How Big Data Transforms Marketing's Impact on Sales Growth

Embarking on a Journey to Excellence Using Big Data for Sales

Guided by analytical insights about their customers, sales reps make superior decisions on which accounts to target and how to engage with purchase decision-makers. By applying predictive analytics (advanced mathematical algorithms), marketers can transform this abundance of data into deep, real-time insight about customer needs and behavior.

Courtesy of Emmett Tullos

How Big Data Transforms Marketing's Impact on Sales Growth

• See a 360-degree view of your customers and prospects: Traditional CRM is not enough ' its data is mostly limited to what sales reps have already entered. Moreover, data providers merely offer high-level external data and reams of unfiltered social data. Big Data is unique because it enables marketing to integrate and process data comprehensively from internal data systems, external sources and social media to generate customer insight.
• Act on customer insight, not more raw data: Leveraging Big Data does not mean flooding reps with even more raw data. The key is to extract meaningful, actionable insights and recommendations on when and how to engage with each account. With Big Data, marketing can empower reps to maximize their return on selling time.
• Have a 'sixth sense' when it comes to identifying opportunity: Things change: companies open new offices, win new government contracts, or increase hiring. Some of these changes may be internal ' a new financial management system, changes in the network, or the opening of a new data center. Every one of these changes is an opportunity to engage. With Big Data, marketing can be highly effective at identifying these engagement opportunities for reps.
• Coach every rep on what to say ' in real time: Most customers are eager to be educated but they need help bridging the gap between their problem (felt or unfelt) and the solutions a company offers. Yet, sales reps simply don't have time to research all aspects of a customer to learn how to be effective in every single account. With Big Data, marketing can automatically deliver immediate 'reasons to call' accompanied by relevant talking points.
• 'Social Selling' and 'Sales 2.0' become reality: Most traditional CRM providers have created hype around the use of social media in B2B sales. However, the operational usefulness for salespeople rarely exceeds a slightly better way of accessing LinkedIn or Twitter. Technology meant to analyze Big Data taps into sales reps' social networks and the network of their peers. That means marketing can make it easier to target accounts, access decision makers and tap into social references.
• Measure, learn and define true success: Understanding how each rep is doing against different types of engagement opportunities is key to improving their performance. Marketers using Big Data can easily report the ROI of their CRM efforts because they have established targeting and engagement motions that are measured down to the activity level. Measuring both the soft metrics of engagement (e.g., did the rep act on an engagement opportunity) as well as the hard metrics of performance and productivity (e.g., what was the conversion rate?) ' and adjusting the approach based on results ' is key to helping sales succeed.

In the coming weeks, we are releasing The Marketer's Guide to Spurring Sales Growth with Big Data. Follow @Lattice_Engines on Twitter so you don't miss it!

You Are Only As Strong As Your Least Happy Employee

In his new book The Commitment Engine, author John Jantsch makes a notable point. He writes, 'Generating commitment is the new currency of American business. The most important task of a leader is to guide passion and purpose in a way that encourages staff and customers alike to find, nurture, and grow commitment around the things big and small that make a business worth joining.' Thinking about this statement can create several different lines of thought, but to me it reiterated the point that if you do not treat your employees well, they will not be enticed to treat your customers or clients well. If you think about it, this is really common sense. Treating an employee well makes that employee happy. Going above and beyond to make sure your employees are happy indicates to them that they are valued. Your employees will feel loyalty to you, and they will be happy to give as good as they get. That includes making sure that customers are treated well. After all, if you're having a good experience, it's not hard to invite others to join in the fun, right?

A lot of companies are creating programs with this idea in mind. In fact, Stan Phelps, author of The Purple Goldfish Project, is currently curating stories about companies working for their employees in his Green Goldfish project. Scrolling through his posts, you see a story about how Best Buy is no longer forcing employees to keep strict schedules. You can read about how Rackspace is paying 100% health insurance premiums for employees. And then of course, there's Zappos, the online shoe store turned business darling that offers employees money to leave as a test of their dedication.

If you're a CEO, a president of a company, or a department head, you might think companies like these are crazy. You might think, 'Well, they're huge so they have more flexibility monetarily to be able to offer benefits like this.' The fact is any company can do little things to make employees know they are valued. It doesn't even have to be tied to salary or insurance or anything else financial. Allowing flexible hours for new parents, allowing employees to work from home when the weather is terrible, or even the simple act of naming an 'employee of the month' are all great ways to show your employees you care.

If this is still not sounding like a good business investment to you, it's important to remember that your employees are, increasingly, the public face of your company, and not just during working hours. Your employees may have personal Facebook accounts or personal Twitter accounts, and if you don't treat them right, they could be complaining about you. You could have a reputation problem without even realizing it. Your employees interface with your customers. Your employees interact with potential customers. What do you want those conversations to be like?

Investing in your employees is the same thing as investing in your customers. It's the same thing as investing in your company as a corporate entity.

You are only as strong as your least happy employee. So, how strong are you?

Note: This is our fourth post in our series inspired by John Jantsch's book The Commitment Engine. You can check out the rest of the series here, and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a post!

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mytudut/5197551003/ via Creative Commons

Outbound Prospecting with Sales Intelligence

Unlike many predators, a coyote practices a unique set of diverse hunting tactics. Sometimes coyotes hunt in packs to attack bigger prey. Sometimes they sniff out their prey and run after them. As some of the fastest mammals in North America, coyotes don't need to wait for their prey to come near ' they're superb chasers. And sometimes coyotes hunt alongside badgers, who are good diggers and can dig rabbits and other small game out of holes so the coyote can capture them.

Outbound prospectors hunt like coyote, and Sales Intelligence aids them like the badger. Outbound reps identify their prospects, and pursue them until they've won a deal, but the more coyotes on the trail, the harder to catch the easy prey. The coyote that hunts alongside the badger reaches targets that the other coyote can't find.

Uncover how Sales Intelligence can grow your outbound business. Sales managers usually devise outbound plans that outline 5 stages of successful outbound prospecting. We rewrote that list to show you how Sales Intelligence can help your outbound business flourish:

Add Trigger Events and Social Connections to Your Target List
Every rep that goes outbound needs a list of roughly 25 top prospects. Most reps build their lists based on company size, industry, title, and geographical location. Sales Intelligence allows you to add two additional target criteria:

• Sales Triggers ' what business opportunities and challenges does your prospect face? Trigger events always create a business need, and if you know the trigger events that drive your customers towards action, you can predict their needs.
• Social Connections ' thanks to social media, we all have huge online networks of connections. Use yours to dig up target prospects. Only add companies at which you have a connection to your top 25 list. Executives are 74% more likely to answer your email if it comes from a referral than a cold call or impersonal email.

Use Your Social Network to Reach Your Target Executives
You can't start an outbound effort if you don't know who you're going to call. Research your target's executives, and identify 3-5 people with whom you'd like to get in touch at each target customer.

If you're connected to someone at every company on your target list, the first point of contact with an outbound prospect should begin with a warm referral from your connections.

Engage Your Prospects Through Social Media
Not every executive is on Twitter or Instagram, but almost every company into which you sell has a social media presence. Follow your prospects to find out what they care about. What topics do they Tweet about? If you thrust yourself into the conversations they have online, catching the attention of a target VP is much easier than it is if you persistently call and leave 17 voice mails. You also have an opportunity to learn their business concerns, which gives you an edge up when you do reach them because you're more likely to offer a relevant message than if you go in cold.

Use an Insight-Based Approach to Discover Prospect's Needs
Traditional sales expertise suggests a long list of questions with which sales reps can badger prospects to learn their business needs. But remember, the sales rep is the coyote, and sales intelligence the badger. The information reps need to know to diagnose a deal is out there. Don't waste time asking a prospect about key initiatives and industries of focus. Let the badger discover the insights. If you find that the price of oil drastically affects your prospect, suggest a unique perspective on the future of the price of oil, and how your offering alleviates any pain they may feel because of it.

You will eventually need to find out how a prospect's team is organized, compensated, and how they make decisions, but save those questions until you know you've hooked your prospect.

Watch Your Prospects to Convert Them
Use Sales Intelligence to follow your target accounts and decision makers. Sales Intelligence always gives reps a reason to call prospects. If you've uncovered an opportunity, don't let your competition swoop in before you close the deal. Know the news the moment a prospect receives new funding or releases a new product. Sales Intelligence uncovers those insights, so make sure you follow them.

'Coyotes move within a landscape of attentiveness. I have seen their eyes in the creosote bushes and among mesquite trees. They have watched me. And all the times that I saw no eyes, that I kept walking and never knew, there were still coyotes.'
'Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues

Whether the coyote watches his prey, or the badger, neither will miss an opportunity for a good hunt with their eyes always open for advantages. A sales rep should always be a coyote.

