Archive for Online Sales Tactics

6 Quick Tips For Overcoming Blogcentric Writer’s Block

April 15, 2010 Business Development, Inbound Lead Generation, Social Media Marketing No comments

“Curtis, can you… maybe… I don’t know… write me a blog today?” – Scott Smeester.  Why yes, of course I can!

Don't let writing and content generation stress you outBlogging is a crucial part of developing your digital identity; it provides an opportunity for you to share your thoughts, beliefs, practices, ideas, and more with the public.  For businesses, creating a steady stream of blogs expands digital real estate, creates more opportunities to be found, and is an all-in-all better business practice to increase the human-element of business.  However, maintaining good and remarkable content can be a bit strenuous.

Six easy things for overcoming blogcentric writer’s block:

1) Make a schedule

At least once a month create a schedule of when blog posts are to be published.  Creating a list of keywords can generate a list of topics in advance, which will also provide more structure; maintaining a cohesive thought process naturally increases your potential subscribers.  When the title of a blog includes “part 4 of 5,” people tend to wonder what happened in the previous three posts and what comes out next.

2) Talk about what is happening NOW

Important and remarkable things happen to you and your business every single day.  Write about and reflect upon the powerful things that come up.  For example: If you have a great sales call that leaves you with some interesting points to review, then get them written down!  One of the greatest values of blogging is the ability to share these experiences and what you have learned with people.

3) Conduct an interview

There are people that you know, right now, with a great story to be told.  Finding and interviewing a person relating to your niche can be a wonderful opportunity to create some serious content and revitalize you with new ideas to write about.  Interviewing professionals can also help boost some natural traffic to your blog and website.

4) Make a list

Practicing what I preach… right now.  Clearly, you have methodologies, systems, and information that makes your life easier – group some of these things together and construct a list of helpful tips, tools, and/or resources to help others.  If that doesn’t work for you, then maybe make a list of the top 10 professionals in your field and why you think they are absolutely crushing it right now.

5) Write a follow-up

Remember that great blog you wrote a few days/weeks/months ago?  Try critically analyzing some of the feedback that you received from a buzzworthy piece you did in the past; create a secondary piece on the same subject that revisits the topic and includes new information.

6) Ask yourself and/or your audience a question

The content for one of our most read blogs came from posting the question, “What is selling right now?”  Honestly, we barely had to write the response due to the incredible volume of responses.

  • What is something that I learned today?
  • Where do I want to be in 6 months, and how am I going to get there?
  • What makes me the very best at what I do?
  • What is the most important thing to me and my business?

Even the most passionate and articulate people can have moments, even days, when great content doesn’t pour out of them, so don’t get too distressed.  The most important thing that you can do when facing a mental block is to START; just relax, get something written or recorded, and the rest will likely fall into place.

Smeester & Associates offers strategic growth planning and social media marketing solutions.  Contact us for more information regarding solutions that can change the way that you do business.

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Social Media Marketing 101: How Facebook Can Help You Make Money

April 12, 2010 Life in a Start-Up, Online Sales Tactics, Social Media Marketing No comments

Facebook currently has over 400 million users worldwide and more than half of those users log in every single day.  With this many people participating, why wouldn’t you try to market yourself and your company on it?

Social media marketitng 101: Using Facebook for businessesUsing Facebook for business might be easier than most people think.  As part of the social media revolution, it has been designed to be easy to use and to help expand your personal/professional network.  Utilizing this resource can make a world of difference for your business with a little patience, a fresh approach, and the ability to shamelessly promote yourself and your business.

Why use Facebook?

Facebook allows you to communicate and interact with people that are interested in what your business has to say and offer.  The social media power-house also provides the opportunity to communicate without the micro-blog (160 characters) limitations.

Three easy ways to utilize and leverage Facebook

1. Targeted marketing campaigns

  • Using specified information about your company, products, and services, you can create a customized customized ad campaign that can reach thousands of people world wide.
    • Facebook allows customers to target who sees their advertisements based on user profile information.  This allows companies to focus an particular demographics relating to age, gender, marital status, interests, and more.
    • Campaigns can be Pay Per Click (PPC) which only charges your company when a potential customer clicks on your advertisement.
    • Campaigns can also be Pay Per Impression; this option charges up front based on how many times companies want their  advertisement to be seen.
2. Facebook fan pages
  • Fan pages expand the digital real estate and expand the opportunity for potential customers to find a particular business.
  • Creating a fan page allows people in your network, current customers/clients, and more to connect with your company.  Utilizing fan pages also allows communication and direct interaction with those that are “fans” of your company.
    • A fan page functions like an individual user profile, and provides the creator/administrator(s) access to monitor and control the information and communication on the page itself.
    • Communicating through “status updates” allows quick basic information to be quickly disseminated to all of the company’s “fans.”
    • Fan pages offer another opportunity to list the company’s contact information, hours of operation, products, services, upcoming events, and more.
    • Facebook fan pages also offer a clear opportunity to “review” a company, which allows customers, clients, and related people to provide a rating about their experience.

