S&MM SoundOff

Facebook and Sales

Several weeks ago at my Dun & Bradstreet blog, I put out a call, a request, for folks who are using Facebook (or other social networks) successfully and driving new business, new sales.

I did not think I would get a ton of response, but I did. There were several dozen responses of business owners and sales execs pointing to their new Facebook Group or Page. Many companies provided details of how Facebook had helped their restaurant, their startup, their membership.

Three of my favorites:
Parenting Young Girls, sponsored by Dot Girl Products, for taking an approach to helping young girls and Moms through a challenging time.

Eric Wolf and his work with The Art of Storytelling with Children.

Jamie Tedford's work with Atlantis WeatherGear.

Okay, I can't add -- but here's a fourth one that I really liked because they created events and promotions that drove people to sign up. Yes, it was for a wine tasting, which is often popular, but it worked.
La Fonda Del Sol.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Many small and large business owners and executives think that all this social media craze will pass. Some of these same people thought the "internet" craze would pass, too. And why on earth would someone need a webpage... You get my point.

Do I love everything about Facebook and social networks? No. They are free in that they don't charge you a monthly fee, but they are far from free in the amount of time they take to manage and grow. But it is hard to ignore that people are using it to drive awareness and actual sales.

If you have a story about your Facebook success, please leave your email in the comments and I'll get back to you right away.

TJ McCue is the lead content guy at Q4 Sales and an investor in Online Scheduling and Workforce Management Software by Shiftboard. He is passionate about creating strategic content for demand generation and actively researching ways to incorporate traditional marketing (telemarketing, appointment setting, email, direct mail) into new media marketing. He is at work on an educational portal around appointment setting. His blog about online marketing profiles some of these Facebook successes. He will continue to blog about the intersection of Sales & Social Media here at Soundoff.

Kudos to Google's New Chrome: Anyone Download it Yet?

The war between Google and Microsoft has gone head to head, or at least browser to browser. Forget taking on word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs or e-mail, which in truth, are far from tumbling Microsoft’s dominance with Word, Excel and Powerpoint. This time, Google has gone one step further, challenging Microsoft on a whole new front.

September 2 marked the launch of Google’s new open-source Internet browser, Chrome. And it’s not only Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) that’s feeling the flames of competition, but Moxilla’s Firefox too. Chrome’s simplistic design and sophisticated technology is intended to be a clean and fast browser, easy to navigate and difficult to crash. But what brought about the sudden release of Chrome? What was the method behind its madness? According to the official Googleblog, in a post titled, “A Fresh Take on the Browser,” Chrome was created, “to help drive innovation on the Web.” Well, they sure are paving the way.

While Chrome is only for Windows (for now) and operates with a simple browser design, there are more outside-the-box ideas than meets the eye.  Chrome offers a private browsing feature, in which nothing will be recorded or saved during your session—brilliant or potentially problematic? Chrome also has individual page loadings that prevent your Internet from crashing–both features IE lacks.

According to the official Googleblog, the company lives by a certain mantra - “launch early and iterate.” They sure did launch early, albeit accidentally. Word of the new browser leaked onto a comic book through the Googleblog. But was the September 2 release date also a leak?

Early on September 2, I decided to download this internet revelation for myself. When I tried to click any link to install the new browser, I was simply sent back to the original Google.com page which we all know and love. The page seemed to be unavailable - an unintentional hoax. Guess Google had some last minute glitches to polish or the release date was another “oopsie daisie”…

Google is still learning how to survive in the technological superhighway, and--despite glitches, leaks and heavy criticism--they are plunging forward with boldness and audacity. Peter O’Kelly, an independent analyst told The New York Times in “Search Giant Wants a Share of Browser Market,” that “Google needed to make a move to make sure it controls its own destiny.” And that is exactly what Google is doing.

Like Apple adapted to the music downloading plague by creating the infamous iTunes, Google is confronting Microsoft’s monopoly with innovation and creativity. Google is attempting to redefine the world of Internet browsing, or at least redefine Microsoft’s role in it.

