Is Your Business Throwing Great Leads Out the Window? Posted on June 6, 2016September 2, 2022 by Jessica Lunk Many business owners invest a lot of time and energy into attracting new leads. But no matter how many great leads you get, they won’t help you if your team is dropping the ball when comes to converting them to paying customers. Here are some common mistakes small business owners make and how to avoid them. Not moving at smartphone speed. The digital era has conditioned people to expect instant gratification—or a close facsimile. That means you literally have no time to waste if customers express interest in doing business with you. If they don’t hear back from you right away, they may decide to go elsewhere in the meantime. To avoid this problem, assign someone on team to respond to leads as they come in, so you don’t lose business to a competitor who is speedier. A bad first impression. If the team members who answer your phone sound rushed or gruff, that can be a turnoff to potential customers—and may some to walk away. One of the best investments you can make in your business is hiring someone with great manners to answer the phones and respond to emails from prospects—or sending your receptionist to a continuing education program to sharpen his or her skills at representing your business to customers. If you’re not sure what kind of reception your team is giving prospects who call, hire a mystery shopping service to give you an objective report. A digital-only approach. If your clients are very tech-savvy, they may be very comfortable working with you exclusively by email or live chat. But if you are aiming to close deals with a wide pool of customers, an initial phone conversation may make all of the difference for some prospects. Small business that can’t afford to hire a customer service or sales person on a regular basis often find that freelance help will do the trick. Freelance marketplaces–such as Upwork, Freelancer and People per Hour–can connect you with freelance customer service pros you can hire on temporary basis. “Let me get back to you.” If customers call with questions about your business that your team can’t answer without you, telling prospects you’ll get back to them is a good way to miss out on sales. To reduce the chances of this happening, prepare an FAQ for any team members who answer the phone or emails sent to the company. Don’t just include basic information, such as what services you provide or your hours. Also offer insight to the price range your quotes will generally fall into, unless your quotes are unusually complex. That will help you weed out customers who can’t afford your services so you can focus attention on those who can. If you’re not comfortable empowering your team to answer questions like this, ask them to give prospects your mobile phone number, so you can have a quick conversation. No entry-level deals. Many customers will want to get a taste of service you offer before committing to a bigger project. If you don’t offer any special deals that allow customers to work with you on a small scale first, they may be hesitant to work with you at all. You don’t have to join a daily deals advertising program to do this. By simply offering a special discount or one-time experience to new customers, you’ll have a better shot at converting them. For instance, instead of trying to sell a 10-week package of yoga classes on the first contact with a customer, a yoga studio might offer a complimentary or one-time class–and after that class offer the 10-week package. Of course, you have to make sure customers’ first experience is outstanding or it will be hard to persuade them to come back. Sloppy record keeping. Sometimes, business owners or their teams do everything right on the first contact with a new prospect but lose out on new business for an entirely avoidable reason: they didn’t take good notes or they lost the notes they took. Invest in a small business CRM so everyone can take excellent notes and keep them all organized in one spot. With all of your contacts organized, it won’t matter if your lead speaks with Tricia, your business development rep on Monday, but catches Janet from accounting when they call back on Tuesday. Anyone can pick up the conversation right where it left off. Your leads turn into customers – no missed opportunities.
How to Bridge the Sales and Marketing Gap with Lead Nurturing Posted on June 2, 2016June 2, 2016 by Jessica Lunk When you think of famous battles, you think of the North vs. the South; West Side Story’s rival gangs of the Sharks vs. the Jets; East Side vs. West Side in rap; and sales vs. marketing, right? Wait, what was that last one again? Yes, most people do think that sales and marketing folks are always butting heads, but they’re wrong. Maybe in some companies, they do, but sales and marketing work best together. Seriously. It makes sense because marketing works to generate potential leads to pass off to sales. But, those leads can’t just be found and passed off because those leads aren’t ready yet for sales. In fact, 50% of your leads are qualified but just not ready. They are top of funnel leads that need to move along the sales cycle until they reach the point where they are indeed ready to pass along to sales. Doing so before that point would be like creating Civil War 2: Sales vs. Marketing – and no one wants that. So, how can marketing help to move those potential leads along the sales cycle to get them ready for sales? Welcome to lead nurturing. Can’t Touch This It’s pretty well-known in the marketing industry that it takes 7 to 8 touches to motivate a person to take action and become a qualified sales lead. Some even say it can take 7 to 13+ touches. What does that mean? A “touch” is a way that your company interacts with a potential lead be it through a call or an email. Now, please do not read this and decide that means you need to call each potential lead 7 to 8 times in order to get them to make a purchase. That’s not what that means. It also doesn’t mean that you should send 7 to 8 emails to a potential lead in one day or even in one week. Again, don’t. If you did either of these, you’re going to annoy that potential lead to no end and he/she is going to run screaming straight into the open arms of your competitor. A Non-Vicious Cycle What you want to do is to “nurture” each potential lead, which means that you will slowly guide them along each stage of the buying cycle — from the very top of the funnel (which looks like an upside down triangle) at the “Awareness” stage onto each stage down from there: “Research”; “Preference” “Evaluation”, and then “Purchase”, which is the desired end result. While moving through the stages of the buying cycle, the potential leads are also moving along the following stages of qualifications: Inquiry. Someone who expressed a vague interest by filling out a form on your site or visiting your booth at a tradeshow. Suspect. This person has downloaded two or three resources from your site and interacts with your emails. Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL). Marketing considers this person to be a qualified lead to be passed along to Sales, based on the number of actions they’ve taken/resources they have downloaded. Sales Qualified Lead (SQL). This person has been received by Sales from Marketing and has been deemed someone that Sales finds worthy (not to bring up “We’re not worthy!” memories from Wayne’s World) to contact. Sales Accepted Lead (SAL). Sales sometimes passes over this step in a rush to get to the purchasing stage, and they shouldn’t. Vetting someone as an SAL means that someone on the Sales team thinks this person is a strong lead AND that there is an action plan and timeframe in place to make contact with that SAL. Customer. Success!! This potential lead has made a purchase and is now a customer. Congratulations. Terms like “SQL” and “SAL” are quite enterprise-y, and for a small business, you might have a simplified version of the stages of the buying cycle that you hopefully already have set up in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. It could look something like this: Lead Prospect Opportunity Customer Express Yourself To get a potential lead from “Awareness” to “Purchase” or “Inquiry” to “Customer”, you need to have a lead nurturing plan/drip campaign in place, which consists of at least 7 to 8 emails. Consider the plan for these emails carefully as you want each one to flow into the next and you definitely don’t want to send out a case study as your first email as that’s best much further down the sales cycle. As an example, consider the following email flow for a lead nurturing campaign: Awareness Cycle: Go light here with a Checklist or an Infographic that focuses on a problem your customer may be facing and how to solve it. Awareness Cycle: An informative and short Video that focuses on trends in the industry. Research Solutions: A Research Report that focuses on trends in the industry and/or problem solving. Research Solutions: A Whitepaper that discusses an issue or problem, but does not talk on and on about your product. Preference: Since potential leads at this stage are creating short lists of options, a Research Report about the solutions on the market (for instance, a favorable comparison on a third party site, like G2Crowd’s marketing automation grid) is great here. Evaluation: Here is where you can send that Case Study about how your product has served to help others. Evaluation: Have a Demo of your product? Send a link to it or offer an in-person demo here. Purchase: If you hit this stage correctly, sending an Email featuring a discount coupon will pay off. To make the drip campaign/lead nurturing plan as smooth as possible, set up the drip calendar in your Marketing Automation system. The average length of your sales process may impact the spacing of your nurturing campaign. For instance, if you’re sales cycle is typcially 30 days, you can send emails closer together. But, if your sales cycle is 12 months, you’ll want to space out communication so your prospects don’t get burnt out on hearing from you. Here’s an example: Email 1: Goes out Email 2: Sent two days after Email 1 Email 3: Sent nine to ten days after Email 2 Email 4: Sent two days after Email 3 Email 5: Sent three days after Email 4 Email 6: Sent eight days after Email 5 Email 7: Sent two days after Email 6 Email 8: Sent three days after Email 7 NOTE: Talk to your Sales team before setting up the nurture calendar to ensure that this timeframe works for them and doesn’t interfere with any of their own email patterns. Go forth and nurture those potential leads to create more and more purchasing customers!
What Happened to a Print Shop that Embraced Inbound Marketing Posted on June 1, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Victor Clarke has been the owner of Clarke Inc. for 20-plus years evolving it from strictly a commercial printing firm to an inbound and outbound marketing firm using marketing automation. We recently checked in with him to gain some of his marketing insight. Here’s what he had to say: Can you tell us about how you transitioned your business from a print shop to an inbound/outbound marketing firm? My 20-plus years of experience has taught me that bigger isn’t always better. The latest management fad is just that, a fad. Implement now, perfect later. I always thought that I wanted the big, fancy building as a monument to me along with dozens of employees to keep my monument humming along. I learned I not only managed 25 employees, but also their families and problems, too. I likely managed 100-plus people if you counted all the families involved with the business. The family problems became business problems, which became my problems. Bankruptcy was a distinct possibility if I didn’t change how I did things fast! I spent way too much money investing in the latest management theories and software in an attempt to be perfect. Nobody and no business can be perfect. A few years ago I sold my building and laid off most of the employees, but kept all my customers and brokered out the business. Now I spend more time, and less money, growing my business rather than investing in the latest fads. What were the most important real-world marketing lessons you learned while building your firm? Create an integrated marketing plan. Identify all of the many promotion sources in an integrated marketing plan before you start a campaign and highlight how they can link across media platforms. Consider, for example, how a print ad might direct consumers to enter a contest on your website, helping your website’s performance. Product packaging such as a rewards program also has a role to play in an integrated marketing communications plan. This could take the form of a rewards programs that allow consumers to “earn points” through purchases and taking part in an online community. Move away from transaction-based to relational marketing. Transactional marketing campaigns focus on the sales process for an item. Due to the strong emphasis put on the sale, it can be an overly aggressive hard sell that can put off the consumer. Relational marketing is more effective because it attempts to create a relationship between the customer and the salesperson or business that will build loyalty. An integrated campaign can build loyalty by engaging your database in ways that are not always a hard sell. What were the biggest mistakes that you made early on with your business? What did you learn from them? Forgetting this basic rule of accounting: “Profit is an opinion. Cash is a fact.” Years ago I left the financials to my accountant and rarely looked at my business financials. Now I watch my checkbook and accounts receivable like a hawk. What do you think are the most important skills or tools those in inbound/outbound marketing need to have? Find a true differentiator. Everyone has “quality products and great service” these days. What makes your products and services unique? Do you serve a specific niche? Do you have a different