4 Simple Ways to Monitor Your Competitors' Marketing Strategies

Competitive analysis is just a fancy way to describe the process of checking out what your competitors are doing, or not doing, and using that information to your advantage. Observing your competitors' marketing strategies is a great way to measure their strengths and weaknesses and gain insight into your own. The first step into developing a solid competitive analysis strategy is determining who your main competitors are. After you've established who they are, you can begin to monitor and analyze. Below are four simple ways:

1. Sign up to receive their email or newsletter - Many companies make it easy for just about anyone to sign up and receive email newsletters. Most link to a signup form on either their website or Facebook page. A good way to receive a competitor's non-newsletter emails (such as their signup or purchase confirmations, lifecycle series or other transactional emails) is to sign up for a free trial, or make a small purchase in order to be classified as a new customer. Be aware, though, some savvy companies will 'blacklist' competitor work email addresses.

Receiving emails from your competitors can help you see things from the perspective of a customer within your industry. You can get a good idea as to the tone of voice, creative style and offer you want to include in your email, and which ones you would like to steer clear of. It's always interesting to consider a point of view or positioning that may be different or even similar to your own.

2. Explore their website - Visit competitors' websites to see what they're doing right and what they may be doing wrong. For example, if you're unable to find certain vital pieces of information such as contact info, a simple way to sign up or make a purchase, it may give you some insight into what you can capitalize on for your own website.

Viewing a competitor's website is also a great method to get information on new products they've released, positioning, special promotions and discounts or other strategies you may not have been aware of.

Also, take a look at their 'careers' or 'jobs' sections as well. You can learn valuable information about a company and their areas of growth based on the positions they're looking to fill.

3. Like and follow on social networks ' 'Like' your competitors on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn and follow them on Twitter. Many companies release special promotions on their social networks, so if you don't see their pages or profiles, you won't be aware of their social media strategies. You can also check out competitors' social media networks to see how they position themselves, and how individuals interact with their brand. Again, this gives you insight into what strategies and ideas are effective and which to avoid.

4. Give them a call ' This strategy can give you insight into the way your competitors do business, especially if you and your competitors sell over the phone. You can find out how firm their pricing structure is and whether or not they throw in incentives in order to close a sale. The best part of this competitive analysis strategy is that you can basically ask them anything you'd like to know while you're on the phone with them.

Competitive analysis is an important part of your overall marketing strategy. And, there is much more information on this topic out there. If you'd like further details on competitive analysis and the tools used to measure and rate competitors, Wikipedia provides a nice overview.

Do you have any other suggestions on strategies you've used for competitive analysis? We'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Savannah Stewart is a Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

Keeping the Show Running With an Email Marketing List

In a show, an audience is important; they are the ones who determine whether the spectacle is worth their time and attention. If it is, they are bound to stay and even return. Such is so in telemarketing; customers and clients would always patronize a company when it is widely known that they give the best products and services. And being known could only mean that a company's name is being advertised. Email marketing list is what helps expands the leads of a firm. The list contains contacts which narrows down which people should be sent advertisements to. Visually pleasing the customers, the audience, is what keeps the show of the company going.

In the audience, there are those people who are grouped together with the same desire or interests. The business email list makes the task of delivering personalized emails to probable customers and clients. Advertising campaigns may seem easy, but they do take time and effort, so it should not be forgotten the resources spent. Catching the attention of the targeted recipients is everything; it can mean success or a flop in business and revenues. The list easily groups people who share similar needs and wants; it would make things easier when people are grouped together and making personalized mails for them would not be so tasking. Responses should also never be lost; customers and clients would like to see that there is an actual staff of the business firm who would entertain their responses, comments and suggestions. It would be awfully characterless when a machine would simply compose a monotonous reply.

The Internet is a vast, almost boundless field for online business. There are loads of competitions present out there so a company really needs to ensure that they can keep their customers and clients constantly interested of what they have to show. Product marketing is very important in the road to success as this is what buoys up people to purchase a product or service and this means that advertising is very important. However, when one thinks of advertisements, the notions of flyers and leaflets come into mind, but this is not what it is nowadays for there is now the Internet. With the help of email marketing services, it can ensure of getting the targeted niche's attention.

Buy a Mirror: Conversion Lessons Only You Can See

If you don't make a point of talking to your customers, you should. Your potential client pool will likely share amazing insights about your business or pain points. Wouldn't you want to know that one thing that makes people choose your service over your competition? Of course you would!

Unfortunately, many people would rather just imagine why their customers choose them instead of asking them.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Let's Start with Website Optimization

Last week I used our Total Feedback plugin to ask our site visitors about website optimization. I wanted to know what sort of tools they use to optimize their sites. The response was overwhelming: We don't optimize.

That response might flabbergast you. Anyone who makes their income online should be well versed in site optimization. It's simple; why not make the most of the people visiting your site? Let's say your average sale is $20 and you get 2,000 visitors a month to your website. Right now, you are converting at 3%. This means 60 people buy your product and roughly spend $1,200. Now, would you rather pay $300 more a month in Adwords for a couple hundred more visitors or would you rather bump that 3% to 6%? With 2,200 visitors at 3% conversion, you are making $1,320, which doesn't cover your Adwords spend. With a bump in your conversion rate to 6%, you are making $2,400 with the same amount of visitors.

Was I flabbergasted? No. I spend time talking to my customers, and I take all our sales calls. This means I personally touch any potential or current client. This also means I hear their struggles. A major struggle for my potential clients is the overwhelming nature of site optimization. Truth be told, this is a struggle for many of my current clients as well, but I pride myself on helping where I can. Once you understand the concept of A/B testing, it's fairly simple to implement. Not everyone jumps on the bandwagon, but I've never heard a complaint from those that do.

The double edged sword to site optimization is how unique it is to your business. Sure, there are general rules about site layout or strong calls to action, etc. But what is going to give you a huge boost in conversion is understanding your site visitors.

For example, I had a client who recently did a lot of work with their website optimization. They used Optimizely (a great service, which I highly, highly recommend) to A/B test their pricing page. They created versions based on general best practices and one atypical version with excessive writing.

In general, pricing pages should be clear, straightforward, and aesthetically pleasing. But, for whatever reason, the version of their pricing page that was overwhelmed with copy and explained every nuance of their pricing structure converted the best.

Well, not 'for whatever reason' ' the reason is because their site visitors like to read. Their site visitors and potential clients want to spend the 10 minutes reading every note about how their prices work. After adding an 800 number and giving the staff ample opportunity to chat with these potential clients, it was found that their audience really enjoyed seeing behind the curtain. It made them feel more in control of their purchase and a part of the site's community. That's a whopper for a pricing page! Did I mention their pricing page went from a measly 1.5% average conversion to over 8%? That's roughly 1 in every 12^th person to visit their pricing page ended up purchasing.

The good news is the vast majority of website optimization can be accomplished via your Google Analytics dashboard. There is no need to pick up the phone or be a part of the conversation with your leads. However, the best gems are for those who make a true connection.

Sales Optimization

Whether it is a direct mail sales letter or a landing page piece of copy, you aren't going to get very far without knowing the pain and pleasure points of your customers. Do yourself a favor and don't assume you know these right off the bat. That's one of the oldest mistakes in the books.

We've all done it. We have this picture of our ideal client. We know their wants, their dislikes, why they want to buy from us, and what they hate about our competition. This is a great starting point, but don't let yourself (and your sales) get stuck in first gear.

When I launched CEM, I thought we had fantastic prices, an easy ordering process, and a super quick response time. This was exactly what I thought my ideal client wanted.

Then I got on the phone with people. I discovered that our prices weren't that big of a draw. I started slowly increasing our prices without any major decrease in customers. In fact, the only customers I lost were the ones I was happy to live without.

I was right all along about the easy ordering process. My clients don't want to fill out form after form but prefer a genuine give and take conversation. To this day, I often fill out a voice doc on the phone with my clients in a sort of interview format.

My clients enjoy the fact that I am super fast at responding to emails, but our 2-3 business day turnaround is only important to some. Others are happy to wait a week or more for their copy.

The biggest thing I missed was that I genuinely enjoy getting on the phone with my customers. I love brainstorming with them about their SEO or content marketing. We aren't a full service content marketing agency, but that doesn't mean my 7 years in the biz go to waste. The number one thing I hear from my biggest clients (those spending 15k+ a year) is that they like knowing I can get on the phone with them. They like that I am happy to 'sit in' on a conference call with their team.

This is what made people choose our service over our competition, and I didn't even know it! By leveraging this one component of our business I have more than doubled our revenue in the past quarter!

The unfortunate moral of the story is that these are my lessons and not yours. You have your own customers, and they have their own pain and pleasure points. You are not your competition. What works for them probably won't work for you.

So whether it is site optimization, sales optimization or a little of both ' keep your eyes and ears open. Leverage those connections and practice asking for feedback in a comfortable way. I promise, you will gain a world of insight once you do!

Branding Your Resume As Technologically Current

Most employers today look for employees that already know how to use the software that employer uses.

