You Are Now Entering The Contact Form Death Zone

April 26, 2012 By 2 Comments

Over the last several months, I have reached out to several organizations about appearing as guests on various radio shows we produce.

It doesn’t matter how I initially stumbled upon them, but usually it was through PR referrals, LinkedIn searches, HARO, word of mouth, etc.

In any event, I thought they looked like interesting potential guests for one of my radio shows. So I would visit their website, look for the “Contact Us” page, and either send an email and/or complete the suggested form.

Then I hit send.

And then?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nary a peep. At least for 50% of the organizations I contacted in this manner.

FIFTY PERCENT.

What a shame. No, not for me, although sad to miss out on a chance to interview them. But a shame for them.

They missed a chance to get some additional exposure. They missed a chance to connect with a potential referral source. They missed a chance to make a connection with someone who might just talk about them to his social graph.

Why does this happen?

Well, it is possible that they weren’t interested in what I was offering. But I doubt it.

[But still, even if you aren't interested, you can still build positive goodwill by graciously declining.]

Honestly, I think they are lazy, reckless, uncaring, unaware, and missing the boat entirely.

These might be prospects for goodness sakes!

It is possible the web guy slapped up the contact form when the website was originally built. But what a sad testament to how uncaring the organization is to be so unaware of how their website is presented to the world.

And a quick, somewhat related side note. I hate seeing the “To get more info, email us at info@organization.com” email addresses. Don’t make me contact Mr. Info. I don’t want to talk to some generic intern who has been assigned the duty of answering the “info” email account.

Allow me to contact a real human being. Give me a name! Give me some hope that he or she will actually respond to me. And don’t let me worry that my email is going straight to the contact page zone of death.

Here is a customer of ours using a contact form as not only a means of establishing a connection, but also to attain some critical information about how he can potentially serve them.

Bill is a conscientious fellow. I have no worries that people who contact him there will never hear from him. But why do so many organizations fail to respond?

Why do they miss opportunities to connect with people who are reaching out to them?

As there is more and more noise clamoring for our attention, why do you ignore someone who gave you his or her attention?

At the end of the day, it is always about the little things. This is one of those little things. Honestly, if you mishandle this little opportunity, how carelessly might you handle my business?

Don’t ignore the real people reaching out to you on your contact pages. You do all this work to get the attention of people who want to connect with you. And then you ignore them when they tap on your shoulder.

You never know, you might just end up on a radio show. And famous!

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Drawing by Hugh MacLeod.

Filed Under: Sales

Your No-Nonsense, 7-Step Guide to Social Media and B2B Sales

February 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

OK CEO guy. I don’t want to hear “social media” doesn’t affect sales” in my industry anymore. It is bunk. You know it, and I know it.

Here are SEVEN reasons why I am right:

DISTRIBUTION
Yes, the social web is an important way to distribute your content and knowledge. People aren’t going to learn about what you can do if you don’t tell them. Sharing and promoting, or more importantly, having your social graph promote or share your content, is one way to get better known to an audience. But distribution, as evidenced by too many people, is NOT the sole purpose of the social web.

EDUCATION
What is marketing and sales, after all? To put it simply, it is educating your market. There are probably a BILLION (or more) people active on the social web around the world. If you don’t think your market is here (somewhere) than you are missing the boat. Likely, you aren’t looking hard enough, or unwilling to roll up your sleeves.

ENGAGEMENT/RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
Sorry, but social media isn’t an if you build it, they will come scenario. You have to participate. You have to connect. You have to engage. It is modern networking, but you have to actually talk to people. You won’t sell million-dollar pieces of business on Twitter, no. But you will meet people who might ultimately spend a lot of money with you, or who will connect you to someone else who will. The game is being played. Shame on you if you are sitting on the sidelines…

LIST BUILDING
The money is in the list, so everyone says. Yes. This is true. But you have to build the list. And the better approach is the slow, methodical, one-at-a-time approach…verses the spam the heck out of people and hope a few pay attention approach. But you get connected to people via the social web, and if you are engaged, many will follow and join for more.

LISTENING
Social media is a great way to observe the marketplace. Business people-watching, if you will. You can see what your potential customers are doing, saying, and thinking. You can see what the competition is doing. You can see what needs are being fulfilled, and what needs are left unmet. But you have to have your eyes open. If potential customers express pain publicly, and you aren’t listening, is that prospect really there?