approach to a specific problem or technology? Define what truly separates you from the pack. Offer helpful information without a sales pitch. What do you think are the most overrated skills or tools? I believe the days of “old” selling styles using techniques like “The Puppy Dog Close” and the “Ben Franklin Close” are over. These techniques evolved when the sales person was in control of the information. Now customers are smart enough to see through this and may consider the salesperson an amateur. Today the customer has access to the same information as a salesperson. They can self-educate and will only speak to a salesperson when they have exhausted all self-help information. Today’s sales close is just the end of a process where you help the customer get answers and make an informed decision. How can marketing automation help small business owners? When most small business owners discuss client acquisition they think about hiring a salesperson. I’m willing to bet that 90 percent of sales hires end in failure. It’s not because the salesperson has poor skills or is lazy. It’s because most salespeople are awesome at objection handling and closing skills but stink at prospecting. To acquire new customers a business needs a constant stream of qualified leads. To grow your business don’t hire more people. Invest in marketing automation. And hire a great website designer to create a website that will attract, nurture and delight prospects driven to your site by automation. Prospects will qualify themselves as hot or cold leads to pass along to your awesome sales staff. How can businesses use marketing automation most effectively? 1. Provide Helpful Content Provide marketing content that helps the buyer by focusing on their areas of interest, rather than your background or how great you think your company is. Initially, their interest will be to solve a small problem, something they don’t need to hire your company to solve. But when your content gives them a viable solution, and they apply it, they start to see your company as a resource. This positions your business as top-of-preference and not just top-of-mind when your services or products are truly needed. 2. Tailor Your Information to the Stages of the Buyer’s Journey It’s important to give the prospective buyer the correct type of information relative to their position in the funnel. For example, a prospect might still be trying to figure out how big or important their problem or challenge is. They aren’t going to make any buying decisions until they know the scope of the situation and have some criteria in place for making a choice. Trying to sell anything to a person at this stage is a complete waste of time, and they won’t appreciate the pressure. A piece of marketing content such as a checklist or a simple diagnostic tool can help them walk through the issue in a thorough manner so they understand what they are really up against. Then they are ready to enter the decision-making phase of their buying journey armed with the information needed to make value-based choices. And guess what, when that information was sourced from your website, it makes your company look like a really good option. 3. Get Up Close and Personal You should do everything possible to ensure your prospect’s experience with your company is a positive one. Do this by making your marketing personal. Personal means that emails come from real people in your company, not just the “info” email address. It can also mean they are connected on social media to people in your company, not just be following the company page. Most importantly, it means your help-based marketing content really addresses their needs and it’s delivered in a timely manner. This shows your business puts the prospect’s interests ahead of its own. 4. Use a Range of Media to Retarget As many as 90 percent of visitors to a website never convert to sales or clients. Most of them won’t return. If you retarget through advertising on a wide range of mediums you will be more visible and it may help entice visitors back to your site. Retargeting allows you to bring traffic back and convert it later on. Offer helpful content they can subscribe to or download when they complete a form. Then email them to come back to get more helpful information. You can see how this easily translates into the design of a marketing funnel supported by a drip email marketing campaign. If potential leads also see you on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ you may end up in their subconscious thoughts. Link posts on social media back to your website, ideally a landing page that will channel them down the next step of your funnel – for example, an ebook, promotion, trial or a purchase. What trends, headlines or innovations in inbound/outbound marketing are you most excited about or interested in right now? Why? Outbound products no longer exist to be the sole source of information for buyers, despite the fact that’s what we have done since 1439 AD. Don’t forget that print cannot possibly compete with nearly free and virtually unlimited digital storage space. Your outbound marketing exists to create awareness of your company. It exists to drive prospects to your website to capture them in your marketing automation system. It exists to act like your inbound marketing, but better. Why better? Have you noticed how many email messages fill your inbox every day? Have you noticed how many direct mail pieces you receive every day? If your email inbox and USPS mailbox are like mine it’s like a 50:1 ratio of emails to direct mail. Start using direct mail again because nobody else is. Your marketing is going to be noticed because there is a lot less competition for your attention. Start mailing printed newsletters with links or prompts to your website and blog. Create rack cards and flyers and banners that invite prospects to learn more by using QR Codes which make it easy to access your digital sites. Ah, the much abused and maligned QR Code! Used properly these things are gold. Don’t take your customers to a static home page when they scan it. Take them to a landing page to sign up for your blog, webinar, eBook, etc. and let marketing automation take over from there. Want to learn more about inbound marketing? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