Few employers have training budgets for new employees ' to use their training budgets more efficiently, employers want to hire new employees who already have the necessary training. While there are exceptions, you should consider this the rule.

Because there's a shortage of jobs combined with mass applicant competition, hiring managers look for employees who don't need training to handle basic job functions. With an average 1,000 applicants competing for each job, most employers can find and will favor candidates who don't need basic skills training. This is even true for most entry level positions ' where you're expected to have basic skills in Word, Excel, Powerpoint, or other software.

To succeed in today's job market, you'll need to show employers you have the skills to do the job now, to hit the ground running, without additional training. When employers do train new employees, it's typically for specialized jobs to train rookies in unique employer processes/systems, not to learn basic work skills.

This is less of a problem for candidates just entering the workforce ' you've grown up with technology as a part of your daily lives, starting in grade school (or earlier). But this can be an issue for many candidates over 40, where employers may be wary of your technical skills. Just because you have current technology skills, doesn't mean employers will automatically realize you have them.

Remember, few employers aren't reading your whole resume to decide if you'll get an interview ' interview decisions are made through a combination of automated pre-screening and a brief scan. Employers have to see that you're current in a quick scan if you want an interview spot ' it's part of your resume's personal brand. So it's got to be easy and apparent for them to find.

Your technology personal brand extends beyond your resume ' it extends to social media. This can present challenges for those who haven't invested much time in social media.

Here's 6 Ways To Brand Yourself As Technologically Current:

1. Use Today's Resume Techniques'not yesterday's: Effective resume techniques have changed. Lose the Objective, Summary/Profile, Achievements sections ' they're yesterday's news, and give you a dated first impression.
2. List Your Technology Skills: List your tech skills, so they will show up in ATS searches. Be detailed ' List the components of MS Office (recruiters don't search for MS Office, they search for Excel, Word, PowerPoint); list modules of enterprise packages you've used (recruiters search for SAP MM, not just SAP). This applies to factory workers as well as CEOs ' employees at all levels are expected to be technologically up to date.
3. Don't List Legacy Technology Skills (unless you're applying for a legacy tech position): Do you really think that listing the COBOL class you took in college (or used in your first job) makes you up-to-date? Of course, if you're applying for a COBOL position to maintain old systems, then list away, baby.
4. Use Social Media: Today, companies are trying to get up to speed and improve social media presence. What holds most companies back? A lack of talent that understands social media. The best way for you to demonstrate knowledge of social media is to walk the walk. Do more than set up profiles, actively post, answer questions, participate in groups/lists on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
5. Blog: Want to show that you know more than the basics of social media? Blogging is your next step. By creating (or curating) a blog, you're building a personal brand, building your ability to be found on Google searches, starting to understand SEO, all skills needed by businesses trying to increase their own social media presence.
6. Create Other Content: While video is the most effective other content to concentrate on (YouTube gives a big boost to SEO), posting photography on Flickr can help also, especially if you're good at editing pics and creating special effects on Photoshop.

If you're missing on opportunities you think you're qualified for, you might be giving employers the impression that you're not technologically current.

Impressions can be more important than facts, since most employers make interview decisions based on a quick scan of your resume ' so they aren't reading detail.

While this often affects 40+ job seekers and those returning to the workforce, your technology brand can make the difference between an interview and the discard pile.

Good thing there are some simple things you can do to affect how your resume is viewed by readers.

Author:

Phil Rosenberg is President of http://www.reCareered.com, a leading job search information website and gives complimentary job search webinars at http://ResumeWebinar.com. Phil also runs the Career Central group, one of Linkedin's largest groups for job seekers and has built one of the 20 largest personal networks on Linkedin globally.

All That Glitters Is (Sometimes) Gold: Why Attractiveness Influences Hiring Decisions

Earlier today, my OpenView recruiting teammate Carlie Smith wrote a post that responded to a few articles that suggested prettier people are more successful and hirable. For example, Inc.com recently published an article outlining research and data points that suggest that, yes, attractiveness can influence hiring decisions and lead to greater business success.

To her credit, Carlie makes a compelling argument against that suggestion. In her post, she explains that hiring decisions are ' and should be ' based primarily on fundamental qualities that make a great employee, rather than superficial ones that simply make someone nicer to look at.

And while I agree with Carlie, I have to be honest. Fair or not, I believe that highly attractive people tend to be more successful. And, whether we want to admit it or not, those people's physical appearance, without question, tends to play in their favor when hiring decisions are being made. That's not to say that unqualified blondies should all of a sudden be given promotions all over town. But I do believe there is a positive correlation between looks and overall success.

Let me explain.

First, I think human biology and nature come into play. We're programmed to be attracted to, well, attractive things, right? So does our innate psyche makes us want to work with pretty people? Call me shallow, but I think it probably does. Now, I don't think it's fair to say that beautiful people are automatically successful (because that's just not true), but it's not unreasonable to suggest that they are exposed to more opportunities because of their beauty, which inevitably opens more doors and raises their likelihood of success.

Some of the aforementioned articles, including the Inc.com one, attempt to explore the true definition of 'attractiveness' beyond physical looks. For example, attractiveness might be impacted by things like charisma, confidence, and leadership. In other words, someone that demands respect and has a contagious personality might be considered attractive, even if they aren't what most people would consider stereotypically beautiful. I absolutely agree with that sentiment. I think we're all naturally attracted to people that embody certain traits.

As for how that all ties back to hiring decisions, part of Inc.'s article on this topic included an example of interviewers forgetting about candidates that had some fairly obvious physical disparities (i.e., visible scars, birthmarks, etc.). By contrast, someone that possessed natural beauty and the traits of attractiveness listed above tend to really stick out in interviewers' minds. After all, when a potential candidate's main objective is to get an interviewer to like him or her, being nice to look at can't hurt. And neither can exuding confidence or appearing strong-willed.

All of that being said, there is no way a hiring manager would say something like this: 'Yes, let's hire or promote him or her, because that person is smoking hot!' Although, if I'm being honest, I've heard statements that are pretty close to that before. Rather, what typically happens is that someone who is perceived as attractive could possibly make a deeper impression than their average-looking counterparts. I find this to be especially true in frequent customer/client facing roles like sales or account management.

So, does being a neck-breaker automatically make you a winner in the workplace? Nah, probably not automatically, but I bet it does put you ahead of the curve. Is that fair? Probably not. But as most of us have learned, life isn't always fair.

Click here to read Carlie Smith's counterpoint to this post.

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Write a Great Strapline for Your Business

I was at one of my regular networking meetings, Grow Your Business, last week and the training section was on delivering our one minute better. One of the things that came out of this was finish with your strapline. Several of the businesses around the table didn't have a strapline and resolved to write one, so this post is for them and anyone else who is writing their own strapline.

A strapline is a 'slogan' used to identify a specific brand for example, Tesco's 'Every little helps'. As a copywriter I find these projects exciting but equally I know they are actually quite hard work as I might come up with plenty of alternatives but I need to find the right combination of words that tells everyone what the company represents. So this post is my process for writing a strapline.

Do your research
Every copywriting project starts with research. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, never sit down to write until you've done your research. So I ask questions like:

• What kind of company is it?
• What is your product/service?
• How do you see yourselves?
• What are your company values?
• What are the benefits of using your product/service and company?
• What differentiates you from your competition?
• Is there a single proposition you want to communicate?

This helps understand the nature and principles of the company and it forms the direction the next stages will take.

When you're thinking about these questions, try and be specific about the benefits, values and proposition. Avoid anything woolly like 'value' or 'quality'.

Brain dump
Now for the fun bit! Fill as much space as you can on a large sheet of paper or in a Word document with words, phrases, colloquialisms, text speak, slang and anything else you can think of around the single proposition you want to communicate.

Think about every single element of your product, service and process that relates to your proposition.

A good thesaurus is essential. If you don't have a printed one you can buy a thesaurus app for your smartphone or go online to www.thesaurus.com. Other useful websites include:

' www.goenglish.com ' describes English idioms
' www.rhymer.com ' free rhyming dictionary

Normally this process will take me a whole morning (or afternoon) and quite often I'll walk away from it and come back to it after a run, meal or even the next day after everything I've written down has a chance to simmer.

Get to work
Now you're ready to start writing. Use your research and everything you've written down as part of your brain dump to start pulling together straplines.
There are no specific guidelines to the best length of a strapline but I prefer to keep them short ' less than 10 words.

Write as many straplines as you can think of. You'll probably find that the first few you write although they will be good don't quite feel right, so keep going. I can spend a few hours doing this, and like the brain dump I will often give myself a break and come back to it with even more ideas.

Whilst you're writing your straplines don't forget to keep checking that they communicate your proposition and fit your values.

The final step
Once you're satisfied with you list, walk away from it for at least a day whilst all the ideas you've come up with simmer inside you. Then you can start whittling down the list and editing them.

It may take time but eventually you'll arrive at a strapline that is memorable, honest and relevant.

