The Funnelholic

Social Media, social media, social media, social media, social media.  Everyone is talking about it (obviously).  Marketers have taken to the medium; sales is starting to as well, but adapting is hard. Salespeople rarely have the time or desire to learn something complicated, or the motivation to do something without seeing its immediate benefits. In my current role, I do marketing for my organization and my clients in addition to sales. Net-net, I’ve learned some easy, helpful tips to pass along to sales reps using social media for their professional work.  For resonance, I’ve decided to create these recommendations based on sales-isms:

1. The most unique thing you have to sell is yourself. This is a common sales tip that I have applied to how I sell and how I market.  Here’s what a sales rep needs to know: Before people talk to each other in this day and age, they look them up on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social-networking sites. This means you have to consider your presence on the Internet.

• Manage your online self-branding. Know what is out there about yourself.  If there are pictures of you doing inappropriate things on the internet, take them down.  It’s the age of private investigation. Play right.

• LinkedIn is not just for recruiting. In B2B, everyone is a LinkedIn power user. This is a self branding tool that should be modified to help you sell.  It shouldn’t say: “unrelenting closer,” etc. Keep in mind what buyers want:

a. The top sales rep or just a real pro: It’s ok to post that you’re the best salesperson at your company. Seriously, people want to know they have the best rep working their account. It’s particularly important to put some big companies you’ve managed on your online profiles. This is known in the rap industry as “game recognize game” – in other words, if you’re selling to IBM, have the big technology companies that you’ve worked for on your profile.

b. Trusted advisor: Think about key phrases like “creating customer partnerships,” etc. Post links to related third-party Web sites that show you care about the business.

c. Someone who cares about their business — Join relevant LinkedIn Groups. Even if you don’t do anything in them, they are badges of honor.

d. Someone who is wired — Get 3 degrees of separation: Take the time to connect with peers and clients online.  I make sure when I meet someone I like, I take the one second it takes to connect.  This is important because (i)  knowing lots of people - especially the right people - looks GOOD, (ii)  if you’re connected to respected companies, that reflects well on you, and (iii) the people you meet will see a mutual acquaintance, and your ice breaker is taken care of.

• Twitter: Twitter is daunting for the uninformed, but it is a GREAT way to gain credibility with clients.  Have the salespeople sign up not with stupid names likes “youngjeezy213894,” but with their real names. All the guys need to know is the following:

a. How to retweet and from who: Marketing can just send great blog posts to the sales reps to retweet. Cut and paste them with the : RT@funnelholic 10 ways to … . They can then just post it and they should do it frequently for credibility — An empty Twitter profile is a no-go.

b. How to find people and how to follow: Not only that, but reps should know who to follow – experts in the industry. When they do that, they look good.

2. Know thy customer: Many sales reps still find relevant articles in the newspaper or on Google Alerts and use that as a way to “show the customer they know them.”  That’s fine, but oftentimes in big companies, the people you’re selling to know as much as you do.  That’s reality. I have seen our sales reps try to spit game about some big merger or other notable event and the prospect is not impressed.  If you want to know the customer, see what he or she is writing on LinkedIn, on a personal blog, or on a Twitter page. That will tell you what THEY care about, which is a bigger deal.  Many people are using Facebook for this.  I think that’s fine, but I personally separate business from personal with my social-media sites.  If you can get data on the customer (where he or she has been traveling, etc.), that’s great too.  But I think of the world in terms of business priorities and insights, and Twitter’s brief 140-character updates is the way to go.

3. No one answers their phone anymore. People appreciate retweets. That’s why I like Twitter in the sales process; if a salesperson is following his or her prospects, retweeting their posts is a sincere form of flattery and a way to stay in their hearts and minds.  I have seen some sophisticated sales reps retweeting prospects’ tweets and the good ones add personal comments: “@funnelholic Great post today, I think that ….” You want multi-channel, right? How about that for multi-channel touches.

4. Nurture, because buyers won’t buy tomorrow. Everyone’s talking about nurturing, and here’s what you have take from this: The key to the nurturing revolution is the fact that clients are NOT going for the “Hi so-and-so, I wanted to touch base and see what your … needs are” or “I’d love to talk to you about our 75 percent clearance rate.” They’ll buy when they’re good and ready, so you have to keep them warm with relevant, meaningful, non-salesy content.  If the sales rep is “connected,” they’re a great channel for announcing workshops, Webinars, and any new cool content.  They should push it via their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

There are lots of guys writing “how to use social media” and they probably have some more sophisticated tips to follow so keep looking.  These are some easy tips with which to start.