61 Leadership Quotes to ‘Keep On Keeping On’ Posted on May 31, 2016September 22, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick Being the leader of the pack means that you have followers–even on days when you’re not sure whether you are worthy to be followed. As you probably already know, the most effective leaders are those who are confident in their ability to lead, so make sure you keep your head on straight and your ducks in a row by remembering some words of advice about leadership. Here are 61 leadership quotes to live by: Always look for the fool in the deal. If you don’t find one, it’s you. —Mark Cuban, AXS TV chairman and entrepreneur Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted. — George Knelle There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work and learning from failure. – Colin Powell I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks. – Mark Zuckerberg Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. – Norman Schwarzkopf Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know everything happens for a reason. – Albert Schweitzer The art of leadership is saying no, not yes. It is very easy to say yes. — Tony Blair Become the kind of leader that people would follow voluntarily; even if you had no title or position. — Brian Tracy Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. — Peter Drucker Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself. — Oprah Winfrey Wonder what your customer really wants? Ask. Don’t tell. —Lisa Stone, BlogHer co-founder and CEO When I’m old and dying, I plan to look back on my life and say ‘wow, that was an adventure,’ not ‘wow, I sure felt safe. — Tom Preston-Werner Risk more than others think is safe. Dream more than others think is practical. — Howard Schultz The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. — Debbi Fields A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost. – Unknown The winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will, and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can’t do. – Dennis Waitley Make every detail perfect and limit the number of details to perfect. — Jack Dorsey Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. — Napoleon Hill No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team. – Reid Hoffman The difference between a boss and a leader: A boss says go!-A leader says Let’s Go! –E.M. Kelly Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you’re generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don’t make. — Donald Trump Everyone has an idea, but it’s really about executing the idea and attracting other people to help you with the idea. – Jack Dorsey I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’ — Muhammad Ali If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you. — Zig Ziglar If you see a bandwagon, it’s too late. – James Goldsmith You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou I daydreamed for motivation. I didn’t lie to myself and talk about my passions and how if I was passionate enough about something I could be successful at it. — Mark Cuban You must be the change you wish to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. — Thomas Edison A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. — Vidal Sassoon Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.-Michael Jordan If you ain’t making waves, you ain’t kickin’ hard enough. — Unknown How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top. — Yvon Chouinard (Founder of Patagonia) I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I’m saying? Move past the fear. — LL Cool J Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work. –— Robert Orben Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself. — George Bernard Shaw Bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other. —Abraham Lincoln You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose. – Dr. Seuss Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else. — Les Brown The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reach, don’t adjust the goals; adjust the action steps. — Confucius Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. — Theodore Roosevelt I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself. —Albert Einstein Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again. — James R. Cook Forget all the reasons it won’t work and believe the one reason that it will. — Author Unknown Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. — Robert Louis Stevnson Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all time thing. You don’t win once in awhile, you don’t do things right once in awhile, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. – Vince Lombardi Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive — Howard Thurman Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Dwight D. Eisenhower Never tell someone how to do something. Just tell them what needs to be done and they will amaze you with their ingenuity. – General George S. Patton Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. – Eleanor Roosevelt Earn your leadership every day. – Michael Jordan The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first. — Iyanla Vanzant Ninety percent of leadership is the ability to communicate something people want. — Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator You have to look at leadership through the eyes of the followers and you have to live the message. What I have learned is that people become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power and when you make heroes out of employees who personify what you want to see in the organization.” — Anita Roddick, businesswoman I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. When there’s that moment of ‘Wow, I’m not really sure I can do this,’ and you push through those moments, that’s when you have a breakthrough.” — Marissa Mayer, Yahoo Define success on your own terms, achieve it by your own rules, and build a life you’re proud to live.” — Anne Sweeney, Walt Disney Share these quotes on social media or with your leadership-minded friends.
15 Do’s and Don’ts of Working on Vacation Posted on May 27, 2016 by Keely Bailey This blog post is for all of you who want to take a vacation, but aren’t really sure how you can possibly do so and NOT spend the whole time working and replying to emails and calls instead of relaxing. As a small business owner, you want to have a plan in place before you leave, so you won’t spend almost every moment of your vacation with your phone glued to your hand to anxiously check email and stay on top of everything. You’ll wind up feeling like you need a vacation from your vacation and no one wants that. Read on for 15 tips for working on vacation while still actually taking a vacation. DO trust that your employees will be able to keep your business running smoothly in your absence. Relax. You hired them for a reason. DON’T set your employees up for failure by assuming they know the tribal knowledge you have in your head. Make a list of everything that needs to be handled while you’re out and any information they may need to know about your clients’ histories and go over the list with each employee. DO figure out a plan in advance for any issues that may arise. Let your employees know when and why they should contact you, if necessary. DON’T lose new business because you’re on vacation and you didn’t think to have a process in place to handle business development. DO train one or more of your employees to be the point person for business development while you’re away. This will also serve to empower your employees and help your business grow further even when you’re back. DO keep any weekly update meetings on the calendar and assign someone to run