CUSTOMER SERVICE
Consumers are becoming more and more vocal about their business experiences on the social web, and are publicly communicating their happiness or displeasure. You had better be listening to respond. Oftentimes, the bigger crime is NOT paying attention. The public will forgive a bad experience if they see you actively doing something about it. And more and more, customers are seeking “tech support” online, verses calling on the phone. You had better be listening…

POLLING/RESEARCH
Most organizations cannot afford to do complex industrial and market research. But yet, the social web offers all kinds of ways to do polling, and to get feedback from your social graph. Pose questions on Twitter or Facebook. Ask people to vote by giving a statement a +1 on Google+. Or drop surveys into LinkedIn group discussions. Easy. When I explain to clients that they need to better understand their market, their competition, or their customers, I am often asked, “Well, how in the heck do I do that?” The social web is a great way to study, research, and observe. And learn.

Notice that “SALES” wasn’t one of the seven. You want to know why? Because selling – at least in B2B world – still is a human conversation and transaction. But you have to connect with, educate, and engage with human beings.

And social media is an important tactical way to do that in the modern world. You had better jump on. Your competition is already on the bus…

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[content marketing is an important element of your social media strategy. sign-up for our course here]

[drawing by hugh macleod]

Filed Under: E-Rep, Sales, Social Media

5 Critical Social Mindset Changes You Have To Make

January 19, 2012 By 2 Comments

Move forward, even if you are the only one. You will win.

There are five statements Todd and I have heard, direct from the mouths of real people. Real honest-to-God business people.

It goes without saying, but you MUST change your mindset on each…FAST:

“I don’t want my people on LinkedIn. I don’t want competitors to steal them away.”
This is a defeatist attitude in the first place. This is playing “not to lose” instead of “playing to win.” Your people, if they choose, will be active on the social web anyway. And if they are unhappy, they will find new employment on their own. But if you are keeping them off one of the most respected business networking communities on the planet, you will ultimately lose the battle of profiting from digital networking and community.

“My prospects just aren’t on social media.”
Wrong. Maybe not all of them, but enough to matter. You just aren’t looking. You are taking the easy (aka lazy) way so as to not spend time there, and justify it to yourself. There is opportunity there. Go out and find it, and become the leader in that space. And consider this: those that are on the social web will be the early influencers in YOUR market. Might as well be connected and doing business with them.

“I don’t want my people dilly dallying online all day. I want them doing their job.”
If your people are dilly dallying online all day, I have two thoughts: They aren’t just dilly dallying online, but over the water cooler and with the cute lady in sales too. Also, you are a lousy manager, and you should FIRE your employee who is wasting your customer’s time. But human interaction online is how the modern world spreads information, knowledge and ideas. Trust me, but you want to be a part of that conversation…

“You don’t sell on social media.”
Right. Selling is NOT a human thing. Selling does NOT occur between real people. Selling is done by osmosis and just happens naturally in the normal order of things. I am sure you walk into the office and new contracts just magically appear on your desk. Profits await… There is a reason it is known as “social” media. These are human interactions people. Knowledge transfer and sharing of ideas (about how you can help someone) just happens to take place digitally in this case… You might not directly sell a conveyor system on LinkedIn, but you sure as heck might meet the guy who does ultimately buy one…

“This SEO crap is just a bunch of bullshit hocus pocus.”
Well, actually, in this instance, this gentleman was correct. Too many “experts and gurus” are selling hocus pocus, and you should be wary when they promise amazing results in 30 days! But if you think there is nothing to be gained by putting out good content to impact inbound marketing, and implementing sincere keyword strategies to get found by the search engines, then you are missing a CRITICAL opportunity to expose your organization to a brave new world…

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Filed Under: Sales, SEO, Social Media

Challengers 39; Relationship-Builders 7

January 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment

As a sales pro, which team would you rather join?  The one that scores 39 points or the one that can only score 7?  (And does it make you a bit uncomfortable to reject relationship-building as your strategy of choice?

Let’s back up a bit and consider the old saw, “In God we trust, all others bring data.”  In my experience, virtually all decision-making executives have it burned into their brains.  It’s therefore also burned into my brain.

