've seen a lot of businesses change their voice that they begin to lose what embodies their brand.  This is a super thin line because you have to scrap what's simply not working but never lose your identity.  Your voice has to be consistent so you can focus on a niche of people rather than everybody.

Some of these pointers are obvious things I have looked to take as challenges to make my content better.  There's far too much mediocre content out there.  Let's be the solution-Not part of the problem.

Now Playing- "Times are a changing"

How valuable are sales meetings?

" I'm on my way to a meeting"
" I'm in meetings all day"
" I have a meeting"

We all have said this at several times in a week.  Sure, we all do actually have meetings, but are most of them productive?

My meetings normally consist of one meaningful productive one followed by several "meetings" to talk about future meetings.  The future meetings then discuss future meetings that talk about a problem we know about yet decide to make another meeting instead of solving that meeting. ( Sorry for the run-on sentences to all grammar police.)

The issue I have with continuous meetings is it's like a dance that never ends.  Eventually there's a point we both agree "I like you. Let's work."  

We also tell people we are in meetings as a crutch to avoid saying, "Not interested, don't bother me." 

Meeting has become like filler words( Ummm..like..ehhh...well) It's become a way to stall what we really want.  Customers get self conscious toward their ability to negotiate a deal that makes them the hero and salespeople desperately try to meet a "tracker" agenda. 

 If both sides let go of their insecurities, we'd all have some great and more productive meetings. 

3 rules of engagement

Ah,  the rule of 3.  As marketers, we research numerous analytics on how to contact our prospects that we end up in analysis paralysis.  At Symbiont group we've been guilty of this act. At some point, it's something all businesses have done and it's time to put an end to it!  Applying the rule of 3 principle to all facets of prospect communicating can garner positive results in both business and personal.

According to copyblogger, the rule of 3 is a writing principle that suggests things that come in 3 are more effective and memorable than other number combinations.  When writing to prospects, we don't want to spam them with useless information-We want to give them valuable bite sized pieces of knowing who we are and why we contact them.  Each level of communication we send gives us a sense of where the customer is in their buying journey.  Here's how we communicate with prospects utilizing the rule of 3.

Level 1- Quick Introduction

If your prospect doesn't know who you are, we want to give them a bite sized introduction stating who we are and what we do.  The introductory email is simply used as a "feeler" to track the initial level of interest the prospect has in our proposed product/service.  They most likely do not know who we are, so we want to be clear and concise.  Level 1 is a great way for us to recognize prospects that are immediately looking for what we offer.   Sales and marketing can then work together to provide requested information for the prospect.

Level 2- Let's Get Personal

We've now entered the "personal zone."  The chances they did not respond to our previous communication was due to lack of awareness to our brand or weak positioning.  Now we have to differentiate and also reinforce why they should be speaking with us.  At Level 2, being a researcher counts much more than being a salesperson.  According to Appboy.com, personalized messages increase related conversion by more than 27% compared to other messages.   Our personalized message should involve something about their business or industry and then a call to action.

Level 3- "Professionally Persistent"

Getting to Level 3 means we simply have to be creative and politely persistent.  There's a thin line between persistence and annoyance-We have to cross that line with extreme care.  The chances of them not responding to our communication over a period of time could mean big changes in their organization or lack of interest.  We make light of how busy prospects get and we send them one last communication in hopes they respond with or without interest.  Tactful humor and a strong call to action will help you collect prospects who may or may not be worth "the chase."  If there is no response after level 3, we move on and continue to find the right prospects that would be of value.

The rule of 3 can apply to so many aspects in marketing and sales.  You can utilize this principle in voice mails, emails, and field sales.  There's endless possibilities for using it in marketing campaigns as well.   The rule of 3 allows you to be persistent enough to pursue prospects but professional enough to notice if it's not worth your company's bandwidth or time. 

Happy Prospecting!

I need clos...ure

For my Hunters and Business Development people.

How often have you researched a company, found the decision makers, and sent information to contact that person?  All the time.

How many times have you seen signs  that it's a "qualified" opportunity only to have that person not contact you to even say "not interested."  - Me! Me! Me!

In today's world of sales, ABC isn't as easy as 123.(Jackson 5 reference)  The customers hold all the cards and can decide to show whatever hand they want.  They can change the deck and we're left in the dark wondering if they gave us the right cards or not.  Closure is a word often heard in psychology and relationships-It's applicable to vetting out a prospect.