them for you to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. DO utilize marketing automation technology, which will keep your drip campaigns running smoothly. Your potential customers won’t even know you’re away as they’ll still be receiving emails from you. DO set up an Out of Office auto-responder that will be sent out to anyone who emails you while you’re on vacation. Make sure to mention the people who are covering for you in various areas and their contact information in your message. DON’T say that you’re on vacation in your auto-responder. The last thing you need is someone seeing that piece of information and breaking into your home or office since they know you’re away. Simply say that you will be out of the office from such date to such date. DO set up your voicemail to say that you’re out of the office, when you’ll be back and who the person calling can contact if they need to reach someone immediately. DON’T redirect your office line to your cell phone. Yes, it’s tempting, but don’t. If it already is forwarded, deactivate that before you leave for vacation. If your cell phone is your office phone, DO turn it off before heading out for each day. You can turn the phone back on if you need to make a call; look up something online; or use the Waze app or another navigational app for directions. But there’s no need to have it on for potential calls from clients all day. DO have a checklist of everything you need to pack, and also one of everything you need to do before leaving the office for vacation. Checking off those items one by one feels great. Plus, it gives you an added way to make sure everything is covered. DO plan ahead to take off the Monday after your vacation, especially if you’re returning home from being away on a Saturday or Sunday. You will want that extra day to return to reality and get laundry done; go grocery shopping; and yes, you can check your work emails and calls to your heart’s content then to prepare for returning to work fully on Tuesday. DO have fun! Rest, relax and recharge. Explore, eat great food, and have an adventure. Find a hammock, grab a book, and just enjoy! Our CEO, Don, does just that on a well deserved break every once in a while:
Complexity died with the Blackberry. Long live the simple CRM. Posted on May 26, 2016January 22, 2021 by Jonathan Herrick Steve Jobs once said that “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and when it comes to Apple products, it’s so true. Remember when all of the tiny buttons on your Blackberry were replaced with the sleek touch screen and single round button of your iPhone? I know that operating my iPhone for the first time felt like magic. As a user, you don’t get caught up in the complexities of the technology running your device. It’s designed so well that you intuitively know how to use it to do what you want – whether it’s to take a photo and text it to a friend, or download a new app. In the past, the CRM felt more like the Blackberry – complex, clunky and used primarily by enterprise level businesses. But, like smartphones, CRMs have evolved. Web-based with intuitive user interfaces, you no longer need a technical team to install and implement your CRM, making today’s CRM super accessible for small business. Today, while there is complex technology running your CRM in the background, the CRM brings simplicity to your business in several key ways. Here are four ways that this software can handle the complicated to make your own life that much simpler: Task Automation One of the ways that a small business CRM can make your life simple is by automating tasks, including things like following up with leads and creating tasks during the sales process. With task management off your plate, you and your staff have more time to concentrate on the things that impact your business. For instance, instead of spending time sorting through post-its or fumbling through an excel worksheet to find a contact, your salesperson can focus on building a relationship with the next contact to call right on their task list – getting you closer to your next sale. In fact, you can automate almost any work-related task (from scheduling follow-up calls to marketing). Combined with providing all workers easy access to centralized information, this software can make your business more efficient than you’ve ever dreamed. Ease of Use Some hesitate to embrace a CRM for small business because they imagine many potential headaches – stemming from their experience with outdated software that used to be as costly as it was bulky to install and operate. For small businesses without an IT department, that used to mean outsourcing implementation and spending lots of time and money to get a new software system to work. Fortunately, those fears are outdated, as modern CRM for small business is affordable, customizable, and easy for everyone to use – even the busy business owner who’d rather be working with customers or diving into his product than learning a new software system. This is vital because it means that everyone – from marketing managers to sales leaders will be able to adopt a new CRM system, improve their processes, and turn efficiencies into a boost for your business’s bottom line. Integrated Marketing One of the most attractive things about today’s small business CRM is that it makes marketing easier. For small businesses, investing in a CRM that includes marketing automation is a game changer. Your CRM makes it easy to track prospects and customers, gathering data along the way. The more data you gather on the CRM side, the more effective you can be on the marketing side. Being able to track essential data, such as which customers have bought particular products, helps you to better customize future marketing campaigns. CRM for small business makes marketing campaigns much more efficient than they would be without it, segmenting contacts in your database by title, interests, industry, lead source and automating follow-up. Ultimately, this allows you to learn more about your audience so you can create hyper-relevant messaging that hits home and increases their interest in your business and products. Accessibility One of the perks of today’s CRM for small business is that it’s a software as a service, or SaaS, model. This means that you access it on the web, rather than your own server. You and your employees can log in at work, at home, at a conference – wherever your internet connection and laptop take you. It also means that you can get real-time updates about your contacts. So if you’re at your son’s soccer game, your CRM can email you a notification that you have a hot prospect, and you can follow-up on the spot. More accessibility means less missed opportunities for your business. Simply put, the features of CRM don’t have to be complex and intimidating. Confucius said it best: “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” The best way to see how a CRM can make your life easier by automating your daily tasks and marketing efforts is to watch a demo.