So here’s some data that has captured my attention BIG TIME.  It’s a continuing analysis, including more than 6,000 sales reps across a wide array of industries.  The research exceeds all standards of scientific rigor and statistical significance.   It concludes there are five types of sales reps, with super-star reps spread across the five groups as follows:

  • 39% – The Challenger
  • 25% – The Lone Wolf
  • 17% – The Hard Worker
  • 12% – The Reactive Problem Solver
  •  7% – The Relationship Builder

Two questions leap to mind immediately:

  1. What are the characteristics of a challenger rep?
  2. Is my focus on relationship-building misguided?

According to Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson in The Challenger Sale, a Challenger:

  • Always has a different view of the world
  • Has a deep understanding of the customer’s business
  • Loves to debate
  • Constantly pushes customers out of their comfort zones mainly by taking control and discussing money

Think about some of the implications…  Constantly debate and challenge the all-knowing customer’s view of the world?  Know as much or more about the customer’s business than the decision-makers and influencers do?  Spend your life causing discomfort for your customers?  Yes, yes and yes.

Is this a book you need to read and think about deeply?  YES!!!

And relationship-building?  Relax.  It’s still vital.  Just recognize that being good at it is nothing more than a baseline job requirement, NOT something that will set you apart.

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: , , ,

Discovery: BEWARE! It’s not what it used to be

January 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Discovery:  Asking deep, penetrating questions, then listening intently, really hearing the customer’s perspective, have long been the core best practices of great salespeople.  The context has always been “understand the customer’s requirements, issues, objectives and pain points.”  Personally, I’ve long been proud of my ability to ask good questions and to listen carefully.

Then I got to thinking about progress and obsolescence.  Is there a better way?

I look around me and realize how many of the super-high-tech-sophisticated-at-the-time products, services and business processes that surrounded me early in my career now appear to be quaint or are simply gone.  Getting a letter out the door, into the hands of the post office and ultimately to a customer, for example.  Remember the typing pool?  The IBM office I worked in right after college had a great one.  We’d hand-write a letter, place it in the bin and get a draft back usually within four or five hours.  Most times the second trip through that process produced something – maybe not perfect – but good enough to mail.  (It was those fancy-schmancy magnetic card Selectric typewriters.)

You can easily fill in your own similar examples…

Most folks under 40 wouldn’t even be able to identify a 70s-vintage mag card typewriter.  Nobody uses them anymore.  Who would be foolish enough to bet the business on 50 year old technology and an even older process?

Who would be foolish enough to base their sales success on a 100 year old business process?  You maybe?

The whole notion of questioning to grow sales was formalized in The Psychology of Selling by E. K. Strong in 1925.  1925???  The book on the subject is 87 years old?  How old does that make the concept itself?  World War 1-ish?  Do you think maybe the world of sales has changed a bit since then?

Are there any customers left out there willing to invest their time in educating you?  Darn few, and their numbers are dwindling every day.  I think it’s time to demote “Discovery” in the hierarchy of sales best practices.

Discovery is still necessary, but it needs to happen before the customer call.

We need instead to think in terms of “Verify the Business Case.”  In other words, the first time we walk in the door we need to have the solution pretty much designed and customized.  We must only ask the for the customer’s time for the purposes of tweaking and polishing the solution and building internal support.

It’s different out there.  It’s time to slay the “Discovery” sacred cow.

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: , ,

So You Built A Giant Prospect Database. So What?

June 23, 2011 By 2 Comments

Don't be a fool...

To all those sales reps out there that have built a sizable database with names from all the organizations you want to connect with, I have two words for you:

So the hell what.

And to all the sales managers who require sales reps to build meaningless and worthless databases, shame on you.

[Todd's disclaimer: Yes, I know we need lists of people to target for business development. But creating a list just for list creation's sake, is just a waste of your damn time.]

The reason I mention it…

I was talking to a consultant friend of mine who made a promise to help make some initial prospect outreach on behalf of one of his clients. And when he asked his client for a list of prospects to contact, he was given a short list of names. Names, that he swears were pulled straight from the internet.

Oh sure, you are thinking, isn’t this how you begin to prospect with potential names?