While I love to close and gain a yes or no, I believe the clos-ure is what helps me learn more about the situation.   Here are some tips I use to gain closure.

Tip 1: Hi! to the elephant in the room

If there's one thing that happens in meetings and communication it's avoidance.  We avoid conflict because we don't want to be seen as desperate, pushy, or any other negative connotation.  There's a thin line always and I respect that line.  Still, I have to address the elephant in the room.  No is not a good answer if I can't figure out why.   A very influential sales coach Dave Yoho has tips on how you get them past the word No but we haven't even reached that point.  We still need to figure out what's preventing them from giving us a straight answer. 

what have I done to deserve such disrespect!

Tip 2: Research..Not a salesperson!

My desire to get to the hidden objection has nothing to do with the sale.  It's everything to do with my prospects psyche.  What are they afraid of telling me?  Who did I forget to talk with?  Do I sound trust worthy?  There's a million combinations that impact a sales stall.  We all have sales cycles that we follow based off previous forecasts.  We imagine how the situation should look, then have to take a detour.  I channel my Sherlock Holmes and I get to the bottom of it all!

Elementary, my dear Watson...

Tip 3: Release them

Sometimes you have to know when to let go.  It's not always the right timing for change and if you did everything the way it should have-don't fret and move on.  As we pursue people for our business/services, there's a point where we may come off desperate.  Keep it moving and never let it affect your confidence.  Someone has to get "dumped" and

woosah..woosah

End of the month drag

It's the end of the month and I can't help but notice various attitudes being shown.  Companies are either having a great month and in good spirits or a bad month and seething at the mouth.  Either way, the end of the month is usually the least stressful yet most uneventful period.

I say unstressful because when you hit that week of the 25th, Everything's been done.  Nothing big in particular will change your fortunes for that month.  It's a tough pill to swallow.  You had a:

Great month- You hit status deliverables and sales goals. Now what do you do?

Bad month- You didn't hit goal and deliverables were late by two days.  What do you do?

Answers are you either research for the next month, or you do nothing.  Doing nothing is simply not an option.  A company that does nothing doesn't progress.  Sales and Marketing management become zealous around this time.  If goals are hit, they want goals blown out of the water!  If goals aren't hit, well they look at it as catch up to salvage their predicted forecast. They take pride in their forecast. (control what you can control)

If you decide to wait on the first of the month to hit goals and deliverables, you'll be so far behind it will impact you for several months. (playing catch up sucks)

From a work standpoint, I dislike the end of the month.  The hunger to close out is tougher than the first week of the month where you want to accelerate your initiatives.  In sales I have hit goal more than I've missed it, but the times I missed it resulted from being extremely lazy at the end of the month.  (taking time for granted)

No advice really to be given here.  Everyone approaches their end of the month differently.  Two words will sum up this whole blog post.

Proactive or Reactive.

Tortoise or the Hare?(BD edition)

It's the final countdown!

As a child, we've all heard of the children's book, "The tortoise vs. the hare"  Vivid images of Bugs Bunny and the Tortoise constantly racing to see who wins.  The Hare is fast, aggressive, and overbearing.  The Tortoise-slow, methodical, and a planner.  In laymen's terms, we're talking speed vs. methodical pace.  There are quite a few articles on this concept so it's not original.  I want to provide a different perspective on this oldie but goodie.

Business development in itself has so many different types of people and role positions.  I've been around companies where Business development is treated as solely lead gen people that simply do appointment setting.  I've been in organizations where the role of business development was to create strategic relationships that were beneficial to both sides.  Both roles require the rep having the ability to generate revenue.

For my examples, I will loosely base people to the objects I describe.

The Tortoise

They are methodical and proponents of gaze following.  It's unknown how intelligent a tortoise is but they approach everything with a calm and steady demeanor.  Tortoises learn from other people's mistakes and find solutions to solve problems.  Tortoises are also slow to adjustments and spend more time planning their attack.  If it's a quick race, the tortoise gets smoked by the hare.

The Hare

Hares are fast, agile and able to adapt .  The Hare is known to be  fast in the open and able to react from their large ears.  Hares are not known to be as domesticated as cute adorable bunnies.  They are  hunters out in the open space.  A Hare is great in the short term and because their ability to get from point A to point B, can help you win.  

