There is a lot of talk about content in marketing and sales these days. A company no longer has just brochures, datasheets or a company website; it has a pool of content about the products and services it markets. The company makes strategic and tactical decisions about how to most effectively communicate that content to potential customers, whether by blog, tweet, email, brochure, slide deck, webinar, datasheet, phone call or other means.

What does “content” mean for your customer?

When asked to define “content”, salespeople tend to have a very parochial point of view, believing that content is solely the information developed by their company, about their own products and services, that they can supply to their prospects.

Unfortunately that narrow perspective creates a mismatch with the information needs of their prospects. The problem for a sales person is that their potential customers have a much broader definition of and requirement for content. To the prospect and customer “content” is the sum total of the data and information they need to make a fully informed purchase decision in the least time possible.

In their buying cycle, prospects are looking to gather not only the specifics about particular products and services but also information and data that will help create the overall context for the decision they have to make. For instance, an informed buyer may need to know where technology is evolving in your product segment, not only for you but also your competition. They may need to know what their competitors have done or are doing with similar products. They may need to have an understanding of what products will be coming to market in the near future that could impact their competitive position if adopted by a competitor first.

Think Globally, Act Locally

In the early days of the environmental movement, grassroots activists encouraged their followers to ‘Think Globally, Act Locally.’ In other words, you needed to consider the implications for the global welfare of the earth in the actions you took locally in your day-to-day life.

Similarly, salespeople need to think more globally about the content they provide to prospects and the positive impact it can have on their local decision-making. It is no longer enough for your sales team to be a conduit for proprietary content only.

A salesperson can create real value for the customer by taking a broader view of the customer’s need for information and identifying and providing the 3rd party content that assists the customer to make a more informed purchase decision in less time.

3 Easy Steps to Becoming an Effective Content Provider

1. The salesperson needs to thoroughly map out the entire set of information the customer will need to A) make an informed purchase decision and B) make the decision to purchase your product. A and B are not the same data. Unless a salesperson is new to the company they should have the customer and product knowledge to complete this on their own.
2. The salesperson defines a list of the 3^rd party content they could provide that would create value for the customer. The goal is to make the customer smarter, in a global sense, about their problem, their requirements and the value of the solution that you can provide. Yes, the customers could go online and find this information for themself. But, envision the credibility and trust you will build with the customer if you proactively provide it.
3. The salesperson goes online and finds the information they need. Here are a few quick ideas about finding relevant content that would be valued by your prospect:
• Set up Google Alerts for keywords associated with the prospect’s industry as well as for your products/services. Check these daily for content that will provide value to the prospect.
• Subscribe to key blogs in the prospect’s market space. Provide links to postings from bloggers in their industry that discuss the problems solved and benefits received from solutions like yours.
• Find 3^rd party industry or academic research on your product category. Even if all you can find online is the abstract from a research report, you can usually learn enough information from that to understand what its conclusions are. If you were working on a big enough deal then perhaps it would be worth buying the report for the customer.
• Search YouTube (www.youtube.com ) for videos that address the installation or implementation concerns the prospect might have for a solution like yours.
• Check resources like SlideShare (www.slideshare.com ) for presentations that address areas of interest to the prospect.
• Search online for industry conferences in their space and look for interesting presentations that are relevant to the prospect’s buying cycle. Find a link to the conference proceedings. If not, email the presenters and ask for a copy of his or her slides.
• Use a tool like VisibleGains for Sales to provide the 3^rd party content to the customer in Zero-Time. Track which content the prospect looked at so that you can focus your follow-ups on the topics that matter most to the prospect.

Being an effective content provider requires an investment of time and thought on the part of the salesperson. This investment is usually the difference between a successful salesperson and one who is always playing catch-up with his or her quota.

Please be sure to join me on Feb 9 at 1pm EST for a webinar presented by VisibleGains: The First Seller with the Answers Wins! 4 Essential Elements of Effective Sales Lead Follow-up. I’ll be speaking about the steps every company should take to maximize their returns on the sales leads they generate. Click here to register for the webinar. Everyone who registers for the webinar and completes a free online assessment on my website will receive a free copy of my award-winning book, Zero-Time Selling.