I suppose that is one way to do it. But don’t give me this list of targets and tell me these are serious company prospects. There is ZERO relationship there. These are merely names on a list. Names culled from a lazy internet search.

You can guess what happened to my consultant friend. He reached out to the list of names, and has heard nothing but crickets chirping. Nothing. Nada. And yeah, the client is upset with the progress, wondering why there has been no movement.

Is it any wonder why sales managers and sales reps have low response rates, and struggle to close 1% of their prospects? Is it any wonder that sale reps stress their end-of-month reports? Is is any wonder why sales managers get in trouble for not meeting their numbers?

Instead, encourage your sales reps to identify organizations you want to penetrate, and use social and conversational tactics to initiate conversations, to slowly build real relationships before adding these names to a prospect list, but only after you know there is interest in exploring things further.

I could give two hoots in hell for a database of one thousand names and organizations…names that you have NEVER communicated with.

I’m much more impressed with a list of fifty REAL people who you have communicated with, conversed with, talked to, engaged with, educated (or been educated by)…where you know who they are, what they need, what they want, and what moves them.

Funny thing is, you’ll probably close the same amount of business from the two lists. But I am also willing to bet, you will close a higher percentage from the list of fifty…

So stop this insane sales manager directive of forcing your sales reps to build massive databases, just to show the boss and say “Look, we’ve got one thousand prospects!” Yeah, and you wonder why the boss is angry that you are not closing more sales.

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[cartoon by hugh macleod]

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: , ,

Missed Opportunities…Don’t Be Like Us!

June 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

OK, I am embarrassed to admit, but the message of this post comes from personal experience…as of, just the other morning.

My Dreamland partner and I scheduled an Opportunity Review that we conducted Wednesday morning. But before I go on, let me set the table:

We define Opportunity Reviews as a process where we review all our “open” opportunities, see where things are, and assign tasks to advance the sales process.

But recently, both Todd and I had some personal affairs to tend to over the last couple of weeks. We’ve both been busy with our respective individual businesses, and there were some travel distractions for both of us.

As a result, we haven’t done a team Opportunity Review in several weeks. And to put it bluntly, it was a big mistake. As in:

“Who the hell is that prosect,” both of us uttered at several points during today’s conversation…

“What in heck were we going to do for that potential gig,” we asked a few other times…

“What were we thinking by putting that company on the opportunity list,” both of us questioned several times…

Needless to say, digging a little bit deeper, we generally found the answer to our questions. And to be frank, realized we had dropped the ball on a few of the opportunities.

Not that we can’t recover, and we’ve pretty much gotten caught back up again, but that lost momentum is a killer. And shame on us for letting some of those opportunities slip out of consciousness.

So, the lesson here today? Do keep on top of your open opportunities on VERY REGULAR basis. And review OFTEN.

My new best practice is this: Todd and I categorized each opportunity three ways: high priority, normal, and long shot. I will review the normals and the long shots with Todd on a WEEKLY opportunity review. But I will take a peek at the high priorities every day. I will do this just to be sure I am doing a little each day to move the ball forward.

Sidenote: we use Zoho CRM to manage our open opportunities, where classification of opportunity type are very simple to manage.

What do you think? And what do you recommend? Don’t let weeks slip away like we did…

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[cartoon by hugh macleod]

Filed Under: Sales Tagged With:

Jill Konrath on Intrepid Radio!

May 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Jill Konrath

A real honor to be joined by sales leader and best-selling author Jill Konrath on Intrepid Radio!

During this conversation, Jill walks us through why she wrote Snap Selling, the importance of providing value with EVERY interaction, outlines the most common mistakes when trying to sell into larger organizations, how to initiate conversation with crazy-busy executives, how sales managers should prep sales campaigns to large organizations, and how social media has impacted selling to large organizations.

Download Jill’s broadcast here:

Filed Under: Radio, Sales Tagged With: , , ,

One Simple Task To Extend Your Brand Awareness

May 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

We just got back from a recent Trade Show Radio gig, and experienced something that I wanted to remind you about…and encourage you to do yourself.

Over the course of two full days of radio interviews, we also interviewed three folks in the media.

Are you taking advantage of all opportunities to share your knowledge?

Now, I am not talking about interviewing NBC News with Brian Williams, but I am talking about gentlemen who cover and write about a specific industry niche. They were on scene at the industry trade conference to learn about new products and trends, and interview company innovators and executives for their print and online magazines.