Why You Need to Grow Your Outbound Sales Business

Outbound prospecting refers to a sales technique representatives use to hunt down prospects, rather than wait for prospects to come to them.

Most B2B sales organizations mandate that reps spend a percentage of their time prospecting because outbound can significantly increase your sales pipeline. However, most B2B sales organizations have not perfected the outbound business model. Building outbound business is crucial for sales organizations for a number of reasons:

Unequaled Precision Targeting
Huge technology advancements have allowed us to target our inbound marketing efforts pretty specifically, but nothing can yet equal the persistence and resilience of a sales representative reaching out directly to his or her prospect. Outbound prospecting is one of the quickest ways to determine in which market segment you find the most success. Refine marketing targets based on the results you get from your outbound strategy.

Objection Handling
Outbound prospecting is a great way to get feedback from prospects on your initial offering. When you reach out directly to a target that you think is a good fit, their rejection is much more likely to reveal a primary objection than it would if you had send them a generic marketing email from which they unsubscribed.

Also, because sales reps make the first effort to reach prospects, rather than prospects reaching out to sales reps, reps hear objections upfront, and can head objections off at the pass before prospects latch onto them for leverage.

Improving Message
In the same way that outbound prospecting gives you an inside edge on objections, outbound prospecting quickly uncovers areas for messaging improvement. Reps can tell which sales messages resonate and which ones fall flat.

Outbound prospecting can offer the best opportunity to identify reasons why prospects resist products or services. Being aware gives you time to craft specific messages that address objections.

Increasing Conversion Rates
Outbound prospecting asks reps to reach target decision makers. Marketing efforts may have propelled a deal to an unresponsive gatekeeper, and outbound prospecting may be the only way to move the deal forward.

Lowering Marketing Costs
Because they hold lead generation requirements as well as ambiguous brand awareness goals, marketing teams pay a lot of money for leads. Whether they plan events, pay for content, buy campaigns, or more, their cost per leads is usually in the thousands. An outbound sales lead is free, unless it involves a few hundred dollars to travel to a prospect or take a prospect out for a meal.

Outbound prospecting, because of its targeted nature, eliminates the need for lead nurturing. All marketing costs associated with lead nurturing typically disappear when sales sources and qualifies leads.

Generating More Sales
One of the most direct results outbound prospecting offers is a larger quantity of qualified leads. This inevitably results in more sales.

Using outbound prospecting as part of a coordinated effort in a multi-channel marketing strategy is an effective method for reaching the most covetable prospects. Stay tuned in to the InsideView blog for the rest of our series on outbound prospecting.

Information Leakage: How To Deal With It

Editor's Note: The following is a guest post written by corporate communications executive, Carlos Victor.

It looked like a scene taken from the Police Academy movie (or Dumb&Dumber'), but this actually happened in a neighbourhood of Barcelona, Spain: two policemen fooling around while driving, enjoying a funny, private moment. The only problem: the wife of one of them ' in an acrimonious divorce process ' found the video on her husband's computer and decided to upload it to YouTube in October of this year. The result: in a matter of hours the video saw 30,000 views ' and the traditional media outlets online and on television amplified it even more. The video went viral, with parodies, and the police bureau had to deal with the situation.

In case you missed it, you can check out the video below:

What did the Police Department do in response to the leaked video?
In a press conference held on October 3^rd, the local government announced that the two officers had their salaries suspended and that a disciplinary investigation would be carried out. It was also added that they regretted 'the bad effect it has on the Police image'.

What lessons can we take away from this incident?

First, let's talk a little bit about the times we are currently living in. The times of increasing public scrutiny. Then, I'll outline ways to deal with the perils of information leakage.

Privacy is no longer private as it used to be
Let's face it: the era of innocence is over. Everyone has a mini-camera in their pocket (also called a mobile phone) and is a potential spy. Moreover, surveillance cameras are abound everywhere, so Big Brother really does have an eye on us all! And finally, digital properties are very volatile. The conclusion: we have to get used to the blurred limits of the public and the private.

The question is, is this good or bad?

For some people, such as Jeff Jarvis, this Transparent Society is a great improvement. Others, like Andrew Keen, think that it is leading us to greater external control and we might be reveling far too much of our inner selves just for the use of a free service, such as Facebook or Foursquare. Apart from these important philosophical aspects, one thing is for sure: beware of your digital fingertips, and be cautious with the risks involving information leakage.

How to deal with information leakage

First, let's examine very basic procedures to avoid unnecessary embarrassments:

1. Be extremely careful with your behavior or image, especially when on duty or when you are hanging around with co-workers or business associates. Clearly, to be portrayed in a party with a beer will (probably) not hurt your reputation, but do not assume that your colleagues will not post or upload that embarrassing video of you dancing like a crazy person!
2. Do not put on tape what you do not want to be seen by others. If you do record for your personal amusements, be selective with whom you share it electronically ' and keep all copies in a very safe place. In Spain there was an even worse incident in early September, involving a town concilor, due to not being careful enough.
3. Never assume that what you upload on Facebook or YouTube, even with the privacy settings that you select, will remain private. Remember the Domino's Pizza crisis? You do not have control over digital assets, and if it involves content that might shock or be of interest to someone else, there's a chance that it will spread beyond your control.
4. Finally, take some extra seconds before posting something. Ask yourself: 'is this really good for me, or can it be used against me in the future?' Double check things like: the correct privacy controls, are you posting from the correct account ' which is another type of crisis to keep in mind ' think KitchenAid.

These are simple tips, but the subject can get very complex when we are talking about corporations. That is why there are all kinds of procedures when it comes to the subject of Information Security.

Finally, how should you deal with information that has been leaked?

1. Deal with the facts: especially with videos or photos because imagery is very convincing. Don't use 'panos calientes' (half-measures). Be blunt and straightforward, acknowledging the problem as it is.
2. Act fast: try to be ahead of the news cycle or the social noise. The more you wait, the more the digital gossip and the more you lose control of the situation.
3. If it is something serious (in this case, the worst problem for the policemen was not their foolish behavior, but the fact that they were driving), do what you have to do: make clear that something concrete is going to be done. State the repercussions of the actions (or inaction) involved.
4. On the other hand, if the leakage was clearly an invasion of privacy ' and not implying something too serious ' try to contextualize the facts: take a stance and help the world see that you were a victim of the circumstances.

It is impossible to have absolute control over your digital persona, but exercising some of these preventive and damage control measures can help you to deal with the increasing power of information leakage.

Picking Up the Pace With the Business Email List

In telemarketing, the main goal is to earn good revenue and a way of doing this is through advertisement; sending out advertisements is one way for a business company to promote themselves to the public. And when advertising, it needs a recipient which is the customers. Constructing a business email list is a good way of keeping contact information of these customers. Having an accurate information database is one great valuable asset. With the convenience and speed provided by the internet, it is easier to send out personalized emails for advertisements to customers and clients. This is an ideal solution to the constant changes faced by companies in the world of telemarketing since it ensures that the required professional services are available when it is necessary.

A company may hesitate in outsourcing the list since it is taking a risk; novice companies would have second thoughts of building an email list of their own for managing them are such a tedious task, not to mention expensive. Customers are what keep a business firm on their feet; their feedback and responses are what give the company an idea on how to strategize their next move in the market. Buy email list from a reliable broker would greatly help the company in sending out their emails to the right people. These lists have a confident benefit of reaching numerous listeners and in consequence would increase the probability of the company's products and services to be more known and be more referred by most people. The list should be always kept updated; any stale information of a contact would really affect the business firm's pace in the moving world of telemarketing.

When a company has many contacts in their database, it could only mean that they must be quite in demand amongst customers and clients. Email marketing services send out messages to a certain targeted niche. It must never be disregarded that every sentiment of customers and clients are important for they are the ones keeping the company afloat and running. In the race against time and other competing companies, a business firm should never lag behind in their messages and responses.

What Does it Take to be a Leader and for Leadership to Show Up? (Part III)

This post continues and completes the conversation on what it takes to be a leader (and for leadership to show up) from an ontological perspective as put forward and taught by Werner Erhard et al. There are three foundational strands to this model: 'integrity', 'authenticity', and 'being committed to something bigger than oneself'. The first post dealt with integrity, the second post dealt with authenticity and this post deals with 'being committed to something bigger than oneself'. Warning: this is a long post and it takes something to read it. If you are looking to skim, easy to consume content, then I advise you to go and do something else.

Leadership is a choice you make for yourself

Let's kick off the conversation through a quote from Werner Erhard et al that speaks to me, it may do the same for you:

'In a certain sense, all true leaders are heroes. Heroes are ordinary people who are given being and action by something bigger than themselves'' Each of us must make the personal choice to be a hero or not, to be committed to something bigger than ourselves or not, to go beyond the way we 'wound up being' and have the purpose of our lives and our careers be about something that makes a difference or not, in other words, to be a leader or not.'

What does it mean to be committed to something bigger than oneself?