According to research conducted by The Bridge Group, Inc., on average it takes 9.3 touches to get the first meeting.   And, you need that first meeting to start the sales conversation, right?

Not necessarily.  TimeTrade didn’t.

They were able to send a single email with content so compelling it was digested and shared with 10 others before the first meeting—which, by the way, TimeTrade successfully secured within 10 days of sending the email.

Situation
TimeTrade President and CEO Gary Ambrosino craved a new way to open doors.  He was excited about the idea of including video in email to personally connect with prospects’ pain points and highlight bottom-line impacts of using TimeTrade’s online scheduling system.  In the short time it takes to view a video, Gary was confident he could present TimeTrade’s value proposition and actually use its scheduling product in the associated call to action to motivate prospects to book a first meeting at the very moment they were jazzed about the offering.

Solution
TimeTrade used VisibleGains applications and best practices to create a single communication including:

• A personal video introduction with an animated overview; and
• A set of actions the prospect could choose to do such as:
• watching a product demonstration,
• learning more from information presented on the TimeTrade website and
• booking a meeting.

Results

• One email sent to one person who shared it with 10 different people generated 14 views

• 10 Days later, TimeTrade had a booked meeting

• 90 Days later, TimeTrade had a signed deal

“With a single link, our sales rep in the prospecting process was able to reach and touch 10 people, leading to closed business.”
- Gary Ambrosino, President and CEO, TimeTrade 

Conclusion
Getting a first meeting is a key milestone in the selling process, often requiring Herculean effort and tons of guesswork by salespeople about the right time to follow-up.  The initial back and forth exchange between a sales person and prospect kicks off a salesperson’s direct involvement in the prospect’s buying process.

Salespeople open doors and earn the right to subsequent interactions when they demonstrate a persistent understanding of their prospect’s pain points.  Sending compelling content and following up when a prospect is engaged with it (thanks to the alerts sent by VisibleGains in this example when email is opened and content is read) helps salespeople get the first meeting, advance the sale and close the deal.

Are you taking full advantage of the opportunity to start sales conversations in email?

TimeTrade is the world leader in online appointment scheduling systems used by businesses to create new customers, accelerate the sales and service process and make it easy and fast to respond to customers—24/7. TimeTrade’s scheduling software solutions are built on the flexible TimeTrade Appointment Cloud SaaS platform that has the power to scale up to meet the real-time scheduling demands of the largest deployments.

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. In my previous post,   No judgment-allow all issues to be on the table, I focused on the N in STRONG sales tactics.

Next (and last!) stop is G:

• Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting
• Trust the Prospect’s perspective on the pros/cons of change, and the risks/benefits of the solutions available
• Respect how difficult the change process can be
• Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action
• No judgment—allow all issues to be on the table
• Guide, but do not drive the process—motivation for change needs to come from within your Prospect 

Why?

You’ve heard the expression: “You can lead a horse (or donkey?!) to water, but you can’t make it drink.” Well, people, like horses, will only do what they have a mind to do. To make change happen, it’s critical your Prospect hear her or himself arguing for change by articulating the desire, reasons, and need for things to be different, as well as the belief it can be done (“I can do it! Yes, I can!”) A guiding approach will empower your Prospect to fully engage and be much less likely to provoke that dreaded “resistant donkey”!

How?

• Be curious. You can best guide if you are truly open to learning from your Prospect.
• Follow the 20/80 rule:  talk 20% of the time and listen the other 80%.
• Engage in a dialogue, not a monologue.
• Be careful not to come across as manipulative. Your agenda needs to be about helping your Prospect make the best decision-not about closing the sale at all costs.
• Heed our marketing intern’s advice in her terrific post: base your sales “story” on your Prospect’s specific needs—not your “bells and whistles”—or risk “the sound of crickets on the other end of the phone.”
• Reflect back your Prospect’s own words whenever possible. Sales writer Art Sobczak explains: “If you ask about a difficulty or challenge they have, and then address that in your recommendation using their exact language, they won’t object to their own words.”

