Archive for November, 2014
How Social Media Can Help Your Sales Team
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 26, 2014
Nowadays, it is imperative that your sales team is using social media. Buyers judge the legitimacy of companies based on their social media presence or lack thereof. While your marketing department will likely handle social media for your business, it is critical that your sales team participates in the overall social media strategy. Each of your sales reps should maintain professional profiles on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. By using social media, your sales team can do research, make connections, increase visibility, build relationships, engage with consumers, gain credibility, and generate sales leads. Studies show that salespeople who use social are more successful than those who do not. Here’s how social media can help your sales team.
Research
Do your homework. Your sales team can use social media to find out more about what people are talking about in the industry. Get to know your existing customers and see what you can learn about potential buyers. Find out what the competition is doing, who they are following, and who follows them. Do your research and uncover customer needs.
Make connections
Start following relevant people on Twitter. Invite prospects to like your company Facebook page. Add connections on your LinkedIn profile. Use these major social media platforms to make valuable connections in order to increase the number of relevant viewers when you share useful information. Social media is all about making connections and sharing content.
Increase visibility
Use social media to extend your reach and increase your company’s visibility. You want to make it as easy as possible for buyers to discover your company when they are researching products and services online. You need to have company accounts on all major social media networks as well as individual accounts for each of your sales reps. When they post updates on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, include links back to your informative blog to drive traffic to your website.
Build relationships
You can’t just add new contacts and call it a day. Take this opportunity to cultivate meaningful relationships with your followers. Social selling is all about building relationships using social media. Your sales team should use these social networks to get to know your customers and prospects.
Engage with consumers
Participate in discussions and forums online and respond to customer questions using social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter allow salespeople to communicate directly with existing customers and potential buyers. Engage buyers earlier on in the sales cycle and maintain relationships with current customers.
Gain credibility in the industry
Take advantage of content marketing and share valuable content using social media. If you don’t have one already, start a company blog so you have a place to add new, unique content on a regular basis. Share how-to guides, downloadable resources, videos, and Q&A articles. Consumers will come to recognize your company and your sales team as thought leaders and experts in the industry.
Generate sales leads
Your sales team can use social media to generate sales leads. In today’s digital age, customers want to guide themselves through the buying process. People are taking it upon themselves to research and compare companies, products, and services online. You want to use social media to demonstrate value and differentiation. When they’re ready to buy, you want them to remember your company and your knowledgeable team.
Encourage your sales team to use social media, incorporate social media into your sales cycle, and reap social selling rewards. There are so many ways social media can help your sales team. Social media can help your sales team do research, make connections, increase visibility, build relationships, engage with consumers, gain credibility, and generate qualified sales leads. Achieve optimal sales productivity with social media. Embrace social media as part of your sales cycle and watch your sales grow.
This article was originally posted to the SalesForce Search Blog by Matthew Cook on November 20, 2014.
Fire These Customers Immediately
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on November 20, 2014
Not all clients are created equal. Nor should you be compelled to treat them equally. There’s no law stating you must sell to everyone, or keep servicing clients that are the wrong fit for your business. It’s as fair to say that your business has outgrown some types of customers as it is to say that you have some customers that you should have never brought on in the first place. (You know who they are!)
If you’re miserable working with a client that you know isn’t profitable for your company, you won’t be motivated to serve them well. And, if that client isn’t receiving the best treatment, they won’t hit their desired goals. By virtue of this predicament, you’ve created a “lose-lose” situation. You’re not helping the client reach their objectives and they’re not helping you reach yours.
Besides the ones that are clearly not profitable for you, here are four other types of clients that must go immediately:
- The ‘no one else matters’ client. These are the clients that expect you to work only for them and all the time. They drag quick calls into 90-minute meetings, and 90-minute meetings into all-day events. They call you on the weekends on your cell phone. These relationships never work and turn ugly when their inappropriate expectations aren’t met
- The ‘Sword of Damocles’ client. Walk away from any client who constantly peppers you with threats. Perhaps they threaten to withhold payment, leave for the competition, or shop your solution around. You can’t do your best work for them if you are constantly under negative pressure.
- The ‘check is in the mail’ client. You aren’t a bank, even if you work for a bank! Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. When a client starts abusing the financial aspect of the relationship, talk to them immediately. If they will not rectify the situation, stop work until they do, or fire them immediately. No matter how prestigious.
- The prima donna client. Success and failure should be a shared experience. When you and the client achieve a desired outcome, it should be celebrated as a team effort. And, when something goes awry, there shouldn’t be any finger-pointing on either side. Each accepts responsibility for their part in what went wrong and quickly resolves the issue. Rarely is a mistake one-sided but if it is (and all on you), accept responsibility immediately and resolve the issue. If a client is continually parading your joint success as their own singular success while at the same time foisting all the blame on you for failures, your relationship is one-sided and can never be profitable for you.