7 Surprising Sales Lessons from a Fenway Park Hot Dog Vendor Posted on May 25, 2016August 4, 2020 by Jessica Lunk The guys and gals in yellow jerseys you see at the ballpark selling beer, hot dogs, popcorn, water, cotton candy – they really hustle. Their paycheck depends on their performance each game. So what can your business take away from a hot dog vendor’s sales strategy? NPR’s Planet Money podcast followed Fenway Park’s best food & beer vendor for one night. Here’s what we learned, and how you can apply it to your own business… You Don’t Need All the Breaks to Be the Best Vendors work on commissions, so the more they sell, the more they make. Every night, the vendors assemble to pick the food or drink they want to sell that night — the product. They also pick the section they want to sell it – the territory. The guys who’ve been there the longest get to pick first. Naturally, the veteran vendors pick beer. For everyone else, there is some serious strategy that goes into their pick. José is the 20th pick at Fenway – which means he never gets to sell beer. Yet, he’s been the top earning vendor at Fenway for years. He’s a bit legendary. So, while, like José, your business may not get all of the breaks, you can outsell and outperform others in your market – starting with understanding your audience. 1. Know Your Audience – and Your Territory Beer is a big seller at a baseball game, but there are intricacies to every product. For instance, parents aren’t going to buy their kids cotton candy on a school night, and diet coke sells well behind home plate (where the “vain” people sit, according to the interview) while regular coke sells much better in the bleachers. When you understand your audience’s background, their day to day lives, their motivations and challenges, you can match your product and messaging to meet their needs, giving you a much easier sell. Our persona workbook is an easy way for small businesses to better understand their target audience. 2. Keep Tabs on the Competition One of José’s strategies is to look at the vendors selling the same product. He tries not to pick a product that another good vendor is selling – which would cut into his commissions. And, when José makes a sale, he immediately starts scanning the crowd not just for where his next customer is, but for other vendors, too – so he can avoid selling in the same section as competing products. Keep tabs on your competition. Can you adjust your strategy to put your business where there’s less competition? How can you position your brand to differentiate your business from competitors? 3. Adapt to Change Sure, selling beer on a 90-degree day in Saint Louis (Hatchbuck’s headquarters) is easy. But what if it’s rainy and in the 50s and there’s no beer left to pick? (That happens when you’re frequently in the playoffs in October – like the Cardinals). Snow cones probably wouldn’t be your best bet, but hot dogs or hot chocolate might be a big seller. Competitors come and go, business needs evolve and technology is constantly changing. Pay attention to trends and forecasts so you can weather any storm. 4. Stay Focused At the end of the Planet Money podcast, José, the top earning vendor, doesn’t even know who the visiting team is that night. It just not important. José looks up to check the time, to see what inning it is and calculate how much time he has left to sell. But who the visiting team is? It just doesn’t influence José’s selling strategy. It’s easy to get excited about new ideas and get taken off task. While other vendors are stopping to watch a play, or take in the beauty of Fenway, José is selling another hot dog. You may be tempted to shift gears to a new product idea, or chase a hot new segment of the market. While it’s important to evolve, make sure every endeavor has a place in your overall strategy and keep distractions at bay. 5. Make Every Second Count The more efficient stadium vendors are, the more they can sell. So if they’re fumbling around trying to make the correct change for 5 minutes, they are missing out on another sale. It’s the same for your business. If your process tends to get gummed up, you’re missing out on opportunities to reach a potential customer and close another sale. When it comes to sales, timing and follow-up are everything. Get your sales and marketing process in place, then use the right technology to keep things humming in the background. 6. Delegate Effectively So, the vendors at Fenway work for a big food manufacturer, Aramark. In the old days, a manager – a suit in a stadium office – would decide what products to sell at the beginning of the night. What Aramark learned, however, is that the vendors actually have a much better pulse on the stadium. The mood of the crowd, a slight change in temperature can have an impact on what sells. Now, the vendors have complete control over which products go in the stands every night. And, because they’re paid on commission, they’re incentivized to pick what’s going to sell the best. By taking a bottom-up approach and putting the power of the “pick” in the hands of the vendors, Aramark has a much more efficient and lucrative process. One of the challenges of running a business can be delegating important tasks to your employees. But the fact is, you can’t do everything alone. When you give your employees more responsibility and autonomy, they are motivated to contribute more to the business – a win for everyone. Assign the right tasks to the right people, and you can focus on your overall strategy, rather than the day-to-day minutia. 7. Don’t Be Complacent CLEVELAND, OH – JULY 13: Onion, Mustard and Ketchup race during the Hot Dog Derby during the game with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field on July 13, 2008 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians defeated the Rays 5-2. (Photo by Cleveland Indians/Getty Images) Towards the end of the game, the Red Sox are up, and fans are starting to thin out. Most all of the vendors have left the stands – except for one. José is still working, and now that all of the competition has left, he moves out of his territory in the bleachers and does a loop around the stadium to hit other sections, selling hot dogs until the bitter end. Sheer persistence and hard work – neither take any inherent talent, but they yield big results. After all, José is the top vendor at Fenway park. You could slow down after hitting your sales goals for the month – but then you’re giving your competition the edge. Stay in the game and keep pushing yourself and your business to the top.