First I will share with you how Werner Erhard et al see this and then I will give you two examples to help this way of understanding come to life. Here is what Werner Erhard et al talk about, relate to and ring-fence 'being committed to something bigger than oneself':

'is being committed in a way that shapes one's being and actions so that they are in the service of realising something beyond one's personal concerns for oneself ' beyond a direct personal payoff. As they are acted on, such commitments create something to which others can also be committed and have the sense that their lives are about something bigger than themselves. This is leadership!'

Let's just take a look at Tony Fitzjohn (OBE): a conversationist who worked extensively with George Adamson' and who shows up for me as a leader who gave himself being as a leader through his commitment to something bigger than himself. Besides putting his life at risk in working with lions (he as badly mauled by a lion whilst working with George Adamson) I want to draw our attention to the following:

'The challenge facing him at Mkomazi demanded all these skills, and more. It required someone who was an experienced wildlife manager, fluent in Swahili, a bush pilot, a skilled engineer and mechanic who could build roads, cut boundaries, strip down and re-assemble 4WD vehicles and plant machinery, set up two-way radio networks, construct and de-silt dams, maintain electrical and power equipment, organize anti-poaching patrols, deal with the bureaucracy, and keep a remote camp supplied. All this, and the ability to establish breeding programs for highly endangered species whilst constructing and repairing schools in the villages around Mkomazi Game Reserve, helping with medical dispensaries and maintaining friendly relations with the local communities'..

Arriving in 1989 with nothing but a Land Rover and a hangover, he put in all the infrastructure himself: an airstrip, 600 miles of roads, dams, electricity, water. He built a house and learnt to fly, married Lucy and had four children'..

His track record includes:

• Established and stocked the first successful Rhinoceros sanctuary in Tanzania.
• 30 years of successful rehabilitation of zoo animals into the wild.
• Gained National Park status for two game reserves.
• Completed the construction of a new secondary school for 400 children.
• Provided local communities with clean water supply, dispensary and Flying Doctor service.
• First successful captive breeding program for endangered African Hunting Dog in East Africa.
• Ground-breaking veterinary research into disease of endangered species.
• 20 years of developing and supporting Anti-Poaching Units.

The modern-day requirements of this operation, staffed only by volunteers, means that Fitzjohn has to spend a lot of time traveling in order to raise funds and generate publicity for the project. He lectures at the Royal Geographical Society, schools, zoos, wildlife parks, and talks to diverse groups of supporters'.'

If you want a business person as an example then I suggest looking at James Dyson, Anita Roddick, Howard Behar, Tony Hsiesh and Steve Jobs.

Leadership and the valley of tears

Many want to be leaders, few have what it takes to persevere in the valley of tears when nothing goes right, when there is nobody to count on, when there is no help at hand. I have experienced this myself and can vouch for it.

I remember the pain, the hurt, the tears, the anger, the fear, the criticism, the questioning of my motives and character, the envy, that I had to deal with when I set up Humanity In Action (small charity) some ten years ago. And the only thing that got me through it was that the purpose of the charity pulled me through/around/under/over all the obstacles.

I also remember standing in front of the CEO and senior managers and refusing to carry out the CEO's instructions. What allowed me to take the risk despite being fearful/concerned about how I was going to pay the bills, support the family that was counting on me? A calling, a commitment to a stand ('people matter more than things') and a set of values of how to be in life and how to treat people.

Here is how Werner Erhard et al put it:

'.. without the passion that comes from being committed to something bigger than yourself, you are unlikely to persevere in the valley of tears that is an inevitable experience in the lives of all true leaders. Times when nothing goes right, there is no way, no help is available, nothing there except what you can do to find something in yourself ' the strength to persevere in the face of impossible odds''.'

'Is that all there is to life?'

We live in a culture that encourages selfishness and the pursuit of fame/wealth/success. Put differently we are encouraged to simply look after oneself, pursue one's personal agenda, and leave others to do the same. Here is what Werner Erhard et al have to say on that:

'Wealth, fame, and the like, are both no more than the scorecard for success; they are not the source of corporate or personal passion and energy.'

More importantly focussing solely on oneself and one's personal interests does not mean that one escapes the existential question: 'Is this all there is to life?' This is how Werner Erhard et al have to say on this matter:

'No matter how good you look, no matter how good you've gotten your family to look, and no matter how wealth, fame or power you have amassed, you will experience a profound lack of fulfillment'.. expressed by the commonly asked question: Is This All There Is? Dealing with the crisis of 'Is this all there is?' lies in having a commitment to the realisation of future (a cause) that leaves you with a passion for living.'

Werner Erhard et al go on to make a powerful point. A point about discipline, about sticking to one's stand. Why does this matter? Because we swim in a culture that is about ease, convenience, comfort, finding the short-cut and focussing on the short-term. Here is what they have to say:

'' a commitment to something bigger than oneself empowers not only a human brain's executive function to avoid 'eating the marshmallow', but works in the same way to empower the corporate 'executive function' to forgo 'eating the marshmallow''.

As I write these words Steve Jobs pops up: his commitment to creating great products and a legacy overpowered the corporate addiction to making the sort term revenue and profit numbers. How many times was a product introduction shelved or delayed because the product was not deemed perfect by Jobs? How many times were 'complications' to the supply chain introduced (different colours') to meet the commitment?

And finally

You might be wondering why I have dived into leadership given that this is The Customer Blog. Because the move to customer-centricity requires leaders to show up as leaders and exercise leadership. And it is not any kind of leadership. It is the kind of leadership that Werner Erhard et al are speaking at. And without this kind of leadership organisations can talk as much as they like, put in as much technology as they like, redesign processes etc and they will still not show up as customer-centric as experienced by the customer. Honestly, how many of your customers are going to help out your company when it falls on hard times? How many are going to mourn your company when it dies? Think RIM (Blackberry), think Nokia, think HP, think Dell''

The shift to customer-centricity requires a genuine shift to being a company that stands for creating superior value for customers: enriching their lives, improving their welfare, helping them with the issues that they are grappling with' As such it requires a commitment to something bigger than one's need to make the short-term numbers to collect the bonus cheques. It requires integrity ' keeping one's promises including those that customers can reasonably expect you to keep even if you have not explicitly promised that promise. And it requires authenticity.

Enough for today. I thank you for listening to my speaking and I invite you to share your perspective by commenting. And if these last three posts on leadership speak to you then you might get value out of this blog: Possibility, Transformation and Leadership.

Top IT Needs in the Private Equity and Investment Industries

As the IT market evolves, so do IT system needs, especially in the rapidly changing private equity and investment environment. With the recent recession and mortgage industry fallout, the equity and investment space has seen a massive transformation ' adopting new technology can only help facilitate this transformation.

What are some of the current IT needs and trends for corporations in the investment space? Let's take a look.

Leveraging Upgrades

Windows 8 will be released on October 26th. As a CIO, you'll want to take this opportunity to evaluate and consider this new operating system platform. The most significant change in Windows 8 is Microsoft's strategic shift to become hardware agnostic. This has several implications. Firstly you'll have the ability to implement a common operating system across all your devices: desktops, laptops, personal data assistants and tablets. Additionally, the ability for users to have a common interface combined with Microsoft's new cloud options has the potential to become a game changer. Of course, there will be challenges related to migration which can be best managed with a solid strategy. Our recommendation: review Windows 8 thoroughly as it has the ability to invigorate your technology ecosystem.

Cloud Service

This is a vital service that can be deployed to meet several business requirements. Storing your data on a cloud service provides many advantages, but it does not mean you are not susceptible to data loss. If you think cloud services are for you, be sure to understand how your data is protected in the event of a system outage. Confirm that your cloud service provider has provisions in your contract that govern requirements related to protection of data and security. Understand fully the proposed backup and restore options to ensure they will meet your business requirements.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

If you are a corporation with employees numbering in hundreds or thousands, BYOD is a tool you'll want to consider. When your employees bring their own mobile device, whether it's an iPad, iPhone, Android or Microsoft device, your IT hardware costs are lowered and your employees have a tool that meets both their business and personal needs. Our recommendation is to work strategically to build a model that allows your organization to embrace BYOD without sacrificing security while still giving your employees the ability to choose their own mobile device.

Remote Offices

When it comes to sharing content, private equity firms cannot ignore the advancement of social business software. For the past several years it has been primarily limited to consumers but a shift to enterprises and corporations is underway. There are many cloud based platforms that allow you to build a collaborative environment and decrease IT costs and offer access from any device, anytime and anywhere. This framework allows employees to collaborate, share documents, discuss ideas, build project plans, and conduct ad-hoc video conferencing sessions. Building a technology ecosystem based upon a 'no-boundaries' principle allows your organization to rapidly access content (more quickly than your competition) and scale rapidly and efficiently.

5 Ways To Take On A Rival Brand

No matter what business you're in, sooner or later you will be challenged by a rival brand. Or you might enter a market with a long-established brand. Most industries have multiple brands competing for control of the market. In business rivalry it's often the brand with the most powerful marketing that is most successful. So if you have a close rival in your market, how can your marketing team give you the edge?