Let me just say this as clearly as I can: these guys are thirsting for good content.

This is a tremendous opportunity for you. The need is there, and yet, most organizations are NOT taking advantage of it.

What Todd and I will do is share the content of many of our radio interviews conducted at the trade conference, as these gentlemen are thrilled to welcome the content. They don’t promise to publish everything, but I am willing to bet they will use a bunch of it. And down the road, as Todd and I conduct more interviews, we will continue to share that content with as many niched-magazines as we can find.

You should do the following:

1. If you have your own podcast/radio show, you too should offer the media organizations covering your industry space – the opportunity to publish your podcast interviews. This helps them with great content, and build exposure for your organization.

2. You should offer, as representatives of your organization, to write and contribute guest articles. This gets you exposure to thousands of new readers, all who become aware of your brand, and positions you as an expert in your space. Trust me, if you are published, you are instantly credible.

[Note: you do NOT have to submit Pulitzer-quality content. In fact, the editors will polish up your content and make it better!]

3. You should help/encourage your CUSTOMERS to understand and take advantage of this same phenomenon in their specific industry space. This is a really strong, and unique, customer service opportunity for you!

How? All you have to do is contact the editor, and ask if you can share some meaningful content. Simple.

The market place is cluttered with endless bits of news, advertisements, and messaging. You have to take advantage of every opportunity to build awareness and gain exposure. Sharing good content with niche media is an obvious solution!

What do you think? Any additional ideas?

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Filed Under: E-Rep, Sales

25 Things To Think About Before A Sales Road Trip

April 20, 2011 By 7 Comments

Going on the road?

So you are going on a sales road trip?

We are heading out on one tomorrow.

Here are 25 things to think about and do before you hit the road:

1. Know where the hell you are going, so that you are not late. Showing up late is saying I don’t respect your time, and I don’t really care about the opportunity.

2. Know your prospect. Take the time to research and know a little about who you are going to see.

3. Have a solution in mind, but be prepared for anything. You never know where the conversation will turn.

4. Don’t regurgitate a rehearsed sales pitch. Engage in a creative session instead.

5. Got an iPad? Use it. Be able to show a cool demo or video when – and if – the timing is appropriate. We are still at a place in time where you look cool wielding iPads…

6. Walk in the door looking to learn, and co-create. Do NOT go in looking to sell. You will lose.

7. Soak it all in. You’ve been given an audience. Appreciate it. Learn what you can. By osmosis if possible.

8. Rehearse the message you want to convey, but don’t be scripted. Be human.

9. Meet as many people at your prospect’s office as you can. Get to know the whole team. This will serve you well down the road.

10. Plan to collect as much material as you can. Business cards, collateral, etc. You can later toss what you won’t need, but good to have excess material to learn more.

11. Breath mints?

12. Need to eat? Send out a tweet and get some crowdsourced recommendations. Don’t waste time deciding on where to eat lunch…

13. Got enough business cards?

14. Is this a real important prospect? Bring a copy of book to give as a gift. Far better than a tri-fold…

15. Have some good stories to tell about past work. And pop out the iPad and show a video testimonial or two if appropriate.

16. Do prepare some questions about things you need to know about.

17. But also be prepared to share some helpful advice to the prospect, even with the risk of them not engaging you. This gives them a taste of what working with you is like.

18. Bring a hand-held video camera. You never know what opportunities will present themselves.

19. You don’t know it all. There is knowledge internally. Your role is to supplement, support, and help execute more effectively…

20. Be humble. Many of your prospects survived and thrived for years before you walked in the front door. They will likely survive without you. Be a creative partner that advances the ball with them…

21. Remember, they are human beings. Treat them as such.

22. Care. If you legitimately care about them, their business, and their long-term success, you will be better positioned to help them with that long-term success.

23. Arrange follow-up plans and schedule the next conversation. Don’t be forgotten the minute you walk out of the door.

24. Lastly, be prepared to answer the question “So, what are the next steps?” If you say we’ll get back to you with some thoughts, you’ve lost.

25. When you are back in the office, don’t forget to send that handwritten follow-up note…

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[photo from flickr]

Filed Under: Sales
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