TIPS

• Do not be afraid to share your ideas with your Prospect. Your perspectives are a critical part of the conversation, as long as they are presented with respect and curiosity and after—NOT BEFORE—you have  listened to your Prospect.
• Remember to listen for the “confidence” message too. If your Prospect has concerns about her or his or ability to make change happen, then take the time to offer encouragement. I address this issue in detail in my earlier blog in this series.

Listen to yourself:  Who is arguing for change? You or your Prospect?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Image source: National Archives of Australia

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. In my previous post, Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action, I focused on the O in STRONG sales tactics.

Next stop is N:

• Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting
• Trust the Prospect’s perspective on the pros/cons of change, and the risks/benefits of the solutions available
• Respect how difficult the change process can be
• Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action
• No judgment—allow all issues to be on the table
• Guide, but do not drive the process—motivation for change needs to come from within your Prospect 

Why?

The change process can be a vulnerable experience for a Prospect. He or she may be vigilant of being judged negatively—as not being smart, brave, experienced, or capable enough to manage the change process. The DANGER is that your Prospect may avoid change entirely in order to avoid feeling this way. Furthermore, if your prospect feels judged, he or she will not honestly share information and feelings with you—further derailing the process.

How?

• Avoid “hot words”

  Salesperson#1: “Wow, that is a horrible problem! If you don’t know who’s reading your emails, how do you know whom to call first? You must waste a lot of time!”

  VS.

  Salesperson#2: “When you don’t know who’s reading your emails, how do you organize your day each morning and decide whom to call first?”

  There is quite a bit of judgment in #1 such as the use of the “hot” words “horrible” and “waste”. When a Prospect feels judged, he or she may get stirred up and decide to go into shutdown mode. He or she may feel annoyed or embarrassed at being judged or just overwhelmed and hopeless by the gravity of the problem. Once this happens, your Prospect’s main goal is to stop feeling bad—as opposed to being motivated to make a change.

  There is curiosity and a supportive stance in #2. The Prospect is more likely to relax and focus on the problem at hand instead of needing to cope (via shutdown mode) with all kinds of negative emotions. Furthermore, he or she is more likely to take the time to explore the problem further and will thereby have more “emotional bandwidth” to be able to listen to possible solutions.

• Avoid sarcasm
• Use validating language such as:  “I get that.” “That makes sense.” “Sure.” “Yep.”
• If you find yourself getting frustrated with your Prospect, STOP and ask yourself, “Am I judging my Prospect?” (“They are never going to change! They just don’t get it!”) If the answer is “yes”, then a great way to shift your attitude is to adopt a CURIOUS stance. “I would like to understand more about this concern that you have. When did it begin? Can you say more about this?”
• Avoid leading questions in which there is clearly a preferred or desirable answer. Such a question implies that not making a change is an undesirable option-hence the Prospect feels judged unless he or she responds affirmatively to your question.INSTEAD OF: “Wouldn’t it be better if you just took the plunge and made a change now?”TRY: “I have had clients with similar concerns. Would you like to hear about how they dealt with such concerns and how they are feeling now?”

Tips:

Do not be afraid of “negative” talk.  If your Prospect is concerned that “it might not be the right time”, go ahead and reflect that back. You may be surprised. When presented in a nonjudgmental way, it may actually mobilize your Prospect toward a deeper consideration of both sides and ultimately mobilize him or her toward change.

Listen to yourself: Are you truly open to hearing everything on your Prospect’s mind?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

This is the question I attempted to answer, while conducting a project investigating selling practices and techniques. I focused on our own product here at VisibleGains, which is, quite appropriately, a tool for salespeople to simplify their sales process. Should reps really risk overcomplicating their pitch in order to give a clear picture of their product for prospects?

Quite simply, the answer is no.

Prospects searching for tools to solve problems often make their decisions largely based on first impressions; in fact, a sales director whom I interviewed claimed he could determine a product’s relevance within just 10 seconds.