Imitate

A wise man once said imitation was the highest form of flattery. When it comes to marketing, imitation may be the lowest form of rivalry. You might think that by creating your own version of your rivals marketing material, you're stealing a march on them. You might even hope to pick up some of their business. But you've got to consider the dangers of blatant imitation. If a prospect was already aware of your rival, how will you look to them?

You might have the better product, or offer greater service. Selling that to a prospect will be difficult if they think you're just a carbon copy of your rival.

Attack, Attack, Attack

The other option is to create marketing content that attacks your rival's product. If you can point out your rival's failings while shining a light on your strengths you can gain some leverage. You have to be really careful with this though. Samsung tried some attacking marketing tactics recently in their ongoing war with the iPhone 5. With mixed results. On the one hand they produced a few tongue in cheek videos that highlighted their Galaxy SIII's key features, while poking fun at Apple fanatics waiting for the latest iPhone release.

The ads were very funny and made a strong argument for the SIII. But they didn't just attack the rival brand, they attacked its fans. The same fans they were hoping to poach. That's the difficulty with this kind of marketing tactic. Even the smartest attack can end up feeling a bit petty.

Challenge Them to a Duel

We're not suggesting you march down to the office with a leather glove and a pair of pistols. But some brands have tried to take on a major rival in blind tests to prove their superiority. The most famous of these is the Pepsi challenge. Since 1975 Pepsi have promoted their product by inviting people to choose between their product and Coke. They regularly report that their product wins in the majority of tests. This may seem good for the brand, but these tests are rarely conclusive and Coke has never seemed that worried.

We saw another example this year when Microsoft pitted it's Bing search engine against Google in an online blind test. The test was marketed under the name 'Bing It On' and Microsoft promoted it by claiming Bing won these tests by a 2:1 ratio. Unfortunately for them, most people who tried it reported the opposite and the test disappeared pretty quickly. The lesson here is that unless you win big, a duel is unlikely to get you much satisfaction.

Out-Innovate

With so many different digital marketing innovations, from social tools to mobile marketing, the best option might be to outthink your opponents. The best way to do that is to see where the gaps are in their marketing output. Does your rival have a strong presence on image sharing channels like Pinterest or Instagram? Is that an area you can exploit? Do they make full use of video marketing?

This may be the most effective method of rival marketing, but it's also the most difficult. There may be a reason your rival hasn't engaged these channels; there may not be any value in producing a mobile app in your industry. The key question with this kind of innovation is, 'why am I using this channel?' Can you define the value without mentioning your rival?

Focus On Your Strengths

The best way to market your brand is to promote your strengths. That doesn't change because a rival has entered the market. If you can identify strengths that you have, that your rival is missing, then all the better. But don't work too hard to find them. The best brands focus on their own branding first, and let their rivals worry about the rivalry. Coca-Cola and Apple are the world's most valuable brands, when was the last time you heard them mention a rival to promote their own product?

Dealing with a strong rival can be a huge challenge. When it comes to marketing against your rivals though, the most important thing may be to stop trying to market against them. Just market your brand instead.

Request a Free Marketing Gap Analysis for your company now!

I'll Do It Tomorrow Instead: How to Stop Procrastinating

'Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.'

Easier said than done, right? Not anymore! Follow these tips on how to stop procrastinating and you'll be a well-oiled working machine.

Do Things NOW

I find procrastination becomes a major problem with me when I put off the small things ' email follow-up, invoicing, filing paperwork. That's why I've made a conscious decision to stop procrastination by doing these small tasks the moment they arise. This has made my workflow much more efficient. Now, when a big project comes along, I'm not stuck trying to play catch up because of undone meager tasks.

Quit Over-Planning

To-do lists and milestone reports can be a great way to stay on task, but they also can also be a great way to waste time. Stop planning and start doing. Sometimes it's easier to stop procrastinating when you make a mental list of priorities instead of spending an hour trying to map them all out. You know what your job is, so don't over-think it.

Start Small with the Biggest Item on Your List

Really all you need is a little nudge to get the wheels spinning. That's why it's good to start your day with a small step on your biggest project. I am much more productive when I get all of my heavy writing projects off my plate early in the day. That leaves the afternoon to catch up on things that don't take as much brainpower.

Change Your Setting

When you're working from the same place day in and day out, it can be tough to stay motivated. Sometimes all it takes to stop procrastinating is a change in venue. Go to the library or your favorite coffee shop. Or, if you are a local business owner with a brick-and-mortar location, work from home in the morning. A different venue can bring fresh perspective and energy!

Work in Teams

How to stop procrastinating starts with accountability. You don't want to let anyone down, right? Working in a team environment is even better if you surround yourself with highly motivated, highly productive people. Then it's not just about accountability, but inspiration, too.

If you need a little more help staying productive and efficient throughout each day, download our free e-book, 38 Online Tools You've Gotta Use. It's filled with a variety of time and money management tools to keep you from procrastinating!

How about you? What's your best tip on how to stop procrastinating?

Image courtesy Flickr by Chris W.

5 Ways to Give Your Sales Team Constructive Feedback That Gets Results

Managing a sales team is challenging and providing feedback that is both constructive and motivating can be even more challenging.

Here are a few ideas to consider the next time you need to give someone feedback on their performance or results.

1. Be specific.

This may sound like a simple concept; however, many sales leaders use vague language that fails to help their team improve their results.

A manager I worked with gave one of his top performers the opportunity to prove himself in a supervisory role. At the end of the project he expressed his disappointment by saying, 'You didn't take enough initiative.' When the rep asked what his manager meant, the leader said, 'You didn't behave like a manager.'

The vagueness of these statements was not helpful to the sales rep and the project ended up becoming a demoralizing task.

When providing any type of feedback to a sales rep, you must ensure that it is specific so they understand exactly what aspect of their performance needs to be improved.

2. Forget the sandwich.

A common approach to providing people feedback is to start by praising them followed by the constructive feedback and ending with more praise. Known as the feedback sandwich, it sounds good in theory.

However, it usually fails to achieve the desired results because the person on the receiving end will often become defensive when they hear the praise knowing that criticism is close behind.

It is much more effective to address the performance issue head-on than to hide it between two positive comments. It can be difficult to be direct but experience has taught me that people appreciate it and will respect you more in the long run.

3. Watch your tone.

A number of years ago I had the good fortune of working with two different managers in a company.

One of them was excellent at 'motivating' the troops because his correspondence always contained the right tone whether it was verbal or written.

On the other hand, the second manager used a commanding, direct tone, and although he offered positive feedback, it always ended with 'But''

His tone and approach meant that his feedback was seldom perceived as positive even when it was intended that way.

Yes, you may have to deliver bad news but using the proper tone and manner can make it easier for your sales rep to absorb. I'm not suggesting that you use an enthusiastic tone when offering constructive feedback; however, be careful that you aren't being perceived as being negative.

4. Adapt your communication.

Some people prefer verbal communication while others do better with written correspondence.

Some employees need to hear the words, 'Here is some feedback' while others automatically understand when constructive criticism is being given.

And some individuals prefer formal feedback such as sitting in your office or having a scheduled call while others prefer a more casual approach.

To achieve optimum results, adapt how you communicate with each person on your team.

5. Adapt your approach

Many sales leaders are competitive by nature; it's often one of the reasons they climb the corporate ladder.

However, not all sales people are competitive. If you use comparisons to other people to try and motivate a person who is not competitive, your efforts will be wasted.
A more effective strategy is to adapt your approach so that it is more consistent with each person's personal motivators.

A final note on positive reinforcement:

Studies have shown that most employees do not receive as much positive reinforcement as they need. This is particularly true with 'millennials' who have come to expect some type of positive feedback as often as every seven days.

This doesn't mean you can't give constructive feedback. It just means that you also need to balance it with positive reinforcement, too.

Should You Ever Say 'No' to a Potential Client?

When it comes down to it, business is about making money. Money does determine the future of your business, but does it have to govern every decision you make? Does the price make you change who you are and why you do your job?

When I started Big Fish Presentations in 2011, our team of college students was excited to do anything and everything possible to make this company successful. We worked tirelessly to please our clients because we wanted to increase profits, expand, hire new people and do more great work.

As we continued to slave over our goal, a pattern emerged. It seemed we would take on just about any client, just as long as we could handle the workload and turn a decent profit. We thought we were invincible, that no matter how bizarre or terrible the clients were, we were resistant to them ' thanks to great customer service.

However, this wouldn't last long. Certain clients pushed the limits of our time and resources with strange requests, indecisive direction and a severe lack of communication skills. Some even had awful attitudes as a bonus! It takes a lot of patience to deal with these kinds of clients; you've got to set aside your pride and vision to please a small group of people.

