Recently, I attended the Sales 2.0 conference. As a first-timer at the conference, I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but I have to say that it was one of the best run, most  informative conferences that I’ve attended in some time.

The overall theme of the conference was sales and marketing alignment, in addition to social selling. What I find curious is all the time spent talking about the need for sales and marketing alignment (it has been a topic of conversation for years), but somehow the problem has yet to be resolved in most organizations. Now that social media has entered the scene, I believe that alignment between these two departments is even more critical.

Social marketing campaigns must be tied to current sales processes and CRM systems but I don’t see that happening in most instances. Case in point. I met a Marketing Manager recently from a sizable organization who became defensive when I asked if her company had a social media strategy. “Yes, of course, she huffily replied. I handle all of that.” I said, “Cool. How are you tying your marketing campaigns and social lead generation activities to your sales teams CRM system and sales process?” She didn’t even know what a CRM system was much less understand how social sales leads should be tied it. Folks, social media marketing success is more than putting up a Facebook fan page and it certainly requires more than hiring the young 20 or 30-something who knows how to tweet, but I digress.

Personally, I don’t think the sales and marketing alignment problem is that tough to solve. Am I just naive? Why doesn’t the CEO put both sales and marketing on the same revenue goals and bonus them on the same objectives; i.e. hitting quota. Don’t bonus marketing on cheap leads, bonus them on the right leads! On the flip side, tie a piece of every reps sales commission to following up on the “right leads” provided by marketing. To be fair, we all know that salespeople often ignore the leads handed off to them by their marketing team and that’s generally because the leads are not adequately qualified. Salespeople want to talk to qualified, motivated buyers. Give them the right leads and they will follow up! By the way, signing up for a free whitepaper – often called “raising your hand” – doesn’t mean that the lead is qualified or that the potential buyer even cares about what you sell. Maybe they just thought that the whitepaper sounded interesting.

Here are a few of my other thoughts as a result of attending the conference:

•  The right conferences are still an incredible way to expand your network. Yes, I love the power of social media, but let’s face it, people do not buy from companies, people buy from people. I went to learn, speak, to meet people and to make connections, but I didn’t go to “sell”. Take note sales folks…the best sales come from the investment in building relationships that lead to opportunity over time.

• Your online conversations can move offline. I had such fun meeting people like Joanne Black and Anneke Seley that I’ve been talking to or following online for quite some time. Joanne and I have connected again since the conference and have decided that we are twin sisters of different mothers. We both agree that there are lots of opportunities for us to support each other with referral business. And sometimes, you have to travel 2200 miles to meet a local colleague from your own community. That was the case with Judy Yi of Silverpop who works about 10 miles away from my office and wouldn’t you know…we are also members of the Atlanta Women in Social Facebook group. Small world! Online conversation is great, but taking it offline can be even better!

• Don’t forget the social in social selling. There were a handful of conference vendors who just couldn’t resist tweets full of selling. The me, me, me got a bit old. If you’ve been sharing valuable information with conference attendees and then mix in a pitch here and there..ok, but tweets simply focused on you and what you sell are a big turn off.

• Keep presentations focused on delivering value to your audience. This is a nice way of saying…don’t sell from the podium. One vendor in particular spent their entire presentation time selling, selling and more…well…selling. Not only nauseating, but they were the subject of numerous conversations throughout the conference and the comments were not positive. Honestly, is that really how you want your company to be remembered? Just sayin.

• Bold moves sometimes backfire. During one of the presentations, I applauded the move to do a “live demo” of the sales approach being sold. At the same time, I felt like I was witnessing a car wreck in slow motion. The approach was slightly better than cold calling and the techniques used to get things like email nomenclature from the receptionist were a bit lame. Not to mention the rep went back to her several times asking the same questions she had just answered. Listening skills were lacking. As for the voicemail message being left for the targeted prospect…what a waste. It was focused only on what the vendor wanted – an appointment. Nothing in it for the exec at all!  If I was the exec on the receiving end of that message I would have hit the delete button in 2 seconds flat. Lesson… do  your homework before picking up the phone, so that when you need to leave your voicemail message, you’ll be able to leave one that is compelling enough for your prospect to want to call you back.