Making an Especially Positive Connection

By Mike McCue, Editor in Chief, Sales & Marketing Management

Every day, as I get deluged with e-mails from increasingly obscure and specialized organizations, I marvel at the way modern life allows us to define ourselves to the smallest detail. I haven't checked, but I can honestly say I wouldn't be surprised if there is a group out there comprised of trade press editors with brown hair and hazel eyes. (If there is, please don’t e-mail me with an invitation to join.)

But once in a while, I see something that makes me happy we’re all able to connect with each other the way we are. That happened last week, when I first became aware of www.GettingHired.com, a job portal and social networking tool that connects job seekers with disabilities to employers, vendors and advocacy groups who specialize in the specific needs of that market.

The 23 million Americans with disabilities are a largely untapped pool of talent, so GeetingHired.com’s ability to identify their skills, talents and experience, prepare them for interviews, and then connect them with employers, is one of those great ideas whose time is long overdue.

The official site launches on October 22 to coincide with the start of the National Disability Employment Awareness Month, so be sure to keep it in mind the next time you have an opening!

The Have's and Have Not's

By Dave Stein

I'm getting very concerned, now that technology is playing an increasing role in selling resulting from the Sales 2.0 generation of software tools and capabilities that are now gradually being introduced. 

The reason I'm concerned is that there is a gap between sellers who are technology "have’s" and those who are technology "have-not's." All the technology in the world isn’t going to help people who don’t have the requisite skills and, more importantly, the inherent traits, to be consistently effective sellers.  On the other hand, consistent performers will have to become considerable more technology capable to maintain their performance levels going forward. 

ESR has found that 25-33% (depending on the industry) of B2B sales people aren’t qualified for the jobs they hold and neither training nor coaching will improve their performance.  This is a critical problem.  It is one of the root causes of the troubling statistics that we’ve all seen regarding sales performance and job tenure.

Let me elaborate on the issue of personal traits.  Depending on their specific job, we know that varying proportions of these among other traits are required for a sales person to be successful:  courage, tenacity, intelligence, problem solving, integrity (inward- and outwardly directed), self-motivation/drive, optimism, and competitiveness.

Not only does a seller have to be technologically comfortable (if not savvy) to leverage these exciting new tools and capabilities—they must have the right DNA (traits) to be a consistently effective seller, as well.

So let’s not get so enamored with the promise of an anywhere-access, collaborative, content-rich, best-practices, wiki-enabled, personalized iWorld that we elevate the vision of Sales 2.0 to the lofty position we did with CRM—that of a universal elixir.  CRM didn’t deliver on the promise because no one thought about what’s in it for the sales person.  Sales 2.0 does hold great promise for those companies that understand the importance of the three P’s—people, process and product—and have the right infrastructure in place to support a new generation of technology-enabled selling.  But for those companies that don’t, so far as improvements in sales effectiveness is concerned, Sales 2.0 has all the business value of a kid’s video game.

Dave Stein is CEO & Founder of ES Research Group, Inc. He is also a monthly strategy coulmnist for Sales & Marketing Management magazine.

I Need A Quick Answer - Help!

By Mona Piontkowski, SeminarInformation.com

We certainly live in a fast-paced world. It used to be days, even weeks before most of the nation learned who won the Presidental election. Now, everytime one of the candidates attends a rally, gives a speech or makes a misstep we hear about it immediately. And we all know that the minute we walk out of a store with the latest techno-gadget somewhere someone is developing one that will do more...faster and easier. How can we possibly keep up with it all?

In an age where daily newspapers are often outdated before they even go to press it is difficult for professionals to stay on top of their professions, i.e. be state-of-the-art. Of course you could look for a book in the bookstore - but by the time it is available the information will, most likely, be outdated. The Internet could be a good starting point for help - but then the information on many of those Internet sites is only as good as the person who posted it.

One industry, the training industry, has always tried to address problems as they develop. Seminars are developed overnight and are usually presented within days or weeks of a new technology, new problem or new idea. Seminar providers have jumped in to help indivduals and organizations solve problems as they crop up.  As we are headed towards recession and the numbers of foreclosures increase Lorman Education has come up with a presentation,  "Foreclosure and Repossession" (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbpun/foreclosure-and-repossession) and Sterling Education Services has "Foreclosure Procedures" (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbufw/foreclosure-procedures). Both of these seminars are directed towards attorneys and real estate professionals who must face this ever growing problem.

