Business Growth Blog

The people "in your world" are the backbone of all your marketing and sales efforts. When developing any kind of business growth strategy, the first thing you want to hammer out is: who do you want to be your customer?

The ultimate goal of sales and marketing is to find these target prospects and get them into your contact database so you can continue communicating with them.

Unfortunately, most of us don't spend enough time "taking care" of our contacts. We throw them into our database willy-nilly with no strategic thought into who they really are, what we need to know about them, or how to organize them. They become just another meaningless contact in our database.

One of the first questions I ask my prospects is, "How many contacts do you have?" Interestingly, most of them don't really know. And if they can throw a number at me, they can't tell me much about the people on the list.

Don't let this happen to you! Below are the 2 most important types of contact reports you should be able to run. If your contacts aren't organized in a fashion that lets you run these reports, it's better to fix it now than to wait until you have an even bigger mess!

Sellers are on the front lines talking to prospects and customers all day long. They have deep company and industry expertise and know what messaging elicits the best responses. If anyone understands what information will resonate with your ideal buyer persona, it’s them.

But too often, sales and marketing are not aligned, and sellers aren’t at the table when it comes to developing the corporate content strategy or lending their experience and expertise to the content creation process. Here are some ideas about how to get your sales team engaged in creating useful blog articles that prospects and customers want to read:

Many organizations are turning to sales enablement to ensure that sellers have the tools, processes, and content they need to meet the new demands of savvy buyers armed to the teeth with information. Here are some articles and resources that can help you deepen your understanding of sales enablement, determine if it’s right for you, and start formulating a plan for your organization.

Your sales team has a list of hot prospects to contact. The problem is - the prospects have never heard of your company or the salesperson. Should the seller write a letter, send an email, make a call? What the heck are they supposed to say?

Rather than struggling to start a sales conversation, there are ways to systemize the prospecting process to make it more efficient and productive. When done correctly, sellers will always have the right messaging at their fingertips to create account entry campaigns that get potential customers to take notice.

Warning: what I'm going to suggest is not a quick fix. It takes strategic thinking, time, and alignment between sales and marketing to pull it off. But if you commit to the process, your sales team will have more leads, more time to actually sell, and shorter sales cycles.

Here are 3 steps to simplify sales prospecting:

Good content and a superior website user experience will attract the most interest, generate the most leads, and gain the biggest market share.

Salespeople, by trade, are usually quite optimistic. We’re determined, visionaries, and persistent. That’s what makes us good, but it can also hold us back. Pursuing prospects takes a lot of time and energy, and going after the wrong people can dramatically inhibit company growth.

A friend of mine, Janice Mars, founder of SalesLatitude, gave me three simple questions that can help you quickly determine whether they are worth your time investment or not. The faster you can qualify prospects, the faster you can fill your pipeline with high-quality sales opportunities.

Marketing and sales are becoming increasingly complex.

In the early stages of business growth, most companies have a limited number of employees, and the owner is driving the majority of sales and marketing. When a company is ready to take off, it needs to expand its reach significantly. That requires a stronger investment in sales and marketing strategies.

Many decisions need to be made about the most effective way to get new business: use traditional approaches like cold calling, direct mail, T.V., and billboards, or more digital-type approaches like website development, blogging, email marketing, and social media?

The owner, who is fulfilling many of the key functions of the business, usually needs expert help to develop and execute the right strategy. The next decision is whether to hire internally or outsource to a marketing company.

I’m still amazed at how many small business still don’t think of their website as the most powerful sales and marketing tool they have. They see it as a “necessary evil” (yes, I’ve heard business owners say those exact words).

It’s very interesting if you think about it, because EVERYONE (pretty much) uses the Internet all day, every day. Have a question? Google it! Buyer behavior has been undergoing dramatic changes as our world becomes increasingly digitized, but most small business owners continue to sell the same way they always have.

One of the main reasons to have a website is to get people "into your world." By that, I mean they’re actively engaged with your company at some level: they’re on your email list, connected with you on social media, or are in conversations with your sales team.

The only way to get someone into your world is to get them to willingly give you their contact information. It’s a little counter-intuitive: we usually think of prospects running away from salespeople as fast as possible, and yet here I am saying that they need to self-select into the sales process.

How in the world does that happen?

Putting together a social media strategy that gets a return on investment can be a real challenge. With never-ending ideas and strategies out there, it may seem like every ‘expert’ you talk to has a different opinion.

While it’s difficult to say exactly what strategies will work best for you without understanding your business goals and objectives, there are 4 tactics I often see companies use that may be holding them back from their full potential. If they look familiar to you, start digging deeper into your strategy: you may need a course correction.