I’ll close by saying that aside from a few presentation missteps; I was inspired and energized by the sheer number of smart people with great ideas and approaches to their business. I engaged in many great conversations and appreciated the willingness of so many pros to share best practices.  It can be easy to coast along comfortably in our day-to-day lives without remembering the importance of investing in our professional development. I say thank you to all the people that I talked with who so generously shared their perspectives.

Hats off to the entire Sales 2.0 conference team for creating and delivering a conference experience that raised the bar and puts other conference organizers on notice! Seriously, Selling Power, you rock!

p.s. I’m attending the Sales Strategies in a Social and Mobile World. Why don’t you join me for a meet-up?

If you’ve ever read a blog post of mine, heard me speak or follow some of my musings on LinkedIn and Twitter, you know that I really hate it when I receive sales spam in my email and/or LinkedIn inbox from people that I do not know. Whether it is a cold call or a cold email, it is still cold.

The effective use of technology presents huge opportunities for the savvy salespeople who get it. These rock stars know that using social media gives them an avenue for building relationships and demonstrating expert credibility BEFORE sales opportunities present themselves. There are however, too many salespeople using technology as a way to send the same boring, boilerplate sales spam to anyone with an email address.

Aside from the fact that the emails are unsolicited junk, they also violate the email marketing CANN-SPAM act, which requires that you give people an easy way to “opt out”. Sending email means I can only get off your list if I block your email. Random emails like random sales phone calls aren’t likely to net you anything of much value. Yes, I know there are raving fans and believers of cold calling who also think there isn’t a thing wrong with slamming out random emails to people that don’t know them. Maybe I won’t change your mind, but over time, when you realize that your sales efforts could be put to better use, maybe you’ll try a different tact.

I thought that I would share a few of the recent emails that have shown up in my inbox lately. Included with each one are my thoughts about the message and approach. Since I’m a professional, I am not including the individuals name and company, though I’ll admit, I’m tempted. But I don’t want to be a jerk about it; I just want to show people that this is NOT the way to sell. I’d love to hear your comments!

Sales Spam Message # 1

Subject Line: Can We Meet Next Week?

Hello Barbara,

I know your time is valuable so I will make this quick.  I provide quality custom clothing for ready-made prices.

My suits start at $295, trousers at $169 and shirts at $88.  No company around is like us and if you’re interested, I would like to meet you.  Please visit our website (link below) at your convenience.  It will answer some immediate questions you may have.

Do you have any free time to meet at your office next week?  Do you need clothes for the summer or have issues with your wardrobe?  Please contact me to schedule an appointment.

Sincerely,
XYZ Salesperson

Barb’s comments: If you know my time is valuable then why are you wasting it sending me unsolicited email? I took a minute to browse the website referenced and frankly, I was not impressed. It looks male oriented and even though they say they have a line of executive suits for women, there is not a single testimonial from a female client. Message to said male salesperson…clothing is uniquely personal. Dude, you are a stranger. Do you really think I’m going to allow you to show up at my office and take my clothing measurements? What are you thinking? Biased perhaps, but that’s how it is.

Sales Spam Message # 2

Subject Line: Unbeatable Business Phone Service – Summer Sales

Hello Barbara,

I wanted to let you know about the unbeatable business phone service offer available during 8×8 Summer Sizzle Sale, which starts now!

There has never been a better time to sign up for new business phone service.

Check out the details of this offer:

- Unlimited calling for the unbeatable monthly price as low as $19.99 / extension

- Free account setup

- Free shipping

- Free first month of service

Call today to take advantage of this great offer! Offer expires at midnight June 30th, 2011.

Thank you,
XYZ Salesperson

Barb’s comments: There is nothing here that tells me why I’d want to do business with this person or this company. What does she know about my business? I guess this sales gal thinks “cheap” is all it takes. Why is the service unbeatable? If price is the sole sales strategy then it’s going to be a bumpy ride for her during her sales career. Well, that’s if it lasts at all. Seriously, you can’t do any better with your sales proposition? How do I know that this deal is the best for me? Have you analyzed my business needs? Do you know what telephony tools I use today? Nope, because if you did, you would know that I use Google Voice, which is FREE and includes a voicemail box and a transcription service. All of my voicemails are transcribed and sent via text to my mobile phone. Hard to beat free missy!

