GUEST BLOG POST – “Cold Calling Is Not Dead…It Just Went Social”

Cold Calling is not dead, but any old timers that have scoffed at Social Media need to seriously re-evaluate their thinking.  Cold Calling is still a necessary and vital part of any successful Sales organization, but with the help of social media these calls no longer need to “come in from the cold.”

LinkedIn is the most obvious example of a Social Media tool that helps you learn about your prospects.  I use LinkedIn daily and it serves me very well.  I have always leveraged 3^rd parties to warm up calls, and I am still an advocate for using your personal network to obtain as much knowledge about a prospect as possible, but LinkedIn takes this to entirely different level.  Chances are good that if you have been in the business awhile you have something or someone in common with your prospect and this leverage is crucial.  This Social Proof is one of the most important pieces of the Sales puzzle.  The phenomenon that nobody wants to be the first to do anything and as soon as someone they know is using your company or talking to you it makes it easier for them to accept you and your company.  Social Media is the most successful and easiest way to develop Social Proof.  A 2012 Nielsen survey indicated that 92% of people globally trust word of mouth recommendations from friends and family.  What better way to express what you are doing and how you are already doing it than on LinkedIn.  I recently read that every second two new users join LinkedIn. That is an amazing statistic!  However, nothing happens until someone picks up the phone to engage.   Social Media, email, or any technology are just additional tools.  At the end of the day people buy from people (more importantly from people they like).

Two quick tips to improve your Cold Calling success:

1. More appointments are scheduled with VP level executives between the hours of 8-9 am and  4-5 pm than the rest of the day.  Block out your day.  Those two hours each day should not be used to check emails or to do anything else.  Stay on the phone and use these hours wisely.
2. When you have identified a contact and know the number is accurate Double Dial.  Call once and if they don’t answer hang up and call right back.  Studies show there is an 18% improvement in contacts with Double Dialing.  I’m sure it’s happened to you.  You ignore a call thinking it’s a telemarketer, but then the number shows up again and your curiosity is piqued so you answer.  I know it happens to me and I trust the studies

.Happy Selling!!!

Matt Lambert

“Can You Dig It?” or Me Entiendes

I never mind staying late at the office, not only because I hate coming in early, but also because it gives me the opportunity to chat with some colleagues. We’ve all seen them. The quiet, industrious people who clean up our mess and set us up for success the next day. My friend Juan Palacios hails from El Salvador and I know that many of the hustling yuppies who routinely ignore him, would benefit from the depth of his knowledge and business savy. He’s the proud owner of a new home and a thriving business which is constantly growing, even in this economy. His words have a curious urgency and his advice is excellent.

“Me entiendes Pablo?..” he always says with a smile.
“Por supuesto Don Palacios” I answer.

It’s a valuable transaction in which I help him understand English and some of our stranger American practices, while he provides me with fresh perspectives on the challenges I face daily. As with all such relationships it takes work and dedicated effort. It’s often difficult to push past the barriers of language, custom, and preconceptions, but we manage…we communicate. I’m afraid that I don’t see a lot of successful communication out there currently…time to wake up people!

Emerging markets? China? Again?

In the past our ancestors had to venture forth in search of new markets and new connections. They made enormous investments in time, money, and resources to get the job done. Often when poor preparation and bad decisions threatened their goals, they resorted to appalling tactics in their attempts to achieve them. Unfortunately, little has changed…globalization, the internet, and social media offer a plethora of tools and venues to facilitate the process. There are an ever increasing number of pitches, messages, i.e. “ships” sailing forth on cyber-seas, but with declining results. There’s ultimately only one central challenge- to quickly, concisely communicate the value proposition (and / or measurable ROI) of your solution to the right person, at the right time, and in the right way.  Recently, I’ve noticed some formidable obstacles to meeting this challenge and I like to refer to them collectively as la tirania de las ideas preconcebidas or the tyranny of preconceptions. 

“It doesn’t work for us…” said the CEO when referring to social media.  Not swimming in leads…low Klout score…???  Social media is not some form of a checklist in which you just have to cover all the bases, but something that has to become part of your organization’s DNA…Like my relationship with Juan, it takes planning, dedication, and hard work.  Define your goals, develop a plan to reach them, and pick the right vehicle(s).

“We gotta get in front of more people and we need more activity” claimed the VP of Sales.  Following the traditional path is very comforting, customs always are, but you can’t expect to continue doing the same things and expect different outcomes.  I ‘m very surprised that an executive from a growing technology solutions company seems fixated on the traditional Inside Sales / Outside Sales model.  How can you expect continued growth when you don’t have any data on the average cost of sale?  As another mentor of mine said “leading Sales organizations realize that accurate data improves efficiency and is the cure for bad results…”

“Do they even have money ?” responded the Chief Sales Officer of a European multinational to my enthusiasm over a simple RFP from the Central Bank of Venezuela.  I was dumbfounded over this blatant display of ethnocentrism…preconceived notions…prejudice.  Everyone likes the idea of global markets in theory, but in practice we’re still back in the days of Columbus.  Business, indeed, opportunities are where you find them.  You don’t have to commit to completely localizing your website or hiring a lot of multilingual staff.  Ask yourself if your solution(s) would be useful and / or address the pains of organizations in different geographic areas.  Then enlist the assistance of some experts who have the subject matter expertise to best represent you and your organization.  The world’s as big or as small as you make it…leads, prospects, and business are literally all around you!