One day, a big-name client contacted us for a project, and of course, we accepted the challenge. It was rocky from the start. They didn't know what they wanted out of the project, so we had to interrogate them for details. They were unresponsive when we needed them and too responsive when we didn't, and their attitudes were extremely negative. It didn't help that their internal structure was disorganized ' as was the feedback they gave us throughout the project. Despite continuous customer service and quality work, they just couldn't be satisfied. It was as if they felt that because they paid us, they owned us.

We struggled for a while, taking nonstop and unreasonable requests from the client, and often receiving unnecessary hostility in the confusion. This was getting out of control. After some deliberation, my business partners and I decided finally to 'fire' this client; we just couldn't work with them any longer. It was the right decision for us, and I'll never regret doing it then or doing it again in the future.

Our big mistake was that we were blind because of the money. When we took this client on, we were only concerned with prices and hours, not the experience or the satisfaction of producing great work. We were following orders that we didn't believe in from people who didn't believe in us. However, there's a limit to how much personal and professional sacrifice you can or should put up with for that price.

Though these kinds of clients may be unpleasant to work with, most of the time they aren't bad people, just bad clients. It's important to remember that. To avoid this headache, find out what kind of clients you are working with by asking yourself the following questions early on:

1. Does this client have clear expectations on their end goal?
2. Does this client violate our business ethics?
3. Does this client have a history of being difficult with other vendors?
4. Does this client have unrealistic expectations and limited knowledge of your services?
5. Does this client have the same vision for the project as you do?
6. Does this client understand the value of what I'm bringing to the table?
7. Does this client feel like they own us because they are paying us?
8. Does this client control my business' main source of cash flow?

In the end, overcoming this experience taught us a very valuable lesson about choosing clients. It narrowed down the scope of our tolerance, and we are now more upfront about how we expect to work. We learned a clear, definitive voice, plus a positive outlook, pave the way for effective client communication. Yet the biggest lesson we learned was that working with a client solely for the money is a huge, and often deadly, mistake. You have to decide the price that YOU are willing to pay before ever working with a client. Only then can you effectively grow and succeed as a business.

At 21 years old, Kenny Nguyen is the CEO/Founder of Big Fish Presentations, a presentation company that does presentation design, presentation consulting and commercial video production. The company has recently been featured in Inc. Magazine as one of 2012's Coolest College Startups, and hosts the blog Hook-Line-N-Sinker for presenters.

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world's most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

photo by: thetaxhaven

Your Choice: Business or Hobby?

Your Choice: Business or Hobby?

It's Not Easy Out There, Is It?

There are many demands on your time.

• There are days when you are expected to do the work of 5 people.
• You have an inbox that is intimidating at best.
• You have research that was due yesterday.
• You have a new client whose hand you want and need to hold.
• You have a laptop that keeps crashing.
• You have bills that need to be marked up and sent out.
• You have documents that need to be prepared before you and your client can rest.

What time does all of this leave for Marketing your practice? The answer is that some days you don't have enough time for the client work that needs to be executed, much less think about Marketing.

Here's The Reality.

You don't have any choice. You have to find a little bit of time on a regular basis, preferably every day, to help market your practice.

When you don't do something every day to advance the goals you've established in your plan, and aren't moving the needle by doing something that moves closer to generating revenue, then you need to realign your activities.

Start Here.

Start with your inbox. Before you get lost in an hour's worth of email communication every morning, do something first that advances your business. I know how hard this is, believe me. There are only a few things I like doing more than checking emails every morning to see if anyone needs me, to see if a potential client is ready to get started or to see if someone replied to me in Social Media. I fight this all the time.

This is why you hear me regularly talk about the need to prepare a sound Marketing Plan. It doesn't have to be the length of a New York Times bestseller. It doesn't even have to be 10 pages long, and probably not even 5. It just depends on the nature of your business. The most important point is that it doesn't have to be painful to put together.

A good marketing plan just needs to be based on sound strategy. I know my readers. You're professionals. You can handle this, I promise. Stop selling yourselves short.

A Hobby?

The point is that if you don't have a Plan of Action that identifies what you want to accomplish in your business, or your practice, then you are treating your work like a hobby, aren't you? You aren't strategically focusing on generating revenue, but hammering away at it like it's your favorite non-revenue producing hobby.

Don't get me wrong.

Hobbies are great. They exist to:

• Round out our lives
• To feed our souls
• To help others
• To blow off steam, and
• Sometimes to make money

'.but they are not the model for how to run your practice.

If you're not doing something every single day to market your business, then you are doing yourself a disservice.

You Decide.

What do you think?

Are you running a business or a hobby?

Thanks to Kathleen Gage for inspiring this post by sharing her unfailing wisdom about hobbies vs. businesses.

(Photo credit: BohemianCoast)

Healthcare Marketers Can Finally Demonstrate ROI to Physicians

I've said it for more than 25 years: good communications is at the root of all successful businesses, relationships and educational experiences. Now, communications will have a financial pay-off for physicians who effectively teach their patients how to manage their health and adhere to their treatment plans.

In the past, physicians were encouraged to talk with their patients so the patients could understand their diagnoses and treatments and have a 'warm and fuzzy' feeling about the doctor's bedside manner. Until recently, there was no promise of financial reward for the physician; in fact, there was a disincentive for physicians to take the time to 'over communicate' with patients because reimbursement has been based on the number of patients he/she can see during a day. And, partly because many patients DON'T understand or follow 'doctor's orders,' there are plenty of sick people in a doctor's waiting room who come back over and over with the same ailment. That makes it even harder for physicians to spend extra time with each patient.

In today's healthcare environment, both hospitals and caregivers will be financially dinged for readmissions and 'repeat customers,' so it's imperative that providers focus on keeping their patients well and out of a revolving door of episodic care.

I recently read a piece in Forbes about the numbers of smart doctors using social media (especially videotapes posted to You Tube) to give instructions or explanations about some of the most common illnesses they treat. Sure, every patient is unique, but many procedures or instructions are common and can be very well explained via video. Think: teaching a young mother how to take an infant's temperature, how to accurately dose Tylenol, how to read the growth chart you gave her at the last well-baby visit.

Certainly there is a lot of general healthcare information online ' some good, some questionable. But a simple video of instructions and advice from a patient's caregiver has great credibility and enhances the physician-patient relationship in a meaningful way. With clear instructions (that can be repeated over and over) the patient is more likely to comply with 'doctor's orders,' reducing the likelihood of ending up back in the clinic or the hospital, and the physician is rewarded for patient wellness.

Why don't more primary and specialty physicians communicate via video? They are swamped with patients; they haven't had the time or interest to learn the technology; they are uncomfortable on camera. Healthcare marketers can help and finally show a direct ROI in the relatively short term.

Is anyone helping a physician get more 'social' and user-friendly? Are you finding physicians more open to this concept?

A Lack of Real Vision is Stalling the PR Industry

First, a caveat ' I don't know the folks whose quotes I'm about to use as examples of why the PR industry is struggling. They could be (and probably are) very smart and accomplished business people.

So, this isn't a 'go' at them.

With that being said, however, this recent report/white paper does seem to highlight exactly why the PR industry is continuously seen as one that's been slow to adapt to the new business landscape and, as such, is holding agencies and consultants back.

First, let's take a look at the piece.

The PR Firm of the Future

As a precursor to the PRWeek Conference on November 14, Michael Lasky ' senior partner and head of PR at law firm Davis & Gilbert LLP ' asked this question:

What is the most important way in which the PR agency of 2017 will be different from the PR agency of today?

Michael asked 8 leaders of independent agencies. The responses included:

- Ken Eudy, CEO, Capstrat: 'The PR firm of 2017 will increasingly help is clients become publishers and broadcasters' communicating directly with stakeholders without having their messages filtered through traditional media.'

- Maril MacDonald, CEO, Gagen MacDonald: 'The successful firm of 2017' will be interested in relationships, not transactions. It will think about the long-term strategy, not short-term tactics. It will add value through a technology-driven collaborative dialogue''

- Elise Mitchell, CEO, Mitchell Communications Group: 'The firm of the future will be known as a business strategist with communications expertise. It will offer integrated services that create solutions' leveraging earned, owned, paid, shared and promoted media in all channels including digital.'

- Jennifer Prosek, CEO, Prosek Partners: 'Practitioners in 2017 will be required to think across the marketing mix and successfully drive campaigns versus simply owning the traditional earned media channels. Firms will need to articulate the value of results that engage their audience versus simply offering impressions.

These are just four quotes I pulled from eight agency leaders. Others include:

• 'Providing value at this level is not only the key to establishing lasting partnerships, but also creates a desire' to partner with this organization';
• 'Multidisciplinary expertise will be the firm's leading competitive asset';
• 'THE PR firm of the future' will deploy a mix of paid, earned, owned and shared media that can be monitored and measured directly in real time.'

All good stuff. All good advice. If this weren't already happening today in 2012, versus what should happen in 2017.

The PR Firm of Today and Yesterday

While there are some good quotes from the assembled eight agency folks, the 'problem', if you like, is that they were asked what the PR firm of the future would look like.