Most prospects, especially prospects involved in sales, don’t care about your technology’s fancy bells and whistles, minute details, or largely even its price. If it increases their productivity, solves a critical problem they are facing, or generally simplifies their everyday tasks, they will want to buy it.

Since your prospect isn’t converted by listening your sales pitch, anyway, make sure to polish and perfect an excellent value proposition—one that will concisely sum up your product’s best qualities that are relevant to your prospect. Relevancy is key—according to an article published by Forbes this week, a sales pitch should no longer be interpreted in its conventional form of a sales rep throwing information at a prospect, but a two-way conversation. “A good pitch is one where you ask questions, listen to the prospect, and offer them a solution to a problem,” says Wendy Weiss, an author and sales coach.

When I participated in a sales call myself, with the aid of one of our account execs, I realized the true importance of this principle. While selling to two prospects involved in sales, I began to mention our product’s integration with popular marketing automation systems, which was followed by the sound of crickets on the other end of the phone. The sales guys didn’t have the faintest idea about Eloqua tracking codes, but they loved the product’s applicability to their salesforce.com data. Sellers must tailor their pitch to their prospects’ needs, and truly engage in a dialogue, not a monologue.

This may seem like a no-brainer to some, but it’s surprisingly forgotten by many in our industry. As a sales rep, you have to do your homework beforehand and research the company and your target persona within it—if you think outside the box, your product may be able to solve problems they don’t even know they have.

Remember to simplify, personalize, and engage. If you can accomplish these goals and establish a two-way, one-to-one, trusting relationship with your prospect, you’ll be converting opportunities faster than the time it takes to deliver a full-blown sales pitch. Literally.

Abha Gallewale is a digital marketing associate at VisibleGains and an undergraduate economics student at Tufts University. 

Here’s 3 Google site search tips to help you.

Tip #1: Use Google’s site search to search LinkedIn’s public profiles for a particular person by name.

How? Google the person’s name plus the parameter “site:linkedin.com”. To see how this works, let’s Google someone who’s likely to be active on LinkedIn such as sales expert, Jill Konrath. Google: Jill Konrath site:linkedin.com

Try searching Jill’s activity on LinkedIn with Google by clicking here! (Let Me Google That 4 U)

The cool thing about using Google to look up Jill this way on LinkedIn is that Google will return links to her profile PLUS any events, answers and comments in groups she’s posted, giving you even more insights into her expertise and interests.

Tip #2: Use Google’s site search—plus advanced search qualifiers—to find the names (and profiles) of people with particular titles at a company.

Let’s suppose I wanted to find the names of any Directors or VPs working on Pitney Bowes digital email delivery service called Volly™. I can Google: “Volly” (dir OR vp OR vice) pitney bowes site:linkedin.com

Try searching LinkedIn with Google by clicking here! (Let Me Google That 4 U)

Try searching Pitney Bowes site as well (Let Me Google That 4 U)

Tip #3: Use Google’s site search to find specific information you want from a busy company web site.

Now that I’ve searched LinkedIn to identify executives at Pitney Bowes working on Volly, I want to bone up on Volly before contacting them. But when I go to Pitney Bowes web site, I’m overwhelmed with all the other offerings. I can laser-search for info only on Volly by Googling (gotta love proper nouns that become verbs!): volly site:pb.com

Try searching Pitney Bowes site with Google for a specific product by Clicking here! (Let Me Google That 4 U)

Use Google’s site search feature to swiftly gather the precise info you need to personalize your communications.

P.S. Just for fun, here’s a non sequitur and entertaining Google gimmick to try. Even if you’ve already seen it, it’ll still bring a smile to your face—especially if you’re missing snow like some are here in Boston. From a fresh Google search screen in Firefox or Google Chrome, Google: let it snow. You’ll soon enjoy snowflakes softly falling—ones you don’t have to shovel—and a frosty pane to write on using your mouse.

SNOW… (Let me Google That 4 U)

(Clicking Defrost returns your screen to normal. Happy 2012!)