Spam Message #3

Subject Line: Fw: Linkedin Groups – The Psychometric Froum

Many contributors to this forum have now criticized aspects of psychometric methodology and have referred to authors that have done so for the past 60 years or more.

Yet common practice still entails the use of limited experimental designs, mostly random controlled trials, weak quantification, weaker assessment methodologies, causal inference based on correlational models …etc. We end up with a rigid theoretical structure and measurements that filter out some of the critical aspects of what we are interested in. But still many psychometrists, statisticians in the field and test designers happily apply their linear approach… Blah, blah, blah… it is a lengthy psycho-babble diatribe that would have just taken up too much space in this post.

Barb’s comments: This is spam, but this time the woman wasn’t selling me anything. I’m including it because it just annoys me. This gal got my name from a coaching website about 18 months ago. Though I have repeatedly said that I’m not interested in her assessments – I sell my own! – she still sends me random crap. For starters, if I was interested in this LinkedIn group, I would have joined myself. What really bugs me is that I don’t know why she is sending me this information at all. What does this have to do with me? Why do I care? No opening comments defining the purpose…she just simply forwarded me the post. I did send an email asking AGAIN that she stop sending me this kind of thing. Her response…”Sorry you feel that way, but I haven’t sent anything all year.” Clueless just got junked!

What’s my point?

For decades, the sales profession has gotten a bad rap. It is unfair, but totally understandable when you encounter people who are completely ignorant to the principles of great selling. I don’t know about you, but I’m not buying from a stranger who sends me an email with today’s “great deal” out of the blue. If you are in sales and feel compelled to send an unsolicited sales pitch to someone, perhaps it might be prudent to stop for a minute and think about what you are doing before you actually hit send.

LinkedIn is one heck of a business networking, sales prospecting, sales research goldmine of information. The problem is that many salespeople still aren’t leveraging it to its fullest capacity.

Beyond the value of connecting with people and networking, LinkedIn provides an incredible opportunity to “build your branded presence”, which is pretty important if you expect to be found when buyers are searching for information about the products and services you sell. While there is still a fair amount of resistance in the sales community about the value of social media, the reality is that buyers are buying differently. If salespeople don’t embrace this change and adapt their sales approach to it, they can expect that the savvy social sales competitor is poised to kick their butt.

How do you build your brand?

Simply put – great content. Content can include blog posts, status updates, group discussion contributions and more. It also includes the ability to leverage LinkedIn applications to further build buzz for what you are about. The beauty of using applications is that if you keep the content fresh and changing, your name and face is more visible to your LinkedIn network. Aside from the great visibility inside the LinkedIn world, you’ll also be creating some great personal SEO (search engine optimization) for yourself out on the worldwide web.

We have an app for that!

You might be thinking, what’s the big deal if I do not have content and applications on my LinkedIn profile that’s compelling. Consider what your prospect thinks when they come across your profile.

Does your summary SCREAM expert in your field? Is there enough information there to give him or her some reason to want to contact you? Come on, be honest with yourself. If your summary is barely there and you’ve not completed the experience areas, you have no white papers or case studies to share and no presentation to showcase your product/service capabilities, why would your prospect bother?

There are a host of LinkedIn applications to fit your needs – everything from creating polls, sharing your travel schedule, posting your blog posts, suggesting a business book worth reading, sharing presentations or rating lawyers.

For the sales professional looking to build their brand, here are 6 applications that I use and recommend. They are all free by the way and just waiting for you to take advantage of what they offer.

• SlideShare – Use the SlideShare app to host up to 4 presentations on your LinkedIn profile You can upload far more presentations than that to your SlideShare account, but 4 is the most you can show on your profile at any one time. Post a corporate presentation about your product and service capabilities. Share a presentation you delivered at last week’s conference or post an informational presentation about your business topics. For me, that might be sales coaching. You can post PowerPoint or PDF files.

 

• Google Presentations – you can use this app to host presentations as well. I just happen to have started with SlideShare and really like it. What I do love about Google Presentations is that it allows me to host my video, which can be played right from my LinkedIn profile. Video is one of THE most engaging ways to capture someone’s interest. Since posting my video, I have closed 4 pieces of new business and in addition to telling me that my profile rocked the competitors, they all mentioned the video.

