Prospecting = Pipeline

March 31, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

This week, I shared the panel stage with Kurt Shaver and Donald C. Kelly to talk about prospecting on a webinar hosted by John Golden from Pipeliner CRM. You can access the webinar here.

Prospecting for new business is an essential part of selling, but it is an aspect of sales that many salespeople try to avoid like the plague. That avoidance is a source of annoyance for many sales leaders. I do believe that sometimes there is too much emphasis on bringing in new business versus nurturing current customer relationships and mining for new opportunities within those accounts. Still, for many sales organizations, especially those who may be selling only one main product, sourcing for new sales opportunities is a must. To bring in new business you have to prospect, which means going outbound, as well as engaging in activities that bring opportunities inbound.

Here are my thoughts related to the questions that were posed during the webinar.

Why do you think many people don’t like Prospecting?

It is uncomfortable. Prospecting means you are reaching out to people who don’t know you. And that can lead to lots of rejection or lack of response because it is so easy for buyers to block our calls and emails. It can be frustrating not to be able to reach people, especially if your sales manager is breathing down your neck to demonstrate better results with your prospecting efforts. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be making phone calls and sending emails, but you’ll likely need to balance your strategy with other approaches like securing referrals, speaking at events or using social media to engage.

How has Prospecting changed in the past 5 or so years?

Prospecting itself hasn’t changed in the sense that the goal is to identify and qualify potential buyers for your product or service. What has changed is that buyers easily block emails and phone calls or ignore your LinkedIn InMail’s. Basically, it is tough to reach them. Buyers are also self-educating about options before engaging with salespeople, but that shouldn’t be cause for alarm. Instead, I view it as an opportunity, especially using social networks like LinkedIn, to be visible, demonstrate your credibility and capability, knowing that buyers are exploring options. Unless what you sell is simply a transactional purchase, buyers will need to talk to someone in sales at some point. At that point, you need to be ready to demonstrate clearly how you can solve a buyer’s business problem and means being able to communicate real value to them. Hint: value isn’t a regurgitation of your product’s features and it isn’t doing a demo.

What has stayed the same?

“Seventy-nine percent of business buyers say it is absolutely critical or very important to interact with a salesperson who is a trusted advisor — not just a sales rep — who adds value to their business.” – Salesforce State of Sales Report

The goal is still the same – to identify and qualify potential buyers for your product or service. This is followed up by demonstrating value to buyers. If you cannot clearly communicate WHY someone should give up their time to you, they won’t.

Though there are continued arguments about whether cold calling is dead or alive, I think it is pointless. What hasn’t changed is that many salespeople are measured on activities like calls made and emails sent, so instead of arguing about whether you make the calls or not, perhaps the better focus is in helping reps get their message fine tuned, which gives them a shot at converting their initial outreach into sales conversations.

I prefer to first seek out referrals because your odds of getting a yes to a meeting are substantially higher, and at some point, I must make the calls too. For those of you drinking the social selling Kool-Aid, remember that if you are waiting around for sales opportunities to all come inbound through social media, you may find yourself staring at a pipeline that has flatlined.

What are some of the most under-utilized prospecting techniques?

Speaking at events – local business associations, conferences – these folks are always looking for speakers or panelists. Participating in webinars as a guest expert. I’ve put peer to peer lunches together with prospects and then facilitated the topic of conversation. I’ve made introductions for people.

On social media, it could be keeping tabs on who has viewed your profile. Sharing the content of others and using @mention on LinkedIn. One reason I love Twitter (and granted not everyone’s target buyer will be there) is because there is no barrier to entry. I can simply follow an executive, pay attention to what they tweet about, RT their stuff, comment, etc. I’ve started many a conversation there that led to getting connected on LinkedIn.

What are some common prospecting techniques that don’t work that well?

Boilerplate emails and calls that are focused on what the buyer wants to sell. And, don’t even get me started on the stupid subject lines or salespeople using tricks and sometimes outright lies to try to get someone’s attention. Even LinkedIn InMail’s aren’t going to work if you go in pitching. It is the quality of the message that you send that makes the difference between yes and ignore. And that message must be written from the buyer’s point of view. You need to focus on an issue or challenge they face and speak to how you feel you can help them. Again, not a feature pitch for your product.