Don’t Miss Bill Gates’ 2016 Summer Reading Recommendations for Entrepreneurs Posted on May 24, 2016June 24, 2016 by Jeanna Barrett Each year Bill Gates — Seattle’s infamous billionaire who founded Microsoft — releases his must-read books for the summer. As the world’s wealthiest person, when Gates speaks, people listen. In recent years, Gates has embraced social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging to share his advice to business owners and entrepreneurs. He regularly blogs about topics such as philanthropy, energy, vaccinations, world health and books on his site Gates Notes. Each year, Gates releases a couple of book roundups. The most notable are his end-of-the-year book recommendations, and his summer reading list. In the summer, Gates tries to lighten it up just a bit and includes books that make him “think or laugh, or in some cases, do both.” Last year’s recommended reads included Hyperbole and a Half, by Allie Brosh; The Magic of Reality, by Richard Dawkins; and How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff. Keeping up with tradition, Gates released his 2016 summer reads last week in a blog post on his site. It’s just in time for reading in your favorite summer spot – with grass between your toes, or on a picnic blanket in the sunshine, or in a lazy hammock swing on the beach. “This summer, my recommended reading list has a good dose of books with science and math at their core,” he said in his post. “But there’s no science or math to my selection process. The following five books are simply ones that I loved, made me think in new ways, and kept me up reading long past when I should have gone to sleep.” Below are the five books Gates recommends for you to add to your GoodReads this summer: Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson Stephenson’s dystopian Sci-Fi novel tells the tale of humans trying to survive in space after the Earth gets catastrophically ruined in a meteor shower. The surviving members of our planet rebuild themselves in space, then 5 thousand years later decide to journey back to Earth. Stephenson combines science with philosophy and technology to create a unique book asking, “What if the world was to end?” Would you survive? “You might lose patience with all the information you’ll get about space flight — Stephenson, who lives in Seattle, has clearly done his research — but I loved the technical details,” said Gates. “Seveneves inspired me to rekindle my sci-fi habit.” How Not to be Wrong, by Jordan Ellenberg Ellenberg’s nonfiction book looks at the power of mathematical thinking and how math touches everything we do — math is not just formulaic problems in high school math class that you think you’ll never use again in ‘real life.’ “The book’s larger point is that, as Ellenberg writes, ‘to do mathematics is to be, at once, touched by fire and bound by reason’— and that there are ways in which we’re all doing math, all the time,” said Gates. The Vital Question, by Nick Lane The vital question this book revolves around is: why are we here, and why are we the way we are? Lane spends nearly 400 pages addressing evolutionary history and proposing solutions to problems that have plagued scientists such as how did our cells evolve into male and female, which doesn’t exist in bacteria? Lane answers a lot of these questions by proposing energy is the reason for all that we are and all we’ve become. “Even if the details of Nick’s work turn out to be wrong, I suspect his focus on energy will be seen as an important contribution to our understanding of where we come from,” said Gates. The Power to Compete, by Ryoichi Mikitani and Hiroshi Mikitani Gates traveled to Japan for Microsoft 30 years ago and has been fascinated with Japanese culture ever since. This book examines Japanese culture through a series of dialogues between Ryoichi, an economist who died in 2013, and his son Hiroshi, founder of the Internet company Rakuten. They dissect why Japan was at the top of it’s game for decades with world-leading products and has since fallen behind South Korea and China — can Japan’s economy recover? “Although I don’t agree with everything in Hiroshi’s program, I think he has a number of good ideas,” said Gates. “The Power to Compete is a smart look at the future of a fascinating country.” Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Noah Yuval Harar Harar’s book has been compared to “A Brief History of Time,” but readers suggest the book is a lot more manageable and concise in the way it tackles such a complex topic. Harar examines why out of six species that existed 100,000 years ago, homosapiens are the only ones left. How did our species survive? How did we create cities and dominate the other species? How did we become to believe in different religions, create money and commerce, and trust books and laws? “Both Melinda and I read this one, and it has sparked lots of great conversations at our dinner table,” said Gates. “Although I found things to disagree with — especially Harari’s claim that humans were better off before we started farming — I would recommend Sapiens to anyone who’s interested in the history and future of our species.” About the Author Jeanna Barret is an award-winning online marketer who uses the power of words and data to drive brand awareness and growth through inbound organic channels such as content, social media and SEO. She has led organic marketing for high-growth startups and fortune 500 companies, with an expertise focus on small business. She’s been named ‘Top 40 Under 40’ of brand marketers on the west coast, and ‘Best in the West’ for financial technology marketing. She is also co-founder of First Page, a boutique content strategy agency. Visit FirstPageStrategy.com to learn more about her.
5 Marketing Lessons Learned from the St. Louis Blues Posted on May 23, 2016May 26, 2016 by Jonathan Herrick St. Louis (Hatchbuck’s HQ) is ranked as one of the best sports cities in America, according to the Wall Street Journal. So it’s no surprise that diehard Blues fans and St. Louisans as a whole have ignited the city with excitement and energy as the Blues head into game 5 of the conference finals against the Sharks. Like in most cities, sports are a galvanizing force that brings the community together. For years I have been a Cardinal and Rams fan, going to games with my family and building lifelong memories. When it comes to the Blues, though, I have to admit, I have been somewhat of a casual follower. This year, however, it’s different. I haven’t missed a Blues playoff game yet. The question is, why am I hooked? The Blues have done an amazing job of connecting to die hard fans over the years and have also found a number of ways to reach casual fans like myself through their marketing efforts, helping them to grow their fan base. So if your business is looking to better engage with your audience and connect with new and existing fans, here are 5 marketing lessons learned from the St. Louis Blues that can help: Make Social Personal In an era where some would rather give up their left arm than part with their mobile device, social media is nicely positioned to help brands to create a more personal relationship – right where customers and potential customers are. One way the Blues make social more personal is by connecting with their fans via Twitter. They launched the hashtag #WeBleedBlue as a movement to unite the community and allow fans to share their passion for the Blues hockey team: My yard is better than yours️ LGB #stlblues #webleedblue @STLBluesSociety pic.twitter.com/GHBq0QE7cM — Autumn Blessing (@AutumnBlessing4) May 16, 2016 The Blues marketing team also responds in a real and authentic way with their fans on social, creating a more personal experience for their customers. A great example is their interactions with a new hockey fan, Anthony Holmes (@Soloucity) a.k.a. “Tony X”. Tony was surfing channels on his TV to find the St Louis Cardinal baseball game when he discovered game 7 of the Blues vs Blackhawks series… We all have followers on social media that post about our business or our industry. But the St. Louis Blues took engagement to the next level and reached out to Tony to start a conversation: Welcome to Hockey Twitter & #stlblues fandom, @soIoucity! Want to check out Game 3 live? It’s on us! #WeAllBleedBlue https://t.co/27o5fB69KE — St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) April 26, 2016 They even invited him to game 3 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Looks like @soIoucity is enjoying his first hockey game. #WeAllBleedBlue #stlblues pic.twitter.com/HAsJbu9MWn — St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) May 4, 2016 Then, the NHL jumped into the social media madness: What’s up @soIoucity? #StanleyCuphttps://t.co/fnb7qSoeHG — #StanleyCup Playoffs (@NHL) May 4, 2016 Tony’s twitter followers exploded from 1,600 to over 90,000 followers and he even found himself on Good Morning America and interviewed by Yahoo sports. The sudden rise of this social media sensation became a great way for Blues to promote their business in a personal way and extend their reach beyond their existing fan base. Your fans are on social media right now. If you’re not using social to reach them with a personal conversation, you’re missing out. Social media outreach is an effective way to join in on what is being said about your brand and gives you a chance to show an authentic side to your business. So if you are going to market your biz on social, keep it real. Run A Contest If you watch playoff hockey then you know that players around the NHL grow their beards during the playoffs. The St. Louis Blues took this tradition and turned it into a simple and fun contest for their fans: The Blues Beard-a-thon® is a creative marketing strategy incentivizing fans to grow their own beard during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, win awesome prizes and help raise money for charity. Contests are a great way to grow your fan base and increase engagement with your audience. Promoting user generated content on social – like videos and pictures – can organically boost the reach of your business and build a community around your brand. As an added bonus, contests allow you to capture data from your target market. You can obtain basic contact info, like name and email address. And, depending on the type of contest you run, you can find out even more – like a participant’s preferences, their title or profession, or what company they work for. With contest data, you can segment your participants and continue to market to them with personalized messaging through channels like email marketing and retargeting – nurturing your relationship with your brand fans for the long haul. Seize The PR Opportunity When Stan Kroenke decided to move the Rams to Los Angeles, it left a deep void in the St. Louis sports community. While the fans were in shock mode, it didn’t take long for the Blues to step up to the plate. Within days of the NFL announcing the Rams move to LA, the Blues worked with the Cardinals to drop the first puck at the Jan 14th hockey game. It was a timely message by the Blues PR team to the fans of St. Louis, that the Blues stand united with the other sports teams in #STL and it’s audience: We are #TeamSTL. Our town. Our teams.https://t.co/whOJ5id2OW — St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) January 15, 2016 The Blues give a great example of how to leverage PR opportunities to the fullest. The Blues could easily look at the Cardinals as a competitive business for the local entertainment dollar. Instead, by partnering with another successful business, they seized the opportunity to put their brand front and center and take advantage of the trending conversation. Are you missing key PR opportunities to promote your business? Is there a recent change within your industry? Is there a national trend you can hitch your wagon to? Maybe there are strategic partnerships you can tap into to further grow your brand and drive sales. Create a Product People Love The Blues have always had their die-hard fans. But, like any business, the Blues have to continue to improve the product on the ice to grow their fan base and be a team their audience wants to engage with. Last year the Blues had a rough time in the playoffs, exiting in the first round after a successful regular season. High hopes dashed, they found themselves in the offseason with tough questions to answer. The decision was made to let go of some high profile players even though they were fan favorites. After all, the ultimate goal is to win a Stanley Cup, and the Blues felt that changes had to be made to get there. The Blues narrowed their focus on fostering a better culture in the locker room and bringing in that added playoff experience. The result? A more cohesive team aligned to the mission of producing a better product for the playoffs and winning the championship. As a business, it is so easy to keep your products at status quo and get frustrated when marketing doesn’t drive the growth you are looking for. But is your product worth marketing? Like in sports, winning products sell. Even the best marketing in the world can’t propel a tired or misaligned product. A key to capturing not just the wallets but the hearts of your customer is a commitment to delivering great products. The Blues’ passion about delivering a great product in the playoffs shows and it has fueled their efforts of reaching more fans. Make a Difference Gerry and Wyatt Nelson from Saskatoon were invited to game 2 of the Blues vs. Sharks playoff series this year. It’s not the first time that the Blues have connected with their passionate fan base and offered fans to attend the games on the house. But this one might be the most meaningful. Gerry became legally blind at the age of 26. His son, Wyatt, has been the eyes of the game, calling the play-by-play for his dad in the stands at the Saskatoon Blades hockey games: The Blues picked up the father/son story from an online video, which prompted a phone call to the family from Doug Armstrong, GM of the St. Louis Blues, and Kelly Chase, the Blues announcer and former player. The St. Louis Blues offered for Gerry and his son to be their guest for their playoff game against the San Jose Sharks. Wyatt even got to spend time in the box announcing the play by play of the game. It was an experience of a lifetime for Wyatt and Gerry and a great opportunity to let people know what the Blues stand for – making a difference in the lives of hockey fans, not just selling tickets. Often, when we’re doing our best to run a business, our marketing initiatives focus so heavily on driving new customers and growing sales that making a difference to our fanbase gets lost. Have you made a difference lately? Look for ways to make an impact with your marketing by mentoring kids in the community, organizing a 5K for charity or even making a simple gesture like sending a thank you note to your customers. When your goal is to make a difference – not just to make a buck – you connect with your audience in a more human way, building brand authenticity and fostering goodwill. If your business could use a little marketing inspiration, look no further than the St. Louis Blues. They have shown great examples of how being personal on social, building an awesome product, and making a difference with their fan base has attracted a whole new fan base – myself among them. For me, I am no longer a casual fan, I am all in. The Blues have pulled on my heart strings and have given me more than a few reasons to cheer for them this season and beyond. LGB!