 

• WordPress – If you blog, making sure that your blog post shows up on your LinkedIn profile is a must. I happen to use WordPress, but the Blog Link app lets you connect other blog platforms to your profile as well. Every time you blog, you profile is updated and your network knows that you’ve added new content.

 

• Amazon Book List – A key part of my visibility strategy is speaking at meetings and conferences. As an avid reader, I typically reference statistics and information from books that I’ve read. Adds to my credibility (hopefully) in terms of staying on top of my industry. People used to ask me to provide a book list after the event. Now, I send them to my LinkedIn profile to check out my list. You can add your comments about books you like and recommend them to others. Oh, and you can follow the book’s lists of others and they can follow yours.

 

• Twitter – Even if you don’t want to get into using Twitter per se, you should still set up an account, set up your profile and then use the Twitter LinkedIn application to share your Linkedin status updates. If you believe what I tell you – that being as visible as possible on the web to potential prospects is important – then you want to leverage the Twitter platform as another vehicle for being seen. Mind you, some companies might allow it, so check your corporate policies to be sure that this is OK. If it is – go for it. Post once and get twice the visibility.

 

• Events – hosting a business event? Be sure to use the Events application to promote your event. It is easy to set up and you can then share with people in your network. Use your event URL to post as a status update so that more people see it. You’ll want to be sure that the event is included on your profile, so when you set up the app simply check the box to make this happen.

Today’s buyer often starts the sales process without you! When they have business problems, they turn to the web for answers. Smart salespeople will leverage multiple platforms to stand out from the competition. If you are in B2B sales and are not utilizing LinkedIn applications to create a more compelling profile that sets you apart from your competition, I hope I just motivated you to get moving!

I recently conducted another social media session for a group of executives that focused on using Twitter as an effective part of their sales strategy. As a big fan of Hootsuite, I also shared tips for using Hootsuite to manage and schedule their messages. During the discussion, one gal asked me, “What the heck does RT mean?”  I couldn’t help but laugh, and her question reminded me that the lingo of social media can be a little frustrating and intimidating to the newbie.

In no particular order, here’s a list of many of the common terms used in social media and in texting. There are probably loads more, so weigh in with any you feel that I’ve missed.

Peeps: Peeps started on Twitter, but I find myself using it as part of my language referring to the folks in my network. As in…”I’ll alert my peeps to the news.”

BTW: By the way.

FB: Facebook

FP: Fan Page. People are often confused about fan pages. Think of this as your business page. On Facebook, you have your personal profile and you can set up a fan page. I have a fan page for Talent Builders and for The New Handshake.

Blog: Web log. Think of it as a personal or professional diary on the web. You share your musings about things that interest you.

Tweets: Messages sent via Twitter

RT: Retweet. Think of this as “forwarding” a Twitter message on to others.  When your messages are being re-tweeted, you know people liked the information enough to share it with their network. Gives you more visibility too.

FWIW: For what it’s worth.

LOL: Laugh out loud.

LMAO: Laugh my a** off.

LMK: Let me know.

FF: Follow Friday. This has become a tradition on Twitter. Every Friday, people tweet about the people they like or follow using the hastag (we’ll get to that one in a second) #FF.

Hashtag: it is a fancy, schmancy term for putting a “#” symbol in front of a topic that you want to not only track but have your messages included in the hashtag stream. For example, I use #newhandshake in many of my Tweets. It is a term that supports the work I’m doing to get the word out about my book. It makes it easy for me to track conversations by searching on #newhandshake. The cool thing is that when people re-tweet or use your hashtag in their messages, you gain even more visibility. Conferences use this all the time.

LI: LinkedIn Also uses the hashtag #in on Twitter.

DM: Direct Message. Via Twitter people can send you direct messages. These are messages that only you see. By the way, you need to be following each other in order to use this function.

Auto DM: To take the DM thing a bit further, you will find that many people – I’m not one of them – have an automatic DM set to go out the moment that you follow them on Twitter. The reason that I don’t like it is because many folks use this as a way to send you a sales pitch with a link back to their website, fan page, blog, whatever. I don’t believe your first interaction with someone should be a sales pitch so this approach gets on my nerves.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. Using keywords on your website, blog or social profiles garners you greater visibility and traction when people do searches. I mention social profiles, because you want to use keywords in your LinkedIn headline and throughout your summary also to increase the likelihood that your profile pops up when someone searches on those terms.