3. Facebook groups

  • The average Facebook user is a member of 13 groups.  Groups offer more possible opportunities to communicate, network, increase credibility, and expand participation in social media
  • Facebook offers thousands of “groups” regarding a seemingly limitless amount of topics.
    • Finding the “right” kind of group will require some creative searching, but once users have found legitimate groups that create remarkable and useful information, the professional opportunities can grow exponentially.
    • If there isn’t the ‘right” group for what you are trying to promote, you can create one!  Creating a group allows you to moderate and control the subject matter being discussed.
    • Groups are a great ways to develop networking possibilities as well as events and opportunities in the real world.

Getting involved in social media is becoming increasingly more necessary for businesses, and Facebook is definitely one of the best opportunities for most businesses today.  Facebook demographics are constantly changing and growing, and it is no longer only used by college-aged young adults, in fact the highest percent of users (29%) is aged 35-54.  Now is the best time to grow and develop your digital identity, and Facebook is a great opportunity to do just that.

Smeester & Associates offers services to maximize professional Facebook identities.  Contact Us for more information.

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Hiring Sales People – Why Place SO Much Value On Industry Experience?

March 23, 2010 Business Development, CEO Best Practices, Online Sales Tactics One comment

Companies looking to expand their sales force often consider “industry experience” as a must-have for their candidates;How to Hire Sales Stars Every Time – Free Video B1 a smart business would quickly eliminate this practice, and place more value on the quality of the salesperson and their history in selling.

A great salesperson is great regardless of the industry!  Any savvy professional in sales should agree that performance history, adaptability, comfort, confidence, and passion are infinitely more valuable qualities and skills than years of experience in any particular niche. Making sure that your next sales hire can demonstrate sales core competencies leaves them open and available to focus their energy on learning about your company, business, and products.  A person who already understands the science of sales and the ability to relate with your potential clients will definitely be trainable in your particular market, and educating that person will be incalculably less expensive than hiring another sales dud who already has spent 10 years in your field.

Industry Experience is not nearly as valuable as salesmanship and a proven history of sales.

In the ever-changing world that we live in, it would be wise to focus on those that already know today’s sales/marketing scene, and have the know-how to continuously evolve with the market around them.  Finding sales stars can make any business grow tremendously, and a real sales all-star will always shine no matter what they are selling.  Next time you are looking to grow your sales force, don’t limit yourself to people who have been in your field of business.

Ultimately, it should be infinitely more cost effective and fun to train somebody in your market, products, and services, than teaching them about selling.  You absolutely can hire great salespeople, and the first step is changing your approach.  The science of sales is proven to work, so leave the selling to the sales force and make yourself more available to continue making the best business you can.

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Social Media Marketing 101: Don’t Get Caught Up In Just Selling

March 19, 2010 Business Development, Life in a Start-Up, Online Sales Tactics, Social Media Marketing No comments

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is an incredibly powerful tool, but so many businesses stepping in to this world get too immersed in the SELLING aspect and lose track of the SOCIAL aspect.

Stay on target with Social Media Marketing

Stay on target with Social Media Marketing

The internet has become the next “great conversation” of history; millions of people every day log in to a number of sites to read, post, respond, and develop new digital communities.  Recent studies indicate that nearly 60% of Americans engage in social media (Facebook, Twitter, linkedin, etc.), which makes Social Media Marketing a wonderful opportunity to get your business’ message out to an incredible amount of people for very little (if any) cost to you.  However, too many new businesses step into this digital world with the intent to only sell, and don’t seem to know that in this arena PARTICIPATION leads to sales.  Only 25% of social media users (roughly 46.3 million Americans) “want to be sold to”, which leaves the remaining 75% of users looking to simply engage and participate.