Firing a client may mean a short-term hit to the organization’s profits, but it’s critical for the long-term emotional health of your team and the company. Firing a client now not only frees up time for you to spend on more profitable clients, it also provides a boost of morale internally. When you step up and fire a bad customer, you win everyone’s trust, loyalty, and respect – especially your own.
The easiest, most respectful way to fire a client is:
Call them. Do not use email. Thank them for their business to date and explain that you’re not the best fit for them moving forward. Try, “Thanks for considering us. At this point I don’t think we are the right fit for helping you meet your goals.” Always keep the focus on their interests.
Be professional. Don’t use this call as an excuse to tell clients all of the things that are wrong with them and their approach. Simply tell them that they will be more successful working with another company.
Recommend another option for them, even if it’s a competitor. This way you can find them a new home quickly.
This article was originally posted to the Eye On Sales Blog by Colleen Francis on November 17, 2014.
Who Are Your B2B Buyers?
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 11, 2014
Do you know who and where your buyers are? What types of content they consume? What their main pain points are? What industry events they attend? Where they spend time on the web? Who makes up their buying committees? These sound like simple questions, but the answers hold the keys to developing essential Buyer Insights which are critical to your Demand Generation Strategy.
If you don’t know the answers to these questions, how do know how to solve your buyer’s problems? Not knowing where your buyer consumes content or their preference for content format will significantly hinder your content marketing effectiveness. If you spend a lot of time and resources on social media, and your target buyers rarely have Twitter accounts, you are wasting your time – no matter how great your tweets may be. Your buyers just aren’t on Twitter. Maybe not even LinkedIn…so don’t assume they are. You need to be sure of it. You would be surprised by the number of marketing and sales executives that are not engaged in social media, including LinkedIn.
According to the 2015 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends –North America Study published by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, marketers are not nearly as effective as they need to be when it comes to content marketing effectiveness. Why? Although they continue to invest time and money in content marketing, almost half of those surveyed don’t have a documented strategy. They might have an editorial calendar, or a plan they come up with weekly on the fly, but not a strategy.
Are you one of 48% percent of marketers the study reports that say you have a Content Marketing Strategy, but just haven’t written it down? Come on. This has to be documented in order for it to be effective. You need to spend time and map out the various pieces of content, based on timing, content consumption in the buyer’s journey, not to mention, understanding the strategic level pain points or triggers of your buyer and align it to your content offers.
Before you do anything to improve your Content Marketing Strategy, start with understanding your buyer. You need to do some heavy lifting to accomplish this so prepare yourself.
Start with this short list for your internal and external interviews:
- Sales (Inside Sales and outside reps)
- Customer support
- Marketing
- Sales Engineers
- Customer marketing
- Sales Support
- Current customers
- Past customers
- Lost prospects
Ask your customers what the first step was in their buying process. Ask them who was involved in the process, what issues they were trying to solve, and how long the purchase process took? And don’t stop at customers either. Interview prospects and competitors customers and ask them the same type of open ended questions that will provide you with the necessary Buyer Insights. Ask your teams open ended questions about customers and prospects to understand the questions they are asked during the sales cycle.
Think your customers might not want to talk to you? Give it a try- you will be surprised how many buyers want to share their stories. Your customers will talk to you because they want to help you, help them. After all, in the long run, that is your goal in delivering content, isn’t it? Take the first step to becoming more effective with your Content Marketing Strategy. Understand your buyer – everything about your buyer- and then work on developing a documented, Content Marketing Strategy that aligns to your buyer. Don’t be one of the 48% – aim higher and your revenues will increase as well.
This article was originally posted to the Annuitas Blog on October 7, 2014.
How to Get Started at Social Selling
Posted by Rick Pranitis in GENERAL DISCUSSION on November 6, 2014
Social selling is when salespeople use social media to interact with prospects. You might think that social media is a waste of company time, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Social selling can reduce the sales cycle time by fifty percent. Your potential buyers are on social media, so your salespeople should be too. Embrace social selling to connect with and communicate with prospects. Social media gives consumers the opportunity to ask companies questions directly and allows salespeople to respond quickly. This efficiency is valuable to consumers. Social selling is a valuable, efficient, and effective tool that your company needs to stop avoiding and start using.
Get Started: If you’re new to social media, don’t worry. It’s easy to set up company accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You should also encourage your salespeople to start individual accounts. Upload your company logo for company profile pictures and have your employees use professional headshots for their profiles. Every account associated with the company should include a link to your website in the description. Provide social media training if necessary. Equip your salespeople with the social selling skills they need to succeed.
Follow Prospects: You want to catch the attention of potential buyers and build a relevant following. Search for relevant keywords on Twitter and start following users who are discussing relevant topics. Check out your competition. Who are they following? You want to follow as many relevant people as possible. Ideally, these people will start following you back.
Social selling tools speed up sales research. By following customers and prospects, you can get to know them better. You will be able to research your prospects before meeting them. Discover their wants and needs. You can then address these issues and offer solutions. Show how your products/services can solve their problems.