I first introduced WEAC and STRONG sales tactics (mnemonics coined by me) in a post: Do Not Create Resistant Donkeys! which was a follow-up to a webinar we delivered. WEAC tactics can turn your Prospect into a “donkey”, resistant to change, while STRONG tactics help unleash your Prospect’s inner racehorse, galloping across the sales finish line.

In my last post,  R: RESPECT how difficult the change process is, I focused on the R in STRONG sales tactics. Next stop is O:

• Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting
• Trust the Prospect’s perspective on the pros/cons of change, and the risks/benefits of the solutions available
• Respect how difficult the change process can be
• Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action
• No judgment—allow all issues to be on the table
• Guide, but do not drive the process—motivation for change needs to come from within your Prospect 

Why?
Taking action requires a tremendous amount of energy and focus, as well as confidence. Encouragement is critical to keeping all of your Prospect’s “engines” firing.

How?

• Encourage your Prospect to keep a “list of benefits” relevant to the planned change on his or her desktop.
• Share customer success stories to show ways to proceed based on the successful experiences of others.
• Boost your Prospect’s self-confidence in the ability to create successful change by eliciting examples of successes your Prospect has already achieved. Also, remind your Prospect of his or her company’s ability to support a change.

“Tell me about a time that you were able to get your manager to facilitate a change?”

“When was the last time that your manager agreed with your identification of a problem needing attention?”

“In your view, what positive changes have taken place in your department recently?”

• Be confident about your Prospect’s ability to make change—your positive outlook can be contagious!

Tips:

• While it is important to inquire as to benefits and liabilities of change in earlier stages of the commitment, it is much more important in the “taking action” stage to focus on BENEFITS.

• Position your customer success stories on the PROCESS of change, not just on the outcome. Prospects are often unsure about their ability to do what it takes to make the change happen. Hearing about others’ similar concerns and courses of action will help boost confidence.

Listen to yourself: are you building up your Prospect’s confidence for taking action?

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

In a series of blog posts, I explore how salespeople can employ STRONG tactics to put the Prospect in charge of change and feel empowered or strong. Two previous posts focused on S: Support the change process through reflections and T: Trust your Prospect’s perspective of the change balance sheet.

Next stop is R:

• Support the change process by asking questions, listening and reflecting
• Trust the Prospect’s perspective on the pros/cons of change, and the risks/benefits of the solutions available
• Respect how difficult the change process can be
• Offer encouragement for change if the Prospect decides to take action
• No judgment—allow all issues to be on the table
• Guide, but do not drive the process—motivation for change needs to come from within your Prospect

Why?

Prospects often feel ambivalent about change. Don’t worry: this state need not lead to paralysis. Discomfort about change is a very normal and common experience. Offering your Prospect the permission to experience and explore the discomfort is the BEST way to avoid the resistant donkey.

How?

• Be authentic. No phony “I get it” comments.
• If you do not understand your Prospect’s perspective, try asking:  “Can you say more about that?  I really want to understand where you are coming from.”
• Be empathic:
• Once you have a clear idea of a concern, let your Prospect know you can really see it from her or his point of view.
• Try saying, “ Oh, I see.  That makes sense.  I get how that concern feels to you.”
• Don’t be afraid to hear about fears and other emotions.  Your Prospect can only habituate to uncomfortable emotions if he or she is listened to and validated.
• If you sound nervous, your Prospect will stop sharing and focus on making you feel better.
• Remember, you don’t need to take the fears away.  Your Prospect does not expect or want you to do that.  Listening patiently will be greatly appreciated AND will help facilitate a smoother change process.
• Be patient:  Taking the time early on to understand the “change” balance sheet will pay off later.
• Do not cut off your Prospect, even if the communication seems repetitive.
• If you are on a time schedule, your Prospect will stop sharing and focus on making you feel better.

Tips:

• Don’t just focus on the negatives of the status quo.  Understand the positives. If it were easy to change, your Prospect would have already done it.
• Listen to yourself. Do you sound confortable with your Prospect’s concerns and emotions?
• Believe in the process. Don’t bother if you are just “going through the motions”. The best way to help your Prospect is to be fully respectful of the challenging nature of the change process.