So, you'd kind of hope/expect to hear stuff that no-one's really doing at the minute, or ideas that are really pushing the industry forward.

Unfortunately, the majority of the soundbites would be futuristic if they were answers from circa 2008/2009.

Suggestions that brands become publishers and broadcasters, for example, miss how well blogs and social networks have been used by brands and agencies for the last 3-4 years.

You only need to look at programs like Sony's Digital Dads, or Ford's blogger outreach campaigns, to see how well this has been done in the last few years. And smaller businesses are increasingly using blogs to educate their audience and grow their customer audience and loyalty.

Then there's the prediction that the PR firm of the future will deploy a mix of paid, earned, owned and shared media while being able to monitor and measure in real time.

When I was working on a RIM account back in 2009 to launch the Bold 9700 in the U.S., we used a collaborative strategy that saw us involve Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to create a fully interactive experience for you and your friends. This was supplemented by paid media ads as well as partnerships with BlackBerry communities.

We measured and identified where the campaign was working, where it needed help, and which communities were driving real value and worth around the promotion.

The result was millions of impressions, thousands of handsets pre-ordered and sold, and an industry award for the campaign itself.

That was in 2009 ' and I know we weren't the first to use true integration in campaigns.

The Future is Now

And this is exactly why this 'prediction paper' just adds to the view that PR is being left behind, versus countering that belief.

There's no doubt that there are great agencies doing great things. Companies like Arment Dietrich, RKPR, Mullen, Voce, V3 and more. And the reason they're leading the way today is because they're already practicing what's being predicted for 2017.

They're integrating channels and expertise now. They're not silo'ing PR from marketing from digital from strategy from creative and more ' they're running these as fully integrated ideas from the start, and have been for years.

My friend Rick Rice, a 35-year industry veteran, sums it up best with this quote:

The PR business is need of disruptive change and none of this generation are even willing to try.

There's no doubt the PR industry has a perception problem, and it's great to see it trying to move forward. I just wonder how far it can move when it still seems to be behind the curve on so many things'

Create Content for Your Readers, Not Yourself

There is this one little thing I noticed on a lot of blogs I read, and have to admit, my own too, that I think can be the end of some of our blogs. And we don't even notice it happening, so we let it happen until we realize we are too deep into it to fix it.

When you start your blog, you have a target market, and a lot of beginners, in any niche, will have beginners in mind as their target market.

So if you are starting a blog about WordPress and blog design, you will start the blog by writing posts (or making videos) about how to register a domain, how to install WordPress, how to post, how to add an image to your posts and so on.

When it comes to blog design, you will talk about how to change font colors in themes that have automatic settings for fonts, how to change a header for themes that have one-button-header-settings, etc.

As time passes, you will start writing more and more about intermediate and advanced topics, like reinstallling databases, creating page templates for your blog themes and messing around with the php files.

And that is natural, because you learned more and more over time so you want to share it with your readers.

But unless you changed your target market, this is wrong! Yes, you learned more and you know how to do more complicated things, but if your target market are still beginners in your niche ' then writing all this will push them away from your blog.

They are sticking around for what they are familiar with as your work and in this case those are tutorials for beginners, not something they can't wrap their heads around. It is hard to remember how it was when you just started out, since you learned so much since, but just think how frustrated you get when you want to do something and you can't because everything looks so complicated' That is how your readers feel when you talk about editing a php file!

So before you mess it up completely, stop doing what ever you are doing and analyze it all. Here are some questions to ask yourself.

Create Content for Your Readers ' Questions to Ask

• When you started ' who was your ideal customer/reader?
• What was your target market?
• Has that changed since you started?
• Has your content changed since you started?
• Has it become too complicated for a beginner?
• Have you noticed less returning visitors, less engagement?

If you didn't change the idea of your ideal reader but your content has changed and became more advanced, you are doing exactly what I am talking about here. Demian Farnworth wrote a guest post on Coppyblogger about becoming an exceptional writer, but this will not help you if you are writing for the wrong audience.

Content Confusion

You have two solutions: you can either make your readers happy by going back to what they are used to reading from you, or you can make a sketch of your new ideal reader and start changing the direction for your blog.

The reason is that mixing it all together just isn't going to work. You will lose your old readers with new content because it is too much for them or you won't be able to get the new ones (advanced ones) to stick around unless you always write content for them.

Now, I can hear you saying 'But won't the beginners learn with me and move to intermediate and advanced users?' but the answer is 'Most of them won't'. See, some people are tech-fobic, some don't have time to learn and some just don't want to move ahead until they perfect everything they can at the beginner's level.

On top of that, if your blog is your business and main focus, you will learn faster because that is what you do all day long, but most of your readers will have day jobs, family and maybe a second job to take care of, so they won't have time to catch up with you!

So question what you are doing at the moment and if change in direction of your blog isn't what is holding you back, line up your goals with your market and go for the win !

A Corporate Story: Why You Need One and How to Create It

How do you differentiate your brand? It is a often said that people buy from people, and I believe it is true. A faceless product provider doesn't inspire any customer loyalty whatsoever, and the only attraction is whether the product is fit for purpose and good value. As soon as a cheaper alternative comes along, your customer will migrate. To increase the perceived value of a product or service, as well as gaining the loyalty from customers, you need to build a brand, and tell your corporate story.

I am a dedicated customer of a frozen yoghurt café where I live, in Brighton, not only because the product is delicious, but also because I know that it was set up by 2 young Welsh entrepreneurs , who are really passionate about their work. Here's their story.

I recommend this company to everyone who visits Brighton, because I love the product and everything about it. I actually felt outraged when a competitor frozen yoghurt company had the audacity to set up shop! I even filled up 10 of their loyalty cards and redeemed them for a Lick t-shirt. I've become a walking advert. And this is what every company should be aiming for in their customers.

You may not be selling frozen yoghurt (you'd better not be!) but you need to think along the same lines to inspire the faithful repeat business of your clients. Not only in terms of the client themselves, but even moreso in terms of the recommendations they give, sending more customers your way, who then go on to do the same, etc. You get the picture.

So, how do we create a community of loyal customers? Not all businesses have the same direct contact with all of their customers where they can tell their story first hand. People want to associate themselves with brands that help represent who they are and what they stand for. So how do your customers know this about your company? I saw this YouTube video which I think offers some really useful pointers on how to work out your company's corporate story and get it across to your audience, in order to create a community (of customers, subscribers, or whoever you are targeting):

Essentially, a corporate story needs to cover 3 main areas:

1) Values & Mission Statement: What do you believe in? What do you care about? What makes you tick?

2) Origins of Company & History: How did you get to where you are now? Tell us that first back of beermat idea and what happened along the way.

3) Visionaries / Leadership: Who is the face behind the brand? Let us feel their passion!

Add to the mix an instantly recognisable logo or image, and be consistent in the way you communicate and the language you use and don't settle for generic 'marketing speak'.

Think of your company as a person. Ultimately it gives your business a kind of soul rather than it all just being about specific products. Which brings us back to people buy from people.

Take, for example, the mega brand that is Nike. This article explains how they tell their fantastic story. Essentially it reaches their end customers via the sales staff in their major outlets, which is great when it works. Looking at their corporate website, their story is covered in detail.

It contains everything you could want in a corporate story. Background and History, Mission Statement, The iconic Nike Swoosh, The Leadership Team, The Foundation, and Family of Brands.

Impressive stuff, but a bit much to read if you are busy. I really do think they are missing out on the added level of instant engagement, accessibility and personality a corporate story video could give them. It would further bring their story to life.

Its all about making your company stand out from the rest. Don't be bland! Have a personality. Without a company personality there is nothing to engage with on a human level. This means no loyalty, which in turn means your business is at risk of easily losing customers to 'the competition' (make sure you know who they are and what their corporate story is).

Joe Browns, a clothing catalogue business, sent me an email today with a link to their new video, inviting me to 'Watch our new video and discover what makes Joe Brown's tick'

It is engaging, and goes a long way down the corporate storytelling road, only really missing out the background story, which I would be interested to hear. It oozes personality. Everything in the company's communications is personable and positive, and this really comes across in the video. I have no doubt they have a loyal following of customers who appreciate not only their products, but feel the brand represents their own outlook. I am now the happy wearer of a Joe Browns jumper, and will be looking out for their next catalogue.

It does take time and effort to really pin down what your company and business is about, what's so good and unique about it, and who your audience really is, but it is essential if you are to succeed in today's marketplace. When you do this well, and engage your customers with your story, then even when there is an occasional hiccup with one of your products or services, your brand often carries you through, and your client remains loyal. It's an incredibly powerful branding tool which measurably improves your bottom line both in terms of new client acquisition and repeat business, so make sure you get your story out there!

To find out more about understanding your businesses personality and how to communicate using this personality read our post on the 7 triggers of fascination.

If you would like help telling your corporate story then please give us a shout.