How can a sales manager assess the prospecting efforts of his salespeople?

I’d love to see sales managers stop focusing on the quantity and look more carefully at the quality of the sales activities. In other words, if a rep is making 100 calls a day but generating very few sales conversations, then there is something wrong with the approach. That’s why throwing phone dialers into the mix – just making more calls – isn’t the answer. Even if reps can make more calls, it is what they say when they get someone on the line that makes the difference. Maybe they are calling and emailing the wrong people just to hit a number. Messaging is likely off. Certainly, managers should be seeing time blocks for prospecting on calendars. Activities to engage prospects can be tracked in CRM, which also includes activities in social media.

What is one thing you suggest a salesperson can start today to turbo-charge their prospecting?

Change their attitude about prospecting and adapt their approach. This includes managers too. We are selling in a completely different environment than 5, 10, 15 years ago, so what worked back in the day isn’t as effective today. Managers need to allow their folks to go with a multi-pronged prospecting strategy that incorporates the phone, email, social media, speaking, writing and more.

Next, in the immortal words of Nike… just do it! Unless you have a BDR team to do it for you, it is part of the job of selling.

To hear the webinar on prospecting, click here.

Your Lead Generation Strategy Isn’t One Size Fits All

February 22, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

Over the past ten years, we have witnessed a shift in how sales and marketing teams approach how they engage buyers when buyers quite often block their traditional efforts via phone and email. The use of social channels have become popular mediums, especially during the past five years, to try and reach buyers in new ways.

There is no one way to drive your pipeline and revenue.

In some ways, I think the pendulum has swung too far. Using content as one way to attract buyers into a conversation with you should be part of your marketing and sales strategy, but it doesn’t replace other activities that are part of the acquisition of new customers. Outbound phone calls, emails, in-person visits, online Skype meetings, presentations, referrals, and networking. These things all matter, regardless what you hear from the social selling fanatics. You need a balanced approach to generating leads, and if you are in sales, that means picking up the damn phone too, as my colleague Joanne Black would say. If you think sharing content is all it takes, come performance review time, you’ll be in trouble. Social selling isn’t some stand-alone methodology that done on its own generates leads. Far from it. If that were the case, 50% of salespeople wouldn’t keep missing quota, and lead generation wouldn’t top the list of challenges most companies are struggling to overcome. Frankly, it’s all just sales! The integration of social into the selling process is a part of the process; it is not THE only thing you can rely on to make your numbers.

Lead generation remains a top priority for most organizations.

68% of B2B companies are still struggling with lead generation. -CSO Insights

From the conversations I have with sales and marketing leaders, building a strong pipeline from effective lead generation is a top issue. This challenge has led to the outgrowth of a multitude of strategies and new technologies designed to help companies improve their lead generation effectiveness.

In addition to direct outreach to prospective customers, content has become the “hot” approach to driving leads through inbound inquiries. As with social selling, the inbound crowd has crowed for years that inbound is all you need. Except for one thing. It is a lie. Even companies like Hubspot, who coined the term and made it their mantra, put in place an inside sales team that does outbound – wait for it – cold calls.

Buyers do use content as part of their buying and decision-making process.

51% of B2B buyers rely more on content to research and make B2B purchasing decisions than they did a year ago. – DemandGen Report – 2016 Content Preferences Survey

Yes, buyers are using content to aid them in decision-making, and I would argue that they are becoming increased overwhelmed with the sheer volume of content out there for them to sift through.

Companies are producing all types of content. Videos, interactive presentations, analyst reports, infographics, blog posts, eBooks, webinars, white papers and more. But which type of content is the most effective? In DemandGen Report’s 2016 Content Preferences Survey, they found that white papers were the most effective at 82%, webinars came in at 78% and in third place was case studies at 73%. That doesn’t mean that eBooks (67%) and blog posts (66%) aren’t effective. They are, but they rank 4^th and 5^th respectively. The only reason that I bring this up, which might seem obvious, is because it is the right kind of content, as part of an overall integrated lead generation strategy that makes a difference in getting buyers to pay attention to your message.

Forgot what’s hot today and gone tomorrow. Fancy names mean nothing.

Account based selling (or marketing), in my opinion, is simply another example of an old strategy dressed up with a new name and definition. It’s catchy, and proponents tout it as the best way to improve your lead generation strategy.