The expectation now is that you, as a business, interact with the scene and not just post frequently about your products and your services.  Develop a personality on the web, share your thoughts, promote interesting other people, and sell yourself.  Even if you have the absolute BEST product and service in the industry right now, YOU still have to sell it and most consumers are more likely to buy from a person they can relate to.  The opportunity will arise for you to sell as long you stay involved with potential customers.

Mikal Belicove, an author and Social Media Adviser, has stated, “It’s called Social Media, not Social SELLING.”  Remembering that media is a crucial part of the whole equation will aid you greatly as you begin and continue your company’s growth in Social Media Marketing.  Above all, the expanding realm of using social media as a sales tool is about developing a RELATIONSHIP and sharing your voice with a vast amount of potential new customers.

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Plug Your Website’s Sales Leaks

February 24, 2010 Business Development, CEO Best Practices, Online Sales Tactics No comments

Fix inefficiencies in how you handle and follow up with visitors once they do get to your site.

How to fix inefficiencies in websitesMany people pay a lot and work real hard on getting visitors to their website, but miss opportunities to close more business once the visitor is in the sales funnel.

It is easy to increase the number of visitors to your your website by spending more on advertising, using social media, etc. to create more traffic.  However, many websites are missing a great opportunity to simply increase the conversion rate from those visitors they already have coming.

A website that I’ve been working with since 1997, PlanetUrine.com, is a niche business that helps pet owners with the very common problem of their pets urinating in the home.  They sell and ship a lot products to help pet owners train their pets who have this problem, as well as help them rid their home of stains and odors as a result of this behavior (don’t laugh – if you have a pet, chances are you need their help).  They have over 700 visitors per day coming to the site, and one of the lead capture systems is designed to allow pet owners to ask a question of a specialist about a problem their pet is having (Ask a Specialist).  The form gets a lot of questions every day and helps customers make the decision to buy.  However, when I was reviewing this system in depth it revealed holes that may be losing more sales than it’s gaining.  Following are four areas that are contributing to some major inefficiencies:

  • A semi-automated process
    At the end of everyday, a person reviews and replies to each question.  Yes, they are using templates so the messages don’t have to be written over and over, but somebody still has to take a 1/2 hour to an hour to reply to everybody.  How much money has been spent over the years on this process that could be completely automated?
  • Only one message
    They close a lot of sales for this particular lead capture system, however it is done with only one message.  What about the person who didn’t read the first email, or the person who got busy after reading the first message and forgot about them?  Industry best practices generally says it takes up to 5 messages to close the deal so I believe my client has been missing out on a lot of sales.
  • Only one ‘bucket’
    The lead capture form inevitably attracts pet owners to ask questions for problems that my client does not sell with his niche products, but think about it; these are pet owners that have a problem of some sort.  Why not sign up with an affiliate and refer these people and capitalize on that visit?  Cost recovery in action!
  • A bit antiquated
    The messages have always been well written and personal, however they were all plain text.  Most people have HTML email now and studies have shown that nice graphics, and especially images – in this case people with their pets – really enhances the warmth of the messages and increases conversions.

The great opportunity is that there are a number of lead capture and sales systems like the aforementioned that have gone untouched for several years.  For all involved – my client for more sales, me for more consulting work, and most important the visitor for their enhanced experience – we have an opportunity to make improvements and leverage new technologies to take PlanetUrine.com to a new level.

Base Salaries – Tie it to Activity

March 31, 2009 CEO Best Practices, Online Sales Tactics No comments

I hope you don’t think a base salary for salespeople is merely a kind act on your part to help your new hire through until they hit stride. And as altruistic as you are, I hope that it isn’t merely a way to alleviate your concern that your new hire would have no motivation at all without some sort of salary. Good points. However, so many CEO’s waste the opportunity to use a base salary as a way to gain momentum for their new hire.

By now I hope you know your metrics – you know, how many dials to contact, contacts to appointment, appointments to close, etc. For a new sales hire, the most important thing you should be concerned about for the first 90 days is activity – i.e. how many dials, or door knocks, or networking events, etc. And because you’re paying a base salary, you need to leverage your kind act and tie it to their activity. You need to make it perfectly clear, up front, that their base salary is tied to a certain level of activity. 90% of your activity = 90% of base. Any problems?

Use the base salary for all it’s worth! Eventually your new hire will run into sales. And because you’re tracking the activity (see “You’re using Track-It sheets, right?!“), you’ll start to see patterns where they need improvement and the areas where they can be trained.

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