Can  you dig it?

“The Good, The Bad, and…”: Making it Happen in 2012

I can remember watching this movie on TBS with my dad as a little boy.  We’d sit on the  the floor, drinking endless cans of Coke, in the sweltering heat of a summer evening in Atlanta.  Mom would roll her eyes and go off to bed, leaving Pop and me alone. The house would creak as it settled and the night was quiet, except for our occasional outbursts of laughter over the antics of Blondie (The Good), Angel Eyes (The Bad), and Tuco (The Ugly).  I always backed Blondie, but Pop loved Tuco.  I could never understand why, until he told me once-  “Tuco’s real boy…nothin’ comes easy to him.  He has to fight for everything he gets…just like people like us…”  Well, it’s been an interesting year!  Let’s see if we can sift the ashes and find some final insights we can take with us into 2012.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, some things are looking up for 2012.  Unemployment is at it’s lowest level in nine months and the US economy is outperforming almost every other region.  The media seems determined to keep preaching doom and gloom, but it’s clear that the recovery’s gaining traction.  US companies are lean and mean.  There’s also been a subtle, slight increase in business and consumer confidence in the last few months.

There are some formidable challenges looming on the horizon.  The Eurozone debt crisis will definitely hit us hard (i.e. no more crowds of German tourists outside the Apple Stores), lack of bipartisan political compromise here at home, and global political / social / ethnic unrest will have a significant impact as well- Arab spring, immigration, etc.

I must admit that I’ve painted a cursory and rather high-level picture of things in general, but let’s dig down and see what all this means for people like us.

The buzz on the street, even if people are too afraid to mention it , is that everyone is overworked.  People are incredibly grateful to be employed and therefore in most cases have been doing the jobs of two or even three people.  Trust me…this will change and organizations who don’t get it will see their most valuable intellectual capital walking out that door.  Turn it around!  You’ve packed three years of work experience into one!  Don’t forget to document it, both on your resume and on every social media outlet available.  You should be as detailed as possible, including project dates / times / deliverables etc.  When things start to move and you get an opportunity, you’ll be ready, not only to jump into the job market, but also to hold your current employer accountable.  Stop reacting and start acting by:

• You know your Marketing budget isn’t going to increase and that you’re going to be asked to do more with less…again.  Why not investigate innovative, new approaches, such as performance marketing, which can not only strengthen customer relationships, but also provide in-depth analytics and lead generation.  These services are usually provided through a revenue sharing model, so it won’t take a bite out of the bottom line.
• Missing your Sales quotas for 2011 should make it clear that it’s time for archaic, “hallowed” practices to change!  As we discussed in previous blog entries, embrace both existing and new resources, i.e. strive for more direct collaboration with your colleagues in other parts of the company and learn to use social media.
• It’s time for Management to step-up and set the tone for 2012.  An excellent first step might be to identify why their organization didn’t reach its goals in 2011.  A Win – Loss study conducted by a non-biased third-party consulting firm will give any management team the insight they need to avoid previous missteps!  I even know a reputable consulting firm…

It’s never easy for people like us, but things are looking up!  Happy holidays!  I’m cooking up something already!

Happy hunting,

Paul Williams

COO

“Demented and Sad…but Social” : Social CRM

It’s abundantly clear that the subject which has garnered the most attention recently is Social Media or it’s latest incarnation- Social CRM.  Let’s delve a little deeper into this area and explore the impact that it definitely will have on you, your professional role, and your organization.

I have always been a complete skeptic when it comes to the potential benefits of Social CRM for business.  As my favorite rapper used to say “don’t believe the Hype, it’s a sequel…” or in business vernacular- don’t waste your time looking at these new tools because something new always comes along!  Yet, there are a number of ways that a coordinated, planned, and executed Social CRM practice can benefit your organization in the year to come:

• Collaboration-Allowing various departments / teams within an organization to jointly monitor their performance and to literally adapt to changes in the market, their company, and their customers very rapidly.
• Sales-Social CRM not only provides additional areas to exploit for lead generation, but also helps the salesperson to track prospects through different organizations.  It also gives the salesperson additional insights into the prospect or company he is pursuing which can shorten the sales cycle and lead to better customer satisfaction.
• Marketing- Lead generation campaigns will never be the same now with real-time social media updates which can drive attendance to virtual (and real world) events.

New tools require new methods and there are a number of dangers from the expanded capabilities and reach presented by Social CRM:

• Control- Once you introduce social media and a Social CRM practice into your organization there is no going back people.  You are constantly accountable for branding and reputation management.  There is no longer the “illusion of control” over a company’s image, reputation, or future which many senior executives seem to cling to…
• ROI-It is often more difficult to measure the return on investment for Social CRM.  In fact it’s most likely that there will not be any immediate ROI!  Social media takes a lot of daily work!  It’s often worse to begin the process and abandon it, than never to attempt it at all…It will definitely require participation from all departments and levels in the organization to be successful.
• Revelations-Everyone mentions the dangers of the release of information outside the company, but few realize that there will be increased visibility into the company’s processes, procedures, and personnel!  Be aware of the implications of these new insights and embrace the change.

Change is never easy!  It always comes with a cost…the most painful of which are usually unexpected.  Who would ever have anticipated the enormous impact of Cloud CRM  or even that organizations / individuals would allow a third party to manage their most valuable data?

Disruptive…yes!  But that’s often a good thing!

Happy Hunting,

Paul Williams

COO