Here we are again. If you missed Part I, make sure to read it first. Once again, before we begin, I need to introduce the members of the band:

On the guitar, Tom Scearce (@TLOTL), and on the electric keyboard, Chris Jablonski (@cjablonski).

I can say this, we had a lot of fun. Check out numbers 37-49. @TLOTL has some great ones.

25.  Cold calling: I really have no idea why I put this on here. It’s pretty simple: You pick up the phone and call someone who has no idea you are calling. In today’s day and age, this is best left to professionals — a.k.a., outsourced.

26.  Contacts: Just names. The contact movement has been brought upon us by breakthrough companies such as Jigsaw, demandbase and NetProspex. These are not leads, even if these companies market them as such. Contact purchasing is a critical component to push marketing (see below).

27.   Leads: A lead is a person who has opted in for an offer (see below). As mentioned above, a contact is not a lead.

28.   Offer: An offer can be defined as “something” someone has opted-in for. These can be discrete offers such as white papers, webinars and podcasts. They can also be an appointment with a sales person.

29.   Lead generation: Activities designed to create leads.

30.   Demand generation: All the activities designed to create demand. Not just lead generation, which is part of it. Everything — including things like PR, speaking engagements, advertising, discounts or special offers and so on and so on. BTW, this is an interesting point of conversation — check out some of the answers to this on Focus.com.

31.    Lead nurturing: A process that uses content (offers, tools, white papers, etc.) and distribution tactics (email, phone, Web, etc.) to market to leads over time until they are measurably ready to engage. This one was hard. I got some terrific definitions from experts on Focus.com.

32.   Remarkable content: You need to develop this every day, and you know it’s remarkable if people can apply it right away. You need to deliver on three characteristics: 1) value: create substantive, meaningful and high-quality content and 2) efficiency: package for simplicity and ease of consumption; 3) relevance: target buyers and address their specific challenges. (@cjablonski)

33.   Push marketing: “Knocking on someone’s door.” In other words, using outbound marketing tactics such as email, phone and direct mail to market to contacts in order to create leads. Examples are outsourced appointment setting and email campaigns to a list.

34.   Pull marketing: As opposed to push marketing, “getting people to walk into your store.” Pull means you are using SEO, paid search, etc. to attract people who are searching for something you offer. It also includes getting people to look at your products in other stores through online media and white paper syndication, for example. Because not all buyers are walking into your store, you need to make sure you are represented in other stores that attract your type of buyer.

35.   Landing page: A Web page with a call-to-action to download an offer, such as a webinar, a white paper, and so on. In order to download the offer, the user has to fill out a form. (@cjablonski)

36.  Direct mail: The act of sending a marketing offer via the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, and so on. This is a dying lead-generation tool. NOTE: there are marketers who believe direct mail still works despite the cost and low conversion rates. My suggestion is that, if you don’t do it now, don’t start.

37.  Return on contribution: Anyone who takes the time and energy to create remarkable content needs to also invest time in managing return on contribution. This can mean several things: 1) crowd-sourcing the content to leverage the friends and followers of the contributors for added distribution; 2) syndicating your content through targeted media properties; 3) engaging in online conversations where your content can be delivered in a relevant context ; and 4) leveraging your content across multiple campaigns, including lead-nurturing programs. (@TLOTL)

38.  Micro-marketed content: The opposite of mass-marketed content. An unmediated, free-flowing discussion among genuine experts in a niche category (e.g., this discussion on Focus.com) is often more relevant and helpful to buyers than a banner ad or an industry trade publication. (@TLOTL)

39.  “Multi-channel, multi-touch”: The mantra of any successful pipeline/revenue generation program. Email, Web and phone are all integrated and response-measured (scored) using marketing automation services. (@TLOTL)

40.  The “three legged stool”: In direct marketing, results are usually, ultimately, a function of the:

• List (or audience)
• Offer
• Creative

Underperform in any one of these areas and the stool falls over. (@TLOTL)