It has always been difficult for those in the health care profession to stay on top of it all. Cross Country Education and Therapy Network Seminars present a whole slew of programs directed towards health care professionals. "Autism Spectrum Disorders: Guiding Families through Acceptance, Understanding and Progress" (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbugb/autism-spectrum-disorders-guiding-families-through) from Cross Country Education assists health care providers in dealing with the current increase in autism cases in the US. Lorman Education presents " Individuals With Asperger Syndrome Or High Functioning Autism: Understanding Their Community And Educational Strengths And Needs" directed towards special education teachers, classroom teachers and parents.

It has always easy to find a seminar that explains the latest version of  software as well as any new software that is developed. Seminars are probably the best way to stay on top of  the latest release from Microsoft and others without having to try to work it all out for yourself. Some seminar companies who present these type of seminar include Learning Tree International, CompuMaster, Hands of  Technology Transfer and Global Knowledge. You can find a quick one-day overview seminar or a week long in-depth coverage.

Seminars have always been there in the past - right after the horror of September 11th seminars were developed on disaster recovery for those firms who feared that they too might have to recover after a major impact on their business. Learning Tree International's "Disaster Recovery Planning: Ensuring Business Continuity" (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbtkc/disaster-recovery-planning-ensuring-business-continuity) teaches businesses how to continue to function after a disaster either man-made or natural effects their business. CareerTrack Seminars developed "Emergency Planning and Disaster Management for Your Organization" (http://www.seminarinformation.com/qqbsqx/emergency-planning-and-disaster-management-for-your) that also addresses dealing with earthquakes, floods, fires, and computer issues such as hackers.

You can always find seminars that address common problems like stress and time management or help you brush up on skills like finance and accounting but now, more than ever, seminar providers are addressing issues as quickly as they develop. So next time you need a quick answer look for a seminar provider on the Internet or check out the local community college and you may find help is not very far away.

Why Must It All Be So Complicated?

By Mona Piontkowski (www.SeminarInformation.com)

Remember back in the good old days, yesterday, when the phone on your desk was the only way you could communicate with the outside world at work?

Recently I attended a conference of techies. I was definitely the oldest one in the room and the least connected. I had my trusty cell phone with me - I could take a picture or a video at a moment's notice if need be, I could read my email on my phone, I could search the web, I could get my GPS enabled phone to locate me and then locate the nearest Starbucks - but still I felt inadequate. First of all, I was taking notes on - are you ready - a pad using a pen - everyone around me was busy writing directly on their wifi laptop. I was chastised at breakfast for not knowing the wifi password -
hey guys, I left my computer back in the office - I was here to learn - I had to concentrate without all the distractions a computer affords. By the way, I noticed, as I scribbled down every pearl of wisdom spouted by the instructor that most of my wified buddies had already gotten bored with the seminar and were either checking their email, playing a game or surfing the web. Has our atttention span gotten that short I wondered?

Back in the office I can barely use the phone - what with all the codes and buttons - hey what ever happened to the dial? Which brings me to the point of this blog - how can we even attempt to keep up. You get the latest phone or computer and as you are walking out of the store a newer model is being delivered at the loading dock. You finally get a handle on that software program when the announcement of a bigger and better program is made - hey guys I just learned how to write a letter on this thing!

We live in a time when we must continue to learn just to keep up let alone move ahead. The world has become so technical, so savvy, that the task of staying competitive is almost impossible. Have we teched ourselves into failure - are we inadequate if we don't have the latest gadget - does our company think less of us if they continue to have us use last year's Blackberry.

My website SeminarInformation.com lists over 360,000 seminars and conferences - are those enough - if you took everyone of those sessions would you still be current? Could you utilize the latest software program efficiently? Would you be able to understand the latest Excel spreadsheet? Could you program your phone? Just wondering......