It’s normal for people to feel uncomfortable about change—demonstrate your respect for these feelings.

Peggy Kriss, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist in Newton, Massachusetts and a consultant to VisibleGains. Stay tuned for more psychology informed blogs by Dr. Kriss.

Photo Credit: nycstreets Flickr stream

1. A pleasant hello (Subject Line)
2. One simple concept that someone wants to understand (Body)
3. A non-threatening way for someone to learn more (Additional Content via link or attachment)

Just like in the real-world, there are subtleties in the approach and execution of each of these that can lead to great success or complete failure.

SUBJECT LINES

Creating email subject lines can be intimidating. However, it need not be if you follow four guiding principles:

#1: Start your conversation in the subject line.
#2: Be personal.
#3: Offer something of value.
#4: Make the reader curious to learn more.

See our full blog post on subject lines.

EMAIL BODIES

Most email bodies at the top of the funnel fail because they include too much marketing gobbledygook and they assume that your prospect cares about you or your offering. They don’t. They simply care about meeting their own goals and learning more about their areas of interest. Here are the key things you should do here:

#1: Pick one concept to share
#2: Convey it simply and clearly
#3: Plant a seed with a 1 sentence value proposition
#4: Be brutal when editing (based on an honest assessment from an external source)

Of the above items, the most important is the last one. Listen to someone you trust answer the question “How would you react to this?” or use one of the tools from a market-leader, like:

• David Meerman Scott’s Gobbledygook Grader – http://gobbledygook.grader.com/
• Jill Konrath’s Value Proposition Generator – http://snapselling.com/resources/

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

When it comes to additional content, it’s hard to predict what the prospect really wants and how much time they really want to invest. The best approach is to combine:

• One short and focused item that you link to or attach that is an extension of the concept from the email body
• Within that one shared item (not in your email), you can also provide a few other links to other items that might pique their interest.

Think of it like the tasty morsel you are offered while wandering in the food court—you want them to take a bite and then take a look at other things that might be of interest. Patience here is critical—push too hard and they are gone.

Emails are more engaging when your message succinctly offers value, is conversational in tone and piques their interest with additional supporting content references.

Without thinking about it, I floss my teeth every night as part of my bedtime routine. I exercise regularly because I love how swimming energizes me. But there are plenty of other should-do’s I keep putting off. One of them is to use social media to build my professional reputation and relationships.

Social media has radically changed the way we communicate and connect with others. What I still think of as a should-do, younger workers—in addition to my early adopter peers—just do.

Don’t get me wrong—I use social media, but mostly to research and listen. If there was the equivalent of a Klout influence score for lurking, mine would be right up there! I am an introvert online. I join LinkedIn groups, but observe from the sidelines. I feel awkward—like I’m back in middle school and not sure where to sit at the lunch table.

It’s high-time for me—and maybe you too—to get over it. I realized I’m not the only one who feels this way when within hours of promoting our webinar, Using LinkedIn to Sell, we got 300 signups. Lots of extroverted salespeople are eager to move their selling skills online to engage with prospects. Like me, they know it’s something they should do and are looking for guidance getting started. They also want to be convinced they’ll realize a return from their investment of time and effort. I bet they’re struggling a bit to find their voices, too.

If becoming more ‘social’ is on your should-do list as a salesperson, I encourage you to check out this webinar. We invited David Kalstrom from Outbound Excellence to speak alongside our very own Cliff Pollan. David shares practical how-to tips from his social sales system. David’s system has been proven successful and reinforces what we at VisibleGains already know to be true: salespeople who engage more personally with prospects by sharing relevant information (via a tweet, participation in a LinkedIn group, direct email or whatever) build reputations and relationships that generate more sales and referrals over time. 

CLICK HERE to watch the webinar recording, Using LinkedIn to Sell.

Remember, it takes practice, practice, practice to transform should-do’s to behaviors we do do.
Are you committed to making ‘posting daily’ as habitual as flossing?