I pulled this definition from a KnowledgeTree blog post – “Account Based Selling is a B2B sales model that uses an account-based approach, rather than a lead-based or contact based approach, to predict which companies are ready and likely to buy. Under this model, sales teams focus on a set of highly-targeted, high-value accounts with the goal to convert them to customers. To do so successfully requires talking to the right people, at the right time, with the right content and messaging.” With all due respect to my friends at KnowledgeTree, how is this different than the way successful sales teams have always sold?

Maybe I’m just old-school. I have always started with a targeted list of companies I want to hire me. I then look for opportunities to build relationships or secure introductions to the key decision makers. And, when has it not been about talking to the right people, at the right time, with the right message? Did I miss something these past 25+ years selling?

There is no one way. Accept it.

Much as I wish I could tell you there was an easy fix to a tough problem, there is no one way to solve the lead generation challenges that plague your sales organization. Don’t believe anyone who tries to convince you that there is. Nothing related to sales and marketing these days is easy. It is time to ignore the hype, buckle down, create a strategy that you test and refine until you find the one that works best for you. Anything else and your pipeline results will continue to be more of the same.

The Perfect Sales Presentation with Victor Antonio

February 20, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

I talked with Victor Antonio about sales presentations and how you can perfect a pitch that leads deals forward. Victor shared his perspective on why your sales presentation matters so much, the elements of a great presentation, and the best way to engage buyers in a way that leads them to say yes to meeting with you. We also talked about many of the common mistakes sellers are making today that get in the way of them achieving their sales objectives.

Enjoy the interview!

About Victor Antonio
A poor upbringing from one of the roughest areas of Chicago didn’t stop Victor from earning a B.S. Electrical Engineering, an MBA and building a 20-year career as a top sales executive and becoming President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company. He has shared the stage with top business speakers: Rudy Giuliani, ZigZiglar, Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel), and John May (CEO of FedExKinkos).

He’s the author of 12 books on sales and motivation and recently released his Seminars On Selling course with 200+ sales training videos.

Connect with Victor on LinkedIn

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Your Sales Messaging Needs an Overhaul

February 14, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

For the last several years, I have spoken and often written about my belief that an overhaul in organizational processes and mindset is long overdue in today’s businesses. Experienced industry leaders and researchers agree. The mountain of evidence is clear – buyers want and expect more from the buying process, whether that is B2B or B2C. They want a seamless, positive experience no matter whom they interact with at your company. That experience, as I’ve written about before, starts with the very first touchpoint, often with a salesperson’s phone call or email, and that’s when things go right, or they go wrong.

Issues affecting sales and marketing effectiveness and financial performance challenges are not solved with the latest social selling (or any sales) training. It will not be solved with the purchase of another piece of technology to force fit into an already burgeoning sales stack. Pipeline and revenue problems are caused by internal systemic issues on a broader scale related to people, process, systems, and accountability.

In the area of sales messaging, whether you deliver that message through phone calls or emails, a transformation is needed in a big way. Time and again, I see sales and marketing teams focusing on something low level that may temporarily relieve some of their sales performance pain points, but makes no real positive gains over time. That includes one-off training to improve prospecting and lead generation efforts. Maybe it is a class on how to improve how your salespeople “pitch.” Alternatively, perhaps it is hiring a trainer to teach you the latest email hacks designed to improve those email open rates. Guess what. Those things are not working! You might write the best email subject line ever that gets the email opened, and, if in the body of the email, you fall back to the vendor centric pitch, does it even matter that your email was opened? You will still be ignored.

Message matters. What does yours say about you?

Prefer to listen? Click on the recording below.

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Off the Cuff: Random Rants about Sales and Social Selling

January 23, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco 4 Comments

Early in 2015, I put together a presentation called Random Rants about Sales and Social Selling. I was then, as I am now, fed up with the misinformation that floats out there about what social selling can do for you. To date, that post has had 44,492 views. Clearly, my message resonated with quite a few people.