Who to be?

The most consistent theme you will notice in my blog writings is balance.  I truly believe both of their traits combine can create  what we deem as a "unicorn."  The Tortoise has a great sense of preparing and really understand situations.  The hare has the gumption to just go for it!  One of my favorite words I heard was: "Be a Haretoise" Marketing is cyclical and if you move too slow you can pass the trends.  If you move too fast, you allow another company to take your weaknesses and magnify them.  

"Under Pressure"

It's Friday so you would think it's ironic I'd have a post about being "under pressure."

We create pressure.  By we, I mean society.

We're constantly under it because of  building blocks for "our" future.

I had a conversation with a guy who told me if you aren't making $65,000 by the time you are 30, you are behind and struggling.  I've always believed it's not who starts, but who finishes.  Apparently, this kid doesn't agree.

Client tells you they need results.  The marketing team plan out the campaign.  They introduce digital governance and make sure everyone involved is held accountable for their part of the plan.  The client is also accountable for the work on their end. The team begins to ask questions to each other that ends in uncertainty.  there are a lot of opinions and there's a sense of pressure to show individual quality work to the team.  In this scenario, there's always some unanswered questions

We tend to forget that Clients don't anticipate a campaign will be perfect.  No one is perfect and rather than stressing out, marketing teams are better off communicating and truly asking questions to answers not known.


RIP and respect to David Bowie and Freddie Mercury- "Under Pressure"

Love/Hate with Voicemails

Happy Monday!

So I have a love/hate relationship with voicemail messages.  I love to hear them(when they are from people I know) and I hate to leave them for others.  Leaving a voicemail can reinforce who you are to someone but do they really help you?

If you have been successful with leaving voicemail messages, I salute you.  I just don't feel leaving a voicemail message really gives me progress with people that don't know me.  This is a marketing and sales blogs but even in non sales, I've often seen friends delete voicemail's from number they don't recognize.

You can google search engine results and everyone from Salesforce to Radius want to give tips on why your voicemail's don't get returned.  I still believe voicemails only get returned if:

1. You already have talked with that person enough to build that rapport.
2. You happen to run into a perfect storm of them seeking a product or help. (It's my favorite storm!)

The great thing about social media platforms is they give me optimal opportunities to reach people.  Of course there is a cadence you follow so you don't come off too "stalkerish."  A mix of LinkedIn, phone call, Twitter, and their company blog help you become noticed and reinforce how you can find people.

I would love to hear how other people contact prospects or customers. #Lifelearner

Attrition is the enemy..live with it.

It's a tough moment in any organization.  The word gives a negative feeling no ones enjoys.

Leadership hears this word and they think: "Cover my ass."-I'm DONE for .

Sales managers hear it and think: "More work and less pay for me."

Sales associates use it on their prospects to eventually break them down to take a meeting or buy a product.

I have to be honest. I used to sell in an aggressive way.  I thought sales was a gladiators game and I ultimately won by over-matching my opponent(prospect)  I obtained this thinking from always hearing the best quality a salesperson can have is persistence.  So I began to persist that people should talk to me and hear me out.  I believed I could change peoples views by imposing my will.  I was setting this up like a war strategy.  I'm using a lot of strong, and competitive words here.  I already broke a rule.

Rule 1: Understand your audience

I was misinformed.  I forgot that you can't sell to every single person the same way.  Sales has come a long way from how it used to be.  Trust me, I don't want to reminiscence like every other sales associate who misses less informed customers that were easier to convert.  Customers are a lot smarter now and abrasiveness has NEVER been the way-Even more so now.

Rule 2: Make the customer feel as if they reached the "Aha!" moment.

With abrasiveness, came a sense of "cocky."  People love confident people but they dislike cocky people.  Who am I criticize an executive with 20 plus years of experience.  One of the few sales books I love "Sales Challenger" helped me realize executive leadership struggles with various changes within their workforce.  No one likes to be told what they have been doing wrong.  There's a way to "politely" challenge people.  One of my mentors that's a consultant always told me, "Make them feel like they solved the problem-not you."  More and more companies face turnover, and problems they don't know how to solve.   Let's help steer them in the right direction.

Rule 3: ABC is not the right alphabet.

Always be closing...No more.