Social Networking Gets Even More Virtual

So I'm sure by now it's safe to assume that everyone's familiar (at least vaguely) with social networking sites and how they work. I am also sure that everyone's stayed on top of the foray of the business world into these types of virtual networks to create business connections and "friends" on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Well, as your little tidbit of info for the day, this quickly growing industry is continuing to mature, according to a press release from Press Pass Business Wire...

Today marks the first-ever social networking industry virtual trade show, a part of the Social Networking Conference to be held January 31 to February 1, 2008 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The virtual trade show is set so that business professionals in the industry can "walk around" the floor at their leisure from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST and can communicate--via text chat, web-cam video and audio headsets--with over 300 attendees.

I checked out the "Who's Online" section of the Social Networking Conference's Web site. While the attendees did not necessarily suit my needs and prompt me to register for the day (mainly technology and a lot of dating dot-com execs), this just shows that the social networking industry is continuing to take leaps and bounds in a positive direction for the B2B industry.

So, whether you're already using social networking in your organization or the idea is still completely new to you, it might be worth your time to take a virtual stroll today and see how this industry is developing.

Got Marketing Velocity?

A key lesson I learned from some of the industry’s smartest marketers is that a prospect who doesn’t convert is not always a lost sale. They taught me that there’s a big untapped revenue opportunity in following up immediately with prospects who have expressed interest, but decided not to buy for one reason or another. They taught me the importance of response time and having a system in place for immediate follow-up before a hot lead cools off.

I’ve come to call this ability to strike while the iron is still hot “marketing velocity.” And what’s required to pull it off is automated remarketing technology.

Here’s how it works:

We recently helped a nutritional supplements merchant boost their TV response ad conversion rates by quickly hitting luke warm prospects with a follow-up promotion while their motivation still ran high. The company would run 1-800 ads on the Lifetime network, targeting primarily women looking to get their physical lives back in shape.

Sixty percent of people who were motivated to call in decided not to buy. Perhaps the phone banks were jammed and they didn’t feel like holding. Or maybe they needed to rethink the $29.95 per month subscription cost. Whatever the reason, they wavered despite their demonstrated interest.

Automated remarketing services enabled the merchant to immediately glean name and address data from the phone numbers of the 60% who didn’t convert. Within the next day or two, those prospects received a direct mail postcard offering deep introductory discounts if they acted soon.

A significant percentage did — an additional 12% of those undecideds converted into buyers. The key was hitting them with incentives while the ad and the emotional driver that led them to call in the first place were still fresh in their minds.

Without real-time response capabilities, those prospects probably would have received the incentive weeks or months later — whenever the merchant’s next direct mail cycle occurred, long after the ad and emotion withered away.

A cable and satellite service provider experienced similar returns. When it ran TV ads, it got a 50% conversion rate. Not bad, but not great. When it did separate direct mail campaigns, it got a sub-1% response rate, which is an industry norm. But when it combined the two campaigns with a real-time automated remarketing incentive, the cable company experienced a six-fold increase in responses, and 33% increase in conversion rates.

The bottom line is that companies running direct-response TV campaigns are spending millions, yet most are leaving a good chunk of those investment returns behind. All their money and effort is spent on taking orders from already converted buyers.

But as my market mentors taught me, if they treat the non-converters as motivated leads, they can dramatically boost their conversion rates. The marketing velocity approach lets marketers pursue the larger majority who didn’t convert by identifying who they are in real time and getting a targeted incentive to them while they are still in the purchase decision cycle.

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Paul McConville

Director of Consumer-Facing Services for TARGUSinfo, a marketing services company in the Virginia suburbs of DC.

You can reach me at paulmcconville at TARGUSinfo dot com.
http://www.TARGUSinfo.com/marketing

First Contact: Are You Ready?

First Contact: Are You Ready?

The Paramount Pictures film First Contact is the story of the first contact of the human species with extraterrestrials (Vulcans). The Borg travelled back in time to prevent it from happening as part of their plot to subjugate the human race.

Today, companies face a similar challenge in business. Sure most processes are optimized for the existing customer who knows what to expect. But, what impression does that first contact by a potential buyer make? And in the world of 'instant information gratification' or as the Ask.com people say, 'getification' what are the right approaches to take in the web, in email response and in telephone answering practices that would maximize the impression and maximize the potential of that first contact?