Social selling is all the buzz these days, and though I still believe that integrating social media into your selling process makes sense, the bulk of social selling conversations have focused on, in my opinion, very basic, low-level tactics that aren’t generating enough results for salespeople. Part of the reason that is happening is because “experts” with an agenda would have you believe that a few social selling tactics on the front end bring deals rolling in. It doesn’t work that way. Yes, you can use social for prospecting, sharing content to create visibility for your expertise, engage with prospects (though not all of them are actively using social media) and create a nice brand impression if you’ve crafted your profiles correctly. The biggest problem though is that many salespeople have drunk the kool aid and believe social selling is some short-cut to closing business. Not true and never has been!

You can read any number of posts on my blog that talk about what it takes to be successful with social selling. Here’s one you might like. The truth is that even if you are the best at engaging potential buyers via social media channels, what really counts is what happens when you have earned the right to a sales meeting. If you are NOT a consultative, problem-solving salesperson and instead pitch features and do product demos, you are going to have a tough time sustaining yourself in a selling career over the long haul. In Salesforce.com’s State of Sales Report, they found that:

That’s the set up to the conversation that Doug Lehman and I had in March 2015. It was an impromptu conversation and we played off the content of the original presentation. We ranted about the things about sales and social selling that bug us the most. By the way, if you don’t know Doug, he is a master at helping people leverage video as part of the sales process. Visit him at www.douglehman.com

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Prospecting, Closing, Mindset, Skills and Getting the Meeting

January 3, 2017 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

This is the first episode in a new “Best Of” Razors Edge podcast series. As we kick off a New Year, you’ll hear from Mark Hunter talking about High-Profit Prospecting, James Muir talking about The Perfect Close, Anthony Iannarino talking about Mindset + Sales Skills and Stu Heinecke talking about How to Get a Meeting with Anyone.

Each quarter I’ll release another “best of” but don’t forget to go and listen to each guest interview in its entirety. I tried to capture the best nuggets I could in this “best of” series but the full interviews contain knowledge bombs you don’t want to miss!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel so you never miss an episode.

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Traits of Top Sales Producers with Corey Rieck

December 21, 2016 By Barbara Giamanco Leave a Comment

I talked with Corey about what it takes to be a top sales producer in today’s ultra-competitive business environment. We talked about:

What led to Corey’s own personal success in sales.
Top traits he thinks high performers have in common.
Ideas for being creative when trying to get to hard to reach buyers.
Metrics to measure and track.
Making it easy for your sales manager to support you.

About Corey:

Corey is the President and Founder of The Long Term Care Planning Group, a firm that specializes in delivering Long Term Care education and coverage to companies, high net worth individuals, and large organizations. Since 2001, Corey has devoted his career to Long Term Care as a result of multiple personal experiences. A neutral provider of Long Term Care Solutions since 2001, Corey brings a unique and comprehensive consultative perspective to this issue.

Learn about The Long Term Care Planning Group www.thelongtermcareplanninggroup.com

Connect with Corey:
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/coreyrieck

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Should Salespeople Create Their Own Content?

October 5, 2016 By Barbara Giamanco 2 Comments

You’ve probably heard that content is king (I say queen). Content is the way to start wooing your prospects in advance of sales opportunities. Every conversation related to social selling includes a focus on using content to boost your credibility as a thought leader in your field. I don’t disagree with that premise. Buyers are doing early stage research, and the use of content that is relevant and educational can certainly work to your advantage. Buyers turn a deaf ear to the pitch, but they do pay attention when what you do, say and share makes it clear to them that you understand what is important to them.

The right content used strategically at the right time definitely, helps you stand apart from your competitors. But the big question is – should salespeople be the ones creating their content?

Many in the social selling space will insist that the answer is yes. Others say, absolutely not. After all, isn’t that marketing’s job? Me? I say it depends on your personal situation.

When you think about how to use content as part of your sales process, there are three ways you can approach it:

Share the content of others.
Share the content your marketing team produces.
Create your own.

Let’s talk about each one.

Share the Content of Others

This can work to your advantage PROVIDED the content is relevant to your audience and offers them specific insights that can help them improve their business. This assumes something really important – you have to know what your buyer cares about.

Some investigative work is required. Your marketing department may have done buyer persona work you can use, and you can use social media to do your validation about what your targeted buyers are interested in. How? Ask yourself these questions about your target buyers:

-What content do they share on LinkedIn? Not just the topics, but the medium. Do they tend to share more articles or it is video or podcasts?