41.  The revenue/sausage factory: A useful metaphor for helping the uninitiated understand how the marketing and sales team work together to drive the top line. The factory can include “upstream” suppliers like Google, direct mail programs or demand-gen agencies. And it can also encompass post-sales “revenue recognition” functions like professional services and account management. (@TLOTL)

42.  Pipeline erosion rate: Your sales team converts your leads into pipeline deals. They win some, they lose some. Some deals roll into next month/quarter. Some don’t. The erosion rate measures the lost pipeline value that must be replaced through incremental demand-gen efforts and budget. (@TLOTL)

43.   Rotting lead rate: The percentage of leads that go untouched by sales (no email, call or voicemail) before they start to “rot.” Keep in mind that the goal is not necessarily a 0% “rot-rate.” In some cases, it’s totally ok for sales to let leads “rot.” If sales has warmer leads to work, marketing can take back the leads that would otherwise rot and nurture them until they are ready. (@TLOTL)

44.  Funnel jockey: The demand-generation expert in every successful marketing department who understands his or her funnel well enough to hard-wire the entire revenue manufacturing process, from marketing spend, to lead gen, to pipeline creation and booked revenue. This person is one of the Excel users in the marketing department who is most likely to have a working command of functions like VLOOKUP, GETPIVOTDATA, SUMPRODUCT, and RAND. (@TLOTL)

45.  Campaign Sorcerer: Describes a marketer who can quickly articulate and illustrate campaign concepts with a unique and integrated skill set that includes design aesthetics, copywriting/storyboarding, program logistics, and schedule visualization. A Powerpoint/Keynote Magic User proficient in spell-casting with SnagIt and Photoshop. (@TLOTL)

46.  Market whisperer: The agency-side marketer who can, in 30 minutes or less, figure out the essence of a client’s marketing and sales challenges, with minimal to no briefing from said client, consulting only Twitter, Google, Wordpress and Michael Porter’s Five Forces model. This marketer is more likely than his or her peers to get away with wearing ironic tee shirts or quirky, comment-worthy eyewear/accessories. (@TLOTL)

47.  Tweeps: Twitter + Peeps = Tweeps. (@TLOTL)

48.  Product myopia: Outdated marketing thinking still practiced by many who engage with prospects and clients through the lens of their own solutions. (@cjablonski)

49.  Trapping the chicken in the courtyard: A semi-obscure “Rocky II” reference/metaphor describing the relentless and often frustrating pursuit of repeatable marketing and sales success. “I feel like a Kentucky Fried idiot.” — Rocky Balboa (@TLOTL)

50.  Buyer engagement: Your goal anytime a buyer comes into contact with you. To get their full attention and immerse them into a brand experience, make sure everything you do is valuable and differentiated. (@cjablonski)

Below are SiriusDecisions definitions I have included because they have done an amazing job of getting marketers to use their methodology and lingo. This is for the other marketers who aren’t Sirius trained and want to talk the talk (I chose the three most used terms)

51.  MQL (Marketing qualified lead): Prospects defined by your marketing and sales organization as someone ready to pass to sales. They’re instrumental in calculating lead gen metrics, such as marketing qualified lead rate (# of MQLs/# of total marketing contacts).

52.  SAL (Sales accepted lead): A lead that has met the basic tenets of qualification and that sales has agreed to engage. (@cjablonski)

53.  SQL (Sales qualified lead): A prospect confirmed by sales as a true revenue opportunity and entered into the pipeline. (@cjablonski)

Drumroll, please … Another ambitious post here: The Marketing Hipster Dictionary. When we started, I just wanted to create a post with some definitions of terms used in this blog and in the marketing space in general. Then we started having fun with some “originals.”

Before I go on, I must introduce my band. (Side note: I love when the lead singer introduces the band at concerts. I don’t know what it is — but I get excited.) On the guitar: Tom Scearce (@TLOTL). Tom is a brilliant marketer who understands marketing from brand to process. Follow him on Twitter. And on the electric keyboard: Chris Jablonski (@cjablonski). Chris can do anything. Period. And he does do everything, but he is not a dilettante. He does them all really well.

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Drumroll please …  I present the 210 B2B marketing tips for 2010. Let me tell you, this was quite an adventure, one that I will certainly do differently in the future.

Basically, the sequence of events went like this: Continue Reading »