Customers don't like to be closed on and pressured.  There's so many competitor products out there, they will tune you out and move on to the next less pushy salesperson.  I've learned this lesson the hard way and it's helped me understand I can't control the sales process.  If they are going through transition, I shouldn't be closing.  I should be hearing them out and seeing where the obstacles may be for the future.  You can't close an organization if they have retirement, leadership changes, or workforce being cut.

Startup's need a different breed of salespeople

They do.

Some may be angered when they hear me say that but it's true.  Professional salespeople to me, are career sales people that were successful at big companies and have still have great contacts. If you hire them, they essentially give you a book of business that they will carry job to job.  

What's wrong with that?  Nothing, if you are a highly successful company with great exposure. Not everyone has the luxury of getting ready made accounts.  And according to fast company, over a five year span, there were 158,000 start ups in business.  Start ups may not be the most attractive due to a laundry list of concerns, but everyone wants to join the next big company that can impact the world. 

 90% of start ups fail! - This is no exaggeration and ultimately the real reason is not having a strong flexible sales team.  There's a different kind of sales person you need to have for your start up.  I can think of a few traits.

Holistic (Big picture)

You need salespeople that see the big picture.  Professional salespeople must have everything little nuance explained to them and they tend to get lost in the number of stats they accumulate.  Holistic people see the whole situation and do not bog down when "activity" is down.  They find a way to get it done.  In a start up atmosphere, you need the person that will find a way to get things done with limited tools.

Professional's mindset- "I've made my 30 dials and gotten two appointments set."

Holistic mindset-  "I've had 5 really good conversations that were about 15-20 minutes long."

Flexible

Flexible meaning they can adjust to the ever growing challenges of start up life.  There's been no consistent playbook at the start ups I worked for.  You learned by trial and error.  The people used to a routine rarely succeeded in a start up sales environment.  One minute you may need them to be strict hunters the next, people nurturing valuable leads. They need maintain a sense of realizing each day is different than the next. At the same time, leadership of a start up has to be flexible of the methods their salesperson utilizes to close deals.  

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Most start up companies look forward to hiring a superstar who will be with their company for as long as they can.  This just doesn't work anymore.  If you have a start up, you need people that aren't afraid to have conversations outside of their comfort level.  You need people who own a situation or deal.  Entrepreneurial minded salespeople do not stay at a company long, but they make their presence felt.  They have huge ideas for your company or even their own.  I had the chance of meeting people with this trait and they were always the ones that found big deals from just being fearless(and prepared)  I compare this to having two people at a party of 300.  Both are charming and engaging yet each approach people in different ways.

Person 1: Surveys the room and sees if there is anybody there they already know.

Person 2: Looks to connect with every single person they make eye contact with.

You most likely want person 2 for their fearless ability to make their presence felt.

3 Me's-Special productivity

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

The toughest adjustment for me is having a 3-4 day weekend where I get to do whatever I want and then having to go back to work on a 9-5 schedule.  As I've gotten older I've learned to balance the various sides of me.  I had a previous post talking about how you dial your personality up and down like a remote control.  There's different moods that capture mentally, where I am just by using my special remote.  There's also a song, that can describe each Me.

"Work flow" Gabe- 

He's a diligent worker that is constantly looking to improve things and himself.  This Gabe is the Gabe you see at the office who's immersed in music and marketing.  I'm the most pragmatic here, and though I hate to be routine, I wouldn't get things done without that routine.

Now Playing-  "Everybody's workin for the weekend"

"Chill"Gabe-  

Chill Gabe has the vibe of Bob Ross and April showers. He likes to relax, play his guitar, and hit a certain state of the mind.  This is when I'm at my most creative and introspective.  You see this Gabe around 6:30PM M-F, and also a good portion over the weekend.  I like to think this Gabe is the one that's truly genuine.

Now Playing- Middle

"Turnt up Gab"-  

Remove the e from Gabe because all he does is Gab.  This Gabe has high energy and wants to be in every bar or club showing off his Michael Jackson moves and slick skills.  "Gab" becomes the opposite that is a wallflower.  "Chill" Gabe is a creator of moments- "Turnt Up" Gab IS the moment.

Now Playing- "Really? Really? YEA!"

With these 3 Me's, it takes a balancing act and half the time, I'm unsuccessful.

C'est la vie.