Share Valuable Content: Establish yourself as a credible source of information. Produce valuable content to share via social media channels. Add value, drive traffic, and give consumers a reason to visit your website again and again. You can’t just tweet about your company with a link to your homepage and expect people to click through. Start a company blog and continue to post new, original content regularly. The more content you create and share, the more visible you will be to your followers. When you share content that your followers find useful or valuable, they will be more likely to share it with others, extending your reach even further. By providing new and interesting content, you will gain credibility. Eventually your followers will recognize you and your sales team as industry experts.
Interact with Prospects: Social media allows you to interact with consumers like never before. Instead of pushing the same old sales pitch, have meaningful conversations with prospects. Your sales reps should use their own individual profiles to communicate with prospects. Consumers will be more likely to interact with and take advice from an individual than a company. Take advantage of these platforms and communicate with prospects, answer their questions in a timely manner, and participate in relevant discussions.
Like, share, favorite, and re-tweet interesting content that others are posting. Successful salespeople understand the importance of creating connections and developing relationships with customers. Social selling is all about building strong relationships with potential buyers. By interacting with potential buyers, you can get a better understanding of their needs and interests. Use tools such as Tweetdeck and Google Alerts to receive notifications when consumers are discussing specific topics. You can then participate and provide useful information in real time.
Start Social Selling: It’s impossible to ignore the impact social media has on sales. It has become a valuable lead generation tool. Update your sales and marketing strategies and get your sales team involved. Social selling is a powerful and advantageous tool. Don’t miss potential sales. Start social selling and increase efficiency, productivity, and sales.
This article was originally posted to the SalesForce Search Blog by Scott Lombardi on 10/24/14.
Five Sales Coaching Tips to Lead You to Success
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES LEADERSHIP on November 2, 2014
As a sales leader, it’s your responsibility to motivate your sales team and drive sales results. You need to build a talented team of sales professionals and provide ongoing sales coaching and training. You should continue to develop your team’s talent. Many sales leaders and managers insist they don’t have the time for sales coaching, they’re not sure how or what to coach, or they don’t have the right tools and resources for effective sales coaching. These excuses are the reasons your sales team isn’t getting the results you want. Stop making excuses and make sales coaching a priority. Here’s a list of five sales coaching tips to lead you and your sales team to success.
- Develop Talent: So you’ve managed to round up a great group of experienced and talented sales professionals. You need to continue to train your salespeople. Provide them with the sales coaching they need to succeed. Sales coaching isn’t just for new hires. Check in with your team regularly, identify sales training needs, assess sales processes, and introduce new sales tactics. Remember to adapt your training techniques and sales coaching methods to meet your trainees’ needs.
- Set Specific Goals: As a sales leader, you should develop and set specific goals for individual team members that align with company goals. By setting specific goals, you’ll be able to track progress more effectively. Your sales team will have a clear understanding of your expectations and they’ll be motivated to meet and exceed these expectations. If goals are not met, do not consider this a failure. This is a sales coaching opportunity. Review sales practices and make improvements.
- Use Social Media: Take advantage of social media. Get your salespeople online. Encourage your team to use social media for professional purposes. Work closely with your marketing department to ensure valuable content is being created for sales reps to share on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to generate sales leads. Salespeople should use social media to interact with customers and potential buyers. Provide social media training if necessary. Your prospects and your competition are using social media, so why aren’t you?
- Focus on Progress: Many sales leaders focus solely on results. You should take the time to sit down and review progress as well. Ask for progress reports, ask if your sales team needs assistance or advice, and make changes to the sales process if something is no longer working. By helping your sales reps along the way, they will be more likely to achieve hit their sales targets. They’ll also have more confidence knowing that their sales leader will be there to help if they encounter any obstacles.
- Give Effective Feedback: Great sales leaders give sales reps effective feedback. Encourage your sales team to meet their sales targets by recognizing and rewarding their successes. An incentive program can go a long way when it comes to motivating sales professionals. Salespeople want to be recognized for their hard work. You can use financial rewards and/or non-monetary rewards to show your appreciation. Some sales leaders think it’s a good time to slip in some criticism after congratulating someone. This is not the time. This only undermines the accomplishments, defeating the purpose entirely. Remember, feedback is meant to help. When you give effective feedback, you will develop more trusting relationships with your team members.
It’s up to you to keep your sales team motivated. Provide continuous training to develop their talent and help them meet sales targets. You can’t sit back and expect improvements. And you shouldn’t blame your sales reps for a dip in sales. Assess your current sales strategies and update your sales tactics. Develop talent, set specific goals, start social selling, focus on progress, and give effective feedback. Use these sales coaching tips to lead you and your sales team to success.
This article was originally posted to the SalesForce Search Blog by Doug O’Grady on October 21, 2014.
-
You are currently browsing the archives for November, 2014
Follow On The Web!