My company, Brockmann & Company recently published a report for marketers, webmasters and email administrators that set out to answer these questions. Here are three key findings:

Email is king of first contact.

Half of our business-to-business buyers chose email as their first contact mechanism of choice. So, email is a very important mode of communicating with potential vendors. Buyers chose this mode because it was most convenient - took the least amount of time (compared to a phone call) and could be initiated in a short period of time. Larger buyers were 50% more likely to use email than lesser buyers.

Open contact counts.

83% of buyers said that their perception of a vendor would improve if email and telephone information for real persons were made available on the website. How to use web forms (see example here) to do this is discussed in the report.

Anti-spam security technologies used by the seller matters.

9% of respondents thought a challenge email (reply to the original email to guarantee delivery to the intended person) was frustrating, yet getting their email trapped in the vendor's spam folder was 4 four times MORE frustrating. In fact, getting no response from the vendor was considered less frustrating than having email trapped in the vendor's spam folder. That's because spam filtering continues to inspect incoming email from legitimate business contacts and often interfere with the user's experience with email. Challenge-response technology does not interfere with email from approved senders, they only effect the first time contact, and in this study, the 260 buyers surveyed saw it as an advantage.

The report is available for a limited time as a free download. Check it out.

Peter Brockmann is a high tech consultant and market researcher. Learn more at www.brockmann.com.

The Call-Center Rope Line

Celebrity nightclub rope lines -– where burly bouncers whisk in A-listers to VIP treatment while rest of us wait in queue -– might be a snobbish cliché, but maybe not such a bad model for call centers. 

Most companies conducting marketing campaigns know little to nothing about the people calling them in response to those campaigns. Marketers spend millions analyzing and segmenting their existing customers into value-based rankings (e.g., platinum, gold, silver, bronze), with each receiving their associated level of benefits and service. Why is it that  all inbound prospects are treated the same?

Not all prospects are created equal. Too often bad prospects waste too much of your call center resources and divert attention away from potentially high-value prospects.

For example, a major credit card company recently came to us, looking for insight on ways to improve conversion rates of potentially highly profitable customers. They are great at getting consumers to respond after running flashy commercials and encouraging calls to their 800-numbers. Each ad generates a flood of calls from people about whom they know nothing. This means that they are treating the multimillion dollar CEO and the 18-year-old college student the exact same way.

Both of those prospects were getting the same treatment and offer as every other caller. With each call screening taking about 15 minutes, many unlikely prospects were taking precious attention away from the best prospects, who were getting put on hold, lost in the mix, or connected to rookie or, worse, outsourced “overflow” agents. In fact, we found that calls channeled to the wrong agent resulted in a 40 percent drop in their ability to convert high-value prospects to customers.  

What if the credit card company could identify and prioritize prospects before reaching the agent? What if they could score all callers ahead of time, whisking the potentially high value A-listers off to VIP treatment (e.g., lower rates) while presenting bad prospects with credit card offers more suited to their situation?  

The fact is they can.

Real-time data relationships have made it possible to identify, in a split second, the value potential of every inbound caller based on each company’s unique criteria. Caller name-address-phone number data linked with highly detailed household data and buyer purchase-propensity analysis enables call centers to precisely score each caller in real time and handle them accordingly. With these prospect “decision scores” in hand, call centers can make sure the right calls are prioritized and channeled to the right agents. They can make better offers based on the prospect’s financial viability. And they can better utilize their internal call-center resources.  

Most companies know how to profile their good prospects. The direct mail you receive, for example, is a result of their analytical and segmentation capabilities. But they’ve been flying blind when fielding inbound calls from unknown prospects. The good news is, they’ve now got 20/20 insight into these callers, enabling them to channel their A-list prospects past the call center rope line and convert them to high-value customers.

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Paul McConville

Director of Consumer-Facing Services for TARGUSinfo, a marketing services company in the Virginia suburbs of DC.

You can reach me at paulmcconville at TARGUSinfo dot com.
http://www.TARGUSinfo.com/marketing