-What content topics do they comment on? Could be in tweets, LinkedIn status updates or on posts others are publishing.

-What LinkedIn influencers are they following?

-Do they publish LinkedIn posts? If so, what topics do they write about?

-Who do they follow on Twitter and what kind of content do they share there? Is it business, more personal or a little of both?

– What about groups they have joined on LinkedIn, what types of questions do they answer or like?

The point is that online social behavior will provide clues to help you determine how to structure your thinking around the type of content to share. Then you can study your industry to determine who produces content that you believe your customers and potential customers will find of real benefit. Could be top bloggers, publications like Forbes, Harvard Business Review or Inc. Magazine. If you are appealing to folks in the sales world, perhaps you are sharing daily doses of content from Top Sales World. Might be a well-respected publication in your specific industry.

Will this take a little sweat equity to figure out and plan for? Yes. But, honestly, it isn’t too much and if your end game is to secure opportunities to have a sales conversation with buyers, well then, put in the effort.

Share Company Produced Content

Now that you’ve done the digging and have a good idea of what content will appeal to your prospective buyer, you can match those interests to the content your marketing team has worked hard to create. I’m thinking white papers, research reports, informative blog posts, interviews with industry leaders, etc. Be careful, though. If the content isn’t much more than dressed up sales pitches, I’d rethink how much company produced content you share. If the content is simply pitching products or services, that will turn buyers off.

Make a point to share relevant content once a day through the network of your choice. The platform where your prospective buyers are most likely to see it. Add a comment before sharing to bring attention to why your buyer should read the article. Tell them what you believe will be valuable to them.

Posting once a day doesn’t take a lot of time. What it requires though is knowing where the content is so that you get to it easily. Could be your company’s LinkedIn page, a content sharing portal that your marketing team has created and so on.

Produce Your Own Content

This one is tricky because there are only so many hours in the day. The main job of those of us in sales is to, well, you know, sell. The zealots will insist that no matter what, you have to make time to create content. Well, I don’t know about that. If you have a family you go home to that includes a spouse and kids; I’m not sure how much they’d appreciate you getting right to work on content once they finally have time with you. Okay, sure, you can get up an hour earlier. Maybe stay up after the kiddos have gone to bed. The point is you have to figure out what rhythm you can commit yourself to in this area.

If you don’t have a lot of experience creating content, it won’t be quite as easy as some experts would have you believe. You’ll need a content plan that includes topics, what type of content you will create, and where and how you’ll distribute the content. Questions have to be answered. If you blindly jump in, you will likely flounder and feel frustrated.

I know a few folks in the social selling space who INSIST salespeople WRITE their own content. I vehemently disagree! This is just another example of trying to force a one-size-fits-all approach onto everyone.

First, you must like writing. It isn’t easy.

Second, the goal is to create content that backs up your professional brand promise, demonstrates your expertise, and paints a picture of how you think and what working with you might be like. You want your words to lead buyers to think – hey, I want to talk to that person, I think they can help us.

Third, you need to do it well. I’ve read some of the most poorly written posts on LinkedIn ever. Words missing, capitalizing every word in a sentence, grammar way off, run on sentences and the like. Same goes for blog posts. Everyone makes mistakes but it is clear that some folks are writing stream of consciousness and don’t go back to edit themselves. Did I say that the content is representing you? If it looks like you are unable to string a few sentences together coherently, what message are you communicating to a potential buyer?

Writing is only one way to create content. There are many great ways to create content that is yours and here are 17 ideas to get those juices flowing. Maybe it is a presentation you create. How about conducting podcast interviews. What about a webinar you host with a panel of leaders in your industry that you invite prospects to attend, which you record and repurpose later. You might like creating short little video clips.

What I’m saying is that you need to figure out what you are most comfortable creating on your own and start there.

About that original question.

The answer isn’t yes or no. Most things are not black and white.

The answer is that salespeople need a content strategy that works for them. That much is true, and I believe it will be a mashup of the three approaches I shared in this post. It is probably a mix of 70% (other), 20% (company), and 10% (yours) in the beginning. You have to determine for yourself what will work best for you. Don’t listen to anyone insisting it has to be one way – as in you must write your own content – just because they said so. This is about your brand – not theirs! Never forget that!

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