Business Growth Blog

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.

I’m going to lay it to you straight: good marketing ain’t cheap, and cheap marketing ain’t good.

No matter how you slice it or dice it, you need one person to drive the marketing strategy and direct the campaigns.

That person, whether it’s an internal hire or someone at a marketing agency, is going to have to work with others to do an effective job. They’ll need graphic design, programming, social media, email marketing, and writing skills just to name a few.

Get Ready, Here it Comes...

I’m going to throw some numbers out there to help you start understanding the level of investment you need to make in order to get results.

Email marketing – if done correctly – can be a very successful tool to keep people engaged with your company. But the only way to do that is to be extremely cognizant of what your subscribers want and need.

It’s not about what you want to say – it’s about what they want to hear.

Here are 7 email etiquette blunders I come across every day. With a few simple changes to your strategy, you can take me from a disengaged non-reader to an active subscriber that reads your stuff regularly.

LinkedIn can be a powerful sales tool. But in order to get results, you have to use it consistently.

Create a New Sales Habit

If you’re in sales (or any job, really!) your day is already jam packed. How can you make time for LinkedIn?

Learning something new can be a drag at first. It takes time to learn new systems and develop new habits. It also takes a commitment to stay with it long enough to develop a level of proficiency that will get you a return on your investment.

So, to answer the question “How can you make time for LinkedIn?” -- you simply must schedule time to focus on it if you feel strongly enough about the ROI in the long run. And, just like anything else, it’ll get easier as you begin to incorporate it into your daily activities.

If you’re ready to jump in, here are six activities you can do to start creating good LinkedIn habits.