What a great webinar session I held today with our guest expert, Peggy Duncan. Though I’m a bit of a tech dweeb myself, I picked up some great tips, which I plan to implement immediately. In fact, I’ve already put a few of Peggy’s suggestions into action. Since it was such a power packed presentation, I thought that I would summarize some of her key points. You’ll find a list of the “technology” suggestions listed at the bottom with links to their sites.

• Benefits include: boosting your search engine rankings (SEO), building your brand and providing another way to reach the masses. These things translate into building credibility, loyalty and increased sales.




• Email is still a very viable marketing vehicle and should be an integral part of your overall social media strategy.  And on that note, remember that your social media plan can also incorporate things like blogging, webinars, video, as well as using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.




• Always remember to provide compelling information that not only showcases your core expertise, but creates value in advance of the sales opportunity. You always want to give people a reason to keep coming back to your blog or sign up for your email list.




• Write for people. Every day things are happening in your business world that can become a great blog post. As an example, as I’m summarizing the webinar information from our session today, I now have a blog post.




• What if I’m not a writer? Hire someone to help you. If you are better verbally, get a tape recorder to record your thoughts and then type them up. Also consider a service like www.jott.com for both recording and transcribing. Plus, the service will help push out your messages through your social sites.




• When you are getting started, consider setting up a “hosted” WordPress blog from the beginning. You can host with companies like Host Gator, GoDaddy or any number of hosting platforms. The benefit to doing this from the start is that you can customize to your specifications. When you run a “free blog” with WordPress.com you are limited (due to security issues) to the number of widgets and gadgets you can add to your site.




• As you create your content, Peggy recommended that you write about what you know. Talk about how what you do solves problems for prospective buyers. Don’t forget that blogging isn’t just about writing. You can have guest bloggers, video interviews, whitepapers and more.




• Make those posts sizzle with compelling headlines and don’t forget to incorporate phrases that tell someone how you solve their problem. Remember that when someone has a problem to solve, that’s what they Google. For example, “I need help creating a Twitter background.” If you’ve created your headline to incorporate that message, your rankings improve.




• Build traffic by promoting to your various social sites. And for you LinkedIn users (and you better be using LinkedIn as a sales networking tool!), you can integrate your blog to feed your LinkedIn profile.

Take Action

As I concluded the webinar today, I reminded everyone of the importance of taking action. What’s the point of sitting in on webinars, whether you paid for them or not, if you never do anything with the information? If you are looking for a low cost learning and coaching option to help your put social media to work for you in driving sales revenue, I’ve just launched a group coaching community that not only will give you the training that you need, but the coaching and encouragement along the way to help you put learning into action. Learn more here. You’ll find other individual coaching options here.

Technology List

Finally, here is a list of the technology that Peggy discussed during the session. I plan to get started with a few of them myself!!

www.viddler.com Incorporate your video into your blog, as well as host on YouTube. You’ll find the vidget tool that Peggy mentioned here http://vidgets.viddler.com/

www.feedjit.com This nifty little tool lets you know when someone visits your site. Remember, just because people may not be actively commenting on your blog that doesn’t mean they haven’t dropped by to read what you’ve posted.

www.linkwithin.com This WordPress plugin increases page views and keeps your readers engaged. The widget links to stories that are relevant and interesting to readers of a particular post, keeping them engaged with your blog, and increasing your traffic.

www.facebook.com Use the notes section (to the left under create group. Note, you may have to expand the list), to drive additional traffic to your blog, webinar or events.

www.google.com/addurl Use this to register your blog URL. Why? To increase traffic of course. If you want more visibility for your business locally use https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=lbc&passive=1209600&continue=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter&followup=http://www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter

www.hootsuite.com For managing your content posts, you can use Hootsuite to post to multiple social media sites. The free version lets you post to 5 social sites and/or RSS feeds.

www.postling.com Similar to Hootsuite, but here is the core difference. The free version of PostLing only allows you to post to 1 social media site. The free version of Hootsuite lets your post to 5 sites. Could be Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.